saturday's

so today was busy, Mot for Elizabeth's car, 08 Renault Megane 1.5 dci, advise on front tyre's and discs ( cant be 2 year old ) and one blown headlight bulb. Watching  an apprentice struggle to fit that was great, I always remove the bumper and headlamp. Later we went to Livingston for a bit of retail therapy (Elizabeth) get some currency for holiday (me), had a pint in LLoyds No 1 bar and of course with the new rules (in Scotland they've reduced the drink drive limit so its not worth risking  even 1 pint now) my darling wife got to drive my car home, Renault Megane 1.5 DCI Tom Tom 110 bhp (hers is 80 BHP). Had to keep reminding her it had 6 gears and I lost count of how many the Tom tom over speed alarm (when you exceed the speed limit by more than 10%) went off ! Not in towns or villages, oh no in the open countryside!

I never have the problem when I'm riding my bike, mind you I dont have a sat nav with a speed alarm either, lol

My dearly beloved did say, well was that pint worth it ?

jury's out on that one

Holy crap! You're over the limit on one pint? While I am all in favor of safety I think that it's your politicians who've gone over the line on this one. It sounds as if the Scots powers-that-be would sacrifice having a friendly social pint with mates at the local establishment in favor of an increase in domestic violence from stay-at-home brooding & surly drunks.

But then, I suppose that the power structure is above it all and/or have personal drivers to avoid such proletarian concerns.

That said, it's no different on this side of the pond.

Tim

Nobody's sure what will take you over, i tend to go for real ale IPA's usually in excess of 5%abv so it's not worth the chance, a freind of mine has bought a digital breathalyser for the morning after if we've been for a couple of sherberts the night before.

What you might call 'a friendly social pint with mates' has another side to it. Here in York at weekends we have the nuisance of young people from towns in the North East like Sunderland, and Middlesborough coming down here on 'booze trains' basically to get pissed. Add to that regular weekend Hen and Stag Parties, revellers when the York Races are on, all year round cheap drinks promotions, and a large student population.

There's also been a number of drownings in the past year in the two rivers that run through the centre of York, the Ouse, and the Foss. Nearly all were young people who had been drinking.

Mrs M will be out tonight until about 2am with York Street Angels, a volunteer group that look out for drunken revellers who've partied too much seeing they're safe and liaising with Paramedics, Police, and the security staff in city centre pubs and clubs.

They give out free bottles of water and pairs of flip-flops to the young girls and women walking barefoot in the streets when their high heel shoes become too painful to wear. Streets strewn with litter, bits of broken glass, and vomit from the nights activities, then of course the streets have to be cleaned up before the tourists walk the same streets again a few hours later.

Meldrew I understand what you are talking about, we have a lot of small beach towns around here. Right now is the start of spring break and we get college kids partying and many have fake IDs so this is the first time a lot of them are able to drink without worrying about their parents being around to know about it.
Thankfully there's women like your wife, over there to help the kids. It's sad that they are necessary but at least there's people like your wife that care.

model28a wrote:

Thankfully there's women like your wife, over there to help the kids. It's sad that they are necessary but at least there's people like your wife that care.

Well said!

Meldrew, before residing in Scotland this last 20 years, I was a born and bred Yorkshireman, born near Wakefield and then 25 years living in the center of Leeds, before moving back to the Wakefield area and getting marreid. While living in Leeds and being of a drinking age, a regular road trip would be to York, couple of pints then shandy's as 'designated driver' and then drive home with my freinds 'three sheets to the wind'. Never had anyone so far gone they could not get in the car themselves. Maybe it's Tony Blair's all day drinking laws or maybe the cheap Spanish holidays, but the drinking culture has changed and like Hi Yo has already said people like your good lady do a great job. When just married and living in Wakefield, if we had been out and coming into Wakefield in late evening, my new wife would insist we drove up the Westage run, 1/2 a mile of pub after pub. Walking zombies wherever you looked.

Now we live in the country, halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh in a pleasant market town called Lanark. Couple of late night pubs and living just off the high street we hear the occasional rucus but not exceptional, Glasgow / Edinburgh on the other hand .......

Mind you until this year, once a year they have a Lanimers day, like a gala day, pubs open round about 7.00am and on street drinking was permitted. Normally relatively trouble free and probably a few new borns in 9 months, this year the council have said No to on street drinking and any drinking must be done within the confines of the remaining 8 pubs in the town, these are usually packed to overflowing anyway on that day. Honestly they have no idea, my best memory though is three young guys trying to light a cigarette between them, two to hold the ciggy and one to try and light the fag.

Priceless