The dinner at the Bull was cooked and served up by a miserable woman who had the personality of a block of wood and this was probably due to the lack of customers for we were the only people dining.
A lot of pubs these days are on their uppers and no wonder this woman was miserable when her livelihood was probably under treat mostly caused by unwanted governmental interference regarding health and safety, excise duties on booze and us now living in an almost pseudo Nazi, politically correct society .
The derivation of uppers is of interest to the lexographer. This was first recorded in 1886 and referred to the smiths such as blacksmiths who were trying to hide the fact that they were that poor or business was so bad that they had worn out the soles of their shoes so badly that only the top portions remain.
The meal we had was a simple grilled steak and trimmings washed down with four pints of Ringwood Sixtyniner. Billy laughed and said “I think that what it was called, it was on the tip my tongue this morning “said Billy, when Jimmy asked the next morning “What beer they had been drinking at the Bull last night?” .The First Mate said “No it was Ringwood’s Old Thumper, a very strong beer and that’s what accounts for us having such a thumping great head aches today.
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