Last week we were attending our monthly Probus (a club for retired people) where we had a presentation by a local guy that climbs mountains for a hobby.  Interesting presentation but half the 100 people at the meeting were itching for the meeting to end so they could go off to a St Patrick’s pub event.

Dressed in green hats and bow ties eager to go off and drink green beer even though it was 6 days before the actual St Patrick day.  Strange how seniors with not a drop of Irish blood, want to head off for a party.

Unfortunately Pat and I could not join them because the tickets were sold at the February meeting when we were in Hawaii.

Met a number of our friends the day after the pub event (on our hiking group) and everyone was extolling the party with some hangovers.  Granted I suspect that was after maybe 2 beers for the guys and 2 glasses of wine for the ladies.  Wild and crazy time is much shorter than it was when we were in our thirties.  The group did a 10 km hike up and down hills and through streams (we have had a lot of rain) and by the end everyone was recovered.

Pat and I did not have a green beer evening and had no problem keeping up but did miss the stories of the wild and crazy evening ( which I suspect was Howard telling a few Irish jokes, poorly)

So to try and make up for this missed event, Pat and I picked out a recipe published in the paper for a traditional St Patrick’s meal.  An Irish version of a Shepard’s Pie with a Lamb casserole and veggies eventually covered in mashed potatoes and broiled.  Took 3 hours to put together but it was lovely.  No green beer but I suspect better than any of the people had last Tuesday.