A woman stood out front having a fag, praised my choice of pub even before I managed to get through the door and told me the Ringlestone Inn is her favourite watering hole. But, typically fickle, when another woman left the pub to join us she quickly changed her tune – the family of woman number two run the nearby Maypole pub at Borden and, all of a sudden, she claimed to have joint favourites. Given I’d already got a woman with me and know only too well that once you get three women together nothing will be decided, I left them all behind and headed into the pub. I passed numerous fireplaces …