Fondly Dave

 Afternoon readers,

  for those of you who don't pay that much attention to my blog - like - well, me, this is description number 5 in my now 4 or 5 years old "Pub fruit loops" series.

For info, we have so far had:

Man in his 60s taking his incontinent Mother out in her pygamas to have a series of ickypo air raids whilst he slags off all beer and beer drinkers (whilst doing exactly that);

Racist dog man - the chuntering Banslih bittoh drinking racist who blamed all his behavioural failings on his presumably oft replaced dog;

The erstwhile saliva spluttering Badge Hat Andrew, AKA the sadly now passed away Andrew Smith (see "Alan Chimpanzee");

And lastly, the "i'm a silent partner, don't you know" bloke, the nutcase who infuriated and creeped out both customers and staff in the Rutty in about 2019.

Number 5 - Fondly Dave - goodness - where do I start?

For info, lets make clear that this isn't to be confused with Maudlin Dave, a white haired chap whom have known for many years and sounds like Alan Bennet. I do know his real name, but it seems inappropriate to share.......

My brotaar WK, met Fondly Dave in Shakespeares one night when he had been on call for a week and was having his first beer in 8 days. Spotting us, FD joined us and within just 5 minutes he was spouting his usual nonsense about the fact that the Royal family all had lizard heads covered in paper and that all royalists were genetically matched to lizards from space. I hope you all know that am no royalist, but thats where my interest stops - Dave was like a non funny Chris Morris in Cake, and an ever so slightly more mad and even more stupid, David Ike. My brother quickly told him to stop spouting absolute nonsense and to go away, which he did.

The next time I met FD he strangely seemed to have forgotten how annoying he was, but I did kindly say hello to him before going to sit in the Clock room at Shakespeares. At this point this was the only pub that I went in that he wasn't barred from. And here's the reason why:

When FD spotted a lady, and seemingly only ever a single possibly stressed or refreshed lady, he would saunter over and say along the lines of "Hi, I can see your obviously distressed, just to let you now that I am a registered Reiki healer, would you like me to try and heal you?" The obvious response would be no, get away from me you dishonest weirdo but FD was very persistent, and usually, agreement or not, proceeded to put his hands on them to "release the bad energies".

Usually, and likely because of where he put his hands, most recipients would say no, or take your hands off me, but if bar staff didn't notice and the first victim left, he would then try it on again with the next available female. By now harassed and criticised by people who had seen what was going on, he would then be barred (often again) and removed from the premises. This is why I thought that at one stage he was barred from every pub in Sheffield, and have only ever seen him once more, where he claimed he didn't do that sort of thing anymore.

Only he did.

Which is probably why I haven't seen him in about 3 years.

With kind regards - and a happy new year

Wee Beefy

Memories - what do they mean? Like, birds, we'll never know........

 Afternoon

     just to point out that when I say birds I mean the Avian ones - am not being crude.

I realise that I might have pointed this out already but just to remind you that in 2019 I had a brain injury. Without going on, it was when I started taking Tresiba, a more effective Background insulin that am still on. My then diabetic nurse encouraged me to switch from possibly Novorapid Long  Acting or worse still Humalog, which I was taking twice a day, and to take just one injection in the morning, of Tresiba. She suggested I take 40 units, but that would have been nearly twice what I was already taking so I went for just 30. I still had an overwhelming hypoglycaemic attack, and leaning against a pillar eating chocolate I blacked out, fell forwards and split my head open. I was in hospital for 6 weeks, and upon returning to the pub world I initially struggled to remember names, and actually tolerate drinking strong beers. After a whole year of testing and memory training, they said it would take a minimum of 6 years to retrieve my memories, and those of you who see me regularly, will know that I continue to often forget persons names.

Its interesting however that if you read my pre brain injury, more prolific blog posts, I was already a bit "memory light" not least about beer names - so without overexaggerating, its sadly been a slow decline......

However - I recently reminded my Lancastrian chum about Sheffield's numerous off licences, and I mentioned the Dram Shop and this, reminded me about Brendan Dobbin at West Coast Brewing in Manchester which, after its closure, it, or Mr Dobbin, moved to Marble, brewing behind the Marble Arch. I think I got 4 different bottles of West Coast Brewery beers from there before it closed, and the Dram Shop was also the first place that I spotted Fraoch, then brewed by Heather Ales.

I remember that the three Wee men visited the brewery in the early thousands - then likely at Strathaven, and it was lovely to take away 4 pints of their Scottish fruited beer which was likely Grozet - not to mention what may have also been their kelpie seaweed ale.

They gave me 12 bottles of that and asked me to give a bottle to ten of my favourite Sheffield pubs with their email address - most of which were warmly received, except the guy at the Sheaf view who said he was offended by my giving him a free 500ml bottle of beer and their email address - um - what now?

The final memory I have of the still open Dram Shop is a full bottle of 1953 (or similar) whisky stood alone on a high shelf sticking out possibly from a support pillar? I wonder what happened to that?

More (or less) memories next time!

kind regards

Wee Beefy

Restricted sizes of drinks

 Hello again 

        I wanted to find out what you readers think about many pubs and bars - especially ones part of a chain - refusal to serve beers of a certain strength to anyone in measures of a pint or even sometimes, in two thirds?

Just to point out, I can assure you that I know and have discussed this with a number of persons who currently work behind bars in Sheffield and whom have their own opinions and reasons - so whilst I find it frustrating - and sometimes nonsensical - I do at least understand the logic applied - which I will try and set out below.

The principal reasoning seems to be based on managers/owners and staff being concerned - and knowledgable of - the affect that large quantities of beer at 8, 9 or 10%, often has. A good example being a guy who said he wasnt happy serving pints of 8% cider, because cider affects drinkers differently, and is well known for "removing the legs". I also realise that this does not apply to all cider drinkers, however.......

Sadly - and I would hope not in my personal case - am aware that pints of drinks such as DIPAs and TIPAs in such circumstances can also cause people to become argumentative and in some cases aggressive. In which case, clearly, the employer needs to consider the safety of their employees. And then, one could also argue that being blithely assessed as being unable to acceptably handle a strong ale, could in itself contribute to argumentative behaviour of the customer?

I am well aware that I sometimes unwisely choose to drink one too many strong drinks but am fully confident that I would accurately be assessed as being capable or not of supping another pint - which is why the automatic restriction on purchases is needlessly frustrating - arguably because that assessment is not always accurate.

Am not in anyway criticsing bar staff either - as a regular last Friday before Christmas drinker I have seen many completely inexcusable behaviours towards persons just doing their jobs, which is  unacceptable. However, arguably, the introduction of these pre arranged measures could be putting staff at unnecessary risk, whilst simultaneously  annoying customers at the same time.

I would be happy to hear from readers what they think about this practice in pubs and bars in the Uk?

Yours, respectfully,

Wee Beefy