If there is one thing that really bugs me about the drinking culture in this country, this country being Scotland, it’s the …
”Go on, have another one!”
… attitude. It’s a widespread notion that you come across time and again, for the most part it’s a rhetorical question and any insistence that you’re leaving falls on deaf ears as a pint of your usual is deposited in front of you. Now, I do like a good drink and any reasonable person would say …
“well, you don’t have to drink it.”
… which is clearly true and reasonable. However, it would be rude not to. It’s like not eating all your dinner when someone’s gone to the bother of cooking it for you, I grant you that that isn’t a wonderful reason for having “another one”, but like eating dinner, I don’t want to be rude!
The reason that I’m discussing this now, is that it happened to me the other day when I had gone to the pub to watch the rugby, unusually I ended up in the back bar with the locals chaps (most of whom were unknown to me – good blokes though, mostly) rather than in the comfort of the lounge and it’s HUGE leather sofa. That was an experience in itself and I ended up blethering to a load of folk I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to say more than ‘hi’ too. It’s funny to think that just through the wall, there are all those guys playing dominoes, drinking, chatting, and generally having a laugh and I wouldn’t have had a clue had the telly in the lounge not gone on the blink.
What most of them were participating in was the more positive side of our drinking culture that essentially boils down to socialising and enjoying each others company, yet there’s still that underlying agenda of ensuring that plenty of alcohol is getting necked. It’s that latter part that saw me imbibing an extra pint on Saturday night as one was plonked in front of me despite my insistence that I was done and I was leaving … apparently I wasn’t!
Make mine a Fraoch! Image pinched from "Pint and Fork" where there's a review, click the image to read it.
The extra pint isn’t a huge issue in itself, I know when I need to stop and, more importantly, I’m also confident that I can stop … not something that’s necessarily a done deal if you likea drink. The thing that really struck me on the night was the discussion I had with one chap who confided in me – and everyone else within earshot – that he’ll happily engineer an argument so that he can storm out of the house and go to the pub.
It’s a thought isn’t it, engineering an argument, so that you can go to the pub. Doesn’t sound like the sort of person to whom the suggestion …
“Go on, have another one!”
… is a helpful one.
