Ten Years Later ....................
On my 40 th birthday I had flown back from Spain and having refused to batten down the hatches in the metal cabin at sea again, was nixing as a barmaid in the Thomas Moore tavern , playing Galileo and Kasabian on the jukebox , serving creamy soup and packed sandwiches to the hundreds of new customers who had rocked up once the doors were actually opened and the telly was taken off the counter. The Thomas Moore was always a little club, and every head at the bar would turn from the screen or the Crosaire when the door creaked. I had the distinction of almost being barred for putting coal on the fire when Mike was in the toilet, watching in disbelief as he took it back off again with tongs and carried it - still smoking - out into the yard in a galvanised bucket. The actual party was held upstairs in The Sky & The Ground , which at the time was called Heavens above, which was fitting. I was standing in the middle of the floor tricking around with a cylinder o