This month, DITCH visited as many pubs as we can to show what can be achieved instead of doomscrolling our days away
The average screen time of an 18-24-year-old has climbed to six hours and one minute, regulatory board Ofcom found out last November. That’s 91 and a half days per year. Over an average lifetime, that’s roughly 20.25 years.
Now, this might seem to be cause for worry. I’m not going to lie to you, when I did those calculations and looked at my own screen time, I took a break from writing this article to question what I was doing with my life. Or rather what my phone was doing to it.
This article series should wash those worries away. You see, those statistics got us thinking here at DITCH just how much you can achieve in six hours and one minute. How far can you go? How much can you see? These all-important questions are the basis for the 601 challenge.
After careful consideration of how to use this precious time, specially selected members of the DITCH team (Tommy, Molly, Amelia) and I decided that for our very first 601, we would challenge ourselves to visit as many Wetherspoons as possible in Cardiff in six hours and one minute. Why? We hear you cry? Because why the hell not…
The order of play:
- The Aneurin Bevan
- The Ernest Willows
- The Central Bar
- The Gatekeeper
- The Ivor Davies
- The Great Western
- The Mount Stuart
- The Prince of Wales
Here are a couple of rules for the challenge:
No phones: not for paying, not for directions, particularly not for social media or communication. This challenge is strictly phones off business.
Drinks are limited to one per Wetherspoons – no more, no less.
Aim of the game: visit as many Wetherspoons as you can within six hours and one minute.
Without our phones, we relied on strangers to guide us on our boozing quest. This immediately became clear when we got lost in the underpass leading towards our first pub, the Aneurin Bevan. A little man with a walking stick appeared from the darkness and ushered us to the entrance.
With this, phones were turned off, Tommy started the countdown on his stopwatch, and the game was afoot.
6 hours and 1 minute to go…
Being further out of Cardiff and in the middle of a main road junction, the first beer garden we sat in had a lovely soundscape of roadway noise. The crowd was slightly older but friendly enough, and there wasn’t a phone in sight. We polished off our first pint and headed out to catch the bus.
5 hours and 12 minutes to go…
Our second pub was entirely unremarkable on first impression: dodgy carpet, £1.99 IPA Greene King ales and blue floral paints. The crowd was white-haired, the phones remained at bay, and the temptation to whip mine out was almost nonexistent.
That was until I went into the bathroom. I do not understate this when I say it was a combination of Dumbledore’s office, the Chamber of Secrets and a GP’s waiting room. Thankfully, we had our digital camera with us and were able to get a snap
4 hours and 13 minutes to go…
The more central Spoons had a much younger demographic. So, with a dynamism that matched this younger crowd, we steamed through the Central Bar and the Gatekeeper. Then, we began a trek further out of town to the Ivor Davies.
2 hours and 44 minutes to go…
Now, the Ivor Davies was really something. As our fifth pub in our challenge, we were well and truly flagging. The spoons were all blurring into one, the conversation was running out, and to quote my diary from the day, “THIS IS A REAL LOWPOINT, A REAL LULL IF YOU WILL.”
Initially, the pub itself didn’t do much to lighten the mood. The entrance was just below the main TVs playing a darts game, meaning the eyes of the pub immediately scanned over you as you entered. Slightly outside the centre of town, the age demographic had noticeably increased, and while there wasn’t a phone in sight, all eyes were set on the dart screens.
On the left, safety nets hung from the stairs, ready to catch flailing limbs. Were they the legacy of pub fights gone-by? On the right stood an almost completely futile bar – you couldn’t stand near it and had to order all drinks from the table. The tables themselves told a story of their own, decorated with plastic beer and wine glasses and Wetherspoons news magazines with the emboldened title: Does Truth Matter?
Moving over to a table below the darts board, we asked the couple next to us: “Is this chair free?” A man in a mobility scooter rolled by us, saying: “That one’s free, this one’s not, love.” Laughing, we took the chair. Perhaps this pub wouldn’t be too bad after all.
More comfortable, we settled in for a little longer and sunk our teeth into the all-important question of vape and crisp questions. Let me tell you, it ruffled a few feathers. Here are our tentative conclusions.
Vape flavour crisp pairings
Blue Razz – Thai Sweet Chilli
Pineapple Ice – Salt and Vinegar or Skips
Three Apples – Cheese and Onion
Peach Ice – Roast chicken crisps
Mint Tobacco – Frazzles
Coca-Cola – Ready Salted
Berry Medley – Roast Beef
Triple Mango – Monster Munch
2h 12 minutes to go…
Renewed after a lively discussion, we rushed for a quick drink at the Great Western in central Cardiff. Time was ticking, and we took off running towards Cardiff Bay.
1h 42 minutes to go…
We got there with 40 minutes left of the challenge. Despite this being the nicest, most expensive pub we had been to so far, the time meant that we dashed in, chugged our drinks down and headed back out.
It was here that the real grip, stamina and strength kicked in. Eyes focused, Prince of Wales in sight, we flew towards the finish line.
7 minutes to go…
With seven minutes to spare, we rolled into the pub and ordered our Guinnesses. The challenge was complete.
Was it worth it? Well, at times, it was truly horrible. Moving from pub to pub under constant time pressure was initially exciting, but the novelty of the challenge began to wear off in the fourth hour. There are also only so many Spoons interiors you can experience before the patterned carpets, musty smell, and dimmed lighting begin to make you feel disoriented and confused, and I promise that’s not entirely the booze-talking.
Getting to the end felt amazing: 25,000 steps and eight Wetherspoons later, we had a real achievement under our belts. I don’t think I’d leap at the chance to do it again, and I certainly won’t be using any of my future six hours and one minute to complete a similar challenge.
When you’re staring down the barrel at a full six hours and one minute, you really see how long that amount of time is. And when you’re forcing yourself to race through as many Wetherspoons as you can, that time feels even longer.
So, my main takeaway was that, unsurprisingly, six hours is a really long f*cking time. Like, seriously long…. You can fit in so many conversations, experiences, and, unfortunately, pints within the time the average 16-24 year-old spends on their phone. So, get the f*ck off your phone, square eyes. Get real, ditch the rot and get down to your local pub.