Prince William stepped out in Birmingham for his first day of work this year, and his first public appearance since Christmas Day. Yes, he was missing for twenty days, one day longer than his wife, who did a photo-op at a London hospital on Tuesday. William’s event in Birmingham was sort of a snooze – he was named the new patron for the College of Paramedics, and he gave a speech at the inaugural Emergency and Critical Care Conference. I won’t really criticize him for that – the bar is in hell, but hey, we’re always saying that he should do these kinds of no-drama events. Unfortunately, William couldn’t get through a few hours of “work” without drinking and football. Apparently, he organized a pub-gathering for Aston Villa fans in Birmingham and they watched a match and drank after his event.

Prince William joined fellow Aston Villa fans for a surprise pub meetup, raising a glass after wrapping up his royal engagement. On Jan. 15, the Prince of Wales was announced as the new patron of the College of Paramedics and stepped out in Birmingham, England, for its inaugural Emergency and Critical Care Conference. It marked his first royal duty of the year, and came the day after his wife Kate Middleton announced that she is in remission from cancer.

Following the stop at the conference, where William met with paramedics, sat in on learning sessions and gave a speech about his commitment to supporting first responders in his new role, he made a pit stop at a local pub. The Prince of Wales, 42, organized a meetup of Aston Villa fans to coincide with his time in Birmingham (the Premier League team’s home city) and bought them a round of drinks at Wetherspoons before the soccer team’s game later that day.

Wetherspoon’s is a U.K. chain with several outposts in Birmingham, and the meetup happened at the Birmingham New Street train station location.

“Prince William surprised pub-goers when he popped into a Wetherspoons at the train station in Birmingham today. He arranged a meet-up with a group of @AVFCOfficial regulars while he was in the city to speak at the College of Paramedics conference and bought them a round,” Rebecca English of the Daily Mail wrote on X.

“You’ve got to be British, I think, to understand the cultural significance of a future king in the ‘spoons!” she added in another message.

The Daily Mail reported that Prince William had a pint of Bulmers cider at the pub before taking the train back to London, and he seemed to be at ease in the company of his fellow Aston Villa fans in a video that English shared to X, where he posed for photos and even smiled for a selfie.

[From People]

When I was in my late teens and early 20s, my social life was well-lubricated by alcohol and [redacted]. I think that’s probably true of a lot of young people, and god knows, the whole “wine mom” and “wine book club” things exist to help people in their 30s and 40s socialize-while-lubricated. But I still say that it feels odd that William’s events so often involve alcohol, or worse yet, his events don’t involve alcohol and yet he looks and acts plastered. I wonder if he slept it off on the train? Or maybe he just kept drinking on the train.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.