Awful licence?

It was the late 70s and I had just finished visiting a friend in South London and was walking toward the bus stop. There was a young lady at the bust stop that asked me what I thought was:

"Is there an awful licence?"

That sort of took me aback since I didn't realise I might need a licence to be awful. It put fear in me that I might be acting awful without a licence and contrary to law.

I responded, "What?"
She said, "an off licence"

Much better, "where are you heading?"
Her, "Picadilly"
Me, "yeah, there are loads up there."

I should have told her to go to somewhere such as Justerini & Brooks or Berry Brothers and Rudd even though either of them would have really been out of her league. Fred's also has a good liquour section. There are places in Soho that would have been more along the lines of what she wanted.

Anyway, I am being awful without a licence these days.