A touch of glass

On Saturday I undertook the most British of pastimes. I watched a game of football.

This isn't a rare occurrence for me. I watch quite a lot of football... actually being a Newcastle United fan I should write "I watch quite a lot of football being played by the opposition" but we won't go into the quality on show by the team I support. That really would bore you to tears...

Anyway, Saturday was like any other away day. I met a friend, we visited a couple of bars, had a chat and then wandered to the game. We watched our team give glimpses of quality play (that led is into yet another false sense of optimism) and we walked our 3-0 losers. We then walked back to a bar, had a few more drinks and then went our separate ways. All very very normal to a football fan... and the result very very normal for a Newcastle United fan.

After leaving my friend I went and met another friend for a couple of drinks to wind down the day out. Only after raising a glass with him did I realise that it was nearly 8pm, I'd been out for nearly 8 hours and that was the first time I'd had a glass in my hand. Everywhere else had given us plastic drinking vessels. Even when we bought bottles they were decanted into a plastic. (Not enjoying entry-level drinks like Carling and Fosters leads to the issue of having a bottle of Beck's decanted into a pint pot. This obviously means you buy 2 bottles and get them poured into the same plastic which in turn means you pay £6 for a pint.)

The ticket for the game was £32, we spent roughly the same on beer each, the pies and hotdogs were £3 each and we had a padded seat. A highly middle class, expensive and sensible day out. Yet, it seems that we're not trusted with glass. Of course it only takes one incident to occur to set the wheels in motion, but where we were has a lot of 'Home Only' bars (particularly popular in London) - and as far as i could tell - they had glasses. So - is it only us uncouth heathens from the north that aren't trusted? Maybe the locals think that because we're from the north we're used to drinking from cow horns or something?