What a fantastic pic Kevin
LOL!
Thanks Gary
I'm with you, John. I don't think I EVER could have survived 10 pints in a single session,
but in my youth, I'd often go out with friends and take turns each buying a pitcher of beer, so everyone ended up drinking a pitcher, more or less, which is probably about 60 oz or a little under 4 pints. Nowadays, I'd need a week to consume 10 pints (and that would be almost double my usual weekly beer consumption).
It's very rare that I drink into double figures these days, but when I was younger, it was considered entirely ordinary to do so virtually every night, crammed in between the standard pub opening hours of 7.00pm and 10.30pm (a few pubs opened at 5.30pm, and later closing time was extended to 11.00pm)
The average person drinks less here today I think, despite the relaxation of the opening hours, particularly mid-week and so you don't hear it often, but a common expression used to be, "He's had one over the eight", meaning someone could be excused a certain level of inebriation, considering they had drunk more than the entirely reasonable amount of two gallons of beer (a pint here is 20fl oz)!
I can remember, my first day of work, at a brewery, aged 18, when I drank 17 pints of beer, before going to the pub
Certainly couldn't do that anymore!
The Sheffield cutlers of old were notorious drinkers, and when some of them went to America, apart from the fact that nobody could understand a word they were saying, folks were apparently shocked by the volume of beer they drank, not just after work, and at lunchtime, but while they were actually working!
Even in a Sheffield, where it was claimed there were more pubs, per head of population, than anywhere else in England, the cutlers were notorious for their drinking!
The Cutlers Lament
(An excerpt)
Brother workmen, cease your labour,
Lay your files and hammers by;
Listen while a brother neighbour
Sings a cutler's destiny -
How upon a good Saint Monday,
Sitting by the smithy fire,
Telling what's been done o't Sunday,
And in cheerful mirth conspire,
Soon I hear the trap-door rise up,
On the ladder stands my wife:
"D---n thee Jack, I'll dust thy eyes up,
Thy leads a plaguy drunken life;
Here thou sits instead of working,
Wi' thy pitcher on thy knee;
Curse thee, thou'd be always lurking,
And I may slave myself for thee."
Now her passion sets her tongue fast,
Rage won't give her malice sway;
And her clapper, which did ring fast,
For want of breath, is forced to stay;
Her eyes boil up with fire and fury,
Anger makes her cheek look pale;
And her power to let the men see,
Again her voice our ears assail:
"Ah! thy great fat idle devil,
Now I see thy goings on;
Here thy sits all't day to revel,
Nee'er a stroke o' wark thou's done;
If thou canst but get thy tankard
Thou neither thinks o' wark nor me:
Curse thee, I was sorely hampered
When I married a rogue like thee."
...
Thank you very much, my kind friend
I think my international food experiences are rather limited; I understood nothing after the word "pizza" in Jack's list!
Sorry Gary, the other dishes are Indian, chana masala is a curry, made with chickpeas, in a rich, spicy tomato sauce, rotis are flat bread, and samosas are deep-fried filo pastry parcels, containing potato, peas, onion, spices, etc
Thanks again Gary
Cool photo, Jack!
I like the number on the front of the train; even if the engine should derail and go "wheels up", its number is still identifiable!
And again!
I enjoyed having coffee with my pal, though the cake selection was limited, and I forgot to take a pic. Because of the Covid situation here, I wasn't able to get over to my mail box in the run-up to Christmas, and they have only just re-opened. Many thanks to Gary
Peregrin
and Barrett
btb01
for the lovely cards
I also received a card from Geoff Tweedale, and one from Stan Shaw's widow, Rosemary, who I have often thought of this year
More than 50,000 new cases being reported still each day in the US, so I hope you're all staying safe and keeping well. I know a couple of people who have it locally, but neither has had to go into hospital fortunately. Energy bills are sky-rocketing here too, along with food prices. I'm keeping my Lambsfoot close for when the zombies start appearing 
)!
