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Notes -
As bars go, I had previously found this one by serendipity, it's next to a barber's, and close to my bus stop. I've grabbed a pint there once before, and was inclined to make it a regular feature because the drinks were cheap and the music decent. The last time I was here, I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman with severe OCD, and we bought each other a round. Everything else about it seemed bog standard.
Today, I flew into Edinburgh, and caught a very long and stupidly expensive bus back home (it cost as much as two-thirds of a EDI-to-London flight) and decided I might as well grab another drink. I walked in: business as usual, but the bartender was new and exceedingly tall for a woman. Or perhaps the back of the bar was elevated, I've seen that before.
Then two gents, one of them in a wife beater showing off a whole bunch of tattoos, went up to the counter next to me. His buddy draped himself over his shoulder, and asked, in a very lispy voice, why his darling wouldn't dance with him tonight.
A rainbow flag the size of a mainsail hung above me. I had somehow missed it on every prior visit, which suggests either a) I'm catastrophically unobservant, or b) the flag has grown, like a well-watered plant, since my last appearance.
A person I had classified at a distance as “cute girl absorbed in phone” spoke to the bartender, and the timbre recategorized them instantly.
I might very well be the only heterosexual person here, on a Saturday night. Oh well, I might not swing that way, but the drinks are still cheap and the music the kind of Valley Girl pop that I find mildly nostalgic these days. I've frequented worse. I genuinely don't mind the decor, and now I'm pretty confident they must make killer cocktails.
After writing the above, I took a proper look around. There are more Pride flags than bottles of booze. I might be going blind in my old age, or the two hours of sleep in as many days is catching up with me. My bed beckons, but so does the cheap booze.
Hey you got pretty lucky! From what I hear the average gay bar is mostly filled with straight cis women nowadays, and I’ve even seen middle aged women and their (perfectly straight looking) husbands at drag nights.
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How's the health and safety compliance look?
I saw a viral tweet this week of white guys doing roofing work, and I couldn't get the glaring OSHA violations out of my mind.
Of course, the dirty little secret is that basically no roofing company is compliant, but these guys aren't even trying.
My dad used to tell me that when he worked as a roofer, he was told "If you fall, you're fired before you hit the ground."
When I worked with him, it wasn't roofing, but we occasionally had to go up on high places, and the things he would do absolutely horrified my acrophobic ass. I'm talking ladder propped up on top of a ladder on top of a slanted second story roof. Zero safety precautions.
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I don't see any exposed flame near the flag. That's the only potential issue, if the queens don't stop grinding on each other.
Holy fucking shit
Right as I write, one of them mentions that the fluorescent lights are heating up the drinks to unpleasant levels. Time to call the fire department, or the police, due to impersonation of Royalty.
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