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Going to the pub on Saturday?

booked a 2130 table for drinks in a pub near the station, about 15 mins walk.

Busy, they are a big place, with lots of tables that were already well spaced pre-CV19.

Table service was good, had to leave contact details. Bar staff tell me they are operating at 70% capacity. I noticed the prices had gone up.

It is boring pub so we only stayed for 4 pints, about 1.5 hours
 
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And there it is in all its glory. My first pint of draught ale since lockdown. A pint of "Grainger Ale" from Hadrian and Border brewery. Only one pub and the social club were shut and all that were open had gorillas on the door.... Most looked too busy and I ended up at... Spoons! Which I got into without having to give any information to anyone (I sneaked in the back door) Quieter than usual for a Sat night. not as quiet as the pic suggests though! It just happened that when I took it no one was in view for a few seconds.... The beers (had 3 different) all tasted "not quite ready" a touch yeasty but perfectly drinkable. I was able to maintain 2m distancing no problem other than the one incident... a table of about 6 fairly drunk morons was joined by about 6 more of their pals and some of them came over to my table which I had on my own and sat down saying "we've not got covid pal, you don't mind do you?" and when I said yes I did mind as I'm keeping up safe distancing I got "well I can't see your name on it pal!"... there were plenty of other empty tables so I just moved to one of those... and heard "tosser! Aye this tables ours now guys ha!" as I walked to the other table...
Didn't see a single person I knew so had 3 pints without really speaking to anyone... a hollow "victory" then really... :(:rolleyes: Oh and all the real ales had gone up by 10p! What a surprise.....
 
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My casual observations at work in and around Purley and New Addington; only pubs with Gardens were what might be described as busy. Also, people appeared to be observing the guidance. Good to see staff with PPE. I also observed Door Staff checking the temperature of potential customers at the door...
 
wacko said:
^ sounds like a drink at home would have been
a cheaper but better drink
less stressful
a lot safer
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Kind of yeah but I knew that before I went out... I didn't actually expect to see anyone I knew but it would have been a bonus If I had... I definitely wouldn't of if I'd stayed in!... plus it was the "meaning" of getting out to a pub and having a draught pint after all this time.. the symbolism of it if you like.. Other than the idiots gate crashing "my" table I was able to maintain more safety than at a typical visit to supermarket since Cummings in effect ended the lockdown by his stupid actions making everyone else go "well if it's good enough for you..." which may indeed have been the intention of it after a the spin doctors he employs had worked on it!
 
Most interesting was THIS: I was outside having a tab when a barmaid came out and was chatting to a table of people who she obviously knew outside of work and i overheard her saying that the staff were well aware of how many people were now going to boycott spoons over the treatment of staff by Tim Brexitgammon but that after initial worries and some arguing none of them had actually been laid off and spoons had in fact done the right thing and furloughed them. .. and they were now worried that their jobs could be at risk due to the boycotting!
 
As a counterweight to the broadly optimistic tone that seems to be going around here so far, I got a pretty pessimistic assessment from my GF following her first shift back at work in the pub.

She and the other staff are mostly just focussed on doing their best, but my take away from what she described is that the measures in place seem decent enough, but basically people are too stupid to follow the rules with the degree of strictness required.

People sneaking in and therefore not being made aware of the rules before entering. People going around other tables greeting friends, including physically. People not observing sufficient social distancing despite clear markers on the floor. And so on.

Many people behaving themselves, but this isn’t the kind of situation where that’s good enough - one idiot can infect multiple others, and away the R number goes again. So even just a few people who are determined to behave basically as if everything had gone back to normal could sink the whole metaphorical ship. The staff can do their utmost, but they can only respond to careless behaviour after it’s already happened. And when they do respond, they hear ‘It’s not like this at the Spoons up the road, everyone’s just getting on with it there’.

The analogy which comes to mind is that the degree of scrupulous observance of distancing and so on that people can actually manage in the wild is like using the rhythm method to avoid pregnancy. People have an idea of good enough that just isn’t good enough.

It’ll be grimly fascinating to see whether the pessimism is borne out or unfounded in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed things go better than I expect them to.
 
We popped into a village pub after a long walk with the dog. It was well lad out in respect of the guidelines and everyone was quietly enjoying their drink. No dramas.
 
matt j said:
Yes this is what they've been saying all along, just opening up isn't enough to stop them going under as they operate on the basis of full capacity, cutting it in half or less means they'll shut anyway.
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Well, operating on the basis of full capacity doesn’t look a good idea, especially as I doubt these places pay staff much more than the minimum wage. Maybe we all should be paying a bit more and the ‘bosses’ be paid a bit less.
 
My golf club bar had it well sorted. Everyone paid due heed to the guidance, including wiping their table down with the provided equipment. I fear pub openings were not so compliant elsewhere, tho;)
 
wacko said:
^ sounds like a drink at home would have been
a cheaper but better drink
less stressful
a lot safer
Click to expand...
A bottled Summer Lightning at home is nowhere near as good as a pint of draught. I didn’t go out yesterday, and probably won’t for a while, but I am very much looking forward to savouring my first ‘real’ beer in a long time
 
I am pleasantly surprised this morning as did worry if yesterday would turn into riots and mass social unrest. The fact that many seem unable or unwilling to observe social distancing with a few drinks inside them was always going to be the case and hence the best case scenario was pretty much what happened. Hopefully once the initial attraction of being happy to expose themselves to an increased risk in order to drink luke warm beer out of plastic glasses wears off the level of clientele at most establishments will fall to manageable levels.

What was interesting was to see some of the reports in the media form the different regions, NW England largely quieter than expected for instance. London seemed by far the busiest with some worrying images (social distancing wise) form Soho and Borough.... seeing as the scientists (well the ones not being silenced by the government) think that the R number in London may well already be above 1 or close to it I can't think this is going to help.... in response I am sure the UK government will implement a local lockdown... in Bradford or some such :rolleyes:
 
tiggers said:
...some worrying images (social distancing wise) form Soho and Borough.... seeing as the scientists (well the ones not being silenced by the government) think that the R number in London may well already be above 1 or close to it I can't think this is going to help...
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Look on the bright side - the population dip in a couple of weeks will probably be balanced by a spike in nine months.
 
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