Day 8 - Surviving Austin

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Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.

We started in The Horseshoe Lounge' (The Shoe). As mentioned previously, it’s a really cheap and dirty dive, and a total blackout inside. Reminded me of London during the blitz.

They’d put on a turkey dinner, which was OK but I’m pretty sure it would’ve made Gordon swear. There were ants on the table that were enjoying it more that I did.

We washed down a few beers - Lone Star mostly - and then I was introduced to shuffleboard. It’s a big wooden board, 20 or 24 feet long and only about 2 feet wide. At each end are scoring zones. The last few inches of the board are worth 3 points. Further away from the end is 2 points and 1 point. The idea is to stand at 1 end and slide a metal disk down the board so it gets close to the end and scores a point or 3, but doesn’t fall off the end. The board is covered in silicone sand so it really slippery, and it’s all too easy to send the disk off the end. And if you get one to stop in the right spot, your opponent then tries to knock it off.

Long and short of it - a world-class pub game. Really good fun. I could play all night.

Major entertainment for last night was an American Football game between Texas University, and Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Uni. Go the Longhorns! I’m not sure which team was ‘the Longhorns’……….

Sadly that game was pretty much over by half time, with the main uni holding a big lead. Alwyn was kind enough to take me from the Shoe into town, and we went to see what mischief we could find. Fado’s, the same Irish bar I’d been in the night before, was the place to go.

Alwyn’s from Northern Ireland and could talk the pants off the queen. We had a few drinks with an English Supercomputer expert called Paul, in town for a conference. The poor guy, Alwyn wouldn’t let him go ‘till he was hammered, we had to put him in a cab. I also received the nickname ‘Newcastle’ by a girl I’d spoken to the night before. They have Newcastle Brown Ale on tap, but rather than asking for ‘a Newkey Brown’ as any northern monkey would, she - and everyone else - would ask for ‘a Newcastle’. Of course I couldn’t let this go………and so she came up for a chat and called me Newcastle. Caryn. With a C, and a Y…….so I was told.

Seems I pushed Alwyn over the edge - he’s been in bed most of the day. I had a pretty lazy day, breakfast at a nice place whose name escapes me, then Gareth dropped me in the city centre for a wander. It didn’t take long. Everyone here loves Austin, there’s a lot of really genuine affection for the place, but during the daytime there’s literally nothing to do. I visited the state capital building, and I walked down ALL the main streets. I looked in a few shops, and I went for a look at the lake. I’m not exaggerating when I say I dragged that out for about 80 minutes then went to the pub to wait to meet back up with Gareth.

It was there at 3pm that a guy from Dallas introduced me to a ‘Car Bomb’ - a pint glass, half full of Guinness. Then a shot glass, half baileys and half jamesons, dropped in and downed. A bit much for a quiet afternoon.

Since then we’ve been home, been out to a Chinese buffet (run and staffed entirely by Mexicans, so it wasn’t exactly your classic Chinese buffet but it was tasty enough) and to a bar who’s name I also can’t remember, but it had a big fire pit outside which was lovely.

So been a nice quiet night. Currently enjoying a San Francisco Anchor Brewery Liberty Ale - tasty - and writing more spam to bombard you all. Reading about the terrorist madness in India (my parents are in Kerala, I don’t think they were going to Mumbai but I’m not 100%). Also reading about people dying in the sales here which is tragically funny, and about the fact that Bangkok airport is still blocked and I’m due to be there in a few weeks.

Tomorrow, hoping to get away from the city and see some Texan countryside.

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