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Funny And/Or Weird Happenings Whilst Drunk (Stoned; Tripping; Etc.)

Went out the other night and had a few bevvies. Got home ok and went to bed. It was hot as heck in the bedroom. I woke once in the early hours after a particularly bad nightmare then went back to sleep after waking myself out of it. I was boiling and so I had thrown the duvet off. Hubby had apparently got up around 4am as he was hot and couldn't sleep. I was awakened around 5 ish by a lovely cool breeze hitting my face as if someone was fanning me. I woke up due to this and kept my eyes closed. I felt cooler for it. Went to thank Hubby for cooling me down but a bit cross he had woken me up so early. He wasn't there, the bedroom door was shut tightly and the window which I had my back to was shut. No draughts to be found anywhere and I am still puzzled by it all.o_O
Fanning ghost! Maybe it was an 18thC lady...
 
Perhaps this question should be on another thread, and sorry if it’s been asked before, but what is it with the British and their fascination with alcohol..?...

I’ve often wondered this as I haven’t noticed the deep set obsession that Brits have with Booze, in other countries / societies I have visited

I’m not really talking of the younger generations going out and getting hammered every Friday and Saturday night, which is both natural and fun, (when you are at a certain age) but more the fact that so many of us seem to live our lives around drink.

I work in a fairly large office with around 25% of staff members being foreign nationals, and they can’t believe how much we actually pour down our throats on a daily basis.

My father (who turned 85 last week bless him) is fit, active and healthy, but regularly drinks in excess of 10 pints of beer a day, and that’s not to say he’s an old sot - far from it, I’ve rarely seen him drunk, but so ingrained is alcohol in his life that if the government of the day introduced a prohibition, I swear he’d just shrivel up and die.

And I’m not pointing any fingers at anyone as I’m just as bad (in fact I’m off down the pub in exactly 23 minutes and 37 seconds time lol) just sort of wondered.
 
I've often thought that technically we're all alcoholics in the UK (well, 99% of us).

Imagine Christmas, birthdays, weddings, leaving parties, wakes - most social occasions - without at least a drink or two.

Maybe it's just my family.
 
Albeit functioning alcoholics :)

Well I had 3 pints at lunch today and I normally have a few glasses of wine with my evening meal so that’s not too bad.

It's when the wife goes to bed and I down a bottle of Vodka (then fill it back up with tap water and put the bottle back in the drinks cabinet) that concerns me :crazy:
 
Hic.....I guessh we jusht know how to h..h..h..have a goood time........hic
 
Don't get me wrong - I love a beer (see the Booze thread for evidence) but I don't drink every day. Once, maybe twice a week at the weekend. I may get a bit more 'thirsty' when I'm on holiday or something but generally that's it.

But...can you seriously imagine a wedding with no toasts, a funeral without raising a glass, Christmas without sherry or Baileys, a work leaving party without the inappropriateness...
 
My father (who turned 85 last week bless him) is fit, active and healthy, but regularly drinks in excess of 10 pints of beer a day, and that’s not to say he’s an old sot - far from it, I’ve rarely seen him drunk, but so ingrained is alcohol in his life that if the government of the day introduced a prohibition, I swear he’d just shrivel up and die.
Your Dad is a legend!
 
...what is it with the British and their fascination with alcohol..?

Years ago my oldest mate emigrated to southern Spain.

One day he was eating in a local cafe/restaurant when a workman came in for his lunch. The workman ordered food and a glass of beer. Over the next half hour or so he ate his meal and sipped his pint. When he’d finished eating, he vacated the establishment leaving half the beer in his glass!

Trivial, but can you imagine that in the UK?

maximus otter
 
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Years ago my oldest mate emigrated to southern Spain.

One day he was eating in a local cafe/restaurant when a workman came in for his lunch. The workman ordered food and a glass of beer. Over the next half hour or so he ate his meal and sipped his pint. When he’d finished eating, he vacated the establishment leaving half the beer in his glass!

Trivial, but can you imagine that in the UK?

maximus otter

No, definitely not Max and that was the point of my post.

On the continent entire groups of even young people can go for an evening out, and the emphasis of the evening is about conversation and food and the odd glass of red wine, but us Brits, forget it.

I spent the entire 2002 world cup in a place called Majacar (also in southern Spain) as a friend of mine ran a bar there, and even I was shocked at the levels of drunkenness of the England fans.

One guy completely disappeared after the England V Argentina game, he was last seen staggering towards the beach in the early hours and was never seen again.
 
Years ago my oldest mate emigrated to southern Spain.

One day he was eating in a local cafe/restaurant when a workman came in for his lunch. The workman ordered food and a glass of beer. Over the next half hour or so he ate his meal and sipped his pint. When he’d finished eating, he vacated the establishment leaving half the beer in his glass!

Trivial, but can you imagine that in the UK?

maximus otter
I've done that.
 
Albeit functioning alcoholics :)

Well I had 3 pints at lunch today and I normally have a few glasses of wine with my evening meal so that’s not too bad.

It's when the wife goes to bed and I down a bottle of Vodka (then fill it back up with tap water and put the bottle back in the drinks cabinet) that concerns me :crazy:
This reminds me of the time an ex-boyfriend and I had gotten into his mum's drinks cabinet and finished off her prized bottle of Bailey's but then totally PANICKED and, trying to avoid getting found out/bollocked, decided (with all the wisdom of a 16 year old) to fill the bottle up with milk from the fridge. We thought we'd gotten away with it too till months later, she poured herself a glass and out oozed a stinking greenish foul smelling lumpy gloopy mass!!
 
Perhaps this question should be on another thread, and sorry if it’s been asked before, but what is it with the British and their fascination with alcohol..?...

I’ve often wondered this as I haven’t noticed the deep set obsession that Brits have with Booze, in other countries / societies I have visited

I’m not really talking of the younger generations going out and getting hammered every Friday and Saturday night, which is both natural and fun, (when you are at a certain age) but more the fact that so many of us seem to live our lives around drink.

I work in a fairly large office with around 25% of staff members being foreign nationals, and they can’t believe how much we actually pour down our throats on a daily basis.

My father (who turned 85 last week bless him) is fit, active and healthy, but regularly drinks in excess of 10 pints of beer a day, and that’s not to say he’s an old sot - far from it, I’ve rarely seen him drunk, but so ingrained is alcohol in his life that if the government of the day introduced a prohibition, I swear he’d just shrivel up and die.

And I’m not pointing any fingers at anyone as I’m just as bad (in fact I’m off down the pub in exactly 23 minutes and 37 seconds time lol) just sort of wondered.
I dunno. But even the Romans knew the celts had good alcohols...

I also suspect it's the later, Germanic influence on our culture from both the vikings and the anglo-saxons...

I still smile every time I see that picture on Jurgen Klopp pissed as a fart on the victory bus, recently when Liverpool won the Champions' League... He fits in so well in England...
 
I think our British fascination with alcohol stems from a deep unhappiness with real life - an ingrained pessimism exasperated by the bad weather on a rain drenched island. Genuinely I do. I have thought about this in depth having worked with selling alcohol for many years in the UK and Europe. I think we are down trodden, broken and expect more of the worst to come.

I think we use any social occassion as an excuse to drink alcohol and enjoy the escapism it provides. It's part of our culture to consume alcohol at every social occassion. It helps you to forget all about your shitty council house on a shitty estate. To forget standing in the freezing rain waiting for another delayed or cancelled train. To forget the job you hate doing for a boss you can't stand. At home, the TV provides brief escapism (all that Celebrity in the jungle bollocks) but sooner of later you'll be listening to politicians spouting lies whilst the newspapers try to get you to top yourself with all their doom and gloom. But alcohol is a quick, cheap, socially acceptable and legal way to make it all go away. So we get hammered. Often. And forget about it all.

People in milder, more outdoor friendly climates enjoy sitting outside each night chatting and eating. A glass of wine is consumed as part of the evening out, not the reason for going out. I think the climate makes them generally happier, healthier and more full of optimism - the sun is shining after all. It's a lot easier waiting in the sunshine for a delayed bus. You boss is happier, you are happier. You get more freah air. Every wall and brick building does not have a cover of moss, green algae or litchen. It's not damp all the time. You can sleep with a warm breeze coming in through the bedroom window. The rest of the population are happier and not whining at each other all the time.

I know which one of those two scenarios would drive me to drink.
 
Then it's too bad that steady alcohol use exacerbates depression!

Once again I have a perfect solution: replant all the trees that Good Queen Bess cut down to build the English navy. The extra oxygen will do you good, and you'll feel better for having saved the planet!
 
I think our British fascination with alcohol stems from a deep unhappiness with real life - an ingrained pessimism exasperated by the bad weather on a rain drenched island. Genuinely I do. I have thought about this in depth having worked with selling alcohol for many years in the UK and Europe. I think we are down trodden, broken and expect more of the worst to come.

I think we use any social occassion as an excuse to drink alcohol and enjoy the escapism it provides. It's part of our culture to consume alcohol at every social occassion. It helps you to forget all about your shitty council house on a shitty estate. To forget standing in the freezing rain waiting for another delayed or cancelled train. To forget the job you hate doing for a boss you can't stand. At home, the TV provides brief escapism (all that Celebrity in the jungle bollocks) but sooner of later you'll be listening to politicians spouting lies whilst the newspapers try to get you to top yourself with all their doom and gloom. But alcohol is a quick, cheap, socially acceptable and legal way to make it all go away. So we get hammered. Often. And forget about it all.

People in milder, more outdoor friendly climates enjoy sitting outside each night chatting and eating. A glass of wine is consumed as part of the evening out, not the reason for going out. I think the climate makes them generally happier, healthier and more full of optimism - the sun is shining after all. It's a lot easier waiting in the sunshine for a delayed bus. You boss is happier, you are happier. You get more freah air. Every wall and brick building does not have a cover of moss, green algae or litchen. It's not damp all the time. You can sleep with a warm breeze coming in through the bedroom window. The rest of the population are happier and not whining at each other all the time.

I know which one of those two scenarios would drive me to drink.

Spot on Ringo! I was thinking of posting along the same lines myself but felt too depressed to articulate it! As someone who has never been a big consumer of alcohol I wouldn't have the option to drown my sorrows after I'd posted! btw I'm not being goody two shoes about my non consumption ... it sends me to sleep before it gets me drunk! I can count the number of times I've actually been drunk on the fingers of one hand ... just the fingers mind. None of those occassions was pleasant and in no way tempted me to experiment more! I'm a bit jealous really as I've never felt so full of hopelessness as I'm feeling just now I never imagined that the political/social situation would get as bad as it has.

Sollywos the grumpy old lady x
 
A few months ago I heard an interview of an author—can't recall his name!—who pointed out that this is a dystopian age but also a marvelous age. Think of half your children dying of measles—that doesn't have to happen anymore, and in most places it doesn't. We have more tools of destruction, but we also have more tools for transforming and connecting. Especially since the internet has become as developed as it is, the variety of books available are phenomenal. The fact that we can share information, insights and opinions on this forum makes me glad to be alive now. It's very hard to believe it sometimes, but it's vital and makes a positive difference to get up in the morning and keep going, even if it's just to say "this is hard and I'm really depressed." Some of my most important and jubilant conversations have started out that way.

Sometimes you just need to feel grumpy. But don't let anyone or anything ever make you believe that your decency, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, is not essential to the living world around you. :group:
 
Once, after a night out got invited to 21st birthday party, a few miles away , the girl I was drinking withs brother took us, free wine or pay for beer, two bottles of wine later im dropped off on the main road to walk to my house (middle of nowhere, south staffs countryside) I remember walking past our cottage , them some time later waking up in the (female)public toilet about a mile away in the village (Kinver) thing is you have to put 20p to get in the toilets , im never drinking again is what I may have said in error.
 
I think our British fascination with alcohol stems from a deep unhappiness with real life - an ingrained pessimism exasperated by the bad weather on a rain drenched island. Genuinely I do. I have thought about this in depth having worked with selling alcohol for many years in the UK and Europe. I think we are down trodden, broken and expect more of the worst to come.

I think we use any social occassion as an excuse to drink alcohol and enjoy the escapism it provides. It's part of our culture to consume alcohol at every social occassion. It helps you to forget all about your shitty council house on a shitty estate. To forget standing in the freezing rain waiting for another delayed or cancelled train. To forget the job you hate doing for a boss you can't stand. At home, the TV provides brief escapism (all that Celebrity in the jungle bollocks) but sooner of later you'll be listening to politicians spouting lies whilst the newspapers try to get you to top yourself with all their doom and gloom. But alcohol is a quick, cheap, socially acceptable and legal way to make it all go away. So we get hammered. Often. And forget about it all.

People in milder, more outdoor friendly climates enjoy sitting outside each night chatting and eating. A glass of wine is consumed as part of the evening out, not the reason for going out. I think the climate makes them generally happier, healthier and more full of optimism - the sun is shining after all. It's a lot easier waiting in the sunshine for a delayed bus. You boss is happier, you are happier. You get more freah air. Every wall and brick building does not have a cover of moss, green algae or litchen. It's not damp all the time. You can sleep with a warm breeze coming in through the bedroom window. The rest of the population are happier and not whining at each other all the time.

I know which one of those two scenarios would drive me to drink.

There's something in this but I don't think it's quite that simple, there are plenty of unhappy people in many countries. My friend's wife is Italian, he's gone out with her and her friends and was struck by how little booze they drank and thought it was very civilised, she pointed out that Italians are so obsessed with their appearance that they won't become drunk, so it's a different form of uptightness. Yanks, Aussies and Kiwis drink similar amounts to us, or in the same way - drinking to get drunk, you could say they've inherited our culture, which is largely true, especially Oz and NZ. British drinking is nothing compared to Eastern Europeans or Russians, that said they have our issues magnified: worse winters and greater poverty and inequality. A Ukranian friend said very good quality vodka is (relatively) cheap there and believes the price is kept down to keep the populace docile, maybe there's something in that.

People have always taken substances that have some sort of physical or psychoactive effect, caffeine and tobacco are big hits around the world, as well as booze, not to mention all manner of (mostly illegal) drugs. Many (all?) indigenous cultures manage to find some sort of plant,fungi or even animal that has some sort of psychological effect. I think humans are too intelligent, we bore easily and are prone to anxiety and depression because we know we, and other people we care about will die, and we can imagine negative futures (a mostly useful evolutionary trait - in terms of planning etc), so we need safety valves.
 
A few months ago I heard an interview of an author—can't recall his name!—who pointed out that this is a dystopian age but also a marvelous age. Think of half your children dying of measles—that doesn't have to happen anymore, and in most places it doesn't. We have more tools of destruction, but we also have more tools for transforming and connecting. Especially since the internet has become as developed as it is, the variety of books available are phenomenal. The fact that we can share information

Sometimes you just need to feel grumpy. But don't let anyone or anything ever make you believe that your decency, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, is not essential to the living world around you. :group:

Was it the late statistician Hans Rosling author of 'Factfulness Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think'?

I've not read the book, just the Kindle free sample however I got the impression that like a lot of academics he was well up on his subject but blinkered to others. The optimistic figures may well be true and indeed a reminder that there is cause for cheer, but without the political context still did not give any reason to jump about with joy!

Still we need to give ourselves a break and remember the mantra:-

Sad, sad, sad dead
Happy, happy, happy, dead.

Sollywos x
 
A few months ago I heard an interview of an author—can't recall his name!—who pointed out that this is a dystopian age but also a marvelous age. Think of half your children dying of measles—that doesn't have to happen anymore, and in most places it doesn't. We have more tools of destruction, but we also have more tools for transforming and connecting. Especially since the internet has become as developed as it is, the variety of books available are phenomenal. The fact that we can share information, insights and opinions on this forum makes me glad to be alive now. It's very hard to believe it sometimes, but it's vital and makes a positive difference to get up in the morning and keep going, even if it's just to say "this is hard and I'm really depressed." Some of my most important and jubilant conversations have started out that way.

Sometimes you just need to feel grumpy. But don't let anyone or anything ever make you believe that your decency, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, is not essential to the living world around you. :group:
I love the fact we have the internet now and most of the things that entails. I've been online since 1995 and would hate to be without it all long term. It makes research easier, I have friends who I have nver met and probably never will but I still enjoy them. I keep up with firends who I would otherwise have lost contact with. HOWEVER I am also incredibly grateful that when I was growing up (and beyond) I did not have these things. I was not wandering around like a zombie glued to a tablet or phone. I think I have had the best of both worlds. Mind I do have a bad habit of wandering in and switching the TV on and just leaving it on in the background. I am however succesfully weaning myself off that! I'm switching it on to watch specific things rather than channel hopping to see if anything is on. And I'm better for it and I'm sort of getting off topic a bit except for tthe fact of weaning myself off background TV like that - it's been easy but if you had asked me previously if I could do that I would have regarded that as a weird thing indeed!
 
Was it the late statistician Hans Rosling author of 'Factfulness Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think'?
I don't think so, Sollywos. I think it was a fiction writer, and possibly one writing for young adults, but I'm not certain.

Mind I do have a bad habit of wandering in and switching the TV on and just leaving it on in the background.
I'd worry about my carbon footprint if I did that.
Good for you for cultivating less background noise in your life!
 
I almost forgot:
People have always taken substances that have some sort of physical or psychoactive effect, caffeine and tobacco are big hits around the world, as well as booze, not to mention all manner of (mostly illegal) drugs. Many (all?) indigenous cultures manage to find some sort of plant,fungi or even animal that has some sort of psychological effect. I think humans are too intelligent, we bore easily and are prone to anxiety and depression because we know we, and other people we care about will die, and we can imagine negative futures (a mostly useful evolutionary trait - in terms of planning etc), so we need safety valves.
We are not the only ones:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com...-birds-animals-science-winter-global-warming/
 

Good point, I recall in FT reading of a village in India in the 90s, where many of the residents were stomped to death by a heard of elephants who had got pissed on the vats of moonshine that some of the residents had been brewing in the forest.

Again in FT, there was a tree (I forget where) that was covered in rotting fruit and hundreds of animals of many species coming along for the party as it were and getting drunk. It included many birds and some butterflies.
 
Good point, I recall in FT reading of a village in India in the 90s, where many of the residents were stomped to death by a heard of elephants who had got pissed on the vats of moonshine that some of the residents had been brewing in the forest.

Again in FT, there was a tree (I forget where) that was covered in rotting fruit and hundreds of animals of many species coming along for the party as it were and getting drunk. It included many birds and some butterflies.
I'd heard that Marula fruit in parts of Africa can have that effect on elephants - but, checking this, I found it to be untrue.
 
There's something in this but I don't think it's quite that simple, there are plenty of unhappy people in many countries. My friend's wife is Italian, he's gone out with her and her friends and was struck by how little booze they drank and thought it was very civilised, she pointed out that Italians are so obsessed with their appearance that they won't become drunk, so it's a different form of uptightness. Yanks, Aussies and Kiwis drink similar amounts to us, or in the same way - drinking to get drunk, you could say they've inherited our culture, which is largely true, especially Oz and NZ. British drinking is nothing compared to Eastern Europeans or Russians, that said they have our issues magnified: worse winters and greater poverty and inequality. A Ukranian friend said very good quality vodka is (relatively) cheap there and believes the price is kept down to keep the populace docile, maybe there's something in that.

People have always taken substances that have some sort of physical or psychoactive effect, caffeine and tobacco are big hits around the world, as well as booze, not to mention all manner of (mostly illegal) drugs. Many (all?) indigenous cultures manage to find some sort of plant,fungi or even animal that has some sort of psychological effect. I think humans are too intelligent, we bore easily and are prone to anxiety and depression because we know we, and other people we care about will die, and we can imagine negative futures (a mostly useful evolutionary trait - in terms of planning etc), so we need safety valves.
For some reason your post reminded me of Aldous Huxley's "The doors of perception" and his (popular) theory that boils down to the premise that every civilisation is trying, through various drugs and/or alcohol, to get completely off their faces to escape the boredom that is their life!
 
Tripping (haha) down memory lane, I remember being at a friend's 21st birthday celebration and the club we were all in had a (badly designed) dance floor which was a sort of raised platform that you had to step up to get on, it also had absolutely no safety rails or other safety measures in place. So there I am, many beers under my belt, clutching my pint as I'm shaking my thang when I get a bit too energetic and accidentally step off backwards gracefully (fall arse over tit) but as I'm lying on my back seeing stars, I recall feeling immensely proud of the fact that I didn't spill a single drop of my drink!!
 
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I think I have to reassess my life choices!! I've just remembered another drunken night out when living in Merthyr Tydfil. I woke up the next morning at home in my bed (alone!) with my bloody left arm in plaster! I had absolutely zero memory of what had actually happened but through a series of flashbacks, I recalled getting run over by a taxi, being picked up by the police and of being in A&E getting my arm plastered (to match the rest of me I guess).
To this day I still don't know what happened to me that night but I definitely know that spirits were involved!
 
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