‘Tears for Fears’ with Salty & Tweetie Pie
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“It was a dark and stormy night……..”
All hares’ worst fears are that all their hard work is washed away in stormy weather. And that worst fear happened to Tweetie Pie and Salty
After hours of planning and the weekend lost to recceing and trail setting, the pack drove to ‘Snives Showground in pelting rain blown in from the freezing South Tasman Sea. A total contrast to a warm and lovely Sunday the day before. The rain stopped long enough to change and hang around freezing our nuts whilst the hares rushed out for a 3rd time to re-set the start of the run. Thereafter it was, by necessity, a “live hare run”.
Salty’s light frame was rugged up ‘right proper loike’ and the rest of the pack with at least two or three layers with long sleeves. Only the brain dead and hardy went semi-naked in short sleeved T shirts. eg Tic Toc and Changi. An iffy start adjacent to and along Mona Vale Road loosened up as we headed for St Ives Wild Flower Garden; all familiar territory until we came out at the top of the hill. …
Stress and fatigue must have gotten to poor old Salty who couldn’t remember the correct trail option and mistakenly led a small heard of trusting hash sheep, including Ayatollah, Payling, Wrappa, Changi Bigamist and Grape (like lambs to the slaughter) on a blind trail leading to a dead end which faced onto a large Stalag 17 like security fence with razor wire.
Oh Shit….About turn, and by this time with indiscreetly leaked information Changi took his own run via the dedicated Mueller track…and sure enough…. Tweetie had revisited the trail, laying a whopping new arrow in flour …for the benefit of possibly one..Changi. Bursting out of the undergrowth about 15 minutes later as night was falling there was the Late Tic Toc….(I say late because he always is…) running with his mates …all by himself along the small bitumen road leading home. We worked our way back in the freezing rain again…Tickers taking the long route around another boundary fence and Changi short cutting under a gate. Needless to say Tic-Toc was not seen again until well after the bucket almost ran dry…..I told you he is always late.
But the very best of the evening was to come. Debbie…but not from Dallas ….had been engaged to cook for all the pack…but where were they? The cold and rain had thinned the numbers and so lashings of Debbie’s hot roast pork, gravy, apple and horse radish sauce, spuds, salads etc was more than enough for 2nds, 3rds, 4ths and even XXXX, …..but he wasn’t there.
There’s always one whinger. Wrappa complained that the boiled spuds should have been roasted and there was no pork crackling. Menstrual Man cleaned up all the meaty scraps for his beloved mutt back home.
We had a Yankee interloper for the night. Of all the hash groups he selected the POSH hash for his ‘U-Beaut’ Australian experience. Good choice mate! Originally (but not recently) from Chicago and with a hash handle of Black Box he must have a sexual fetish for his namesake or … is the political numbers man for Barak Obama on his campaign. Or Both!
Luigi and Maria jokes were traded until we ran out of steam and thoughts of a hot shower at home filled the minds of most.
Your Hash Journo
