A few weeks ago, a friend asked if he and five mates, all motorbikers, could stop off overnight at our house on their way to Portugal. We agreed, only realising later that it coincided with the night our friend Adrian’s band had a big gig at Monsegur, at which we’d promised to support them.

Various ideas were thrashed out and finally it was decided that we’d feed the bikers at our house, where they were due to arrive mid afternoon, then Kieran would lead them to Adrian’s while we took the trailer tent,  and Adrian would put up another tent. We would all go to the gig and probably end up sitting around the pool with band and bikers after the gig, playing and singing into the wee small hours. But the best laid plans…..

By 2pm on Saturday the preparation was all done for a six course meal, suitable for hungry bikers; the house was clean and we were ready to roll. We waited, and waited and waited…. They finally arrived at 6pm, having had a hard day’s riding. So we got on with the meal as quickly as we could, only managing three courses before they decided it would be a good idea to take the rest with us to eat at Adrian’s after the gig as it was getting late and they were all quite full.

We all set out in beautiful evening sunshine, but half an hour down the road there was what I can only describe as a cloudburst, with thunder rumbling and lightning flashing all around, so by the time the bikers arrived, they were drenched; they changed and we headed to Monsegur, thinking we’d have missed the band by now, but no, the storm had caused a power cut so the whole evening was pushed back by two hours! The gig was great, but didn’t finish till 2am; so the rest of the band went straight home and the bikers headed to bed, just leaving the hard core sitting up, drinking and chatting till 5o’clock.

The bikers left at 10.30 this morning and the rest of us were unsurprisingly subdued for the rest of the day, watching, or dozing in front of, the telly till it was time for us to come home.

Bonne nuit!