English
First, the good news: the bus wasn’t late, the driver didn’t get lost, and no animals were harmed in the making of this hash. Well, it was a city run but we’ll take all the good news we can get.
We started off at the rather, by hash standards, upmarket surroundings of Bia Craft in district 7. The usual assortment of regulars, irregulars, returnees, visitors, and others. Our GM had been given special permission to be absent for the day by, ahem, the GM, but luckily Goblin King and Cocktail Fail were on hand to keep things in order. Sort of.
Our hares for the day were Katoey Boy and Lily Puff Puff. Would they be up for the task? Well, we began with everyone charging off in the wrong direction as directed by the arrows. Good start. Was it there we heard the first plaintive cry of, “We are NOT running around the lake”? This was to be repeated by KB numerous times as we weaved our way through the avenues and lanes of the city’s best-running district, but, of course, good advice on the hash, rare beast though it is, is almost certain to be ignored, and so it proved.
The first beer stop appeared at around the 1 km mark, which is fair enough in these, start of the dry season, times. And now, a sentence I never expected to write. We set off again, only stopping to take photographs with a dinosaur.
Then the trail, which up to then had been fairly well marked, became a lot harder to follow. At one crossroads, everyone turned left, and the ones at the front could be seen looking around in the distance, but no shouts were heard, so I went straight ahead and soon found an arrow. The classic hash dilemma: was this the correct route or had a check been missed? One of the difficulties of a city run is that, because of the traffic and general background noise, shouts of on-on are easily missed.
Especially when there aren’t any. So, back to the junction and down the road used by the group 5 minutes earlier. Not a hasher nor an arrow to be seen anywhere. Many streets and lanes were explored, but no signs of hash life were to be found. Eventually, Linda Lovelace appeared, as did an arrow, and we were on trail once more.
Back to Bia Craft and a message received from Katoy Boy showing the second beer stop. I had only been 50 metres from it before turning back! Moral of the tale – if the arrows go one way and the hash goes the other, it’s usually better to stick with the group. Especially if there’s a beer stop nearby.
By now it had started to rain, and hashers were arriving back at the start point rather wet and dishevelled. A first option, the indoor circle upstairs, was abandoned as the security man wasn’t impressed, but as the rain had started to ease, the circle was moved outside, and so we had the usual ceremonials conducted with the usual ceremony. Cemen Trader with 100 runs, Cocktail Fail with 25 runs, and Cherry Ho with 50 were appropriately T-shirted (and caked), and we had the novel appearance of a dog (hash name Thịt Chó) brought into the circle for canine crimes committed.
All told, a damned fine hash, with thanks to KB and LPP for haring, GK and CF for ceremonialing, CH for moneying, and to everyone else who turned up and contributed.
On-on
Cock-a-Leaky