Heartland

You know when pubs first open, they’re noisy, vibrant places, and everybody wants a piece of the action, standing room only at the bar. And then, slowly without even really noticing one or two people move on. It’s great coz you can get straight to the bar but you come to realise that you’re seeing the same faces all the time.

People start to sit at their regular spot, drinking their usual drink, probably around their little round tables and most annoyingly you get the pub regular, with his own glass, the one who can insult the ladies, just that bit more, and they smile (through gritted teeth), whilst mumbling ‘wanker under their breathe’.

The maverick thinkers, the characters, the comedians get bored and stay at home, the people around their little round tables continue their little chats, their conservative ‘nice weather today’ whilst sipping their pint of mild. The door opens, the regulars look up, they’re secretly looking forward to a bit of life, an injection of fun, but in reality, they just nod, and dip their heads. The person just entered the pub notices the silence as they make the way to the bar, they make it there, the barmaid is pleasant enough, no insults, no trouble…so the locals can safely go about their business, maybe even tipping a nodding wink or talking in code.

The ladies stay at home, it’s boring, they would rather go to the new winebar just down the road, sure they may get dragged along for birthdays and at Christmas, but the toilets are dirty and the menfolk crude and sexist. Besides they just talk about football, and music and women they would like to shag.

Sorry to be a ramraider in a chinashop

Another tour of duty awaits

...answers on a postcard please....

Yawn.

must...contain....myself...to...not...agree.

Of course, there are the other vibrant places where you ar not able to talk due to the pounding unns-unns of cheap Techno music.
Where the only full sentence people can make is "OMFG looooolllzz!!!!!!1!!!11".
Where they talk about that new installed Linux Server at work.
Where they agree that the new "way too cool CounterStrike AddOn( guaranteed 5 frames of gore per second!! OMFG!))" is a must-have, even if it costs you ten quid and a new videocard.
Where bonds are as tight as you Internet connection.
Where love is always over in the morning.

Give me that HL bar you are talking about anytime. Where everybody knows your name...

People have options. They can leave the bar, go to the posh club that's all the buzz of late, then when they are bored there and think "ahhh...that pub wasn't that bad after all", they can return. People will gaze when they come in, say "where has HE been"? Give a little wink and nod, and he's added back to the happy family.


IZ.

Izzy HaveMercy wrote:Of course, there are the other vibrant places where you ar not able to talk due to the pounding unns-unns of cheap Techno music.
Where the only full sentence people can make is "OMFG looooolllzz!!!!!!1!!!11".
Where they talk about that new installed Linux Server at work.
Where they agree that the new "way too cool CounterStrike AddOn( guaranteed 5 frames of gore per second!! OMFG!))" is a must-have, even if it costs you ten quid and a new videocard.
Where bonds are as tight as you Internet connection.
Where love is always over in the morning.

Give me that HL bar you are talking about anytime. Where everybody knows your name...

People have options. They can leave the bar, go to the posh club that's all the buzz of late, then when they are bored there and think "ahhh...that pub wasn't that bad after all", they can return. People will gaze when they come in, say "where has HE been"? Give a little wink and nod, and he's added back to the happy family.


IZ.

Of course there are different sorts of pubs. In student pubs you have new people all the time. But the floor's slippery, the bar is sticky, it's always very noisy even when you have a mild headache, the toilets are... well at least there are toilets, your drunk neighbour can't help staring at your girlfriend's boobies, and they just keep playing that s**t music. It's lively but that's about it.
Not sure what I like better.

You know what I love about the pub? Sunday afternoons. When the place is practically empty, when it's cold outside and daylight is grey and time seems to stand still. You pick your corner, you pick your ale and you can sit there and just think about space and the sea and stuff. Sometimes you strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger, sometimes you don't.

I agree with you, paint it black (great topic by the way, I'm sure it'll get badly derailed very soon),
and I agree with you too, Izzy HaveMercy.
Bust most of all I totally, completely and wholeheartedly agree with you, The Green Lantern.
Even though for me the pub is definitely not the only place where I like to think about space and the sea and stuff or meet a perfect stranger... and definitely not the favourite one either. Railway stations are better for that.

Which way to the tap room, mate?

My opinion? If someone doesn't like a pub, they should f**k off and drink somewhere else ... not make a point of staying in the same pub and telling everyone how s**t it is and how no-one interesting goes there anymore.

A good pub can be a home from home, a place where you can go to get away from the stupid mundane crap that we all have to put up with from day to day. If that's what HL is like, then bring it on I say.

Ever watched "Early Doors" ? Mr Blast has to be the old bloke in the corner who's always in the pub.

snowey wrote:Ever watched "Early Doors" ? Mr Blast has to be the old bloke in the corner who's always in the pub.

It were all fields round 'ere, in my day.

Izzy HaveMercy wrote:Of course, there are the other vibrant places where you ar not able to talk due to the pounding unns-unns of cheap Techno music.
Where the only full sentence people can make is "OMFG looooolllzz!!!!!!1!!!11".
Where they agree that the new "way too cool CounterStrike AddOn( guaranteed 5 frames of gore per second!! OMFG!))" is a must-have, even if it costs you ten quid and a new videocard.

Some of us enjoy those forums.

And as for CS skins, etc, the best has to be one that turns the knife into a meat cleaver. Class.

Last time I was in a pub I had drunk a bottle of whiskey and was called in by three men I didn't know to have my photo taken... next thing I remember I was complaining to the bar made because the Absinthe was 55VOL, when in other countries the VOL was 70... then I bought a pint which I couldn't afford and stumbled out of the place, feeling like I was walking on trampolines. Damn, I hate myself when I get drunk.

Where everybody knows your screename...

The problem aint the pub, Ez, it's the punters. Lesson of Life, that.

Me? I go on pub crawls but I have about 5 regulars. I think it's the for the best and much the healthiest option (if going into pubs can be classed as healthy.)

I don't always start at the same pub and sometimes I don't even bother to have a drink but I always pop in, pick up messages that get left behind the bar and make sure no-one's been fiddling with the optics.

But funnily enough, despite each pub having it's own particular decor and ambience - the topics of conversation tend to run along the same lines and there's always a 'pub bore/s'

smiscandlon wrote:My opinion? If someone doesn't like a pub, they should f**k off and drink somewhere else ... not make a point of staying in the same pub and telling everyone how s**t it is and how no-one interesting goes there anymore.

None of us HAVE to be here. I'm here 'cos I want to be. If I don't want to be here anymore, I'll leave. And if I change my mind - I'll come back again. Dead easy, innit?

Has anyone in this thread actually said (I mean, written) that they didn't like the pub? I don't think so.

Well, not directly... but Sisters fans are all about the veiled contempt, backhanded compliment, subtextual meaning, allusive reference and general reading-between-the-lines behaviour. Or they should be.

smiscandlon wrote:My opinion? If someone doesn't like a pub, they should f**k off and drink somewhere else ... not make a point of staying in the same pub and telling everyone how s**t it is and how no-one interesting goes there anymore.

It's not the pub that's at fault, it's a very fine pub, the problem is there hasn't been any new songs on the jukebox for a very long time.

_emma_ wrote:Has anyone in this thread actually said (I mean, written) that they didn't like the pub? I don't think so.

I didn't read that far... I was just agreeing with the sensible guy

Dan wrote:the problem is there hasn't been any new songs on the jukebox for a very long time.

too right

Episkopos wrote:Well, not directly... but Sisters fans are all about the veiled contempt, backhanded compliment, subtextual meaning, allusive reference and general reading-between-the-lines behaviour.

which tend to cause multiple interpretations that ofthen contradict one another.

Dan wrote:It's not the pub that's at fault, it's a very fine pub, the problem is there hasn't been any new songs on the jukebox for a very long time.

Indeed. Nice one Dan.