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.

Back in a W right now! It’s an airport one and surprising quiet! Airport Ws are usually rowdy, but the people don’t become “regulars” with a favourite seat 🤣

Coffee is £3.25! But it’s refillable so don’t worry about me getting my money’s worth. I even had the foresight to book a seat near the toilet 😁

What is a W? Is that a chain name?

I'm in Australia, and the early places survived here into the mid ninties. The justification being that they were for taxi drivers coming off shift.
Obviously I managed to find them.
Gone now.

Enjoy for threads, Hodd, interesting topics.

W is an abbreviation of the name of the largest chain of pubs in the UK




^
spoilered for anyone who doesn't want to see the name.

They are found in just about every town and city in the UK. I would describe them as cheap and cheerful although they do have a reputation for attracting problem drinkers due to the fact that most open between 7am and 9am and close around 11pm to midnight and the price of alcohol is usually the lowest in the area..

One thing that is interesting about them is that they are often based in buildings that had a variety of uses. Post Offices, fire stations, cinemas, shops, churches, banks and a variety of other places that once would have served the community in a different way to a pub. Very few are based in building that were previously pubs. Despite that a number of them are furnished and decorated to very basic standards and offer little in the way of entertainment such as music - it helps keep overheads low!

This is very interesting to read(along with Hodd's description of the incident itself and how well he handled it) as an American who has no idea(or not much) about British pub culture.

I was first appalled by the early openings, but I do remember, after I gave it some more thought, that there was a bar near me here in Pennsylvania that would also open early for drinkers, back in the late 80's. I was told about it by an older guy who worked for a road crew and if it rained he and his coworkers would just go there instead and drink at like 6 or 7AM.

Thinking about it now, I can't imagine how it was legal, as PA was pretty strict about hours booze could be sold, but maybe this was an illegal place. Or maybe this happens more than I know.

Anyway don't want to hijack the thread but again, it's a view into pub culture for this non-Brit.

Ah yes....the early morning run. Different rules for buying/serving time all over the world and different times in each US state and within each US state (by county)...this was something studied more than the local language, exchange rate and custom. No matter the situation...we search for "the stuff". There's another chain in the UK...except it is a chain of small take-away convenience stores with the initial LW. They open at 0700 and I was always amazed that one could enter and buy a 350ml of vodka at the counter (not allowed at the auto checkout) with no one batting an eye. Here is a shop in the middle of a very high rent district near the Thames, in the middle of the week, everyone in their bespoke suits and college uniforms buying sticky buns and lunch and a bloke in a suit buys TWO bottles of vodka, conceals them in the side pockets of his backpack, pays with a card and departs in a unremarkable way. This in stark contrast to countries like Thailand where there are NO alcohol sales allowed until 11AM. UK is not alone, one can easily do the same in Tokyo...with even less eye contact and nothing but exceptional customer service at the counter -- all in Japanese. At least one UK hotel chain has installed a 24/7 vending machine (near the elevators) that sells wine and spirits (at robbery prices)...I've got to conclude they know how strong the craving can be...and they look to make a fast pound from it. I walk by these places now...opting for any other establishment that does not sell alcohol...I end up at some rather sketchy places where the less fortunate have occupied the seats rather than be on the streets...it reinforces my will. But for the grace of God go I. I think they should mount mirrors near alcohol displays....right at eye level....so the demon in our head will be less effective in the temptation.

^ I lived in Thailand for year over twenty years ago. I wasn’t quite dependent on alcohol then, but I was a daily drinker. I remember there was a government election, and it was decreed than alcohol sales would stop for that day. The expat community were all asking what to do and where to go on that day for their booze. I’ve toyed with the idea of retiring to Thailand, but I’m not being judgemental in saying it attracts a certain class of expat who are never far from alcohol.

Expat Havens
 

No judgment at all...spent a lot of time in Thailand, Cambodia and Philippines. Beautiful countries with wonderful people...BUT even the US State Department (as well as foreign departments of other countries) have openly written about a certain (...and substantial) draw of expats who seek a very low cost lifestyle of behaviors that are less than tolerated in the west and some behaviors that are abhorrent. In Cambodia (use the dollar) everything was $1...including large 32oz beer (*****,******). The hard working local population would be out on mopeds 24/7 with ice cold beer offering to every visitor they saw. The expats bragged they knew where to get it for $.50cents. Mekong spirits also popular at $4 a bottle. Sadly, the introduction of investment into the remote areas has introduced large quantity production of rice wine...it has become a scourge for the impoverished population.

^ Yes, alcoholism isn’t just for expats. Thailand has a serious problem. It’s weird because I know some well-off Thais who follow a type of Buddhism that doesn’t really allow alcohol, and they’ve never drunk in their lives - lucky them.

As for expats, the retirement visa in Thailand is relatively easy to get and fairly cheap. Neighbouring countries are more expensive to retire to. Such expats still have to support themselves financially, and I wonder how sorted they are for medical insurance, etc., if all they can think about is their next drink.

I’ve also seen a few nasty expat characters in bars in Thailand. Such places are best avoided.

Oh yes....Nana district of Sukhumvit in Bangkok...open air bars that look like the bizarre scenes from movies Blade Runner & Total Recall. Frequented nightly by a core of "regulars" who are often American expats (quite often military enlisted pensioners) who buy more than ***** beer....clad in their jean shorts and tank tops and chain smoking endlessly. Not judging, but instead pointing out that it is so remarkably pitiful that the "brave" tourists walking by (who often wander into Nana from Wireless) take pictures and these expats mug it up for the camera (...very sadly treating the local workers in these bars as human "props"). Again -- there are no mirrors in these places and no souvenir photos because seeing yourself would want you to be sober. Similar to one of the opening scenes in the movie Officer and a Gentleman with Robert Loggia and Richard Gere. The stark sober reality of these scenes help remind us why we should not miss the pub (UK) or the Airline Lounge (worldwide) or the VFW post (US) or any other place that defaults to consumption of alcohol as the pre-text and where it is abundant, cheap and socially acceptable to be inebriated.