I’m a lot better than I was (taking a couple of days off now between, which is novel, dictated by liver and age I guess) but…I still can’t resist the bottle when the taste hits…especially in a bar. Doesn’t taste the same at home…
All you sippers, how do you manage it?
After a tequila liqueur or three (or four) I’m onto the whisky to sing me to sleep…
PS - it’s a lighthearted thread, no need for AA warnings, no need… But a bottle is a Siren ain’t it ? Whether it be wine, whisky, beer or those goddam cocktails.
Did I watch Lost Weekend too much when young (I did!)
C’mon tipplers, how drunk are you? And if not technically drunk, howja do it?
Last Thursday evening we where babysitting my 2 year old grandson. I was that exhausted when he got taken home I couldn’t even drink the bottle of lager in the fridge. That was a first.
My secret is that I treat drinking as a purely social activity – something you do with other people. I never drink alone (except, perhaps, when I might have a beer or whisky when there’s footy or a good old film on the TV).
Also, throughout my working life I have worked in three very heavy-drinking industries: journalism, advertising and the music biz. Thus long ago, in my early 20s, I learned what my limits were and thus I rarely get drunk – though I do occasionally fall asleep!
Years ago, I mean 30 or so, when hung over, I simply decided I didn’t like hangovers, and told myself I wouldn’t do it again - and meant it. I haven’t been perfect at it, but I’d say an average of less than one hangover a year, and those only mild.
When drinking I know my limit and make sure I don’t exceed, counting drinks (and being aware of alcoholic strength). On odd occasions that has been difficult, such as when drinking over a long period of time such as all afternoon and evening, it being easy to lose track. On those occasions I have breaks, and drink a lot of water in
between.
It probably helps that I’ve never been a big drinker, five pints to me being equivalent to 10 pints for some people, so counting is easy, and professionally I frequently had cause to need to know the alcoholic strength of drinks, so noting it became second nature.
But whilst I am practised at avoiding drinking enough for a hangover, sometimes the good intention of having perhaps just one or two drinks easily gives way to “just another”. I am aware of the recommended maximum limit of 14 units per week, but temptation often gets me closer to the old recommendation for men of 21 units, something I was used to before they lowered it. Generally I limit drinking to weekend evenings, Fri, Sat and Sun, except on special occasions - but foreign holidays in wine or cocktail drinking places tend to have me drinking most days, with greater weekly consumption, and my new norm taking 4-8 week holidays in the campervan makes me aware I need to take care to moderate it, unlike just a couple of weeks. That is something I need to work on for overall health and nothing to do with hangovers.
I recently discovered Guinness Zero. After a long bike ride yesterday in the heat I had a pint.
Normally, in the afternoon (if I ever contemplated having a drink of beer) that would leave me a bit sluggish but this was most enjoyable and left me feeling refreshed without the side effects of the alcohol.
St Augustine- ‘Total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation’. ie it is easier to not drink at all than to moderate. I don’t drink Monday to Thursday (unless out somewhere which is not very often these days) but I can have what I like at weekends!
Ones teens and twenties tend to shape your attitude to drink. Important to remember that the twenties are essentially the period when you are still a teenager but armed with money. A heady mix.
I thought I could handle spirits and shorts and patently I could not. Frequently blacked out. Frequently acquired another story to tell now I’m of the age where I’m much more comfortable in my own skin and can laugh at the horror of some of the stuff I got up to.
Being in a relationship with someone who has a slightly different background and relationship to alcohol always gives pause for thought and so my focus for a long time now is that I’ll drink as follows:
rarely in midweek as I’m working.
a single bottle of beer or glass of wine towards or on the weekend with a meal. Occasionally a second.
when I’m eating out formally.
slowly but in greater quantity when I meet up with school friends two or three times a year. I can consume eight or more bottles but at such a slow speed over roughly eight hours that no hangover or heaviness ensues.
almost never at a gig or a sporting event. I’m a middle aged bloke and I like my occasions to be minimally interrupted by trips to the loo. This is exacerbated by being sight-impaired. Males with sight loss are not fans of urinals. We need a cubicle and some control over output and direction. Such events don’t lend themselves to easy access to same even with a Radar key. I find water or ginger beer is more than sufficient.
There is no siren call of a bottle for me. I like all sorts of alcohol; am partial to certain craft beers; white wines; odd spirits and indeed a very specific cocktail as much as the next person but I can pick and choose.
I have never enjoyed any hangover and as my friends put it “we grew up”.
I can echo this. I’m lucky never ever felt compelled to drink so always moderate, probably been “drunk” no more than 6 occasions. But in my 20s and newly married I was working in a bit of a drinking culture but I wanted to protect my marriage so unless for a specific event (someone leaving) I always went home rather than join the gang in the pub. I think, almost without thinking about it, that set my code. Alcohol then became almost totally social and just about wine only, Margaret and I shared a bottle (occasionally 2) at the weekend, hot summers day a single Guinness or G&T. After she passed unless with friends for a meal never go to the pub, tried those single bottles of wine but absolutely zero enjoyment on my own. So now 99% dry.
Based on someone else’s praise I tried that recently when I was somewhere and driving afterwards - it was definitely better than other low/no alcohol beers I’ve tried, but I didn’t think it was much like real Guinness.
In a previous post one thing I omitted was that once non-alcoholic beer became available (Kaliber IIRC), when drinking in a situation when there was peer pressure to “keep up” as well as contriving to get missed out in someone else’s round, when I was buying I’d get the non-alcohol one (my capacity for liquid, and need in a hot situation, was not limited). A few years later when water became acceptable to order in pubs and I was man enough to realise that peer pressure was not something I had to succumb to, I switched to having a pint of water every other round.
Since about my late 30s, drinking any alcohol after about 8pm has the most dreadful effect on my sleep. Being sleep-deprived is, to my mind, far worse than a hangover, not least because paracetamol and ibuprofen don’t help with the former! So, I’ve had to be effectively teetotal after 8pm for many years now - the anticipation of the sleep-deprivation is such a strong deterrent that it really works. For me, at least.
Something where my willpower is far less strong is with my sweet tooth. As an example, I can easily give up alcohol completely for Lent every year, but giving up sugar in coffee several years ago was, without exaggeration, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Here, I’ve had to take (with Mrs Ebor’s happy agreement) the nuclear option of simply not having sweets/biscuits etc. in the house at all, or only in small amounts. After many years, I still have the sweet tooth, but my body doesn’t crave it as much as it used to. If your willpower with alcohol is similarly problematic, you could try the equivalent. When going out, you could insist on being the designated driver.
Telling those with you that you’re trying this can also be helpful - you can ask them to act as your conscience!
What you’re saying is that you find it easy. I certainly don’t. I hardly touch spirits but I do love wine, and so does Mrs HH. We have tried the ‘only drink at weekends’ thing so many times. After three nights with wine we look at each other on Monday and often open a bottle. And then Tuesday…. We only have wine with food, but the two just go so well together. Being retired there’s no such thing as work nights, which makes it even harder.
