It's happened.

[Rob Baker]

I have to report, with much shame and disgust, I was given a mobile telephone for Christmas.  Grrrr.

[Vulture]

Honestly. You blokes (Roger and Rob) are old fogeys. I've had a mobile for about 16 years. I still get the grandchildren to set everything up for me whenever I get an upgrade, but I can manage to send a text (in 'proper' English only!). It's been invaluable whenever the car has broken down and great when I've been late for an appointment.

[Diane CBPFC]

They are handy to have if you break down in your car to call for help. That is all I use mine for emergencies. My sister in law asked for my cell number at xmas and I wouldn't give it out - don't want people calling me on it. She got a bit offended. "Well, can I have it anyway?" - "No".

I must try and get along with people better this year.

[Roger Kettle]

Oh, Rob, Rob, Rob.

[Vulture]

They are handy to have if you break down in your car to call for help. That is all I use mine for emergencies. My sister in law asked for my cell number at xmas and I wouldn't give it out - don't want people calling me on it. She got a bit offended. "Well, can I have it anyway?" - "No".

I must try and get along with people better this year.

I assume your 'cell' (mobile in English) is the same as my daughter's. If you phone it before 6 or 7 in the evening then BOTH parties have to pay for the time used? After that time, only the caller is charged. All you have to do is turn the phone off after 6 - sorted!

I find mobile number handy to give out on all forms; that way I know who is phoning me (unlike the landline..) and I can chose if I want to speak to the caller or not (generally NOT!).

[Diane CBPFC]

Hi Vulture - no I wasn't thinking of cost - I just don't want her to phone me - always trying to sell me Tupperware.

I won't answer while I am driving as I can't do both at the same time and would prefer to live.

[Tom]

I won't answer while I am driving as I can't do both at the same time and would prefer to live.

ALWAYS the best option!

[peter]

well don't use it rob.
then no annoying ring tones

[Rob Baker]

Good advice Peter, which I will heed. Just out of principle (or stubborness -- depends how you look at it) I haven't even used it yet (well alright, just one call to my land-line to check that it works). I just bunged it in the car glove box where it will stay until I need the AA.
I'm quite proud to say that I've never sent a text in my life -- and don't intend to start now.
And other thing, these bloody things, coupled with the smoking ban, have made going to the pub a misery.   
Has anyone seen the TV Programme 'Grumpy Old Men'? 

[The Peepmaster]

Oh yes - coming home from the pub, NOT stinking of foul cigarette smoke (as it used to be for many years) is a real bummer for me. 

Rob - why the **** would you want to sit in a place full of smoke?

[Malc]

I was a great one for pubs, when I lived in the UK, and it's only now, looking back after fifteen years in Oz (where real pubs are almost non-existent) that I realise what an awful thing smoking in pubs was. In my teens and early twenties I played in bands, often in pubs, and as the singer I was breathing in huge lungfuls of second hand smoke every night.

I speak as someone who comes from a family of smokers - ALL my brothers and sisters smoke, but these days they retire to the kitchen in my mum's house and open the back door, even in the dead of winter. Only two in my immediate family never smoked - me and my late father, who died of colon cancer. Not necessarily a smoking related cancer, but it still wasn't enough for my mum to kick the evil weed.

[Rob Baker]

I can't really disagree with Peepsy and Malc, it's filthy habit (but there are worse things  ). Prior to the ban, the No Smoking Brigade said was that they didn't go into pubs for the reason you said. My point was that, post ban, most of them still don't - and pubs (round here anyway) are deserted and have liitle or no atmosphere.
I understand something like 50 pubs a week in the UK are shutting down because of lack of trade.  My local used to have a great mix of customers - and the old chaps enjoying their pipes with a pint or two in front of the the log fire have sadly long gone. Most smokers are staying at home to drink (and smoke ) which isn't that great, especially if there are kids in the house.
Had the legislation been thought through, a simple choice for the landlord to register his pub as either smoking or non-smoking would have been the best and fairest move.

[Malc]

I very much regret the closure of all those pubs, I've been over to the UK twice in the past couple of years and each time more pubs have closed. The main road at the bottom of our old street used to have eight or nine pubs, and now it has only three. Not to be too Kenneth More about it, but I feel the pub is an integral part of British life.

The smoking thing could have been sorted out with a mixture of legislation and policing. A totally separate area for smokers, which legally has to be screened off with a door to a separate outside area. No eating allowed in that area, (not even a bag of crisps) and severe fines to landlords for persistent breaches.
Bit draconian, I admit, but those are the rules here in Australia (no smoking within twenty feet of an entrance and no eating in a smoking area) and the rules are adhered to.

I agree to some extent with Rob - if the anti smokers have had their way, why aren't they now back in the pubs? Well, partly because it was the smokers who were the most keen pub patrons, but also it's that smoking isn't the main reason pub patronage has declined.

According to my relatives, it's the PRICE. Everyone I speak to insists that the differential between the price of supermarket booze and pub beer has now increased to the extent that people are drinking at home more.

Interestingly, it seems to be the traditional pubs which are weathering the storm better. Their regulars are staying the course, whereas the pubs which cater for younger drinkers are feeling the pinch more. I'd love to know what the figures are for cops being called to neighbourhood disturbances due to house parties.

[The Peepmaster]

I think they should also only have seating with metal spikes on too, Malc.

You hit the nail on the head about prices. The breweries have taken the mickey with the cost of beer and now they're (not) reaping the benefits.

When I was in the Midlands, pub landlord tenants did their own food, and it was a major part of their income. Eventually, the brewers, their landlords, decided they wanted that too, so the incentive for many couples running pubs was taken away from them. The breweries have been masters of their own downfall.

[Malc]

Another phenomena I noticed was that people didn't say they were going to the pub for lunch, they said they were going to Weatherspoons, and that was the case the length and breadth of the country.