I find I seem to easily become a target for ostracising by bar staff in pubs and bars, as they probably think I come across as the sort of character whose personalities would particularly clash with themselves. Ostracising, that takes the form of the sort of hard glares that convey a message of "You are a creep" or "You are a pervert".
I do not appreciate that, and when out last night I found myself targeted in this way by a barmaid. Just because I asked for a drink of water, sensibly so as it was in between alcoholic drinks, I was dealt with in a high handed way perhaps because I asked for something that didn't cost money.
When a friend and I moved on to another pub which stayed open later, said barmaid entered once her bar was closed, spotted us, and gave us that hard nasty look.
Last year there was a famous incident in an Edinburgh pub where a group of four of us got banned due to touching/playing with candles/candle flames/candle wax. It was a potentially dangerous thing to be doing so they were perfectly within their rights to ask us to leave and ban us, but on the other hand everyone I've spoken to about this thinks it was a bit harsh. Indeed, even had this incident not occurred, it was the culmination of having frequented that pub for some time with various groups of friends who were all Aspies/autistic, and they clearly treated us differently from what they did with other customers.
I don't tend to get these types of looks or targeting very often at all elsewhere in my life. Maybe bar staff are often a certain type of personality, but it tends to be only by them that I'm targeted in this way.
22 Aug 2010, 5:33 pm
