The Shillingford Bridge and the hotel, by the same is to be a recommended establishment. It has a bar, a restaurant with a, vista that you would kill for and it also has its own swimming pool. When we arrived there they had just completed the refurbishment of the ground floor areas including the restaurant, the bar lounge, reception, cloakrooms and entrance has created a modern contemporary look, whilst still in keeping with the traditional style of the building. The floors have beautifully tiled and there are comfy leather sofas and what we assume are oak tables and chairs.
We parked our pubs in the soft leather sofas and the Cabin Boy went up to the bar to order the drinks and turned around and said “Captain, they’ve only got Hob Goblin, will that do?” The First Mate laughed and replied” Yes Billy that will do, more of the goblin and less of the hob”. Billy placed the order and the barman said “Oh your friend is a ex-military man just like me then?” Billy, sort of, nodded in agreement.”If you just sit down sir, I’ll bring the drinks over”. Within thirty seconds Willy McNab, and asked the Captain what branch the army he had served in, and to keep him happy said” REME”.”What a small world eh”, said Willy, I was a lance-jack in the Sappers”.”What did you do in the engineers Sir” asked ex-Lance Corporal Mc.Nab.” I was in the bomb disposal squad “answered the Captain and then continued to use his scientific knowledge to bore everyone. He mentioned nitro, nitride , nitrite and azide containing explosives and then went on about abbreviated explosives such as RDX, PETN, HMX. Having further impressed Willy with tales of pure invention such as detonations in Northern Ireland, defusing a Buck Pal bomb, and saving hundreds of lives of the members of the Gay Liberation Front by correctly indentifying a hoax bomb at the Annual Queers Convention, the lowly Sapper bought us a round of drinks. To even more advantage of the situation, the First Mate asked “How much is it for bed and breakfast for war heroes Corporal Mc.Nab my good man?”The Corporal replied “It’s normally forty quid but I could do a staff rate of twenty for old soldiers like the Captain.
We decided that we had out lived our welcome and as we strolled across the lawns to our vessel, the Cabin Boy said” I didn’t know you did a stint in the army Captain “I didn’t, it was you who started to lead the poor chap on”, said the Captain, “But how did you know about all those explosives things then? “. The Captain replied “Many years ago when I was in the Officer Training Corps at Uni, I went on a couple of explosives courses run by REME and my scientific knowledge made the slight exaggeration easy. It would do a lot of good for those long, haired the university lay-a-bouts to do a stretch in OTC and make men of them instead of getting pissed everyday in the uni bar.” “So you did a bit of army service really then Captain “ “ I suppose so Billy, a bit like when we were in the Combined Cadet Force at St.Barts” said the Captain” “Across between playing soldiers and Dad’s Army “ laughed The First Mate “ “ A bit like that First Mate but if you joined OTC you got a small bursary each term and got paid while on training courses or camps and of course the extra shillings allowed us to get pissed “ “ What just like those university lay-a-bouts you just been slagging off eh! “ said the Cabin Boy
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