If you are a member, with a subscription date around now, check your emails and bank account.
I first joined the Campaign for Real Ale in about 1973. The annual joint sub is currently £28. So imagine my shock when I saw from my banking app this morning that I have an upcoming payment to CAMRA on Monday of £878.
A trawl of my email disclosed one from CAMRA yesterday apologising for launching a DD claim for £878, which they have been unable to stop despite "all attempts". They said everybody will be refunded within 10 days and they will call the correct payment on 1 August.
Anyway, my bank has reversed it and I have with regret cancelled the DD.
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 1 Jul 22 at 14:37
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Mine renews in late Sept.
The discounts I get on beer alone used to pay it's way. As I don't go out drinking in pubs very often these days it may be more marginal, but I did go along to a CAMRA meeting a bit back which was OK.
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Thanks for that...I’ll check when my DD is due, and note accordingly.
I never go to any meetings or trips, but Craven CAMRA Group are very active. A few of my regular pubs offer 20 or 30p off a pint to members, so I more than recoup my £28 within a few months.
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I might yet relent. CAMRA saved real ale in the 70's of that I am certain.
A few years back it looked as if they were welcoming keg beer back with open arms as long as it was called 'craft'. They seem now to have come to their senses. But they are obviously struggling to have any relevance to most younger drinkers.
I think they should look at the practice of routinely giving short measure again. When pubs used those metered pumps they also had to use oversized glasses to contain the froth. Now they all use handpulls and brim measures, and you're lucky to get 90% of a pint.
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I feel beer, and especially real ale, is drunk much less these days, both in my generation (based on the handful of people I drink with) and in the younger generations.
In fact my local experience at the moment is that pubs here are generally much less busy in the evenings as a social drinking place but much more so in the daytimes as a place for older generations to have coffee and/or lunch.
Again only in my minutely small group I've also noticed a few drinking alcohol-free beer (lager usually) out of choice (i.e. even without medical conditions or driver role) - in particular a couple of 30-somethings.
We almost routinely ask for our pints to be topped up in the local. They always do it without complaint, but never learn...
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Quite possibly selective perception on my part, but I do feel that we see far fewer guys with beer bellies these days, but conversely, the women just keep getting fatter.
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Sorry, should I have said “body positive”?
;-)
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...I think he meant you should have said "people with wombs"....
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Oh ok, them then.
I struggle with beer now, I sometimes think I fancy one, but anytime I’ve tried it in recent decades I find I can’t finish even a pint. Just too much liquid in one go.
In fact I struggle with alcohol in general these days, it’s a bit of a bum deal as far as I’m concerned, a couple of hours of mild euphoria followed by at least the same amount of time of not being fit to do much.
Sooner have a cup of tea to be honest and then be able to do something more interesting. (To me anyway)
But, I’m at peace with recognising that I’m the odd one out.
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>> But, I’m at peace with recognising that I’m the odd one out.
You probably aren't the odd one. I hardly drink at all now, although I like a pint of decent brown beer as a treat.
Habits have changed a lot. My local publican says he is losing thousands, most of the village never goes in the pub and things are worse since Covid. There are probably 20 real regulars. 25 years ago I would spend a couple of hours there on Friday night, and Sunday night for the weekly quiz. Both nights were busy. Not now.
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I also enjoy an occasional proper pint - quality over the years since lager and Red Barrel dominated have improved considerably.
Reasons not to go have increased over the last few decades - drink driving laws, cost, cheap supermarket alcohol, diverse home entertainment, etc. Over the last 5 years more than 2000 have closed. The final nail - Covid may have permanently changed the social landscape.
Most successful pubs now seem to be those offering something more than beer and conversation - includes food and entertainment.
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>> But, I’m at peace with recognising that I’m the odd one out.
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Same with me. I was a regular drinker in my youth, but forty years ago I got married, took out a mortgage and couldn't really afford it at the time. Very quickly I realised that not only did I not miss it, but I appreciated not getting hangovers and the rest. I can quite happily spend an evening in a pub or at a party and stay on soft drinks without any qualms about missing out.
In fact, when everyone else is sozzled and you are not it is amazing the secrets you can extract from people, particularly at works dos when you can learn an awful lot to your advantage. While I'd never admit to once using a bit of minor blackmail on a superior...
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>>I do feel that we see far fewer guys with beer bellies these days
I knew 3 near alcoholics (beer) all stick-thin.
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The capacity of pubs to survive was mentioned upthread.
Was in London last night for a get together with former Civil Service colleagues.
Took a quick wander round the area I'd worked in for pretty much the whole of 1979 to 2013. Far less pedestrian traffic than of old around Fleet St though the fact that a lot of old office buildings are now either Kings of LSE so being post end of term might be relevant.
Ran into two mates headed for our do by Temple Bar - no trouble getting in a coffee shop directly opposite the Law Courts.
We'd planned to meet at a pub we've used before; the Cheshire Cheese in Little Essex St. In the heart of 'Legal London' and on a fine evening pre Covid it would be busy from around 17:30/18:00 as folks left offices/chambers etc. Still near empty at 18:00, no draught beer an only very limited keg lagers. Been sold and closing next week so stock being run down. Not just beer either, they couldn't oblige my friend Jackie's taste for vodka/diet coke - no diet coke.
We'd have moved on anyway but they had a private party from 19:00 and we were asked to leave.
Adjourned to the nearby Edgar Wallace, a nice little pub with esoteric decoration - old cigarette ads on the walls and a ceiling covered with beermats. Two or three good beers including a 'London Pale'.
Got busy later and stayed that way until closing time but there was a large group of young couples. I doubt it was that busy every Friday.
Friday was getting to be quiet for commuting before I left the Service in 2013 but even then you'd have some walk over the car park to the platforms arriving mid afternoon. Yesterday I was in in a Pole Position space that would have been taken before 6am when I was commuting.
Off peak train at 14:40 was though well filled. Got a seat but folks were standing after Milton Keynes. Same coming back this morning at 10:49, my seat on a train continuing to Birmingham was grabbed by a standee as soon as it was apparent I was alighting at Northampton.
Seems to bear out the official narrative that leisure travel has recovered will but commuting far less so.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 2 Jul 22 at 15:22
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>> I knew 3 near alcoholics (beer) all stick-thin.
Usually the result of no wife cooking for them = most of their calorie intake from the booze.
In my experience they suffer more liver disease than the fatties who eat well and also 'do their gallon' a few times per week.
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>>Usually the result of no wife cooking for them = most of their calorie intake from the booze.
Certainly true in my late brother's case. He never really got over the divorce really.
I well recall he would avoid all fat, but would often have just a bowl of cabbage!!, that combined with a high alcohol intake, plus the fags, could well have had some impact on his Lewy Body Dementia.
The other stick-thin alchie, my uncle, drank 4 large cans of Tennant's Extra every night (head problems!) for decades.
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Strangely enough, when on holiday, my beer consumption decreases drastically. Even, on occasion, I go t total. Not intentionally, but I start the day with cups of tea, and can easily ( here in Cyprus it’s flippin hot) drink 5 litres of water per day.
I average half a litre of beer alternate days, normally with a long salad lunch to escape the heat. No wine or spirits.
Next week I’ll be back on proper beer @ £3.40 pint, social drinking with friends....4 pints over an extended period is my limit, early doors drinking, thrice a week, never get a hangover or drunk. Occasionally we go on the bus or train for an afternoons drinking...again 4 pints in 4 different pubs, then usually straight home.
Quite happy to drink bottles of alcohol free beer when in Spain.
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>>Strangely enough, when on holiday, my beer consumption decreases drastically
I find the opposite. A pint (half litre) of the local cerveza at lunchtime and another with dinner and sharing half a carafe of sangria at dinner in a local taverna.
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"In my experience they suffer more liver disease than the fatties who eat well and also 'do their gallon' a few times per week."
Oh , that's good to hear :-)
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CAMRA - smokie
