mine eyes have seen the glory of the smoke-free pub

Wow. I mean, WOW. Smoke-free pub. A dozen customers plus barstaff on the premises, which is about typical for Monday night. A few of the customers, being smokers, would occasionally nip out the back door for a cigarette. There was plenty discussion of the ban, including a small group avidly watching a TV debate on the topic, but not a single dissenter, even among the smokers. Towards closing time, a very drunk man staggered in and swore blind at Micheál Martin (the Minister for Health) and the rest of the Government; it seems he had quite the litany of complaints, and the smoking ban was the latest. One of the smokers present took him up on his debate and argued him to a standstill. Even taking king_mob's comment on board, I think the bottom line is this: everyone has the right to work in a smoke-free workplace, and that includes barstaff. Perhaps an out-and-out ban is too harsh, and publicans should have been given the option of having a designated smoking area, or perhaps an application could be made for a smoking license for your premises if you so wished. Jamie says we'll see how it works out in a few months once the initial fuss has died down. I know I overheard one patron last night saying he'd be in the pub more often, and I know I was delighted to arrive home with relatively fresh clothes, the only smoke-smell being from my denim jacket which I wore to the pub on Saturday night.

One other amusing sight was wandering to the pub with my jacket buttoned up to the collar against the cold, clear night, and seeing a few hardy lads in tshirts sitting in the chairs out the front of McDonagh's, where smoking is still permitted. About a dozen more at the tables outside the Queen's, but they had the sense to wear jackets, at least.

we're all going to hell

<kor> we don't have good friday off?
<winston> we never have good friday off
<kathryn> Well we should
<winston> only the bank holiday monday
<kor> christ died for our sins, and we don't even get a day off for it? Hardly seems fair.
<waider> good point
<winston> thats only a movie
<kor> no, you're thinking of "Ferris Buellers Day Off".
<kor> we /don't/ get the day off, and neither did that christ chap.

ongoing postal dispute

I finally found a newspaper article which explained, more or less, why the current dispute occurred. In essence: the union promised some things to management in exchange for some extra pay. One of the things promised was a cut in overtime. As soon as the extra pay had been handed over/agreed upon/whatever, the union reneged on its side of the deal. Things kinda proceeded from there. This comes back to something I've always felt about the unions in this country; they're a necessary evil, like many other parts of working life, but because the country is so small, a single twitch by any given union can bring useful services to a halt, and that's something that they seem quite willing to abuse. Through the overtime system currently in place with An Post, it's possible for a postal worker to do a morning delivery shift, finish early because hey, there's not much to deliver, then come in and do an afternoon shift and get payed the overtime rate for that. Now, it may well be that the pay is crap, and that this is a necessary ploy to get a living wage, but seriously. I have no doubt that management would rather trade the overtime culture for a properly structured wage system that can at least be properly budgetted for. Apparently the union doesn't want that.

beating jwz to the punchline, maybe

I for one welcome our new robot jockeys. Wait, no, it's not underwear for automatons.