Bar Pub Chat

I have often pondered that [tag]bar work[/tag] is the most underpaid profession in the world, even beating hairdressing. (I am writing this from a European point of view-[tag]Bartending in the US[/tag] can be very lucrative although a large part of the money earned is usually from tips).

 

Bar staff in Europe are required to spend long period of time on their feet, often legging it up and down cellar steps to change beer kegs, stack crates and all types of other heavy work.

But aside from the physical exertion, the mental load imposed on a [tag]bar worker[/tag] during any given shift is tremendous. Not only is one required to serve drinks, you must be telepathic or able to lip read slurred words whenever another tipple is required.

A bar worker must also be a psychiatrist, a marriage guidance councillor, a doctor, a loan officer, a matchmaker, and sometimes, God forbid, a babysitter, and on a really good night a flaming unpaid taxi driver.

Inspite of bar work often being a very thankless career choice, there are 5 golden rules, that if you want to succeed in the [tag]bar trade[/tag] you should never disobey. (more…)

I love [tag]London Pubs[/tag].

I adore the incongruity of the [tag]bars in London[/tag]- on one hand you have the historic feeling of sitting in a pub where others have sat hundreds of years before in a setting that has changed very little, on the other hand there is an incredible feeling of inconsistency-in central London there are bars I have maybe visited 4 or 5 nights in a row, and it is quite probable you will not see the same person there twice. In certain bars in the [tag]Paddington[/tag] area even the staff seem to change on a nightly basis!
This is extremely useful should you become [tag]tired and emotional[/tag] and fall of your stool, because the following day you can return without embarassment to a pub full of entirely new faces who did not witness your drunken debauchery of the night before.

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A frequent question asked by tourists in [tag]Lloret de Mar[/tag] is “Where are the [tag]Gay Bars[/tag]?”

Well, practically they are all within an area of 50 square metres, which makes it easy to bar hop from one to the other without the need for hiring a cab or getting lost. There are three gay bars, and a [tag]gay club[/tag] in Lloret.
Click here to see a Google map of the area.
 
David’s Bar
Davids Bar is situated in the Calle Migdia, number 53. It opens at 11pm until 3am but usually closes on Mondays during the wintertime. The clientele at David’s are mostly men, and mainly a younger crowd. (more…)

A [tag]condom bar[/tag] has opened in the Northern Indian city of [tag]Chandigarh[/tag].

A first of it’s kind in India, the Condom Bar gives away free [tag]condoms[/tag] and aims to promote [tag]AIDS[/tag] awareness and [tag]safe sex[/tag].

In a city where 30% of students have admitted to practicing unprotected sex, and in a country with a very high incidence of HIV, it is surely a very good move on the part of the Chandigarh Industrial Tourism Corporation (CITCO) and the AIDS Control Society of Chandigarh.

[tag]Indians[/tag] are in general reluctant to talk about sex with the opposite sex, although they seem quite happy to practice it, as they have a population of around 1.4 billion. A number of men interviewed said they could not possibly discuss the issue off wearing a condom ‘with a lady’.

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Last year [tag]London[/tag] snatched the title for hosting the World’s Biggest Pub Crawl, from Maryborough, a town in [tag]South East Queensland[/tag], [tag]Australia[/tag].

The Aussies did not like that one bit, and this year 2800 drinkers staggered into 10 pubs imbibing at least one drink in each to snatch the title back from England’s capital city. London has a population of 7.5 million, Maryborough just 26,000.

The crawl was attended by Aussies from all over the country, and Americans and Brits also joined in the boozy fun. Participants carry a card which must be stamped at each bar and handed in at the end of the crawl (If they remember) to qualify for having completed the course. All 10 pubs on the crawl must be visited within 6 hours. It is permitted to drink non-alcoholic drinks, but one gets the feeling not many of them do!
Organisers hope the [tag]pub crawl[/tag] will become an annual pilgrimage for [tag]drinkers[/tag].

I wonder how the staff cope with being besieged with hundreds of boozers at once? I guess they have a few extras drafted in..!

I am well-read on the history of Gangland [tag]East London[/tag], due to having a grandmother who is mad about the [tag]Kray Twins[/tag]- she had a penpal friendship with Reg Kray and occasionally he would call her from jail.

She would give me Kray books to read, as I would also buy books for her and often read them first before I could see her to pass them on. Well needless, to say, with my interest in this area of [tag]London[/tag], as well as London and [tag]London pubs[/tag] in general, and also the Kray era I was really looking forward to [tag]drinking a beer[/tag] in the Blind Beggar Pub. (For those of you in the dark, the Blind Beggar is where notorious gang leader Ron Kray shot George Cornell dead. The [tag]Blind Beggar Pub[/tag] is situated in Whitechapel Road, a bustling street in the heart of London’s East End).

 

 

I had expected, due to the notoriety of the pub, that the place would be a shrine to the Krays- a tourist haunt cashing in on it’s gruesome history. Well, I was wrong, as on occasion I am. There are several Kray pictures on the walls but they do not dominate the place. The furniture had seen better days, and the overall impression was one of shabbiness, and slightly depressing- but this did not put me off the place, I found it quite fitting and intruiging. (more…)

These rather confusing toilet door [tag]signs[/tag] can be found in [tag]McGuires Irish Pub in Pensacola in Florida[/tag].

I bet that causes some confusion after a few pints of [tag]Guinness[/tag]!

McGuire’s have a second restaurant in [tag]Destin[/tag], [tag]Florida[/tag]. They recently had to remove the same signs from the toilet doors after a father lodged a complaint, claiming his 15 year old daughter was upset when a man walked into the ladies room. (more…)