Asking people to buy you a drink?

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

I used to be a regular visitor to a pub called the museum rest,on Benburb Street.
Sadly the building is a shell now after a big blaze in derelict adjoining premises. I've been asked to buy a drink for someone many times in that place.
It took a few visits to realise that the regulars, and it was a very a much a regulars shop, had a "system" (for want of a better word).
Basically, it catered for a select few elderly alcoholics (usually men) and a few local sex workers popping in from time to time for a few neat shots of vodka or whiskey to put a bit of warmth in them when they were out on a cold night as well as a few shady c*nts.
The "system" was that everyone collected pensions and stuff on different days and everyone had their day when it was not considered offensive to ask that chap to get you a drink.
It was very simple, like all good ideas. On your day, people would ask you to "spot them a pint".
Once it was established (by the drinkers) that "Frank is spotting John today" then Frank may get a request to spot one or two others and he will do so to the best of his ability.
When Frank leaves for home, he is fairly jarred (after spending x amount of money) yet Frank will be in the pub drinking the other six days of the week without putting his hands in his pocket except for his "entrance fee".
His entrance fee being his first pint. Every subsequent pint is "spotted" for him.
Drink muddy's the waters of course so maybe Frank spotted John 8 pints whilst John might only spot Frank 7 pints but he's just as likely to spot him 10.
A bit Marxist really but it worked.
Money was never mentioned, which was an unwritten rule.
The street girls would often stroll in and spot the whole pub yet only stay for about 20 minutes at most. As such, they were the only people who put in more than they got back.
But heaven forbid anyone that was witnessed disrespecting them outside, they'd have their teeth kicked in. The crew may have been pensioners for the most part but they were handy f*ckers when they felt inclined to be which was frequent enough.

Christian Troy wrote: »

I might have actually read all that if you left spaces between your fullstops and the letters after them!

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

I bought you a Coca-Cola in good faith. That's eighty pence you've hoodwinked out of me. Eighty pence. When I said "Hello my darling, would you like a Coca-Cola?" did you say "No thank you, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm a lesbian"? No, you didn't, not a bit of it. You said "Thank you very much, that'd be lovely".