Hodd

My house is being renovated for the next few weeks, and as I got fired 🤣 and my next job doesn’t start for a few weeks, I could stay at home sat on the floor shivering and breathing in dust, or I could turn into a nomad for the next fortnight. The latter was the best option. I do some online teaching too, but I can do that anywhere.

So I’ve ended up in an Airbnb on the English southwest coast. Really really nice this time of year as it’s devoid of hooligans (apart from me). I’ve done my daily runs and some huge walks along the coast. Weather’s been kind.

My place is self catering, but for breakfast I go to a well-known pub chain, which I won’t name here. I would go to an independent place, but a lot of them are closed until March as there’s not enough visitors. So there I sat at 9am this morning with my refillable coffee observing. No shortage of customers in this place. About half the customers have ordered sensibly and are enjoying coffee and eggs or whatever. Then there’s the others. A guy’s been sat at a fruit machine for half an hour with a bottle of beer. The bar staff knew what he’d order so this is an everyday thing. A couple of older gents are sat near the bar already on their second round of beers. As I say, 9am.

Who am I to judge? Nobody, but I never drank in the morning. The guy at the fruit machine was fairly young. Beer is quite cheap in these places, so I’d hazard a guess that he’s not doing so well and the pub is his daily hangout. I hope he snaps out of it one day as he’s the sort who’ll become dependent and physically ill.

As for this particular pub, you wouldn’t see me in there on a weekend or in the summer. Not that I’ll be tempted to drink. If anything, the opposite applies looking at some of the customers who seem to have as many alcohol problems as I once had. Quite an eye opener. I’d recommend taking a look to see how well we’ve all done.