A Long And Proud Tradition

About 12 years ago, myself and a few office mates decided that we should celebrate our 'lieu' day for Canada Day by doing a proper pub crawl.

We had a few rules:
1. Be in a pub by 11am
2. Have one pint per pub.
3. No 'not' drinking booze
4. No girls
5. No spouses / girlfriends / boyfriends
6. Talk bollocks

We've been to Cambridge and Oxford a few times, twice to Canterbury, Brighton, and several areas in and around London such as the City, Hampstead, Notting Hill, Kensington, and Camden to name a few.

I've always looked forward to these days as its spend with good friends from the office and its a chance to let off steam, bitch about work and more often get let in on some good gossip. I just love a sentence that begins with "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but did you know...". The things I've learned about the office and people on days like this, well, I could write several books!

Over the years, the rules have become less rigid...we still aim to get into a pub by 11am, but sometimes its not always possible. Some don't open until 12 and more often than not, some of the group arrive late.

The next rule to fall was one pint in one pub. Sometimes, you find a lovely pub with big comfy chairs and sofas and you just cannot be bothered to move after one drink. So we have another one...or two.

Recently, we've let girls attend. Well, it is the new millenium isn't it? Besides, the girls we've had attend drink like guys, and swear like sailors, so we're not going to let the fact they have boobies, get in the way.

Last year, 'other halves' turned up. This year we all agreed at the start since it was going to be one of the hottest day of the year (during the heatwave), taking breaks and replacing a pint of beer/cider/bitter with water, soft drinks was ok.

So that's all the rules broken. So much for macho bravado of past years when we could get through a dozen pubs in an afternoon and still have room for more. I think we're just getting older and hopefully more wiser as the years ago by.

But we still have one rule left...talk bollocks! And by god, we are bloody good at that. Our conversations get more profound as the day goes by. More often than not, the conversations are repeated as we tend to forget what we've been talking about.

This year our group did Hampstead and visited many lovely pubs and a good time was had by all. Days like this are one of the reasons why I love living in London and long may the tradition continue!