The 12 Pubs of Christmas

This work week went much more smoothly than usual, barring a few rocky moments, as could only be expected. The guy I worked with last week who had been so rude and unhelpful to me was spoken to and he approached me while I was working on the terrace at Alfie’s to talk about it. He followed me around for a moment like he thought I was going to ditch him, then motioned for me to follow him into the temporarily deserted kitchen. I appreciated that he wanted to discuss the issue, even if he didn’t approach the subject the way I would have. In the end we shook hands and I’ll let it lie while hoping I won’t have to work with him alone again. I also confirmed my shift switch so I’d be off on Sunday, and then found out I had Monday and Tuesday off too. Not to mention I was allowed to leave early more than once. Later, I spoke to the Food and Beverage manager, and she said she would keep me off of serving wine until I had some training in the new year. I even received a text late Thursday night to say I didn’t have to come in so early on Friday, cutting down my twelve hour shift into nine hours.

Joyanne's song

After work one day, Heather and I headed over to Penneys to buy some Christmas gifts and our Christmas jumpers for USIT’s 12 Pubs of Christmas event. I also bought candy canes to decorate our tree with. She and I went to Hot Wok for Indian food, where Dale met up with us before heading to Cassidy’s for Joyanne’s goodbye party. Cassidy’s is the pub with writing all over the walls and free lollipops. Later we went to O’Neill’s. Joyanne was welcomed on stage by one of the guys from the old band, Hot Whiskey, to sing a song with them while we all raised our glasses. There was a 12 Pubs of Christmas pub crawl going on as well, so the room was packed by people in Christmas sweaters dancing like maniacs to the Irish music and clearly having a grand old time. Myself and the two Heathers ordered warm Kopperbergs, which came in black mugs, tasted like warm apple juice, and were quite delicious. We stayed late, but when we got home I was relieved to find out I didn’t have to work until 9 the next morning.

One of our tables at Fitz's Christmas dinner

The 12 Pubs of Christmas was most definitely the highlight of my week. The idea was to have a drink in every pub, which is now a Christmas tradition here in Ireland, while wearing Christmas jumpers. Heather and I were let out of work so early that we made it to the first pub and meeting place, Fitzgeralds, very windswept and with rather damaged umbrellas. The snowman's nose on my sweater was honked a little early in the day. But we watched the others having their Christmas dinners and puddings, then exchanging Secret Santa gifts, all while drinking with our left hands, then moved on to Fibber Maggee’s, where we couldn’t use anyone’s first names. As it was only about two in the afternoon, the dark pub was a little seedy. Lisa, from USIT, managed to say three names in a row and had to take three shots, which she did very stoically, followed by a fourth right after.

The next pub was Murray’s Bar, which was right across a courtyard of pubs. We all made sure to use the toilet at the last place, since that was the new rule. We sat on benches under heat lamps, which reminded me of Oktoberfest. Next up and only across the courtyard was The Living Room, which is where I found a shard of glass in my expensive White Russian and received a new one. There was no swearing in this wide, indoor, green-lit pub. I won’t comment.

O'Connell's. Most of the photos are to Sammy here's credit

At O’Connell's Bar we sat downstairs and drank with our right hands. I shared some bruschetta and chips with Sydney and Sammy, which was a good idea considering I only realized just now that I never ate any dinner. We moved on to The Long Stone, where Dale finally caught up with us in the busy pub and we were not allowed to hold our own drinks. Dale immediately had a shot in an effort to really catch up.

There are at least four people involved in this photo.

There was no sitting allowed in JW Sweetman's, and anyone without a jumper at Lafayette’s had to down a pint. I’m not sure which pub was which, but we stood in a fairly empty but dark room in one, and at the top of a flight of stairs at the other. It was dark outside by this point, and the half hour we stayed seemed to fly by very quickly.

Christmas jumpers! Dale, Sydney, myself, and Heather

In Doyle’s we had to link arms with a friend. We were starting to run into other 12 Pubs groups in the overcrowded bar, and I have to say that I was impressed by some of the sweaters. At Hogan’s Bar we had to speak with an accent. I chose to mimic Rachael from Friends with, “Bombay is bery bery nice this time of year.” This is the pub where Heather and I ended up sitting comfortably on the curb with pint glasses in our purses, regardless of whether people were watching us stuff them with tissue and slip them away or not. USIT’s photographer for the night was very amused by this, and I will be bery interested to see the photos that emerge soon. Dale made friends with some Irish lads and got a smack in the back of the head from Sammy, a good man for delivering the “smoking is bad for you” newsflash!

We're grand.

We shop at Penneys! Ally and I were not the only doubles that night!

Eleventh pub? With a nice photo bomb from Brant

Trinity Bar was up next, where we were not supposed to sing despite there being a band playing Irish favourites and Christmas songs. I knew I was going to fail at that one before we even walked in, but I’d decided long ago that there would be no shots for me that night, no matter how impressed I was with Lisa’s commitment. Finally we arrived at The Turk’s Head Pub, the rule being, “Just try to stay upright!” There was dancing, I never did see Lisa, money all over the ground, the groups splitting off at random, and eventually a stroll across the road for kebabs at Zaytoons. Tessa and Melissa, old friends of Heather's from Germany were visiting, and they joined as we finished eating. Then Heather, Dale, and I split a cab home.

Too pleased here, Dale.

Melissa, Tessa, Heather, and I. I have no idea who that is in the back.

The next day I was glad I’d chosen water at one pub and that the night had started so early that we could truly sleep it off. I felt perfectly “grand.” Dale wasn’t so lucky, but not so bad either. We walked down the street for a Traditional Irish fry up at Bijou, where we’d never been before. It was expensive but delicious, and included eggs, bacon, sausage, bread, a cappuccino for me, and  blood pudding, which is a little puck of croutons held together with blood. It was just like stuffing but a little liver-flavoured. The restaurant was very cute with dangling blue Christmas lights and a window that looked out right on the road. We took our time eating, then headed into town for some Christmas shopping on Parnell Street. Down a backstreet we found a bubble tea place, but neither of us were that impressed with out drinks. However, it was nice to just stop and do whatever we felt like while everyone else was rushing around.

We did a small grocery shop on the way home, then enjoyed some TV time. We both got up at 3:30am to join my family via Skype for their happy Christmas present unwrapping. They had to do it early this year because everyone will be in different places for the actual day. We watched quietly from our perch over the fireplace, then said goodnight and returned to bed, me quite glad that I didn’t have to work the next day.