3000 beers (your social life question)

i have a local pub but never go in it. i often think i should as it might be nice to get to know some of the regulars...then again this could be a huge mistake as the clientele do not seem all that appealing.

i don't think my social life revolves around booze as such, but it's usually involved a fair bit, especially as i do not smoke anything.

One thing that struck me about London was that the tube system meant that people could have a local that was miles away.

Andrew, I know those are positive associations where did I even say otherwise, my point is that they can't be broken easily, honestly you are a wanker online 99 percent of the time.

anyway this is a happy thread.

October is, indeed, a month of ruin. And sausage sickness. I urge you to stay far, far away from Bau Waus, Edinburgh's gourmet hot dog outlet and Martino's chip shop in East Kilbride, which gave me washing machine tummy two nights running at the weekend.

Proper community spirit, in and out of each others' houses the whole time? Bollocks to it.

The best part about a local is being drunk and saying "how's it going" and cracking a hahaha joke with people as they walk by where even if they didn't hear what you said they'd laugh anyway cos it was something funny.

That's a good point, and part of why I dislike the idea: I don't need my social structures to make my jokes for me (yet).

Andrew, I know those are positive associations where did I even say otherwise

You were talking about focussing on 'the positives', then started talking about these things. What am I supposed to infer?

honestly you are a wanker online 99 percent of the time.

Where did I even say otherwise?

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/thread.php?msgid=3863481

I'm generally finding drinking in places other than the pub less and less enjoyable these days, and consequently hardly ever really drink at home. But equally, I'm going out more and more, pretty much always to the pub, and especially in winter. I'm sure having a lack of public spaces to meet with people in comforting surroundings is a major factor, as of course is the beer.

From what I know about London ILX I'd say the majority of us have social lives that revolve around the pub - its a convenient social centre.

I think I've had maybe 500+ beers in my life.

To what extent is drinking actual alcohol integral to being in the pub? I rarely drink soft drinks in the pub, but that's because they're usually so extortionately-priced that I feel its a waste NOT to drink.

I guess it was the cameraderie that appeals, being able to sound off about fellw colleagues, or work situations, but with people I knew well and could talk non-work with too. I know it's awful to leave work and then talk about it for ages in the pub, but it can be quite theraputic, especially with a bit of booze inside you to losen tongues and relax everyone.

Our work local has just changed landladies and it's very weird. Things keep changing - staff, positions of tables and chairs, she's getting rid of the pool tables upstairs, and clientele are changing too. It's quite upsetting in a way, but there's now a pub bulldog, so it's not all bad.

I realised after I stopped going to the pub after work so much that I was drinking a lot more at home mid-week than I'd ever done before, but I blame that on Chris's bad example, and I've tried to cut down. For me, and chris, booze is an important part of winding down after a hard day at the office.

I've recently found myself very comfortable with having a sit and read by myself in the pub, but only when waiting for other people. It wouldn't really occur to me to go by myself when I could go home for cheaper. Then again if trains are delayed @ London Bridge I see no reason why I shouldn't attempt to pop down the Royal Oak. It's KINDA local.

That was me! (not really)

Andrew's one of the few people I know who can go to the pub, drink nothing but blackcurrant all night and still appear as drunk and mentalist as everyone else by the end of the night (dancing ahem...)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/renaissance/images/db_dancing.jpg

Me dancing at the end of the night (at a pub quiz).

Yeah, I am agitating a bit for "You can have fun without booze", but I know I'm unusual like that, and it's not like I have a secret plan for booze-free fun that I can teach people.

Also the company I keep is intoxicant enough. </cheese>

I probably drank (conservative estimate) 3000 beers in two years at university. Consequently my guts are now fucked and I can't drink more than four in one session these days.

btw I think the 43 bus is my new local. I met two nice young ladies last night, very friendly with good suggestions about getting into plays for free. And upper-deck boozing was in full-swing. Luckily the puke-trenches were clean.

The beer is nothing special there but The Pub is more important than The Beer and CAMRA can bite me.

I never tire of telling people that they also have a mummified cat, which is blatantly not Dick Whittington's real actual cat but could be if you wanted it to be.

For a slightly more refined experience you could wander up the hill to Highgate village where there are one or two sound boozers in plain sight. I would say the company is sometimes questionable but I fear the wrath of MarkC.

The Swimmers in Holloway is a good one, too, thought I could live without their exposed kitchen.

(btw I have never seen Tim in a Peckham pub --> he has had only 3 beers in his life (all outdoors))

Sarah and Lixi, you should try the pubs between Peckham and Camberwell by the South London Gallery on Peckham Road. One of them is bound to be okay.

It's horrifying, it'd be like me bringing a dead cat everywhere I go. I mean clearly Bentham is insane; it's not even like he's donating his body to a good cause, he's just being full of himself thinking people would want to see his rotted corpse for all time, but that doesn't excuse other people sending bits of his skin about as an exhibit of kinds, nor does it excuse that whole photo I saw with his disembodied head sitting between his feet.

Well, I don't know, maybe a little bit.

Was that Fez picture really in the Swimmers??

I've never really drunk in any of my locals, except for when I lived in Wood Green and went to the sadly missed Lord Nelson a few nights a week - your standard mid-90s Britpop boozer with loud jukebox, quizzer, good snack range etc. - unfortunately I never really got to 'regular' status there because i) we only lived there eight months and ii) it changed its name to the (shudder) Rattle And Hum, and had a big refit.

Kate: That is DISGUSTING!!! Eeek. Maybe they were just all drunk.

The skin wasn't even the creepiest thing - definitely the tray of 50 differently coloured glass eyes creeped me out the most.

OK, this has nothing to do with pubs or socialising and I am pulling this thread off course, so, erm, yeah, pubs. They're great.

That's horrifying!!! Though obviously it has fuck all to do with my social life or drinking habits, sorry.

haha xpost--glass eyes seem way less creepy to me than actual human skin pulled off a dead man. Though maybe 50 of them at once would be a little much too take. Did they come out of actual people's heads??!

Human skin just looks like leather when it's preserved. 50 glass eyes look GENUINELY creepy.

You know, I wouldn't have even taken it the wrong way if you hadn't pointed that out but now that you did I can't STOP taking it the wrong way. That's so gross! I'd be dead! Necrophiliac.

Looking forward to the SLG re-opening in the spring.

were these by any chance all tennents super? i only say this coz i have never seen anyone drink one of these indoors.

I have increasingly stopped enjoying drinking. I used to drink very heavily, especially on weekends, I'd estimate beer wise I've probably had a few thousand (I didn't drink beer til I was about 21, 22 and stuck to hard liquor prior to that). The problem was it increasingly got boring. So now I drink sometimes or will have a drink with dinner and it's not like I never have occasions when I get drunk but they are getting increasingly further apart. I just don't have any interest in it anymore, there seems to be no point, getting home and immediately having a drink, I have better things to do with myself and my health is sketchy enough.

But of course when I go out I do drink, I don't really have a local anymore but I used to go to a cheesy posho bar as my local, they still know me there. There was another one I went to as well, nearer my house and less posho but the bartender started stalking me (to the point where other neighborhood bartenders at other bars knew that I was the girl J***** was following around??!)

(and yes I'm disturbed by the cameltoe as well)

This sounds so robotic ha ha! "Scheduled consumption of alcohol unit begins now...number of required units = 1, unit suggested for optimal intoxicating efficiency = juice of fermented grape, color = red. All systems are prepared for consumption. Begin consumption = now."

Of course, I know people who are very much robotic in their alcohol drinking habits and it can actually be quite frightening.

I only ever drink when I'm out with friends these days and those times are rare because, well, we have no spending money. Which sucks.

mmmmm...McGuyver!

Duane, have you tried the shower?

I have never had a regular pub/bar as such, and the occasions I go out on my own for a drink are nil. It's pretty much always been social, and around here with my local circle of friends it's never been that common (for me, at least, for the rest of them maybe more so!). As those who I meet at FAPs are aware, I can and do happily indulge then, but in part that's because I'm actually specifically treating them like fun occasional events rather than constants. At home I will buy the occasional beer for meal or snack consumption but I prefer a glass of wine, usually once a night or every other night.

Sam our local is more of an estate pub than Kellys - it's called the Red Cow or something or I might be on crack underneath one of our friendly nearby towerbloxx - it advertises COURAGE! rather prominently but sadly I do not have enough to enter it's doors.

(I refuse to comment on or acknowledge that picture MY EYES THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING)

Protest over swingers' club

More than 500 people have urged council bosses in County Durham to block plans to turn a former Victorian pub into a club for swingers.
The derelict King's Head hotel in Stanley, near Durham, is expected to open as a private member's club known as the Love Shack by the end of October.
But opponents say the site is close to a children's skateboard park and will be open every afternoon until midnight.
The company behind the venue, Archer and Rostron, are meeting with representatives from Derwentside District Council on Tuesday to discuss the plans.
The new venue will feature a Kama Sutra room, dungeon and a Bedouin room - complete with scattered cushions and tiny lights representing stars.

Respectable people

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We are renovating this building, which was in a disgusting state and our visitors will benefit the local economy.
"We are perfectly normal, respectable people who just happen to be swingers."
But a spokesman for Derwentside District Council said: "We received a planning application for a health club which would have been marvellous for Stanley.
"That would have been an asset to a building which is on one of the gateways into the town.
"This sort of enterprise does not project the image we want.
"We are studying case law to see if there is anything we can do."
Durham Police says it is making its own inquiries into the plan.

David Berman, The Silver Jews "Trains Against The Sea"

Don't have a local bar, that's the one downfall of my neighborhood.

Oh and I work there on Friday nights now. Which is nice. Instead of spending money I make enough to fund my drinking for the rest of the week. Hurrah!

Oh and there's a pencil drawing of my ass behind the bar. So, um, yeah, I heart my bar.

There is another place called Chances that has good deals on Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (2 local beers that are for some reason can be really expensive despite the proximity to the breweries).

anyway,i don't drink as much as most people,probably...
i tend to drink most in pubs in a going for a few pints with my best friend way,rather than on a mad night out,the only pub i really like is the one we usually go to,which is in town (dublin) so its not exactly local...
i hate all the pubs in my town,i also have a "local" which is a bus journey away from my house,but otherwise a local in the way ronan described it,ie knowing people,saying hello to them even if you don't like them,wouldn't think twice about stopping in on my own if i had time to kill and it was cold...unfortunately it is the worst pub ever,but it is really close to where we used to all hang around all the time,and everyone got used to it,and you can get away with smoking joints in it,and they show all the football matches(so its actually the best pub ever,subjectively,but objectively,it is a shithole)...come to think of it i haven't been in either "local" for ages though,maybe two or three months...
other than that,i will often drink if at a party,but i rarely go out drinking,because it is so fucking expensive...

Last night a friend of mine said "We haven't gotten trashed in a while" and I was thinking "why is that bad?" because I'm really, really rather sick of getting drunk and I wish I wouldn't let myself go so often. Fuck that noise. Of course I'll be out there getting hella wasted Halloween so I should just shut up.

I really do just enjoy beer quite a bit. I was practically raised on it, it's not an acquired taste for me at all, a nice dark lager or a hefeweizen or a belgian white and I'm a very happy man.

I'm thinking I've had nearly 5,000 beers in my life, give or take a few hundred. I don't really want to think of what that adds up to in terms of financial costs, just like I don't like to think about how much I've spent on cigarettes.

You know what? Fuck all this. I must say I'm honestly surprised that a question about beer and social life has managed to just depress the living shit out of me. I'm getting fucking old.

I haven't really been to any bars in Berkeley because I have only just started drinking again, but I think it's safe to assume they are all pretty crap. That said, as a British ex-pat in the US, there's something strangely alluring about any bar with a neon cocktail on the outside of it, the more old-man looking the better. There's a couple of these in Oakland and on San Pablo, but seeing as the only people I hang out with are my other half (who wouldn't go to them), and Anthony Kyle Monday (who doesn't drink), it might be a while before I end up visiting any of them.

I gave up lager after a horrible night in King's Cross earlier this year, but now it is very tempting again.

Spencer, I thought you said all the bars suck...oh wait, that was Sterling. Care to elaborate? I live kind of in central Berkeley, a few blocks west of Shattuck.

I mostly go for fruity drinks and the hard stuff.

For a while, it seemed like a lot of our friends were doing the straight edge bit, to an extent anyway. So we got pretty used to just drinking together. But then one day we noticed everyone else drinking again. They really missed out for a while.

Don't have a local.

Bergin's used to be my local, but I haven't been there in a long time - I'm sure I wouldn't know anyone but Chris the bartender.

(OK in my case the difference is age 30 and age 20)

My social life doesn't really involve much drinking because, well, I don't drink very much - wine with meals &c most of the time, although now that I've rediscovered the joy of beer this may change.

If this happens, I will move up there NOW. That said, it is high time I did a little tour of Canada. Would anyone care to sponsor me?

i also always drink much more in winter. i fear for my liver.

the old man piano bar referenced above, you can give him $1 and do a karaoke on the song of your choice (if he knows it). i would do the bacharach standard "walk on by" but have him play it in F instead of G (at least i think it's in G, at any rate, i'm no dionne warwick).

http://www.rivereuphrates.demon.co.uk/littletomfez.jpg

How do people in the UK determine what their "local" is? Is there one assigned to each neighborhood or what?

How do people elsewhere know which bar to go to?

yes, i drink a lot, i blame TOM EWING'S FRIENDS who have led me astray.

however, tom OTM re 20 vs 30 and ronan is right that in actuality it is a thin line, but i think we like to kid ourselves it isn't.

Yeah, I know it's sad and pathetic. THat's why I stopped.

Yeah everybody does that, absolutely everybody. But they may not have been that wrecked in reality.

Ronan the 20/30 thing is to do with expectations - when I set out on a night out at 20 the expectation/hope was that it would provide a drunken story or two, an exploit for later storytelling. So drinking to excess was definitely part of it. Nowadays the night outs are much more about sitting and chatting - and then maybe noticing that you're shitfaced, but the level of drunkenness reached makes little difference to a good night out these days.

I think sometimes there are exploits or funny drunken happenings, but I would say I set out for a night wanting to have some beers and chat and mess until such point as I am too tired to do so anymore.

The difference I suppose Tom is that I have special nights for exploits, ie when I go clubbing, and other nights are for drinking and chatting. My social life is very much split like that but I can see the get as hammered as possible thing a bit in college, it's just I've more of an excuse when I go clubbing, I'm going to see a DJ of course, haha!

Sod the beer, give me white wine any day....

Obviously, the more content and happy you become with your life (a la Tom and Isabel), this side of things becomes less and less important to you, but of course a good night in the pub is as fun as its ever been, but I suspect you don't attach the same sense of anticipation to it.

Likewise I think if I was genuinely spending my lifetime trecking around Nepal or whatever I would find less need to go out on the razz every so often than I do working in an office five days a week.

But it's just a meme.

Ahem.

When does it stop? Should I have already stopped loving the ruin? My social life involves much ruin and I don't really see it changing.

Sure thing!

http://www.demotelco.com/fb/photos/resources/217114166216105612301474000001/izac.jpg

The man who lived there seems to be back on his feet. We spoke to him today and he says he's completely stopped drinking. He was welcomed back to his old job a few months ago, and his co-workers speak highly of him.