The problem with the smoking ban...

[Kathy]

It always used to be that if I was cycling to a pub, I wouldn't care what I looked/smelled like when I turned up, because I would have to shower and wash my hair whenever I got home to remove the smell of smoke, so there seemed no point in scrubbing up before going to the pub.

Now there's no smoking in pubs, it seems less appropriate to sit there all evening in sweaty lycra, so I'll have to shower and carry a change of clothes and try not to get too stinky on the way to the pub.

Bum!

[Frenchie]

It is still better by quite a long margin!

[redshift]

Stop going to pubs?

Just a thought...   

[gonzo]

It is still better by quite a long margin!

That depends if you own a pub or not!

[Kathy]

Stop going to pubs?

Just a thought...   

But it's quiz night with the Quiz Mistress who thinks that the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats was "Sir Bob Jelldoff", the river which flows through four capital cities is "the Dan-oo-bay", and I forget how she pronounced "Yosemite Sam" last time, but it had the pub in hysterics!

I can't miss all that entertainment!

[redshift]

I can.

[Basil]

Quiz bloke in our pub read out the name Greg Lemond pronouncing it like Lemon with a d on the end.
Trouble is, I was the only one to laugh.

[pcolbeck]

There is a pub in Yorkshire where pi=22/7 and 3.14159 is not an acceptable approximation. According to the landlady running the quiz anyway.

[Hot Flatus]

Nonsense.

You'll just blend in with all the punters farts and BO

[clarion]

I once went to a quiz (in the SE, natch), where the Thames was the longest river in Britain...

[bikenerd]

How far is it to the pub?  Do you have to wear cycling clothes to get on a bike?
The solution is to have a pub bike: flat pedals, single speed or 3 speed hub, tatty enough that no-one's going to nick it and easier enough to ride when you're a bit squiffy.
Don't stop going to pubs!

[nuttycyclist]

The thing I hate about pubs now is the smell of stale beer.


I was at a great pub over the weekend.  At 23:00 the landlord turned over the sign in the door to read "closed", announced it was now his private house and not a public house, and put the ashtrays back on the tables 

[Nienke]

I never really make anti-smell provisions for going to the pub. The pubs still smell, it's just sweat and stale beer instead of smoke now.


In the Netherlands (yes, it's the Dutch girl again) the smoking ban is going all wrong. Some cafs and bars didn't stick to the new rules and put the ash trays back, which means that others have to as well for fear of losing the custom. The minister has now ordered fines to be dealt out left, right and centre which has resulted in the smaller establishments having to comply, whereas the larger ones can afford a fine or two to get rid of the competition. What a mess.

Trust the Dutch to stick their fingers in their ears and sing loudly when they're told there's something they can't do.   

Maybe a bit off topic but hopefully of general interest nevertheless... carry on...

[rr]

... is the plague of patio heaters

[FatBloke]

It is still better by quite a long margin!

That depends if you own a pub or not!

I do! It is still better by quite a long margin! 

[FatBloke]

I was at a great pub over the weekend.  At 23:00 the landlord turned over the sign in the door to read "closed", announced it was now his private house and not a public house, and put the ashtrays back on the tables 

That would have had me running for the door! 

[Wowbagger]

When we were Lejogging, Mrs. Wow and I were the only diners in the restaurant of an otherwise crowded pub where a quiz was taking place. Apparently the circumference of a circle was π r². No-one challenged the quizmaster but we exchanged knowing glances with the waiter.

[alan]

When we were Lejogging, Mrs. Wow and I were the only diners in the restaurant of an otherwise crowded pub where a quiz was taking place. Apparently the circumference of a circle was π r². No-one challenged the quizmaster but we exchanged knowing glances with the waiter.

They obviously do things different oop north

[blackpuddinonnabike]

I was at a great pub over the weekend.  At 23:00 the landlord turned over the sign in the door to read "closed", announced it was now his private house and not a public house, and put the ashtrays back on the tables 

That would have had me running for the door! 

Snap! I love the smoke free pubs. My clothes don't smell of the stale beer or BO of other drinkers the next morning the way it used to with the smoke. And it makes them much nicer places to grab a bit to eat in as well.

[pcolbeck]

Our local was redecorated and the walls painted white ! A year later and they are still white. I can't imagine anyone even thinking of painting the interior of a pub white before the smoking ban.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The trouble with smoke free pubs is the stench coming from the urinals. I love the lack of smoke but why do urinals have to smell like that?

[Mr Larrington]

...is once the smell of the smoke has gone, the underlying ronk of everything else remains.  The Brixton Academy, for example, now smells of stale sweat and stale beer

[gonzo]

It's great and everything that people can't now smoke in pubs but.... Around my current pub in Kent, all the people who didn't use to go because it was smoky still don't go and those who used to be regulars don't go as much now. Back in Bath, far fewer people smoked and there were non-smoking pubs.

It may be different in different parts of the country, but I still believe that the best solution is simply to allow choice; if there's a market for a non-smoking pub in an area, then the landlord can make it non-smoking. If there isn't then it can stay as a smoking pub.

When we were Lejogging, Mrs. Wow and I were the only diners in the restaurant of an otherwise crowded pub where a quiz was taking place. Apparently the circumference of a circle was π r². No-one challenged the quizmaster but we exchanged knowing glances with the waiter.

Did they mention that the circle had a radius of 2 units?

[rogerzilla]

...is once the smell of the smoke has gone, the underlying ronk of everything else remains.  The Brixton Academy, for example, now smells of stale sweat and stale beer

Jongleurs comedy club in Oxford smells of farts, according to Mrs Z.  Our Christmas do is there 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I haven't been to a pub since India's smoking ban came in, but I'm amazed at how conscientiously the ban in general is obeyed by a usually not very law-conscious nation. People are also going outside, not just to the door of the building, but all the way up the drive to the road as required by the strict interpretation of the law (ok, it's only about 100m, but even so) to have a smoke break. And they're taking far fewer of them, too... It's nice for me that the guy in the next desk no longer smells of stale smoke!