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This is serious & dire especially at Christmas & New Year approaching. Wow & Ooch!
I heard about it on 'BBC News' yesterday morning (or was it the day before). I felt BAD for my countrymen. This is NOT funny. They are rationing Guinness. That must be one for the record books. 😆
I haven't drunk a drop of Guinness in at least 40 years. I wouldn't lie about that.
There was an 18-month period of my life when I drank 9 pints of Guinness, every day, Monday to Friday. It was part of MY JOB! No, I was not a Guinness taster.
I was working for 'IBM'. Yes, IBM. My first job. This was the Fall of 1974. I had just turned 21. I had also just started drinking alcohol. So, I went from ZERO drinking to 9 pints of Guinness a day more or less immediately.
So, what was the deal. An alcoholic manager. Drinking, at a pub, at lunchtime was de facto at the U.K. at the time. So, drinking at lunch was not an issue -- it was expected of you.
I had been hired (explicitly) into this very elite group at 'IBM Hursely' called the 'System Support Group'. As the name implied we provided the System Support for all the mainframes at Hursley -- & we had quite a few. We kept the machines running. We were good at it.
But, it was an interesting group. I, having just turned 21, during my 1st week at IBM, was the youngest. They were training me. Most of the others were in their mid-30s. This was the 1970s and the older guys in the group were into SWINGING. A few of them had PERMANENTLY exchanged wives -- one of them being the Manger. So his wife was now with a group member, while that group member's wife was with the manager! Talk about a conflict of interest.
System Support Group --> SSG was the acronym.
There used to be a joke in Hursely that the SSG stood for the 'Swinging Society Group'!
The Manager insisted that the core of his group, 9 of us, go to lunch together, each day at a pub -- usually the same one about 20 minutes away.
He set the RULES. 9 people, 9 ROUNDS. Most of drank Guinness. Hence, my 9 pints.
We had 3 hour lunches. Perfectly acceptable.
I put on lot of weight.
Yes, we were DRUNK. So it would take us 3 hours to sober up.
Then, our esteemed manager PAID US time and a half to work overtime. 😆
That sure helped to pay for the drinks bill.
Yes, this was IBM.
No we were never FIRED. We were good.
People just knew that we drank & partied.
I left the group after 18 months because I wanted to involved in RESEARCH -- not just supporting existing mainframes. I succeeded in that.
The other groups didn't drink anywhere close to that or on the same regimental basis.
Plus, I, a bit older, started taking married secretaries for lunch. 😆 We didn't drink as much. 😆 [Oh, I was married too.]
I have led a semi-interesting life. 😆
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