The Quarant Inn – the reprise


Yes, that’s right – we’re back in the “pub”.

 

Last May I wrote a post headed: “Last orders at the Quarant Inn” in the assumption that our days spent reimagining Robbie’s room as a pub were over. Robbie was heading back to London, lockdowns were easing and real pubs were about to reopen. And this meant life would return to normal.

 

Yeah, right. 

 

Little did we know that within six months we’d all be holed up inside again. 

 

The Quarant Inn started out as an in-joke between the three of us. Early on in the pandemic – even before the first lockdown – we saw the writing on the wall and decided, with much mirth, that it would be a cracking idea to have Friday night drinks in Robbie’s bedroom and pretend it was an actual pub. It pretty much had the accoutrements – wood panelling, oil paintings, stuffed birds, human skulls (okay, some other weird stuff besides the accoutrements).

 

The Quarant Inn was supposed to be a one-off gimmick to amuse ourself one night back in March 2020. But we returned the following Friday – and then the next – and the pub turned out to be a lifeline.

 

When your world is so restricted that you can only go out once a day, any change of scenery lifts your spirits. So when Lockdown 2.0 happened on November 5, where else would we go to mark the start of the weekend? Unlike some actual pubs we used to frequent we’re always welcome at the Quarant Inn, the beer never runs out and we don’t have to brave the winter weather to get there. And we’ve made our own pub memories in there while Skyping with friends, quaffing drinks and generally having a laugh.

 

It can be hard to distinguish one grey January day from the next when one’s house is also one’s office, home and prison. So the Quarant Inn has become a Friday night tradition and may even live on after lockdown. We’ll have our own pub quiz team there before too long – you wait.

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