The three close....

I worked the most hideous shift... the most hideous fucking shift that can be worked if you're a bartender.

Yep, I'm talking about the 3cl.

You start at three in the afternoon and just keep going until closing time.

Which was four in the morning.

Then we had to clean up.

That is in total about 16hrs.

I'm only 24, and already, I'm beginning to get a little too old for this shit. A shift like that completely kills me. I think I prefer splits.... at least that way you guaranteed get a break. But Saturday was just fucking mental. It was jam packed with people, and they were all looking to get as off their chops as possible. More kept coming in. More kept getting ruder as the night went on...

It shattered me and I lost my temper with one couple. It's the first time I'd done it in months, and I felt really bad about it, but my sympathy is limited if you are wilfully rude and I've been working nearly ten hours straight.

It has to make you wonder why people act like that... alcohol isn't enough of an excuse and people blaming everything on drink is as far as I'm concerned just lazy.

It's a lively and ongoing debate across the country; what is to be done with our boozy nation? Apparently we now consume more Vodka than the Russians. Now that's a scary thought, isn't it? We now drink more Vodka than a nation famous for its fatalistic pickling of its population. The owner of the JD Wetherspoon chain Tim Martin has weighed into the argument too, blaming the visibility of celebrity drinking culture in particular and just cultural problems in general as the reason why there has been an apparent escalation in booze related violence.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/2008/03/should_celebs_carry_the_can_fo.html

From a personal point of view, Saturday was a boozy punch up that threatened to and did happen a couple of times that night. I've had violence threatened upon me, I've had to physically defend myself in the bar, all of this while I've been working...

It's quite clearly a problem that's not going to sort itself out any time soon, and nor is it as simple as saying "they started it," and pointing the finger of blame at famous people. Famous people have always been pickling themselves and finding ever more glamorous ways to destroy themselves for the benefit of their viewing public. One only has to look Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse and the way that the public still continue to watch with morbid fascination their terrifying descent into new drug and alcohol induced lows.... no, Mr Martin is right that the problem we have is a cultural one. How are we going to get around the fact that even with an option for it, there is no 24hr drinking, rather six til about four in the morning at the weekend and only at the weekend? If we want to get rid of the boozy fights, the lairy antics and the terrifying crowds of pissed people wandering up and down the high streets of the UK we have to seriously think about ways to stop this all pervading belief that you only live for the weekend.