Ok. I know it has been a long time since I have updated this thing, but there has been good reason for it. I have acquired a job. Not the one I wanted though in Flash Development and Programming. I have acquired a pub job. Now this was not entirely ideal but it does mean that now I have money coming into my account (or it's supposed to be coming in, but Youngs seems to be screwing that up) rather than just going out and it's something to do while looking for a job to advance my career.

Firstly the place I am working at is a pub called The Ship which is situated over at Wandsworth in London and it has been so far a great place to work. The people are awesome, the atmosphere is terrific and its just an all around good place, the only downside being is that it is the old place where my brother used to work so I either get called Adam or asked if I am Adam's brother. One particular incident had someone else ask Jo who works at The Ship, whether or not the place has an Adam look alike requirement. 

However, during my short time there, I have made some observations about the whole working behind the bar thing that people may not have realised from the other side. 

Firstly, there is a fine line between boring and run off your feet busy. Perfection for a bartender in my opinion in regards to keeping busy would be something along the lines of the customer orders, you prepare their drinks and give it to them, you then take their money, give them their change and they walk away. As the previous customer walks away the next one has approached the bar and is ready to order their drinks. There is never anyone waiting and the bartender is always serving a customer but not rushing to get to the next one. This would be the ideal but will never happen. You are usually either rushed off your feet or you are twiddling your thumbs trying to think of anything to do except clean. 

Secondly, people are impatient bastards when it gets busy. A few weeks ago, there was a public holiday, or bank holiday over here, on the Monday so Sunday night was packed and completely mental. Those who have been friended on my Facebook may have noticed my lovely comment of "has increased respect for anyone who works behind a bar; and renewed hatred for everyone else on the other side." This is because of that night. A packed bar, you are trying to serve as many people as humanly possible but apparently that's not enough for people. People were complaining how long it was taking to get a drink, or that they had been waiting for half an hour to which my own thought was that "everyone has been waiting half an hour; get over it." One completely idiotic woman decided to act like she was four years old and jumped up and down screaming that she had been waiting an hour and demanding someone give her alcohol. I eventually served her most reluctantly as I would rather have let her waiting another hour and possibly teach her some patience. The situation regarding a busy bar is not helped when people order 5+ Jägerbombs which take, not a long time to make, but long enough compared to something like wine or something from the tap. A Jägerbomb for the unaware, is simply a shot of Jägermeister dropped into a glass with approximately half a can of Red Bull. The combination itself is brilliant as I was quick to be given one after I informed some of the staff that I had never had one before in my life. After berating my brother, who was standing at the bar at the time, for not having educated me in the matter, I was given the drink to have and it was really good and would get you fucked up very quickly if drunk all night. But back to the main point, this drink is not quick to prepare and unfortunately on a night when everyone can get fucked up, they want them.... a lot and it just slows down the entire serving process.

Thirdly, people are idiots. This is not a new train of thought for me and has existed in my mind for a number of years. However as we are talking in a bar atmosphere here let me focus on that. Now my next statement is not something I am innocent of; I have done this before but only on rare occasions but without further ado, here it is....People drink too much. There are so many people that you see on a busy night who you have to think whether or not you should be giving them anymore. One man was so drunk one night that he bought a drink, paid me for it and then waked away from the bar without it. Many keep going until they can barely stand and others will get rowdy and provoke everyone. One night, two people were forcibly removed from the pub after they kept wanting to get into a fight with people on other tables around them. They were removed by police to the applause of most people in the pub and one of them even got arrested after confronting the police about it. But the biggest act of stupidity I have seen so far which is one that really pissed me off and ruined what was actually a reasonably good double shift. 

I had made five Jägerbombs for one woman who was standing at the bar with her friend trying to talk up some rugby player or something. She paid for her drinks, I left them on the bar and went off to serve other people. A few minutes later, when I was serving a couple near her, I was asked by her, "Where are the rest of my Jägerbombs?" I promptly replied that I had served her the Jägerbombs and that the two I was currently making were for another customer after she attempted to take them. She then asked what happened to her Jägerbombs and I offered the solution that her friends had taken them already. She then burst out into a rant of how this wasn't about her friends, told me to walk away and that she wanted to speak to Phil, the manager that she had spoken to earlier that night. I was fuming after that mostly because I hadn't done anything wrong in regards to serving her and her attitude towards me. Whilst you do have to be polite to a customer, there is a limit to how much I would have willingly taken before being rude and she was pushing it. After talking to Johnny, another manager, about it the next day, he added that should it come up again, that I should say I'm not responsible once the drinks are put on a customer's side of the bar and that, particularly if its a female, that in pub where its very busy, people should be keeping an eye on their drinks anyway for no other reason than their own safety, a point that is pretty much impossible to argue against. It was also reassuring to know that I hadn't done anything wrong throughout the incident. 

So that's it for my lessons thus far. I'm not going to say that it hasn't been tiring because it has, but I've got truly awesome people to work with and a great place to work at. Whilst this is not to a be a long term arrangement, I would be more than happy to have it for a long as I need.