Saturday 25 December 2010

Happy-Happy Joy-Joy

Rabidgrinchfly
Well, the worst is over for me, I'm on annual leave until January 3rd. The once a year drinkers are having to put up with their families, I think that's punishment enough for the way that some of them behave at this time of year.
What they've probably forgotten is that Christmas is a Christian holiday. I was brought up a Christian and even though my mother is a vicar down in Hampshire and I have very little time for organised religion nowadays, I at least understand what this time of year should be about.
So what am I doing? Drinking a fantastic beer (my first beer of the day is Kernel Export Stout) and watching some less fantastic films. Not actually celebrating the Christmas holiday, more just the holiday, the time off and the fact that I get to spend some time with my wife.
In the last few weeks I've been a right grumpy bastard and I would like to apologise to anyone that's had the misfortune of working with me in that time, and before any of my friends say I'm always a grumpy bastard, I get worse at Christmas because of the once a year crowd.
I was recently talking to one of my friends that also works in the industry and he said that it's not the behaviour of these people that gets worse, it's our tolerance that gets lower. He's right, he usually is!
I've been working in bars or pubs at Christmas for what is about 18 years now and this year has seemed so bad that I was starting to think this might be the last Christmas I do in the industry, it might be, who knows what the future brings, not me anyway.
I would like to thank my staff for their hard work this last year, my bosses for their continued support and I'd like to thank my regular(and irregular) customers for their patronage, it's down to them that The Rake is so successful, after all, they make us all work harder to bring the exciting beers to The Rake for their/our pleasure.
So, Happy Christmas, have a great new year and I look forward to seeing you all at The Rake in the next year for what will be an exciting year for the specialist beer industry.

3 comments:

Professor Pie-Tin said...

Compliments of the season, old fruit.
I'm sat at a beach bar on the Thai island of Koh Lanta at the moment.It's 32c and sunny.
Beer-wise there's Chang,Singha,Tiger and something called Leo all at a quid a bottle.
However the margaritas are made from fresh limes and only two quid a shout so the missus and I are getting hammered on them instead.
That and taking the piss out the Aussies for their Boxing Day cricketing debacle has made this a memorable day.
Hope to sink some decent beer in the Rake soon.

rabidbarfly said...

Living the dream I see PPT, Give my best to your wife, hope you're having a great time!

Phil said...

On Christmas Eve I had what should have been a pleasant half an hour in the Marble Beerhouse spoilt by a Frankie Boyle wannabe at the next table - everything he said was said for effect, and it was all deliberately offensive in one way or another. I felt for the two couples he was with, but I really felt for the bar staff - I'm sure he wasn't the only punter being obnoxious that evening. Tidings of comfort and joy, eh?