Beer Gardens

Had an interesting night out on Friday, my first since the smoking ban came into force. I've been out in Scotland & Ireland with their bans, but going into strange pubs isn't going to give a point of reference.

The usual lines of conversation came out:

• Predictions for the next football season (Man United to walk the Premiership was the general consensus, some had Chelsea slipping into the bottom half)


• How you would look flying a kite on a nudist beach


• What happens when you go speed-dating and insult everyone you meet


• Who are the hardest people to come across when you're trying to launch a terrorist attack; the Police, the Army, or a Glaswegian baggage handler ?!!!

But we probably spent most of the evening on various lines of conversation coming out of the smoking ban.

Of the 5 of us, 2 still smoke, 1 is giving up and the other 2 never have.

I'm in the 'never smoked' camp, and to me the pub was fantastic. No fug when I walked in, no smoke drifting across my table and no smelly clothes after. And the beer tastes better.

The 2 people still smoking got up out of their chairs on a regular basis to go to the back of the pub (The Gladstone in Carrington, a fantastic old style pub that used to have a fantastic old style lamp shade).

Looking outside myself, the landlord has erected a large awning / industrial size umbrella over the patio area, installed heaters and quite artistic lighting. In short, the outside of the pub now looks more like the inside than the inside itself! For most of the evening, there were more people outside than in, and it wasn't exactly empty inside.

Between the 5 of us, we struggled to list a top ten of decent beer gardens in Nottingham, other than those who conveniently put picnic chairs in their car-parks, but we reckon that with the ban, and efforts to make smokers still welcome 'in' pubs, sitting outside pubs will soon become as fashionable as going out in the first place. Roll on winter.