Kate Went Off To Bar School

Yesterday I went to bar school. After spending so many years in bars and around bars, I had never stepped behind a bar and served a beer. Now that i am heading over to the United Kingdom, the home of pubs, I figured I should learn how to pour a beer. I'd heard that there was a special art to pouring beer, so I thought I would brush up on my hospitality skills and learn this special art before I left.

So off I went back into the city on a Saturday to TCP Training, where I would be attending "Bar Skills 101". Sitting quietly in the foyer, I observed that a number of very tanned, good looking men were headed into some "Construction Green Card" class. I was just about ready to switch classes and learn about construction safety when the Bar Skills Trainer announced that it was time to leave for the pub.




We headed off to the Bristol Arms Hotel (ie. the Retro) which would be where we would learn the skills necessary to work in a pub. As I walked into the Retro, with its 80's music pumping from its sound system, and my feet soaking into its well-worn carpets, I felt at home. Oh, how I had previously spent many 'o nights at the Retro, dancing in a drunken, uncoordinated fashion to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".

For the next seven hours, I was filled with loads of knowledge about all things alcohol. I learnt how to pour beers, make spirits, take orders ("Can I help you, Ma'am") and how to generally clean and operate the equipment in a bar. Most of it was common sense, and reminiscent of my days behind the counter at Pizza Hut, but it was a timely reminder of things which I had placed firmly in the back of my head since entering into the world of big time legal disputes.


Happiness = A Well Poured Beer.

The best thing about the Bar Skills course was that I had the chance to meet Sarah. I was just about to turn to her and introduce myself when she turned to me and did it first. The minute she did it, I realised that her and I were destined to be good mates. Sarah is leaving for the UK in a couple of weeks, and is doing exactly what I am doing - leaving a good job to find her destiny (?) in another country. We went out for a couple of beers after the course and exchanged contact details, promising each other that we would be in touch. It is yet another example of how travelling really unites people.






A good beer has a centimetre of "head", has "brillance", and tastes bloody good on a hot day!


















"Here's yer bourbon and coke, your rum and coke, your tequilla and tonic and three beers. Now that's it for you, son. No more -- its the law."