EOTL02: Feb 11th 2010: The Joker

[David Scott]

Pictures

EOTL02 proved much more difficult to organise than EOTL01. A trip to Stanmore (one time home to Roger Moore, Billy Idol & Beardyman) had fallen by the wayside in January. Now well into February we still had 20 EOTLs to fit in before the end of the year. Father Time was breathing down our necks muttering “Stop fannying around would you.”

I’d been thinking there must be a formula to calculate how likely it was that we’d complete our challenge on time. Having this formula might not help us much but I could create a Likelihoodometer for the website. That would be good . Biggs did statistics at university so I asked his advice. He didn’t have any. Instead he suggested that I should talk to JC, who is a mutual friend. JC gains actuarial qualifications the way the rest of us write rubbish on Facebook so he’s a good person to talk to about Likelihoodometers. When he’s not on holiday.

“We could play a Joker,” Biggs suggested. (A Joker is a trip that involves more than one terminal stop and therefore lets you ratchet up the EOTL count.)

“Fair enough. How about High Barnet and Mill Hill East?” I said. “...at the top of the Northern Line.”

“Sounds good.”

Barnet has been home to lots of famous people over the years; I’ve featured some of them in the videos collection. Mill Hill was home to William Wilberforce and Stamford Raffles who aren’t particularly well represented on YouTube. Fortunately Billy Fury asked to be buried at Mill Hill cemetery (for reasons that are unclear) and he is.

We agreed on a quick trip to High Barnet followed by a visit to Mill Hill’s cemetery and pubs. That would give us two more EOTL points and put us very nearly back on track.

I arrived at High Barnet in good time. In keeping with the celebrity theme we’d agreed to meet at The Gate, which was Trevor Howard’s favourite pub. He used to quaff pints there when he wasn’t drinking cups of tea with Celia Johnson in train stations. Mindful that I didn’t have time to waste I programmed the Gate’s postcode into my iPhone Maps and set off. My phone led me through a town centre full of nice old buildings that had been converted into crappy shops. High Barnet is a place where The Old has taken a solid beating from The New. All the same it has some proper Olde pubs. On the way out of town I passed by Ye Olde Mitre Inne and Ye Olde Monken Holt. Then I entered a large estate full of mock Tudor houses. By large I mean massive: it took some time to cross. Eventually my phone got me to the street where it said the Gate was. But it wasn’t. Rather than apologising my phone started ringing.

“Are you at the Gate?”

“I think I might be lost Biggs. There isn’t a pub here. Maybe I messed up the postcode.”

“What?... Don’t worry I’m not there yet. I’m half way but someone’s told me I need to get a couple of buses.”

“Shit. How far are you from the town centre?” We’d had an earlier and it might be argued cleverer plan to meet at Ye Olde Mitre Inne. “How about we just go to Ye Olde Mitre instead?”

Trevor Howard might not have rated the place but as we settled down in Ye Olde Mitre Inne half an hour later we were happy enough. It’s a genuine old pub that for some reason has been made over to make it look more Olde. Inside it has two big open fires. Outside it has a rather nice beer garden that used to be a stable yard; if you get cold you can sit in a lounge that used to be the stable. A developer has built apartments around the pub that look into the beer garden.

“We’re not going to have time to get to Mill Hill East are we?” I said to Biggs.

“Probably not.”

“This is going to be tricky. We’re getting behind schedule.”

“Don’t worry we’ve still got plenty of time.” Biggs was being admirably relaxed about my pub screw up.

"Hmmm”

“Anyway we’ve still got Jokers to play. I mean look at the Metropolitan line: you could do four or five stops in one night there”

“I guess. Fancy another Lifeboat?”

"Why not”