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Drinking booze

A virtual pub for off topic, light hearted pub related banter and discussion. No trainers
brightncheerful
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Drinking booze

#80873

Postby brightncheerful » September 13th, 2017, 3:41 pm

Last week, I went to a neighbour's house-warming party. Nowadays I rarely get invited to parties, let alone go to them (!) I'd forgotten just how much alcohol appears to be consumed on such occasions. I rarely drink alcohol (except an occasional sip at Christmas time( and given the choice between beer, wine, spirit, water, I choose water. In fact during the just over 4 hours at the party all I had to drink all evening was two glasses of tap water. Which means that I can remember what I said as well as what others said to me during conversations. Which may make me sound boring but is a useful as an alibi. (Interesting word 'alibi' - originates from the Latin meaning elsewhere, somewhere else; a good description of what can happen to your state of mind after you've been drinking!)

For health reasons Mrs Bnc can no longer drink alcohol so a few days ago we had a clear out of the bottles of alcoholic drink, mostly used in cooking, all of which I took great pleasure in pouring down the sink. All that's left is about five bottles of fine wine (the remainder of half a case that I bought last year for Mrs Bnc to help her relieve the pressure of living wth me) that we'll keep for something to take along for the host in case we/I are/am invited to any more parties. Last week there were half a dozen: one went to the house warming, another was earmarked to a bbq that had to be cancelled.

Which brings me to the point of this post: why do people drink so much alcohol? In this day and age when keeping fit and staying healthy is all the rage, i'd have thought that drinking alcohol would be on pointless list. I appreciate it's a centuries-old social habit (pubs and all that) but the people I meet aren't centuries old, even though from the look of some of them not far short! Is it as curers of alcoholism suggest the sugar in the drink and difficulty in shaking off the addiction to sugar or what?

bungeejumper
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Re: Drinking booze

#80880

Postby bungeejumper » September 13th, 2017, 4:03 pm

I have tried burning booze, wearing it, growing plants with it, making furniture with it, and painting the wall with it. On balance, I've established that drinking it is the most satisfactory purpose. I hope that helps.

BJ

UncleIan
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Re: Drinking booze

#80885

Postby UncleIan » September 13th, 2017, 4:18 pm

brightncheerful wrote:I rarely drink alcohol (except an occasional sip at Christmas time)....why do people drink so much alcohol?


I would suggest your scale of what is "so much" may need recalibrating. Besides, it's quite tricky to tell how much someone has drunk unless you're by their side all evening (or it's obvious by their actions that it's "too much"), a driver could easily nurse a pint for an hour or two. It's also difficult, at least, I find it so, so drink slowly if I'm standing up with my drink in my hand, whereas if I put it down it's a more deliberate act to pick it up.

Some people find social gatherings quite awkward, and a drink or two can help them relax.
Some people like the taste.
Some people like the social gathering and the drinking that goes with it.
Mostly, no harm is done in some moderate social drinking.

Itsallaguess
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Re: Drinking booze

#80896

Postby Itsallaguess » September 13th, 2017, 4:55 pm

"Son, never trust a man who doesn't drink....." (James Arthur Crumley) - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6f/92/fe ... 638c2e.jpg

Itsallaguess

marronier
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Re: Drinking booze

#80928

Postby marronier » September 13th, 2017, 7:20 pm

In my 1814 pocket guide book ," New Picture of Paris " by Edward Planta , there is the emphasised passage ;- "The scenes of drunkenness and debauchery, which sometimes disgrace the British metropolis, are never seen in Paris. Brutal quarrels and battles , rarely disturb the hours of business or rest."

200 years later and British city and town centres are much the same as ever when pubs and clubs close for the night.

It seems that Brits have never and will never be able to handle their booze.

simsqu
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Re: Drinking booze

#80934

Postby simsqu » September 13th, 2017, 7:36 pm

brightncheerful wrote:Which brings me to the point of this post: why do people drink so much alcohol?


Well I don't know about the rest of the folks around here, but personally, I drink it in order to get through one of your posts

didds
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Re: Drinking booze

#80956

Postby didds » September 13th, 2017, 10:03 pm

Me - I like a beer, or wine with a meal. Im not nmuch into spirits but dabble on occassion (read - burns night parties!)

However - TV programming. Its cerebrally insulting, generally patronising in nature, and mostly appears to fall into the category of "drivel". I happily stopped paying for a TV license because all i seemed to do was pay £147 a year to not watch TV.


why do people watch so much TV?


didds

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Re: Drinking booze

#80975

Postby UncleEbenezer » September 14th, 2017, 12:04 am

I like the occasional glass. Generally with food: my one pint with my meal this evening is typical.

I wonder if one of the reasons those of us in mid to later life acquired the habit was the lack of an alternative? When in the bar, your token non-alcoholic choice was some britvic bottle costing nearly as much as a pint yet so truly foul as to make the stinking loos seem preferable as a remedy for thirst.

Like the token veggie options that try so hard to push one to meat-eating. Does anyone actually like a veggieburger?

dionaeamuscipula
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Re: Drinking booze

#80977

Postby dionaeamuscipula » September 14th, 2017, 12:20 am

I drink to forget.

Although I can no longer remember what it was I wanted to forget.

DM

bungeejumper
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Re: Drinking booze

#80995

Postby bungeejumper » September 14th, 2017, 8:22 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:When in the bar, your token non-alcoholic choice was some britvic bottle costing nearly as much as a pint yet so truly foul as to make the stinking loos seem preferable as a remedy for thirst.

Good grief, that's a bit colourful even for four minutes past midnight. Just the one pint with your supper, you said? :lol:

Have to agree, through, that the price of a Britvic is appalling. I once had a girlfriend, a delicate little thing, who could down those things at the rate of one every ten minutes. Unaffordable. I traded her in for a big lass who stuck to cider.

BJ

didds
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Re: Drinking booze

#81007

Postby didds » September 14th, 2017, 9:18 am

I think the point here is - we often are unable to fathom why people do stuff that we personally do not do.

I used to think running was a horrible and pointless exercise (see what I did there?).
Then I started to run.
Then I couldn't understand why people didn't run, as its pretty much the cheapest form of exercise.
I had a contract interview at Roll-Royce in derby almost a decade ago, when I'd started running. I was being interviewed by a panel of three including one hugely overweight chap. As an ice breaker the lead interviewer asked me about my running and triathlon exploits. The fat bloke burst out with "Why would you want to do that?". I simply said whilst looking him in the eye "I've lost six stones". Momentary silence in the room - then the other two interviewers burst out laughing. I didn't get the role (but why would I want to work with a pillock like that anyway LOL!)


As opined above - I find the majority of TV programming patronising drivel with lowest common denominator focus. So I don't watch TV, and can't understand why anybody would want to. Clearly lots of people do however and derive some strange enjoyment from being patronised. Fair enough.

So in answer to "why do people drink so much alcohol" the obvious question is then "Why do some people drink so little alcohol" ?

didds

Dod1010
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Re: Drinking booze

#81023

Postby Dod1010 » September 14th, 2017, 9:44 am

My answer to Didds is (not admitting that I 'drink so little alcohol') I try not to drink too much alcohol because I have always been a 'three is too many and four is not enough' sort of drinker. Simple fact is that I feel better in the morning if I do not drink, but dammit I like the stuff!

I actually like a glass of wine and I mean that, but if I am sitting on my own (not watching TV because it really is mostly rubbish) usually reading, I like to drink whisky, but then see above. The next morning I totally agree with the OP. It does me no good and costs money.

Dod

bungeejumper
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Re: Drinking booze

#81024

Postby bungeejumper » September 14th, 2017, 9:46 am

didds wrote:I used to think running was a horrible and pointless exercise (see what I did there?).
Then I started to run.
Then I couldn't understand why people didn't run, as its pretty much the cheapest form of exercise.

It's been a while (all right, nearly forty years) since I ran, but what I remember - or rather, don't remember - is the way that it lifted all the cares of the day off my shoulders. Once the adrenalin had kicked in, I entered a sort of trance state in which I was quite literally incapable of complex thought. And I'd get to the end of my five miles and think "good grief, where did the last half hour go?"

The boot is on the other foot (IYSWIM?) when I encounter racing cyclists who seem incapable of making intelligent decisions when hurtling round blind bends three abreast. It's yer hormones, you see - the exertion is messing with them. Endorphin overload. Impaired brain function.

Which brings us neatly back to booze. ;)

BJ

brightncheerful
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Re: Drinking booze

#81044

Postby brightncheerful » September 14th, 2017, 11:11 am

When I was in my teens, it used to fascinate me just how many adults and older people seemed to be ill or something wrong with their health. In those days, I didn't realise it was the cumulative affect of poor diet (food and drink) but having spent my life ever since wanting to look after and care for my heath, I continue to be fascinated just how people don't seem to care for their own health, but carry on eating and drinking the sort of food and drink that from my extensive knowledge is harmful to health. It's as though they somehow think being unwell/ill is normal and that whenever they are they'll be cured easily so as to carry on regardless.

In my teens and twenties, I used to drink alcohol - wine, cider, liqueurs, lager, occasionally a beer, and graduated onto the hard stuff: cointreau in a pint glass and when i'd had enough pour it back in the c/bottle, barley wine and Fullers ESB (one evening I had three of that combination and ended up with hallucinations: scary, so never again. But I stopped long ago (late 20s, early 30s) because being self-employed I cannot afford the luxury of self-inflicted harm. Employees get paid during sick-leave but the self-employed don't. And looking ahead long term to when I too would become older I want to avoid any cumulative adverse consequences.

The challenge as I have found both from my own approach and observations is that mostly we eat and drink with our eyes and taste buds, regardless of whether our physical bodies as a whole can cope. Considering we get our nutrition and fuel for energy and stamina from food and drink, one would expect surely for the majority of people to be discerning about what they feed their bodies with, rather than a minority.

It is said "you are what you eat" but I find that non-sensical. I prefer 'you become what you eat" which to me makes more sense.

Health risks of alcohol? According to the NHS, "the type of illnesses you can develop after 10 to 20 years of regularly drinking more than 14 units a week include:
cancers of the mouth, throat and breast.
stroke.
heart disease.
liver disease.
brain damage.
damage to the nervous system.

But arguably the most obvious risk is the actual damage caused by alcohol to your skin, your body's largest organ. Alcohol dehydrates the body generally: every time you drink. Which is one reason older people, adults, have rough and hard skin. And another why women (traditionally) spend a fortune on skin care creams in the vain hope of keeping their skin as smooth and soft as possible. And quite possibly one reason why men prefer younger women is that younger people tends to have smoother skin because the cumulative effect of alcohol and poor diet hasn't been going long enough to make a noticeable difference!

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Drinking booze

#81048

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 14th, 2017, 11:35 am

But arguably the most obvious risk is the actual damage caused by alcohol to your skin, your body's largest organ. Alcohol dehydrates the body generally: every time you drink.
Ah, that's why I only drink alcohol as a 5% solution in water, with added health-promoting hops etc

bungeejumper
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Re: Drinking booze

#81059

Postby bungeejumper » September 14th, 2017, 12:31 pm

But arguably the most obvious risk is the actual damage caused by alcohol to your skin, your body's largest organ. Alcohol dehydrates the body generally
By god, you're right, sir. I shall stop bathing in champagne immediately, and to hell with the entente cordiale. I congratulate you, however, on having survived the cointreau in a pint glass at all.

Just for interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_teetotalers. All the usual suspects (D Trump, A Hitler), and a few heroes (F Zappa), but a noticeable contingent of heavy-swilling reprobates who were presumably given no option - Jimmy Page, Naomi Campbell, Frankie Boyle and of course AA Gill, for all the good it did him. :(

BJ

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Re: Drinking booze

#81074

Postby brightncheerful » September 14th, 2017, 1:26 pm

Ah, that's why I only drink alcohol as a 5% solution in water, with added health-promoting hops etc


A local brewery (in Herefordshire) is producing a range of green hop beers: freshly picked from the bines grown on farms within a five miles radius of the brewery, rather than those that are dried in a kiln. The target (no pun intended) is to capture all of the delicate oils from the flowers before they begin to oxidise. The brewer aims to have the hops in the brew within 1 hour of picking. But many more green hops are needed in beer making – six times as many as the dried version.

I've a dwarf hop bine in my garden. I was given a root cutting by a local hops grower when we moved to the area and it has lasted well, producing hops every year for getting on for 25 years. We used to make hop pillows for the bed but the hop oils would seep on to the bed sheets and are difficult to wash off. In a good year, we might have enough for some hops decoration to hang from the ceiling or wherever but nowadays I just let it flower and die back amongst the lavender bushes. I don't remember the variety but dwarf hops were first bred by Wye College and its successor institution Wye Hops Ltd. The dwarf varieties are easier to pick by machine and far more economical to grow.

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Re: Drinking booze

#81080

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 14th, 2017, 1:57 pm

There are numerous small breweries in S Shrops/Herefordshire/Worcestershire these days
Of the Herefordshire ones, Wye Valley is the one I am most familiar with. Think they are up near Bromyard?
(Not to be confused with Wye College in Kent)

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Re: Drinking booze

#81090

Postby bungeejumper » September 14th, 2017, 2:41 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:There are numerous small breweries in S Shrops/Herefordshire/Worcestershire these days
Of the Herefordshire ones, Wye Valley is the one I am most familiar with. Think they are up near Bromyard?

Ah, Bromyard. We were there in May for the Malvern Show. What a nice part of the world - well mostly, though it has that slightly left-behind-by-the-21st-century look in places - I wouldn't want to be a young person looking for a job around there. :) But absolutely stunning countryside, and the apple orchards toward Leominster of course.

Going back to Kent, I had a meeting at a place called Brenchley, near Tunbridge, and arrived early. Took a stroll around the churchyard, and the entire plot was heavily planted with Fuggles. The family, that is, not the eponymous hops which they developed. Fascinating little discovery.

BJ

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Re: Drinking booze

#81093

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 14th, 2017, 2:59 pm

It's nice around there - my paternal grandfather was vicar of a parish near Leominster, before moving to (equally rural) south Shropshire


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