All Quiet on the Orient Express

The weatherman says we’re in for a calm spell.’

know every nook and cranny

I simply described the maroon boats at rest near the wooded margins of the lake, and the looming fells brooding in the autumn gloom. There was also a bit at the end about the fulsome moon waxing against a starry backdrop, which I thought sounded quite nice.

now that the seasonal throng had departed.

all I had was a stove, a pan and these beans. I heated them up and ate them ‘cowboy-style’, without a plate.

Both junior barmen appeared to be roughly the same age as me, and I felt an affinity with the pair of them. I was unable to tell, however, whether they were permanently attached to the Packhorse. They each seemed the type who would probably have been expected to do something ‘better’ than just work in a pub, and I liked to imagine they were only doing this until something else turned up. The idea of just staying here for ever, and never moving on, seemed quite unthinkable.

The rules were different now that the tourist season was over.

When I went to the pub that night it struck me that there was a distinct shortage of women in the area now that the tourists had left.

‘I think it looks quite nice myself,’ I remarked. ‘Very rustic.’
He shook his head. ‘It’s no good it being rustic if it’s no use.’