Leave Days in Horsham

[J.R.]

So did you throw up on the train or wait till you got back to CH before doing it?

No ! I was fine ! I had already decided this was to be my last term at CH. I had already been offered an interview with Surrey Plod, so didn't really give a toss !

[Spoonbill]

You never threw up? What a wasted opportunity to drag the good name of Christ's Hospital through the mud. Shame on you.

[J.R.]

You never threw up? What a wasted opportunity to drag the good name of Christ's Hospital through the mud. Shame on you.

73 in a weeks time and still more than partial to a tipple or three. Body may be getting very weak, but tummy and brain still more than active.

[sejintenej]

73 in a weeks time and still more than partial to a tipple or three. Body may be getting very weak, but tummy and brain still more than active.

Now't wrong with that; seldom have beer these days - wine and cuba libre now. Kills all known germs. I see that smokers don't get the virus! sins are a benefit apparently. CH gave me chicken pox - another anti-virus thing (and I have had a number of smallpox jabs) as is type O blood; they tell me that I am at too much risk if I put my nose out the door.

[Jabod2]

Back to the Merrythought Cafe - I recall the Pavlovian reactions to the footsteps on the (external) stairs as the food for the next lucky party appeared to the upstairs diners from the ground floor kitchen...

[Martin Chuzzletits]

If I shut my eyes, I can see the food being served on oval white plates and there's a strong smell of gravy. The plates were blisteringly hot, I remember, and were carried upstairs by the waitresses using thick towels or oven gloves. It definitely wasn't a bright idea to let your fingers brush against them. The roast potatoes were shaped like golf balls with a slight hint of having been battered and the veg was rather mushy. But when you're a hungry boy inured to institutional fare, you just wolf it all down and count yourself lucky.

It seems the cafe continued to trade until as recently as 2015, latterly under the name Merrythought Restaurant. By then, it had been in business for more than 70 years and had passed through various hands. One supposes that its rather whimsical name made more sense in the 1940s when folk weren't quite so inclined to sneer at the uncool. Looking now at Google Street View, I think that the La Piazzetta restaurant currently occupies its former premises. Probably they throw you out if you demand mushy veg and battered golfball potatoes.