Early Doors

Thats the Prof's ' happy face'

Here, in Britain, there is a pub phenomenon which is known as " Early Doors".
Early Doors refers to a time when people pop in to the pub, namely in the afternoon to very early evening to sink a pint or two and chat.
It is sometimes a favourite time for the elderly to middle aged drinkers who don't like the " crowds"  of an evening bartime, the after work brigade, the newspaper readers and of course the hopeless. alcoholic.
The Prof is still on holiday today so I took him to The Albion in Conwy for an afternoon drink. I was driving so had a few large coffees, he had a few of the guest ales and a pork pie.
Mary had a bag of crisps!
The mid afternoon clientele was a quiet bunch. Mainly old men with sticks perked up by a middle aged drunk woman who slurred her words from the get-go. I reminded the Prof not to catch her eye. There is nothing worse than a latched on drunk when you are sober.
I don't do early doors, anymore.
One of the last times, I did,  was over  a decade ago when I got so pissed in All Bar One with my fey sidekick John 'Bel-Ami', I eventually fell down two flights of basement steps into a firedoor, broke my spectacles and gave myself a black eye.....and never felt a thing!

Hey ho.



55 comments:

  1. Well, if you have to fall, being drunk is the time to do it.

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  2. Early doors, eh?
    We just call it "day drinking."
    I am too old for it, either way.

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  3. I have a habit of falling without anything alcoholic inside of me.
    That being said, I indulged in a cheeky little Bailey's on the rocks this Easter, I could have done a knees up Mother Brown :)
    Love the picture of you three.
    ~Jo

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    1. Jo, i fall over regulary too....always have done

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    2. @a brit - bailey's and butterscotch schnapps mixed together = a buttery nipple. goes down smooth and easy (that's what SHE said!).

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  4. Haven't heard that expression before -- but then I've only been in Britain 37 years...

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    1. See
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VC37BXTlpe4

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  5. I've only heard early doors in connection with going out early in the morning. Maybe dates from the time of the cotton mills when men with long sticks knocked on bedroom windows to wake up the mill workers. Then you heard the clogs going down the street to the factory. Early doors.

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    1. I think its more a " northern saying"

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  6. Look for happy hour. Get cheap drinks then ;)

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  7. mary and her crisps! WHO are those two handsome lads there? :)

    in my book, ANY TIME is drinking time!

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  8. Kind of sounds like Happy Hour here. Good for us and by the time we leave all the crowd is coming in for a great time.

    cheers, parsnip

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  9. I was thinking I was going to see Riders on the Storm

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    Replies
    1. I had to think about that one

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    2. @rachel - bwhahahahaha! I just got that; slow today I am.

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  10. I've given myself a black eye without virtue of alcohol. Yours probably hurt less.

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  11. I must lead a very sheltered life.
    And incidentally - a WHOLE bag of crisps for Mary?
    You will have her having to watch her waistline too.

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    Replies
    1. No! I was told by tbe prof to empty four out for her!
      He ate the rest

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  12. Was the pork pie approved by Sven?
    (Chris's personal trainer)

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  13. Mary resembles Jim Morrison most; she's got the hair.

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  14. Never heard it called that but I do it with my boys and my 'other boys'. Hope feeling a bit merry and in my Jim jams by 7:30 xx

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  15. Did you ever see the TV show 'Early doors' John? it was fabulous.

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    Replies
    1. Yes but the link on a reply above...i loved it

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  16. Sounds like a nice afternoon break, I don't think I have ever tried afternoon drinking. Falling down stairs, I have tried that.

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  17. The Prof is getting pretty good at selfies. However he needs to have the camera look down on you (so your chins are up) and....SMILE! Mary knows how to pose I think!!

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    1. I smile on photos gnerally the Prof NEVER does

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    2. Yes, it's true. I hold the cell above me and my double chin disappears ☺️

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    3. Naaah you are perfect!

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  18. I a wee bit old, so I would probably be there with the early folks, although one drink would probably put me on the floor. Not enough to fall down the stairs but enough that I would wobble all the way home.

    What a handsome threesome you make!

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    Replies
    1. Winnie would have loved to be in the shot but we couldnt lift her

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  19. That'll teach you John - stay away from pubs/bars with basements.
    'Early doors' is new to me - I think when I left England (1962) they still closed after lunch.
    Do they still do Smith's Crisps - they had a little twist of blue paper holding the salt in the bag - and we didn't even know back then about the hidden terror of too much sodium!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. you can still get salt and shake crisps, you can order them to the US from waitrose. I know my friend in France orders pork pies and sausage rolls and for Christmas paxo stuffing!

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  20. One of my fondest memories is the Lock in. Pub shut, but we are all still drinking. I do try and wait till dinner time before drinking nowadays otherwise I would have more than a black eye.

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  21. Never done 'early doors' but used to do the occasional 'lock in' when alcohol was consumed after hours!!!

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  22. The one and only time my Uncle ever got drunk, he drove off the side of a mountain, banging and crashing on the way down, coming to a stop before going into a river ... he was so drunk that he was barely bruised. This is the Uncle who was married to my Aunt, my moms sister so he is not a blood relative ...I say this because .. he is half Alaskan Indian and they get drunk if they walk past a bottle of liquor so he probably only had a glass of something .. the police said he was so limp, that it saved him from breaking all of his bones on that roll down the mountain.
    So here you have the good and the bad sides of consuming large quantities of alchohol :)

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  23. I do miss our " lock ins" at the Princess Royal in sheffield on a Monday night after the quiz

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  24. You and the Prof are beginning to look alike. That does happen with couples.

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  25. Anonymous6:33 am

    Ah, the drunk that latches on to you when you're sober. My nephew always seems to do that to me. He gets rat-arsed and talks incessantly at me, getting progressively louder and uninhibited.
    At a family gathering a couple of years ago, he arrived drunk and over the next couple of hours saw off a litre bottle of vodka mixed with a two litre bottle of Red Bull.
    He was loud, offensive, and even when I did manage to get away he found me again and carried on.
    Not a good example to set, especially when grandparents and young kids are around.

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  26. Lovely story but that hilarious incident actually happened at 11pm - and I'm not sure I was ever what you'd call fey.

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  27. I too would have stopped doing "Early Doors" after the escapade with the fire door. We have what's called "sobremesa" here. It means (over table) and is what you do after a meal -- or any time you can -- hang out over a table and drink and visit. You can do THAT any time of day. The Prof needs to tone it down a bit, don't you think? A smile like that is a bit too much.

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  28. Eating early is called "early birds" here. Drinking early is called "happy hour". And since when does a "happy face" require scowl lines?

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  29. Never heard of Early Doors. I'm sure we have the equivalent afternoon regulars here, but if there's a name for them, I haven't heard it.

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  30. yep, here in Vancouver they recently allowed "happy hour" drinks and appies half price. All the customers seem to be of a certain age (myself included). Unfortunately no dogs allowed (not even on the patio).

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