Friday 29th November 2019

London November 2019
John's Pictures

16:19:40
On arrival in Haywards Heath, as we had a little while to wait before The Royal Oak opened we had a first drink in, oddly enough, the Waitrose next to the station. They have a wine bar and Nyetimber was on special offer.

16:19:45

16:26:30
The Nyetimber.

16:26:44

17:41:55
On arrival at the Royal Oak, we'd taken a taxi from Haywards Heath to here.

17:49:19
I'd booked a table for four, alas Jim couldn't make it this evening so it ended up just three of us.

17:55:07
I was rather touched by the fact Corrie had tweeded up a bit for the occasion, with a waistcoast she'd bought in a charity shop.

18:25:07
Outside the Royal Oak, the passageway leading to the gents.

18:25:28
More exterior shots of the Royal Oak.

18:26:02

18:29:20
Andrew and Corrie through the window of the pub.

19:46:44
Although the Royal Oak is a very traditional pubby sort of a pub, they did have some local wines on offer, and having bumped into winemaker Dermot Sugrue in Waitrose earlier it seemed appropriate to have a bottle of his handiwork from Wiston Estate.

20:20:49
A bit of an in joke here - every year Andrew and I have a "quaint" pub outing in the run up to Christmas, and every year I search for an ever more perfect and idyllic pub only to have it receive a decidedly middling rating (typically 4/10) from Andrew because of some minor flaw. Here the achilles heel in this otherwise beautiful and unspoilt pub was this bright LED light (disguised as a lantern) above our table.

21:21:30
Another exterior shot of the Royal Oak.

21:21:57
I remembered my new phone had an astrophotography mode, so I had a go at taking a picture of the stars, but discovered it only really kicks in properly if it detects the phone is on a tripod. So this is just black with a few white dots.

21:31:48
The fireplace.

21:33:23
Corrie and I testing the idea that you could actually sit inside the inglenook fireplace.

21:34:00

21:34:11
...although the appeal of it soon wore off.