Little Stalky Ponders the Pub

One of the things I like about the cities in Australia is that they have pubs that actually feel like pubs.  Proper English style pubs.  With beams and brick.  Lots of tables squished together.  Pub carpet that cunningly disguises spilt beer and other suspicious stains.  The obligatory old dude with a pint.  They're great.  And surprisingly hard to come across.  The "pubs" in my home town are less like pubs and more like, well, bookies.  And that's just a bit random.  So many of the pubs in Australia seem to focus on gambling and you end up with pokie machines all over the place, screens up on the walls showing the results of the horses and the dogs and the boxing and whatever else might be going on.  Then there's this thing called Keno, which I think is a kind of a constant bingo.  Or something.  I don't know.  I have no interest in it.  But because of this, there are little Keno slips at every table and pens.  And the tables are those tall, grey, plastic things.  All of this creates just a horrible atmosphere.  It's bright and tacky and somehow reminds me of the Seventies even though I wasn't even born in the Seventies.  It really is like a bookies.  A bookies with a bar and possible a dance floor.  And this just seems crazy to me.  Surely gambling and alcohol is a terrible combination.  Drunken people make bad decisions at the best of times.  And Australia wonder why their country has a gambling problem.  Take it out of the pubs!  One little fruit machine hidden in a corner is one thing, but a whole horde of them is just asking for trouble.  It's like there's a mini casino in every town.  And don't get me started on the Leagues Clubs.  They're a whole other level of weird.  I like my pubs dank and dark.  Ok maybe not dank but it's nice to find somewhere cosy, with a bit of atmosphere.  Australian cities seem full of these kind of pubs yet the little towns are distinctly lacking.  Mystical Roo and I found such a pub last night and for a moment it was like being back in England.  It's freaking freezing here in Melbourne so we were bundled up in coats and scarves and then we went down - yes down - into this pub where it was warm and snug with lots of people huddled around little wooden tables.  I'm not sure if there was an actual fire burning in the hearth but it wouldn't have been out of place.  Not a pokie machine in sight.  And no horrible little betting slips.  It was perfect.  So nice in fact that we stayed for dinner.  The only reminder that we were in the city was the fact that a beer and a glass of wine cost us nearly $20!  Yikes.