LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE

 

Saturday afternoon turned into Saturday night and a relatively quiet drink with friends watching the Arsenal put five goals past Burnley turned into an anthropologist's voyage of discovery. Unaccustomed as I am to going to bustling pubs and bars on a Saturday night I was most startled to walk into two hostelries that resembled one of those  painting by Hieronyous Bosch.

When was life so loud? I'm not talking about music but the sheer volume which emanated from each location, what I can only call shouting.That's right, not reasonable levelled discourse but shouting. I'm sure that the conversations being had were both interesting and illuminating but why those thoughts and opinions were being bellowed at a volume approaching the sound of a helicopter taking off is beyond me.

Let's talk about etiquette. For me, anyone who is taking up a  seat without having a drink in front of them should be summarily ejected from the establishment. So many seats occupied by those not drinking and so little care given about it from the staff team whose aptitude for bar work seemed questionable.

Spacial awareness also seems to have gone out the window. Bumping into people and knocking pint holding hands resulting in splashes and drips is not acknowledged or apologised for. How things have changed.

But, what did I learn on Saturday night? That I'm too old for this Saturday night lark? That I find the general public, by and large, very annoying? or that if I do find myself in a similar position in future i need to be better prepared? 

I'm not sure, but in the future, before heading out in London on a Saturday night I shall remember the immortal words of Sergeant Phil Esterhaus; "Let's be careful out there"