Bar Pub Chat

I read an article this weekend, which described how due to torrential rains, the [tag]Mission Bar[/tag] on Glasgow’s south side in Glasgow flooded, and some customers had to be piggy-backed out by firefighters.

This bought a rather large smile to my face, as I wondered at the pub’s customer’s refusal to move until the water rose so high, they had to be rescued by firemen.

It also reminded me of an incident here in [tag]Lloret de Mar[/tag] in November 2001.

I was working for the Londoner group who apart from the [tag]Disco Londoner[/tag] own another four bars on either side of the Disco Londoner which is in the centre of the nightlife zone.

I was working the day shift, it was a miserable rainy November Sunday- the type of day you don’t really mind going to work, because the weather is so bad there is nothing else to do- and it is likely to be very quiet as it is just too gloomy for people to venture out of doors.

Well, I arrived quite wet, as did the two staff who were opening the pub next door, also belonging to the Londoner company. We opened the doors, and surprisingly customers began to enter- although there were very few people braving the weather, we were the only bars open (November is off-season and most businesses close for the winter months) so the customers probably were desperate for shelter and a beer to cheer them up.

Meanwhile, the rain was pouring down harder and harder, with no signs of letting up. (more…)

Beer loving Aussie Kenneth Hart is organising the [tag]World’s Biggest Pub Crawl[/tag], which will last for 25 boozy days, take in 60 pubs in 12 countries and cover 4 continents.

The tour will include the world’s top [tag]party hotspots[/tag] including Rio de Janeiro, Cancun, Ibiza and Munich.

Kenneth guarantees there will be no early wake up calls and no ‘boring sightseeing- just a daily dose of the most incredible pubs on earth and the party of a lifetime’. (more…)

Way back in the 1950s, Spain’s main holiday resorts were nothing more than small fishing villages.  
Benidorm, Torremolinos, Lloret de Mar and many more were home to simple fishing families who would scrape together a meagre living from the sea and the land. 

Even though times were hard, I imagine they were also very happy without the stresses of modern day life. All this was to change in the 1950s when the first intrepid travellers, known as ‘tourists’ became daring and ventured to strange and distant lands.

The first British tourist to hit Lloret de Mar was a well-to-do English lady named Mrs. Rossell. This lady fascinated the Lloret people, as she wore smart clothes, the likes of which they had never seen before (after all, most of them were shoeless) and she arrived in a motorcar.

During the seventies Lloret and other Spanish tourist hot spots were over run with young British people searching for sun, sea and most of all Sangria, beer, cheap Spanish plonk and anything else they could get down their necks. They arrived at Easter time, and left six months later rather the worse for wear. The majority of the British ‘workers’ and ‘dossers’ as they were known, spent a number of summer seasons in their chosen Spanish towns before going back home to either settle down and have kids or dry out. (more…)

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…)

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’.

(more…)

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..!

1. Little over 1000 years ago, at the turn of the first millenium, monastries began brewing their own [tag]beer[/tag] as the monks wanted a drink that was hearty and nourishing to supplement their meagre meals. [tag]Beer drinking[/tag] in the monastries soon became a very popular pastime, each monk was permitted to drink 5 litres per day. (more…)