Day 213: no room at the inn.

Today we bid a longstanding employee farewell. A good chick, she was moving on to explore other things, and as is customary in these parts, the farewell began with lunch at the pub. By now I am extremely comfortable with being in alcohol-centric environments, and have no fear of feeling tempted to drink. But for me, this public house was not a good fit. Firstly it was a real pub's pub (whatever that means). It was rammed with blokes sculling down schooners and inhaling steaks or schnitzels and chips. Yes actually, let's talk about the menu. In an offering of maybe 25 or more mains and sides, there was not one thing I could eat. There was one vegetarian option, but it came in a buttery sauce. Or I could have lunched on hot chips, presuming they weren't cooked in animal fat. Well if I will eat like a healthy weirdo. I didn't order anything and I really found it hard to stick around for long. Oh my God I'm sounding like such a party pooper. But the reality is, if you're not drinking and you can't even eat anything, a pub full of drinking, steak-eating people doesn't hold a lot of appeal. I did have a couple of nice conversations, but after those it just felt like with no schooners, Sauv Bs or Shiraz to sink, I could probably be doing better things with my time. I guess for the time being, I'm just not a lunchtime pub-going kind of gal. And judging by how packed it was in there today, I'm sure the other patrons won't mind the extra space one bit.