Getting Paid To Drink

[Miranda]

LONDON (Reuters) - Found: drinking companions to join elderly gentleman for a friendly beer at his local pub.

Mike Hammond was bombarded with offers after advertising in his village post office for someone to accompany his 88-year-old father Jack on visits to a southern England pub from a nursing home.

He offered the lucky winner 7 pounds ($14) an hour plus expenses and, after sifting through the applicants, decided on a job-share. Drinking duties are to be divided between a retired doctor and a former military man.

"Dad's now going to be going down to the pub several times a week -- three with his new friends and twice with me," Mike Hammond told The Times on Thursday. "I want to give him some of his old life back."

(Reporting by Paul Majendie, Editing by Paul Casciato)

Reuters Unlimited 2008

[Destroit]

Dude...if I could get paid to drink...I would be so happy.

[Onyx]

That's a sweet thing for a son to do for his dad. You know he is going to enjoy that so much!

(I just hope he doesn't realilze they are being paid to be there).

[Rev.Reverence]

I wouldn't care if my kid payed people to hang out with me... THEY wouldn't want me to know though!!!!!

[GOREgeouslyDecorated]

I wanna get paid to drink damn it ;-)

[n0Mad]

I got paid to drink once ... it was great.

No, seriously. When I managed a night club it was my job most of the time to interact with the patrons and make sure they were having a good time. For the bar hoppers, I made sure that they stayed at our bar 'cuz it was so cool they didn't want to hop to another one. I persuaded people to buy more drinks but I also cut people off when they'd had enough. People would buy me drinks and it was a big ol' house party.

Yep, I got paid to drink because the owner knew it was all about creating a friendly atmosphere that made people feel comfortable, keep coming back, and buy more drinks. So, he hired a professional entertainer (me) to mingle with everyone. None of the other clubs in town had a person like that which is why we did more business than all of them.

Of course, I had many other duties as manager too, much of them far less glamorous like cleaning puke out of urinals, going in early in the morning to wait for deliveries, count inventory, plaster the town with fliers, fulfill contract riders for bands, check IDs at the door, and any other task that needed doing.