Thread: Hello from a hot and humid Houston

Welcome aboard Chris. Cool drinks on the bar

Hey there

Flew thru HOU many a time, had dinner there once, got lost driving to Shiner from there but I've never stopped to appreciate the city. One day.

Anyways... welcome to the forum

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (29Palms @ Jul 21 2009, 05:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

You got lost GOING to Shiner? It should be vice versa. Getting lost COMING from Shiner. You and I both know why you wanted to visit Shiner. Only one reason. To go to the BREWERY there. Right? You wanted FREE SAMPLES of Shiner Bock, Blonde, Hefenwiezen. You wanted to hear about COSMO and his Czech/German recipe of brewing beer right? You must have had a bottle of the beer here in Texas and somebody talked you into visiting Shiner right?[/b]

Shiner was my beer of choice when I lived in the big D for a few months

We were going to go to AUS but the flight suddenly became full (was +20 the night before) so we went to storm ravaged HOU and hired a car. This made us slightly late, and we stupidly listened to the Garmin which drove us around in circles. Turns out later we realised it got confused with all the flyovers so it assumes you are on a different highway etc. So great once out of the city, bad to get out of the city.

Nevertheless we missed the tour, the girl felt sorry for us so she gave us extra drink coupons. Then we had some chicken fried steak at werner&#39;s country cooking which was pretty good.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (29Palms @ Jul 27 2009, 12:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Nick. I had to do some research on the internet, but when I was "Down Under" years ago, I remember ording a beer and the lady asked me if I wanted a (What sounded like SKOONAH or MEETIE). I said, what is that you are talking about? She grabbed two glasses, one was a large glass and the other was a smaller glass. Been over 20 years ago, and finally I find out after searching on the internet that it is spelled SCHOONER for the big 10 oz glass and the MIDDY was smaller or half a pint. Do you order your beer that way down in Melbourne? I remember having TOOHEY in Sydney, and XXXX in Brisbane. I also remember various other beers like Carlton Lager and Swan. All pretty good beers. Swan was the best I liked. I remember also playing SNOOKER. Do you play it? I remember that while playing snooker, the object of the game was to sink all YOUR colors and you try to sink all MY colors. What was real different was when we SCRATCH, we say oops, I scratched. You guys down under say "Ya F_ked". And instead of placing your shot after the scratch behind a line, you placed it on a half circle that looked like the letter "D" and you moved the ball anywhere on the "D" mark. Very interesting form of billiards. Of course, washing it down with beer on the tap and meat pies to hold the beer.[/b]

Haha actually would you believe the whole beer vessel (for want of a better word) thing varies state by state. Here we drink pots (10oz) or pints (20oz). Most places wouldn&#39;t have a schooner but would offer a pint, and if you said a Middy they would either look at you without a clue, or realise you come from Sydney The further north you go the more confusing it is - In Sydney a pot is a Middy, in Townsville it&#39;s a Ten and in Darwin it&#39;s a Handle. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Australia

Yeah I play pool though, not snooker. Most pubs don&#39;t do snooker (2 colours) just pool, so stripes (bigs) and solids (smalls). It got me in trouble a few times in the states as y&#39;alls rules are very different to ours...the "D" being one of them! Luckily my neighbour in Dallas had a table so I got a fair bit of practice in while sinking some Shiner beers

My favourite bar in Dallas was called The Cockpit, right near DAL. Had a pool table, cheap beer, aviation stuff and free pork rinds. I think a SWA pilot owns it. Went there my first night in town and my last, but never in between. I had a love hate relationship with drinking in the states. Loved how cheap it was, how easy it was to source (when you ain&#39;t in a dry area), how the girls drank beer (not so big here). Hated the 21 thing, the fact I couldn&#39;t get drinks at my local Walmart because a school was next door (so?), and how expensive cabs were to get home so people just drove drunk! You&#39;d never get away with that here...

I&#39;d say it changed over time. I remember some 80s movies that had snooker in them. But it could be a states thing, maybe ppl in NSW play snooker? I&#39;m not sure, I try and spend as little time there as possible