The Pub

It's odd but going to the Pub can be an enlightening experience. Seeing especially people I'd already see during working hours, but in a different light. This does not mean they are drunk. It means relaxed, away from the stresses and strains of a Fish Factory. Then of course there is always the off chance of seeing a character absent for ages, or making new friends, hopefully not drunk, because making friends with someone who is drunk is not a practice I'd encourage. They may never remember who you are when sober. Mind it's just like being sober and having a conversation with a drunk, especially serious. Then it's just not worth it. I'm sure others think the same of me, I'd never have a conversation with myself if I were drunk. But then it's odd also how other people react towards drunks. Especially if they are not used to seeing intoxicated persons. Sober ignorant people can act like a drunk has got leprosy. Which is another experience I'll not go into.

From my local, I recall an odd Irish fella who sat at a table on his own drinking a Guinness. A Good choice of drink. I'd seen him in there a number of times and then on one occasion I started chatting to him. He seemed quite an amenable bloke. He confessed to liking the odd bet on a horse and once having been to a race course in Scotland, the Ayr track I think. Another time quite recently when the urge to have a pint overcome me I popped into my watering hole and had a chat with another regular, again I'd barely spoken to before, but who was quite OK to chat to. Perhaps the need of having a chat is another reason for entering a Pub. The conversation went on, I ordered a meal and after the conversation continued. We'd talked about Sky TV and the cost it is to Pubs to air premiership footy matches. The monthly licence is phenomenal. In my pub they chose to dump Sky. I don't blame them. The Irish fella let on he was going to use another pub because the price was going up. I didn't see him a couple of weeks later, he just stopped going there. I hope it was nothing to do with my talking to him.

The make up of employees at the fish factory is of a different ilk nowdays. These people would prefer to sing in a choir, go to church, call people not related to them brother or sister. Other's live miles away in lands where the roads wind and bend and there are no lights on the roads at night. Stick land. They have fields and as neighbours cows. I've walked through cow fields before and they stink. My belief is moderation. A little of something is good, too much is not. And as for abstention, that's something I try to abstain from.