In which I am reminded to channel Mark Eris

[hirez]

This reminded me of living in London and a set of rude (to any sensible chap familiar with the ways of the public house) behaviours that I became unfortunately used to.

In short, London g*ths were a shower of bastards who never seemed to understand the concept of 'getting a round in'. I'm sure some of them thought it was dreadful working-person's football behaviour and was beneath them. It sure as hell never stopped them drinking the beer they were bought, the grasping little shits.

Thankfully I can't name names (Why should I let people like that stay in my head?) and as far as I can tell, none of the buggers made it to LJ.

However, it's nice to be reminded of something so one can get it off one's chest and move on.

Comments

[markeris.livejournal.com]

I quite like this idea that my name should be invoked whenever referring to goths as a shower of bastards.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

It's true though. I'd rather go out drinking with my wee brother's rugger-shirt-wearing mates than those black-clad fucks. At least the former mob know the score.

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

I think karmically i'm owed a brewery in a future life due ot the tightness of fellow goths, although fortunately i do know a few who are capable of reaching deap into their pockets.

Even now if i see someone withought a beer and i'm thirsty i'll offer them a beverage of choice.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Quite.

It's fair enough if you're skint - especially given the scary prices charged by the average club-owning shitbag - but it's generally considered good form to mention same at the time you're offered the beer, rather than leave it as a nasty surprise.

It's one of those 'Do as you would be done by (or forever be thought a complete cock)' things.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

i have *definitely* bought you beer. Canadians know about rounds.

[twicezero.livejournal.com]

on the other hand i hate to be offered a drink by someone, who then expects one back... if i offer someone a sweet, do i then send them to the shop to buy me one?

I don't mind stumping people drinks, but i don't ever do it and expect one back...

of course i am a deviant and doesn't play well with others :)

[steer.livejournal.com]

When did "shout" become a 'Strayan? Common question on entering a pub with bunch of people from the Northwest -- "C'mon you buggers, whose shout?"

[hirez.livejournal.com]

It was one of those moments where I was looking for something else (the six o'clock swill), found that and had a road-to-the-offy experience.

I think the Antipodeans have taken it far to seriously, as it happens. The site pointed at by young masters Pete & Tom is the correct and English version of events.

And that question is familiar in the West, too.

[operon.livejournal.com]

I catch myself every so often accepting a first pint from someone when I know I have to go after one -- never thought too much of it before but perhaps it's worth adoptiong a more Australian attitude to that.

Not the staying til the pub closes bit but just the buying your own if you can't buy back thing...

Still I think karmically I've made up for it in the happy sharing of, err, other things with the crowd above and beyond my fair share over the years.

Andrew.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Yes.

http://www.sirc.org/publik/pub.html should be compulsory by the 5th form.

[drpete.livejournal.com]

I think everyone should read < a href="http://www.sirc.org/publik/ptpchap5.html"> this which sums up the whole "round" etiquette quite nicely.

[drpete.livejournal.com]

Although I see mr_tom has got there first.

[hsb.livejournal.com]

I tend to offer people drinks if I am talking to them when I head to the bar, or if I see them en route to the bar. Since I drink slowly, this means that I probably owe everyone drinks. On the plus side, I turn down most of the drinks offered to me, and if we are all sat down for a bit I'm reasonably good at keeping in line.

If someone kept strict score I'd be screwed, though. Damn, outed as a bludger.

I suspect this means that I owe you drink.

H

[hirez.livejournal.com]

No-one's keeping score. At least I'm not. It's a bit depressing that I felt minded to post about this in the first place.

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

And on behalf of teetotallers everywhere, can I just state that:

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Yes Andrew. Perhaps the profiteering scum at the breweries can start to charge less for softies than they do for alco-craps and beer so the standard measure of same becomes a pint, then one won't have to explain to some surly foreign twat of a barperson that Al Murray is a parody and that you wanted a pint of diet coke.

[aeia.livejournal.com]

But soft drinks cost as much if not more than beer!

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Once again, I'm reminded of why I don't like going to pubs. I usually don't plan on hanging around until everyone's bought a round, and I only tend to carry enough money for a couple of drinks and a taxi home.

I usually try to get out of being bought a drink as part of a round by saying 'No, it's okay - I'm waiting for someone, I'll buy a drink then' or getting up to investigate the jukebox at the psychological moment. If someone buys me a drink anyway, I'll buy them one later.

Then again, I suspect this may be one of the things I fundamentally don't get due to being a girl. :p

[diffrentcolours]

I get terribly middle-class and guilty if I get bought a drink and don't have an opportunity to return the favour in a short timescale. On the other hand, I think I'm well up in the pint-karma when drinking in goth circles, because they are all a shower of cunts.

I'm bloody well going dutch next time I eat in their company too. Bastards can't even toss a fair amount of cash into a pile in the middle of the table without arguments about whose starter cost 20p more than who else's.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Oh God Yes.

It's partly the fault of gormless bloody people and gormless bloody restauranteurs who insist that everyone sits together, thus making ordering a nightmare and bill-paying worse. You're only going to be able to talk to the five people in your immediate vicinity, so what in hell's to be gained by re-arranging all the tables in the place into some configuration that makes it impossible for half the people there to get to the bogs?

[goth-twiglet.livejournal.com]

I'm going to jump on the "buying a round is not mandatory" bandwagon. I know that It might not be polite, or acceptable, but if I only have a small amount of money (which is a common occurrence) I don't want to spend it on other people's drinks. I know how much I drink (not a lot usually) and I know how much others drink (often quite a lot). I don't expect other people to buy me drinks (but if you really, really want to then I won't say "no") and if I'm flush or celebratory I will happily purchase drinks for other people without expecting one in return.

It's akin to the other perennial problem: the shared restaurant bill wherein I recently paid 35ukp for half a glass of wine, a glass of water a samosa and a single serving of mutton vindaloo, exactly the same as those who indulged themselves without stint at what felt like my expense.

I'm not mean or money-grabbing, but I am often monetarily embarrassed. And it's situations like these which often make me feel extremely uncomfortable. Why should I have to pay for what is in effect the pleasure of others' company? Bah, Humbug

[bluekieran.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've started to opt out of the "round" thing a lot of the time too, but usually for the opposite reason: I drink more quickly than most, and get annoyed waiting around for others to pass the half-pint mark before I can continue.

(That and the sheer number of times that only half the people in the round have actually bought me one back).

[cutietrol.livejournal.com]

I dislike it as I don't drink. I'm also convinced that soft drinks are more expensive, but this might be a combination of the fact that I don't drink means I don't know the price of alcohol and the extortionate price of soft drinks in a pub compared to anywhere else.

It seems to me difficult to win. If you accept the "Do you want a drink?" yourself at risk of vilification for "bludging" and if you turn people down it may be perceived as rude. It's also hard to refuse a drink when you actually would like one, but wouldn't have bought yourself one. Really I shouldn't feel like that as the people offering are on 30k+ and I'm a student with no income and debts, but that's just one of those things.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

The circles I moved in prior to London understood the concept of 'No, you're alright - I'm skint this week.'

If anything, it's all about good fellowship rather than random and mythical score-keeping.

You know I was rambling about people unconsciously exhibiting Thatcherism the other week? Well, this might be a case in point. If they've been exposed to the 'we are all individuals' and 'no such thing as society' memes, then the whole 'round' thing will appear completely bizarre and full of arbitrary rules which make no sense without the framework of co-operation and 'looking after your own' as a basis. I think.

[reddragdiva]

Hmm. I tend not to drink beer in groups with goths, but in groups with BOFHs. Who seem to have a macho "I'm so rich" thing and force pints on the poor. Not that I complained when I was severely poor and living on the charity of said BOFHs ;-)

Rather than the round at the time, I tend to work on beer karma. Whoever is cashed up gets the drinks in. "It'll be your round next year."

It helps I tend to drink with people I either trust to reciprocate later, or who I'm not worried about reciprocating later because I'm sufficiently cashed up.

[allezbleu.livejournal.com]

well now i feel very homesick

happy to shout you a beer when im in bristol next...
(25th i think )

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that.

(I think I'm in Ledbury around the 25th of this month)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Pubs here tend to present the bill at the end of the night, rather than charging by rounds. We used to have a couple of people who always left us digging in our pockets at the end of the evening to make up the tab because they'd tossed a $20 on the table and left early. We started asking for seperate tabs specifically when they came out because we got tired of paying for their drinks.

Fortunately, they don't drink with us any more.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I don't do rounds. Partly because I drink spirits while just about everyone else drinks beer, but mostly because in my formative years I was the only one with a job and in the end I got sick and tired of paying for everyone else.

So, no, I don't buy rounds, but then I don't take from them either.