[Drinking] How's your drinking ?

Guinness Boy said:

I would imagine anything kept in a growler would end up a pile of gash...….

(sorry - and hope you are ok as I assume work has somewhat dried up? Really feel for anyone in the hospitality trade).

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No need to apologise, it was a poor (or maybe subliminal) choice of words.

Very thoughtful, thank you for the concern, we're hoping to re emerge when we are able. The most daunting thing, from a business perspective, is not knowing how long this will go on for. We're fairly resilient ( we had floods last month) so remain hopeful.

Anyway, I'll let you know how my beer wine hybrid goes. I'm going to have it with steak, so don't feel too sorry for me!

I voted the same as I only drink at weekends as I can't work with a hangover, and I've still been doing the odd job or working on my garden.
But I actually should have voted less, because if everything was normal I would still be at Newhaven FC after turning up at 1pm, I would probably be on my 8th pint by now and hoping the bar would be open for a while

Same, but can see it increasing. Too much time to fill..............need to watch my red wine intake closely as easily becomes a daily habit, and once the bottle is open, it's gone

Had a couple of virtual pubs. Checking in at the Zoom Arms was good - one with work colleagues (any shop talk banned - drinking was slightly awkward as time zones varied from 11am to past midnight - pleased to say the guy at 11am had a beer - Corona of course as he's in Mexico) and one with a group of mates. Will be regular events - maintaining social contact is a very positive thing IMO

Yes Chef said:

Anyway, I'll let you know how my beer wine hybrid goes. I'm going to have it with steak, so don't feel too sorry for me!

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Is that the Lost Pier one ?

Less,had none last night ,will have 4 bottles of Guinness West indies Porter tonight . I'd love a pint of Draught now ,it's been 2 weeks now at The Orchard in Preston since my last . To get a video yesterday from an ex poster now landlord pouring a barrel down the drain was tragic.

I've been drinking slightly more, perhaps half a bottle of wine extra.*





*in a week that is, not a day!

Springal said:

Is that the Lost Pier one ?

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Indeed it is, the 'assemblage series', a hefty 6.3%, brewed alongside Vibrant Forest, who are one of my favourites

Did drink two days a week, now I don’t drink two days a week. Beer run out, drinking very old bottles of wine

Yes Chef said:

Indeed it is, the 'assemblage series', a hefty 6.3%, brewed alongside Vibrant Forest, who are one of my favourites

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I tried that at the Arundel brewfest in January - be interested to know your thoughts !

Bozza said:

I'm not sitting her advocating everyone starts drinking heavily, I was merely answering the question posed.

And, whilst I'm certainly aware that some do suffer mentally when drinking, I'm less convinced it's that significant for me. I enjoy a drink - always have done and, I suspect, always will do.

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I know I really wasn't suggesting that.
I used to drink way too much, but I found watching the Albion and getting beered up was not a good idea, unless I wanted a life ban.

I have never felt better in mind and body and I put that down to not getting wasted, when I do drink 2 Guiness or red wines are plenty to be sociable, I have never drank much at home.

Could be worth using this lockdown to test yourself!!

That's If you wish to push your limits.

About the same, enjoy a beer mainly weekends. Nothing to be ashamed about.
Date night tonight indoors with the Mrs so having a few.
Cheers

pasty said:

Significantly less. Rarely drink at home and that's not changed since the pubs have closed.

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Same... i go to the pub 2/3 times a week and ave between 3-8 beers... Beer doesn't taste as nice at home. I open a bottle and always leave half.

Mouldy Boots said:

I know I really wasn't suggesting that.
I used to drink way too much, but I found watching the Albion and getting beered up was not a good idea, unless I wanted a life ban.

I have never felt better in mind and body and I put that down to not getting wasted, when I do drink 2 Guiness or red wines are plenty to be sociable, I have never drank much at home.

Could be worth using this lockdown to test yourself!!

That's If you wish to push your limits.

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You seem to be replying to me as if I'd said "I'm drinking a lot, but I always drink a lot". That's not the case.

As I've already said, I went over consecutive 200 days without a drink last year and, in fact, I went about 45 days without a drink at the beginning of this year. There are several threads on here where I, and others, chronicled our changing relationship with booze.

And, whilst my drinking has increased over the last couple of weeks, I could reduce it or stop again at any time I choose. I've just not chosen to. However, I had already decided that I'd go back to "event drinking" only after tonight. Events are few and far between right now, obviously, so it will just be virtual get togethers with friends as and when they happen, for the foreseeable.

Now, please excuse me - I have some cider to smash through.

Same

Less, much less. In fact I'm using this as an opportunity to give up booze completely.

Off the richterscale ! Waitrose extra sweet port at £13.99 a bottle. It's helping me to forget how crap things are at present.

None since Wolves away. Protecting immune system. Next drink will be Albions next match so could be some time...

Springal said:

I tried that at the Arundel brewfest in January - be interested to know your thoughts !

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I'm still supping the Malbec Stout and still ruminating about it. My fear is that sometimes you can combine two things that you really like and come up with something not quite as good as either.
I personally like a pastry or coffee Stout, but I would like to try this again, maybe on draught or even better cask, it's certainly intriguing.

How's my drinking? Wow, there's a big question. For me anyway. It's ****ing great as it happens. If you're a brewery.

I'm probably about to open up waaay more than I should, but I'm going to on account of the fact that it's 9pm on a Saturday night and I'm already pretty much shitfaced. What else is there to do? I grew up in a middle class home, but one which was fraught with domestic abuse. My mum took her share of it, but I took the brunt from a pretty young age - 5 or 6 I think. My sister escaped any direct harm, but she recently shared that she's spent thousands on counselling to deal with what she witnessed. I've never done that. I still feel the guilt of ducking a punch meant for me that instead caught my dear old mum and knocked her clean out. She called in sick at work for the next two weeks, until the bruises had died down enough for makeup to do its job.

My mid-to-late teens were a nightmare. Mum refused to leave dad, despite my advice. There was constant conflict. Realising that I was the accelerant to pretty much every argument, I would keep well out of the way until both had retired to bed. I would head downstairs shortly after midnight most nights, microwave myself a Rustlers burger, watch re-runs of South Park and drink until I passed out. This pretty much from 16 all the way until I left home a couple of years later.

I actually met my wife the same day I left home aged 18 - and I'm 34 now with two absolutely beautiful kids. I think it took her a little while to spot the difference in patterns between youthful, social drinking escapades and an unhealthy, habitual relationship with booze that wasn't going to disappear with maturity and responsibility. She was too emotionally involved by then, even if I'd tried to warn her in the early months of our relationship. I think she took it as the drunken ramblings of the emotional young man I was back in 2003/4, but part of me wishes, for her sake, that she'd taken on board what I'd had to say.

My twenties were spent drinking habitually, but relatively harmlessly. I'd get through five or six tins a night, but such was my body's tolerance I would never be what most people would consider 'drunk'. I was drinking to feel mellow, to feel normal.

The problem is that you can't drink like that, and eat like shit, and remain in shape. In February 2016, I arrived at the cardiology unit at Leeds General Infirmary for a check-up on a congenital heart defect that had been spotted during a routine check-up a couple of years earlier. I'm 6ft 1, and at that moment in time, tipped the scales at around 17 stone. My condition had worsened, and would likely need major surgery in the next 5 to 20 years. Whether it was 5, or 20, was essentially up to me.

After heading back to the office in shock, chainsmoking 8 fags, going for 3 pints on my lunch break and grabbing a selection of Greggs pasties I made a vow to sort myself out. And I did to be fair. Cut out booze completely during the week, healthy diet, gym 5 times a week, supplements galore. I went from being a 17 stone lard arse to being 10.5 stone and, for a short period last summer at least, absolutely ripped. Six pack and everything. It was unreal - many people said so.

But it could never last. Whenever booze was available, I would take it. Abstinence made the thirst even worse. Last August, we took a family holiday to an all inclusive holiday in Mexico. We flew with the now defunct Thomas Cook. We were delayed by 24 hours, and so on eventual arrival at the check-in desk we were given £100 in vouchers to spend in the terminal. My missus took the £25 for the kids to get some magazines and sweets and left me to my own devices. Now I'm telling you, even in an airport, give a man £75 and an hour to himself, he can get himself pretty ****ed up. How I managed to get on that plane, I don't know. I slept nearly the whole way. The two weeks that followed are mostly missing.

That was the thing. My week long abstinence seemed to make my body crave it more. And when I allowed myself to get stuck in, boy would I get stuck in. I've done some crazy shit these last couple of years, and I'm ashamed of much of it.

At 19 I found myself briefly homeless, too ashamed to tell my now wife who I was dating at the time. I spent three months living in a car I couldn't afford to fuel in the car park of Wolviston services of the A689 near Hartlepool. Possibly the lowest point of my life came when I returned from the petrol station there having bought a tin of beans I intended to eat cold, only to realise that it required a tin opener. I didn't own a tin opener.

Fast forward to now. 2020 was always going to be a big year for me. I joined a small startup in Leeds in 2006. There were 8 of us. There are now nearly 300 of us. We got bought out in 2016 by a global organisation who employ 50,000. I've received some decent rewards for the role I've played over the past 13 or so years, but this year was the big one. I had six, maybe seven figures on the line. I'm really, really conscious that I am so lucky and in a much better position than probably 97.5% of the population right now. But I've potentially lost everything I've worked for, everything I've promised my family. Everthing I've planned to do for my children. It was all nailed on, and now it's probably gone.

I've not lost my home. I've not lost my job. I won't lose either. So who the **** am I to complain? But still, after all I've worked through, all I've worked for, for it all be taken away by something that emerged from a Chinese wet market, it's absolutely galling.

So yeah, how's my drinking? Steady away...

Bozza said:

Worth seeing if you can hold a virtual pub session using Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, Google Hangouts or whatever with mates. Have a couple of beers and have a face-to-face catchup.

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This is what I've been doing with my friends. It's really nice to have a beer or two and see people's faces.

I'm drinking more often but I don't think the quantity has really increased that much. I'd normally have a few beers when I'm out on one or two occasions over the weekend. Now I'm having one beer on most nights but don't feel inclined to drink much more than that. I'm ordering beers from local breweries, they're all doing delivery services.