We were once young and dumb, too…

We love our Two Sawyers pub (circa 1796) and Phoebe’s coffee shop right across the way (15 steps to be exact). We enjoyed coffee yesterday morning and in the evening we popped over for a gin and tonic and dinner. The pub had quite a few “young” people in it so Glen asked the drinking age in GB – it’s 18. No one was unruly or anything, we had just forgotten this difference between our two countries.

Later in the evening, there was live guitar music and he was playing “oldies” from the 60s and 70s. We enjoyed our own “private” concert so much that I walked the 15 steps over to give him a tip. He was surprised and grateful! I saw him go tell the bartender that he received a tip from the neighbors. Pretty cool, right?

But there is a down side to living on a tiny street with direct passage to Old Town and across the street from a pub…and you are probably already guessing the challenge presented by that location. Last night at 2:00 am we woke to a man’s voice pleading with a woman to “wake up”. “Leyla (or was it Lola? Lila?), wake up, pleeeeaaaasssseee.” After this went on a few minutes, I got up and looked out the window (nosy boomer here) and there she was on her side, spread out on the sidewalk (it’s not really a sidewalk) apparently fast asleep. And that’s giving her the benefit of the doubt. The pleading continued and Leyla (we’ll stick with that name) could be heard muttering. unintelligibly. The man eventually asked her to tell him “the number” which I thought was a phone number, but we later agreed it was more likely the code to get in the house. Leyla started reeling off numbers (8675309, anyone?) and the man would repeat them and then she’d reel them off again though I’m not sure it was the same string of numbers.

Glen finally got up and yelled out the window telling him the numbers that she’d muttered, hoping the man would hear him and get the dang door opened so that Leyla could get to bed! After awhile, somehow the man got Leyla up and they made their way past our windows down the lane a bit, but not far because Leyla went down on the sidewalk again for another little nap and the pleading started all over again. A few minutes later another man arrived and was hollering down the street asking questions. It sounded like the two men knew each other and that he’d been called in for reinforcements. Sadly, a few minutes later the second man walked away and man #1 was on his own again.

I wish I could tell you how this situation resolved, but it got quieter for a bit and I drifted off to sleep. No sign of Leyla on the street this morning so my guess is that they finally got the code sorted out and made their way into the cottage. Someone was going to need a serious hangover cure this morning! Like I said…young and dumb and hungover!