Why I don’t miss the pub (U.K.) :)
 

I had to wait thirty minutes for a train this afternoon. It was a major city centre station, so no shortage of eating and drinking opportunity. It was cold and rainy so I needed a hot drink. I might’ve mentioned I drink a lot of coffee although surprisingly I begrudge paying £3+ for a tiny cup of foam, and the best value place by far is a pub chain beginning with W. Unfortunately, the beer is cheap too, and W attracts people who have literally nothing else to do all day except drink. If you’re into polite conversation or intellect, it’s not the place 🤣

So I finished my hot drink, two in fact, and headed off to catch my train. It’s a huge pub, and as I pushed open an exit door, I saw it had a sign saying “do not use this door”. No problem, I stepped back and closed the door. There was a gent sat alone to one side of the door, about my age but larger of girth and worse for wear. He shouted out to no one in particular, “I’m convinced people can’t read!”.

I should’ve ignored him, but he was craving the attention I guess, and I weighed up the fact he was on his own and I could definitely run faster 🙂 A dialogue followed:

Me: Why didn’t you say something then?
Him: You what?
Me: Well, if you don’t like people opening the door by mistake, maybe say something?
Him: I’m not the ******** doorman!
Me: Well, you seem to want the job.
Him: **** ***!
Me: Have a good day.

I did turn around and look at him for a good five seconds. I saw so much of the old me in him. I wouldn’t have set out to argue like that, but I’d fly off the handle. The fact I just laughed off his tirade of abuse made me quite proud of myself. Just looking at the guy sat on his own, very overweight and clearly unhappy with life, I only had sympathy. It won’t end well for that gent unless he changes his ways. To fly off the handle and swear at a guy (me) who isn’t that small and in pretty decent shape is what Brits call “the beer talking”.

There are also respectable elderly people in these places (also with hot drinks), and it’s a shame the atmosphere can be ruined by Brits with a chip on their shoulder. I often get a hot drink in these places and try to sit away from obvious inebriates.

W's also do (or at least used to do) cheap meals which, while not be the best in the world, do take away those hunger pangs. Cheap and cheerful food as I call it.

Good job the guy wasn't in the mood for a fight! :dee

Probably was an occasion for using superior judgment rather than superior debating skills :lmao

I’m sure he would’ve taken a swing if he had the chance, Robbie 🤣 I’m not sure his lifestyle choices mean he’d in the best of shape. It’s wrong for him to be rude and swear like that, but I can honestly look back and say I handled it perfectly. Anyone looking on would see a loud sweary drunk and a slightly bemused looking guy laugh and walk off (I’m the second one just to clarify 🤣 ), and you can’t ask for better than that.

Yes, W’s breakfasts are OK too, but I do find a lot of the clientele objectionable. I should ignore it, but it’s often racist and other ignorant stuff being blurted out. Big stereotype here, but these people definitely aren’t there for the hot drinks, even at 9am! This is why I don’t like to even name the pub company as it’s pretty much encouraging heavy drinking and often amongst people who need to pull themselves up a bit in life ☹️

My local W's (a mere 5 minutes walk from my house) opens at 7am. In the past I did go in there a handful of times not long after opening time though most of the time I did keep out of the place until 9 or 10. It's a totally depressing lifestyle that I'm glad to have put behind me.

You did the right thing Hodd, but im sure that fella will probably say the same thing to the next person that tries that door. Chances are he will be on the same seat tomorrow.
When we would visit my Nan and Grandad in Cork city i would be sent to tell my uncles to come home for dinner after a morning in the early bar for the dockers. They would be in a right drunken condition. Its bad really at any time but if you start that early it can only lead to an all day session.
I dont know whats worse the depression of those pubs or being the home alone drinker.
Theres actually footage of those early bars in Cork on Youtube. Its incredible how busy they were.

It’s actually a brand new pub, AL, so it’s hardly as if anyone knows the layout anyway. It also means my mate the self-appointed doorman wasn’t a local, he’d just found a new hangout.

Home alone or pub, I’d say they’re both as bad, AL. My new mate is further proof that nothing good comes of drinking. I was never into lone daytime pub drinking, but I could so easily have gone down that road. I realised that straight after I’d spoken to the guy. I assume he once had aspirations, so I wonder what happened?

All pubs start to look the same once those beer blinkers are put on.

Unfortunately I think most of the W pubs do seem to attract people with drink problems due to the fact its cheaper to buy alcohol than a soft drink. I've had breakfast and hot drinks (free refils are a bonus) here and I do find it sad seeing people drinking at 9am like its the most naturally thing in the world.

And I’ll keep going back for the free coffee refills, Brit. To be honest, it’s a grim reminder not to go down that route. When I think of W, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happy bunch of people - which you do get in other pubs. You get the middle-aged guys putting the world to rights, and you just know from listening that they’ve barely travelled outside their home town, or those lone drinkers who I’ve also seen at 9am.

Bit of a groundbreaker here in the UK today. A betting firm was fined a huge amount, about £19 million, because customers were losing £23000 in twenty minutes and similar. These are adult customers albeit clearly addicts. I wonder if pubs should be worried about such actions. W customers are blatantly drunk and still being served day after day. It’s so wrong.

Interesting event Hodd. The establishments I used to frequent when drinking, such discourse with another barfly might provoke a gun fight...LOL. I've seen people get shot at for less ;). We gun happy Yanks you know! I've learned bar fight in my country involves shooting and I've always cared a concealed heater back in the day of wild drug fueled living. Alcohol is a wicked drug that will get a person blasted away by another fool. Just a drop of a hat and wild west show ;)

I'm jumping in early to remind folks that this is not the thread or the forum for a discussion about guns, shootings etc.

Dee
Administrator
SR

I hope that man finds his way someday. There but for the grace of God…

It’s also interesting to think how this drinker’s mind works to how my (ex-drinker’s) mind would work. If I was sat somewhere and people kept opening a nearby door and made the place cold, guess what, I’d move elsewhere 😁

Saying that, this a big city. Lots to do. I wouldn’t be sat in any one place for hours, especially not a pub.

My dad would bring us as kids to the pub. I hated it, glass of coke and a bag of cheese and onion crisps. "Sit down and dont eat and drink them all in one go" what 5 year old will listen to that, they were gone in seconds. Same gang of men talking rubbish one of them even had the nickname the liar. Only years later i found out his actual name. The few that held up the bar counter from morning until closing time. Terrible but i still can't understand how they were able to afford it.

Hmm... 'W's are a mixed up places indeed, symbolic of what a mess British drinking culture has become. I had a very nice steak very cheaply in one up country while travelling a few weeks ago, so much so that I congratulated the chef when he came out himself to check on me. On the flip-side the police were recently called to a nearer 'W' to an affray at 8:00 am!

I can't really remember ever having a nice time drinking in a 'W'. In my local live music pubs though I had a few good times, and in the more classy places you could usually strike up an intelligent conversation. There is something to be said for pub culture for normies (I haven't yet found an alternative for informal encounters), but nothing much for those of us in recovery.

Best, Forwards.

Went by a bar yesterday and the sign out front said,
"hangovers are temporary but drunk stories are forever"
What kind of awesome story from sitting in a bar am I gonna tell my grandbabies?
The only drunk memories I have from bars aren't very good.

Can't believe I used to believe that crap

I've seen that video on Youtube before, I think it was from the early 80's, I wonder how many of them are still alive now!? I don't think there is many early morning houses left in Cork City now,
I think Charles is still here but a lot others are gone now, probably with a lot of the people that drank there too.
My local early morning house was called 'The Clinic', the irony isn't lost on me.

I've just watched one on YouTube called "Early House Pubs Of Cork City, Ireland 1980" which I'm assuming is the same one? It's very interesting, if somewhat depressing, to see how things were back then. I'm not sure I agree with one of the comments at YT that "the drinking culture is a thing of the past". It's possibly just done differently now.

I've not heard the term "early morning houses" for establishments that opened early. Were they based around certain industries? I do remember back in the 80s and 90s hearing about pubs over here in the UK that were based in fishing towns, large dock towns or places which had large early morning markets (fruit, veg etc) where pubs in the vicinity were able to open at 5am or 6am but which were closed by 8am or 9am. They were a quirk of the old licensing laws which were swept away in 2005. I'm guessing that these early morning houses weren't like that?

Yep, that's the Youtube video, I watched it there again. Early morning houses must be just an Irish term so. Basically they were mainly centred around people doing shift work- coming off the night shift, factory workers, police, etc and also in fishing villages too. The early morning house license is hard to get now so only a handful of them left.