And so we are in 2016 and I was inspired to write a blog about something that has been bothering me for years- part time seasonal drinkers. What really made me write it was not packed pubs before Christmas but a more depressing experience. I was standing in my local pub- the Albany in Cardiff- it was Friday night and there were about half a dozen of us in the lounge. Granted it was New Years Day, but still it’s a thriving pub where normally its difficult to get a seat- actually normally its difficult enough to find a place to stand!

Contrast that with December and every pub I went into during that month was packed. It seems that many of the masses only go to a pub in the run up to Christmas. Its amazing the number of people that you’ve never seen before that seem to appear in your local, generally forgetting half of their round, carefully choosing which pint of lager to drink and then holding everyone else up by paying with a card.

Annoying as some of those traits are, there really is a bigger question. Where are these people the rest of the time? Imagine if more of those people were in pubs all year round, presumably they would then realise pub etiquette, take their turn at the bar, stop using cards to buy two pints and try ale. More importantly though, it would mean more revenue for the pub industry and stop so many pubs closing. So remember people a pub is for life not just for Christmas.