The easiest lift of the day

Standing on the grass verge at a junction between Marlborough and Clench Common, I updated the folks at my destination as to my progress. I'd been dropping them texts at each stage so they knew when to expect me, and I'd managed to get within three or four miles a good hour earlier than my best estimation.

I knew catching a lift from this spot was going to be incredibly difficult - it was a rural A road with very little in the way of passing traffic. I tried my luck anyway, until my phone rang.

After a brief conversation with M, K jumped in her car and I sat on the (now dry) verge, rolled myself another cigarette while munching dry crackers, and marvelled at the two Porsches, followed by two ambulances, which all came tearing around the corner and were gone in an instant.

Soon, the familiar beep and honed rumblings of a 'reliable' Audi were heard and we made contact. I climbed into the easiest lift of the day and headed forth with K.

After we'd stopped at the local car-fixers to make the Audi more 'reliable', we did a beer, cider and snack run at a supermarket in Pewsey and threaded our way through the country lanes to my ultimate destination - The Drunge.

A quick Google of the house name brought varying results, from a type of ghoulish monster to 'somewhere between dandy and grunge'. I'm happy to believe it's an old local word for 'bakery' or somesuch, but I'll be pleased to be proven wrong. The house is set back from the road, just the way I like it, and seemed on the outside to be a quaint country dwelling with a large garden. On the inside, it had an olde-worlde multi-level cottage feel to it. I could have been easily convinced I'd been transported back to the early twentieth century had it not been for the massive plasma TV in the living room and the satnav charging in the kitchen.

I said hello to M, and eventually their two beautiful dogs, and we made plans for the afternoon. K would drop us at a pub by the canal at Pewsey and make her way to Newbury for shopping, and M, the dogs and I would enjoy a pint or two then saunter back along the canal at our leisure. We rolled a sly doob, packed a couple of Caffreys and piled into Ol' Reliable.