Men And Their Love Of Bars.

Not behind bars, but in them...

Every now and again the mood strikes Bob. The mood to visit his local bar. Well it isn't the type of bar you picture ( like Rover's Return or Cheers ) but a place where they sport an over-sized TV so large that you'll develop a squint ( might I mention that the younger contingent have organized a PlayStation there ), a snooker table and of course the manna for all ills...ice cold Puntigamer.

Some of the local gals do go there, but it is trés noisy and smoky and unless you're in your 20's those attributes aren't a draw card for gals. Bob usually ventures out alone and why not. We ladies lunch or do coffee's ( some almost daily ) and men do the Bar-visits.

Whereas we exchange interesting details about our lives over a cup of coffee and a black forest cake ( depending on the level of detail, we might go for the stronger Chardonnay! ) men hang out in bars. Their local bar and as corny as it sounds, a place where everyone knows their name!

There isn't a place on earth like it for men. A beer in hand, a game of soccer on the telly and fellow men to share it with. No irritating questions such as:

" Honey, why is that man standing in front of the net? "

A local bar, when not full of us ladies, is also a place where our men can relax, scratch where they shouldn't and eat the ubiquitous peanuts on offer. Somehow, I tend to think that the main attraction might be that it is also a place where our men can exchange irritating details of their lives / wives. I can almost picture a group of guys playing a game of Who can trump this :

" Oh, I can trump that. Can you believe it, she asked me to pick up my dirty socks! How dare she..."

" Oh, that is nothing. Mine had the nerve to ask me to wash the dishes! "

The nice bit for us poor ladies is of course that often the recipients of these awful marriage details, mostly forget all after a few more Puntigamers...Shoo, lucky save!

Bob's local is only about 300 meters down the road and he can walk there and hopefully back. Unlike his local in South Africa, I don't have to stress that anything happened to him if he is not home on time. When he is late toddling in, I just hope he'll remember all those interesting detail of Who can trump this in the morning.

Biggi