After what seemed like an absolute age away from the pub, a week or so ago The Management convened in The Balmoral (Dalry Road, 2/3/4/25/33/44) for a few jars, accompanied by Greig Blenheim (making his first appearance in a number of months – seemingly he wasn’t happy about his name constantly being spelled incorrectly) and Nick’s flatmate Colly. The Guinness was good, the barmaids weren’t bad, the booths were comfy but if I’m going to be really picky, I didn’t like the blue neon lights above the bar.
Most places we’ve been in so far have had fairly respectable clientele – ok, they may be complete and utter jakeys (quiet, you at the back) but they’ll usually keep themselves to themselves and offer nothing more offensive by way of conversation than the odd grunt or a bit of drivel falling onto their chin. It was therefore nice to go somewhere less civilised: a Hearts pub. Robertson’s (Gorgie Road, 1/3/25/33), to be precise. Now it didn’t seem that bad from the outside, just a few punters lagered up and singing karaoke, but when the first thing that someone says to you at the bar is, “Alright mate, fuck the Pope”, you know you’re in for a treat. There were interesting additions to the lyrics of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’, there were interesting characters aplenty and there was the first blatant breach of the smoking ban that we’d witnessed. Being a big time Rangers man, I don’t think it was as much of a culture shock to Greig as it was to either Nick or myself.
For those of you who are nitpicky (and/or actually read this), you’ll notice that our Resident Statistician’s latest thrillingly informative collection of facts and figures states us as having visited 75 pubs, but the last sub-total was a mere 73. This lack of consensus is due in equal measures to his over-eager nature and my lackadaisical approach to anything he tries to tell me. Following this entry, you may consider the situation rectified.
Until the next time….
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 75
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