Since our last episode of Binning, back in May 2007, Simon has been pushing to get everyone out on a walk or something, with very little success. But, given a really good excuse, like Aidan’s last weekend in the UK before moving out to Australia, he managed to coax an impressive seven Binners to take a walk down the Avenue, though it would all end in tragedy...

Except for Marky, who would be meeting up with us at the Red Lion, we all met up at around 14.00 at the Essex Arms car park, and it was looking pretty good in terms of organisation. Last time out, we all eventually met up at about 10.30 in the Red Lion, so this was a most impressive start to a Binner trip. You know though, given the bunch of chaps that had gotten together that Saturday afternoon, it wouldn’t be too long till things started going wrong. And they did.

After greeting each other in a touchingly emotional and yet also very macho way, we discussed a plan of action. Aid’s wanted to grab a kite for a bit of a play when we got down Avebury way, so we discussed heading off to Toys Are Us, which as an idea seemed sound, and we could go on to Tesco to buy supplies. However, at the last moment, as we were heading off in three cars, it was decided that we would be better off meeting in Marlborough and popping into a toy shop and Waitrose to gather the things we needed. It was nearly an hour later that me and Simon got a call from Aidan asking where we were (just coming up to Reading on the M4), as they had been waiting at Toys are us for quite some time now. Simon reiterated the updated plan to the chaps and they set off after us.

This was followed five minutes later by me turning off the M4 because Mick, for some reason appeared to be coming off there too. Turned out that Mick drives a really common car though, and the person I thought was Mick turned out to be a sweet looking little lady, and the passenger I thought was Chris, was the seat next to her. The problem here was that the exit we came off didn’t have a roundabout for us to turn round at, and we ended up driving past Lower Early to the next junction so as to get back on track.

That, I think, was the last Binner generated cock up of the trip, except for Aidan’s jacket, oh, and the walking stick.
The rest of the trip to Marlborough went smoothly, and me and Simon met up with Mick and Chris outside the Green Dragon in the high street, and went in to grab a pint and a game of pool. During said match, we discussed a souvenir gift for Aidan to remember his time in dear old Blightly. We settled on a walking stick, which, I am quite keen to point out now, was initially Mick’s idea, and luckily it didn’t take long to find Marlborough’s most excellent walking stick shop. As we walked away, all seemed well; we had a beautiful English Ash two pronged walker which we were sure Aidan would look to every time he was missing the old country.

Anyway, Aidan, Ben and John got to Marlborough soon after, and we sorted out food and drinking stuffs with which the night would be made more enjoyable, and less uncomfortable.

When we got to the Red Lion, we met up with the last part of our seven piece Binner jigsaw. Marky was tucking into chips and a dead fish in the restaurant, and it was good to see him again after so long. Simon, whilst planning the trip, had bumped into Mark in by accident in Cassiobury Park, and had persuaded him to come along. Anyway, Mark imparted some bad news to us: there was no legal parking overnight for a about five miles, apparently. Mick and Simon tried to reason with the bar staff, but the Land Lord wasn’t there to give the OK. Which was a bit of a shame, but we were pretty sure we would sort something out, though it wouldn’t necessarily be at the Red Lion.