Bacchanalian Days long gone

Wikipedia has an entry that says; “The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman god Bacchus (or Dionysus). It has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry”.

Now I have to confess that I have partaken in quite a bit of “drunken revelry “ over the years particularly as a young man when I was in the Army and when hangovers were short lived and recovery Swift. Perhaps for the best times have changed and these days I am more cautious in my approach to alcohol. That is not to say that in the years after I left the Army my abuse of my body and alcohol did not diminish to any huge extent.

In my late teens and twenties it was common place for us lads to set off to the pub on a Thursday night, as it was pay day after all, and aim to sink eight pints of “brown and mild”. Heavens only knows why that would be the tipple of the era save to say that Lager was not widely sold in the pubs we went into, if at all. Drinking spirits was an occasional and daring display of machismo where we would order a pint and a whisky chaser and not know what the hell we were to do with the thing other of course than to drink it. If you were really wanting to be sophisticated we would order Vodka and Lime or a whisky and soda only to dispense the soda with such vigour and abandon that the drink ended up over oneself or any unsuspecting customer who had the misfortune to be at the bar at the same time. The Vodka and Lime however was served in a small old style champagne glass or something similar and served only to spoil the beer you had just downed. We would then stagger back to barracks via the local fish and chip shop and get off to bed carrying an empty fire bucket having dumped the sand or water somewhere convenient and not caring if a fire broke out in the night or not. Clearly this should stand as scientific evidence that alcohol diminishes responsibility and depresses the senses with out the need for experts throughout the world spending millions to research this fact and then publish it.

After leaving the Army I don't suppose my drinking habits changed too much other than to say I dropped the “brown and mild” and simply kept to “mild” and as yet had not really discovered wine heavens forbid that we soldiers would even have considered it as an option unless no other alcohol based beverage was available. It was NOT a man's drink!

Now here I am thinking about how that pattern has changed, red wine, white wine, spirits and a whole plethora or beers and lagers later I have come to an almost abstemious position drinking only a glass of wine or beer a week let alone every day, but it has to be a good one mind you not any old rubbish.  Looking back and given the number of awful hangovers I have endured or should I say inflicted on my long suffering partner I should have kept myself in check long ago.  I recall one awful day when having gone to a friend with her “just for a visit” and I ended up so incapable that V had to drive back home while I clung to life out of the side window of the car at the same time demanding that she “drive slower”.  Sadly I was unaware of the long tailback of traffic from Selsey to Chichester that I was causing by my unreasonable demands.

I still like to have the occasional Rum and Ginger beer with fresh lime or a Whiskey and ginger with a cube of ice or a nice Irish single malt(Scotch brings out the irrational in me so I have avoided it since my 35th birthday!  I mustn't forget the good old G&T though but only if served with Plymouth Gin and Fever Tree Tonic or a nice Spanish brandy with a Bolivar cigar ah, memories.

So now it’s a long hard think about a drink and only a small tipple now and then for me.  How am I about this?  Happy to nip downstairs and mix a non alcoholic spritzer  of ginger cordial and sparkling water topped off with a squeeze of fresh lime…… Cheers!!