Day 61/365: Snow day + Friday's Unscientific Poll

[nanila]

The canal, partially iced over, and the pub, viewed from beneath a bridge.

We had a snow day today. Humuhumu's school was shut, the roads are an ice rink and Keiki has a fever anyway, so it made sense to stay home. Around 4 PM, however, we were all getting a bit restless so we decided to tog up and venture down the towpath to the one destination within easy walking distance: the pub. Drinks, snacks, friendly neighbours' doggies, and the roaring open fire were enjoyed by all.


The canal viewed from on top of the bridge.


Humuhumu, bloke and Keiki enjoy hot chocolate, beer and lime & soda respectively.


Keiki, me and Humuhumu. Keiki is about to chew on his slice of lime, which he enjoys. I am telling him to look at the camera, which I'm not doing myself. Humuhumu is pointing at the ceiling, for reasons unknown.


Humuhumu, Keiki and me standing on the towpath.

Poll #19583 Empty glasses

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39

View Respondents

When I'm at the pub and I finish my drink, I

View Answers

Take my empty glass with me when I go to the counter to order
30 (76.9%)

Leave my empty glass on the table
9 (23.1%)

If I'm with a group and it's my round, I

View Answers

Take their empty glasses with me
10 (28.6%)

Leave their empty glasses on the table
25 (71.4%)

Comments

[kaberett]

(used to take as many empty glasses with me as I can carry; these days I feel vaguely guilty for not standing my round, but it's fundamentally Very Difficult for me to carry glasses empty-or-full bar-to-table, and anyway the people who are buying for me are mostly very clear that they have quote more money than they know what to do with unquote so I'm happy enough to just keep buying my cousins coffee and paying it forward that way...)

[davidgillon]

This. I normally wave money at people to get the round in for me, at which point there's at least a 50% chance of them announcing 'I've got this' and ignoring my money.

[nanila]

Sounds entirely reasonable. <3

[ankaret]

I can get through a crowded pub reliably carrying one or two glasses, but not multiples, so if there are three or more glasses on the table I leave them and thank the bar staff when they come round collecting empties.

I am now wondering if I'm committing some terrible breach of pub etiquette.

Talking of terrible breaches of pub etiquette, down here the pub still runs on 'a woman in a mixed group attempting to buy a drink is about as surprising as a dog trying to do likewise, this is the business of her partner or whoever brought her' though no one tries to enforce this on the lesbian fisherwomen. Also some of the WI ladies who will happily have a glass of wine at a meal out will not set foot in the pub even to ask the pub to put up a poster.

[nanila]

I don't think you are committing a breach of etiquette. My theory, which was confirmed by the poll, was that most people would bring their own glasses, but unless they had a specific motivation for carrying others', they wouldn't.

I have been told by blokes, in the not-so-distant past, to sit down when I've offered to get the drinks in, because I oughtn't to be doing so. (My response to this is typically to say I don't want a drink. Because harrumph, I can stand a round if I want to.)

[ayebydan]

Aww this looks so lovely. All the pubs in my town are drinks only as they are out of food. I live, probably as close to a canal as you wanna check it out but hillll. But also...pokemon. Humf

[nanila]

It is a rather nice pub. In summer, we barely even pause inside as the garden is so lovely to sit in.

ETA: Ooh, speaking of Pokémon, the pub itself is a Pokéstop. So if you're staying a while, drop a lure and hey presto, kids entertained for half an hour! ;)

[niqaeli]

I mean, mostly if I'm by myself I sit up at the bar. I didn't answer the second question because as a native and still living here USian I find the practice of rounds freaking bizarre and no amount of living in the UK could ever convince me that it makes any damn sense. :P

[nanila]

Heh. I don't understand rounds either but it's just a thing you do, and as a foreigner, it's a relative easy way to score an "in" with people if you can afford it.

[lark_ascends]

Gorgeous photos. You needed an option for, "I don't go into pubs." :-D

[nanila]

Thank you! Yes, I did belatedly think of that option. The trouble with these Unscientific Polls is that the comments always make me want to re-run them with better designed questions/choices. Which is rather scientific of me. :P

[gwendraith]

What a lovely view of the pub on the canalside and the family pictures. Brave you going out in the Arctic wind! Too icy for me here.

[nanila]

Thank you! We didn't spend long outside, I have to say. The pub is quite close or we wouldn't have made it. Poor Keiki was standing in the snow shouting, "It's TOO COLD! I need a pick-up!...Please?" And he was entirely right about that.

[bob]

I mostly try to remember to take the glasses back. if the staff havent got to them first. it comes from having too many freinds who were bar staff at Imeperial and not just becasue thats where I spent all my time.

[nanila]

I tend to take the glasses back as well. My motivation is partly because I don't like the table being all untidy and cluttered with empties and partly because the bar staff have usually got enough to do anyway.

[askygoneonfire]

Looks like a lovely day!

The taking glasses back to bar depends entirely on the pub I'm in. Long bars, few staff, no crowds = return to bar. But if it's busy, or there's no space on the bar, or they continually are round collecting glasses I leave them on the table on the grounds that returning them causes more dissaray than it solves.

[pbristow]

[THUMBS UP]

[major_clanger]

Actually that would be my answer too.

[ironed_orchid]

Yes!

[nanila]

It was a lovely day!

These are eminently reasonable criteria for judging the circumstances under which to return glasses to the bar. I should have had a text bar in the poll to permit explanation.

[cmcmck]

Gorgeous shot- the cut looks amazing frozen over.

Oh and I always take the glasses back because I was a barmaid in my student youth!

[nanila]

It took a lot longer for the ice in the canal to melt than it did for the snow to disappear!

I take the glasses back as well. Motivation is partly that I don't like sitting at a table cluttered with dirty empty glasses and partly that I figure the bar staff have got enough to do already.

[pbristow]

I wasn't able to answer the second question, as you missed out all of the relevant options, e.g.:
- Hide in the loo;
- Look at my watch in sudden alarm, make my apologies and leave;
- Spend so long making a list of what everybody wants and double checking it that half of them get frustrated and go and order their own....
- Look terribly embarassed and show them the meagre cash I've got on me, saying, "can it owe it you, guys?"
- (etc.)

=:o}

[nanila]

My apologies. The problem with these Unscientific Polls is that the comments always show up their inadequacies. :D

[silveradept]

Such pretty pictures of everything!

[nanila]

Thank you! It was a very picturesque time.

[pbristow]

P.S. I always take my own glass back 'cos we've already spent all that time getting to know each other, and I hate having to start all over again. I also hate the kinds of pubs that refuse to refill your existing glass, insisting that you have to have a new one. (Why do they do that? It can't be a hygiene issue; I've already caught all the germs I might have transferred onto it...)

[ETA:] Yours looks like an excellent pub. =:o}

[ironed_orchid]

Answers from a former bartender:

If it's beer, it doesn't pour and foam as well in a dirty glass.

If it's any other drink I have no idea.

[pbristow]

But since I prefer non-foamy beer anyway, that shouldn't be an issue. Real ale usually comes out pleasantly flat-topped and ready to drink, without all that annoying tickling of the tache. =:o}

I can understand them *offering* a fresh glass, or even defaulting to a fresh glass if you don't ask otherwise. It's when I clearly say "Same again in there, please!" and point to the glass in question, and they instead take the glass of me and then grab a fresh one, that I get annoyed. =:o\