Middle Class Drinking (anecdotal)

[CunningPlan]

47 minutes ago, DTMark said:

I don't really understand how people can get through a bottle of wine every night.

Back in the days when we all had manual jobs toiling in fields, alcohol would have been worked off quite quickly.

Now people just sit at desks I doubt that last night's bottle will work through the system before the next is consumed.

Practice, dear boy, practice.

 

[CunningPlan]

1 hour ago, DTMark said:

I don't really understand how people can get through a bottle of wine every night.

Back in the days when we all had manual jobs toiling in fields, alcohol would have been worked off quite quickly.

Now people just sit at desks I doubt that last night's bottle will work through the system before the next is consumed.

Equally interesting would be what % of school run mum's are over the limit?

[DTMark]

1 hour ago, CunningPlan said:

Practice, dear boy, practice.

 

Maybe if I started immediately after work (I work from home most of the time) I could "stagger" it throughout the evening and get away with it.

But it would ruin my prowess at coming up with long words on the PVR box replay of that day's episode of Countdown.

[ccc]

7 hours ago, CunningPlan said:

Equally interesting would be what % of school run mum's are over the limit?

In Jockland - with our lower limits - probably a hell of a lot.

[CunningPlan]

6 hours ago, DTMark said:

Maybe if I started immediately after work (I work from home most of the time) I could "stagger" it throughout the evening and get away with it.

But it would ruin my prowess at coming up with long words on the PVR box replay of that day's episode of Countdown.

I work at home with my wife as well and it is very easy, especially in the summer.

One glass after work sitting out in the sun discussing the day, another glass whilst I cook dinner and another when eating and that is bottle done.

Sadly I don't have a stop switch so it either a bottle or none. 

 

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

1 minute ago, CunningPlan said:

I work at home with my wife as well and it is very easy, especially in the summer.

One glass after work sitting out in the sun discussing the day, another glass whilst I cook dinner and another when eating and that is bottle done.

Sadly I don't have a stop switch so it either a bottle or none. 

 

You need smaller wine glasses. 

[CunningPlan]

24 minutes ago, 24 year mortgage 8itch said:

You need smaller wine glasses. 

Or a bigger bottle ?

Talking of which I have noticed that my M&S  local is giving much more prominence to the 1 litre bottles.

[Austin Allegro]

10 hours ago, hotairmail said:

They would have been drinking it in the fields. If you wanted something safe to drink,  it would be fermented. 

The problem with drink only really arose with distillation of gin. The crack cocaine of alcohol.

Yes, until the 18th century most people drank beer most of the time instead of water, but it was 'small beer' about 1- 2% alcohol, just enough to kill the bacteria. They drank it like we drink tea now - in fact social reformer William Cobbett wrote a book on the evils of tea, saying it was better to drink small beer instead.  I believe on the continent, where wine was cheap, they drank cheap nasty wine heavily diluted, in the same way. In fact there's a theory that the Roman soldier who offered Christ a drink of 'vinegar' on the cross was not mocking Him, but offering cheap diluted wine, the first century equivalent of a cup of tea, out of pity. 

As you say, binge drinking and attendant social problems only started with cheap gin in the Georgian era. I suspect before that, nobody really binge-drank because they had a mild 'buzz' all day long from small beer. 

[Hail the Tripod]

53 minutes ago, Austin Allegro said:

Yes, until the 18th century most people drank beer most of the time instead of water, but it was 'small beer' about 1- 2% alcohol, just enough to kill the bacteria. They drank it like we drink tea now - in fact social reformer William Cobbett wrote a book on the evils of tea, saying it was better to drink small beer instead.  I believe on the continent, where wine was cheap, they drank cheap nasty wine heavily diluted, in the same way. In fact there's a theory that the Roman soldier who offered Christ a drink of 'vinegar' on the cross was not mocking Him, but offering cheap diluted wine, the first century equivalent of a cup of tea, out of pity. 

As you say, binge drinking and attendant social problems only started with cheap gin in the Georgian era. I suspect before that, nobody really binge-drank because they had a mild 'buzz' all day long from small beer. 

Locally referred to as: "the W.C." (pun intended).

[DTMark]

Not been in there. It's only about five minutes from here - I thought it looked familiar. Small world, etc

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

1 hour ago, Austin Allegro said:

Yes, until the 18th century most people drank beer most of the time instead of water, but it was 'small beer' about 1- 2% alcohol, just enough to kill the bacteria. They drank it like we drink tea now - in fact social reformer William Cobbett wrote a book on the evils of tea, saying it was better to drink small beer instead.  I believe on the continent, where wine was cheap, they drank cheap nasty wine heavily diluted, in the same way. In fact there's a theory that the Roman soldier who offered Christ a drink of 'vinegar' on the cross was not mocking Him, but offering cheap diluted wine, the first century equivalent of a cup of tea, out of pity. 

As you say, binge drinking and attendant social problems only started with cheap gin in the Georgian era. I suspect before that, nobody really binge-drank because they had a mild 'buzz' all day long from small beer. 

Paging @ccc it's why people didn't used to get depressed, they were perma-pissed. 

 

its forced 20th century sobriety that is the cause.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

6 hours ago, CunningPlan said:

Or a bigger bottle ?

Talking of which I have noticed that my M&S  local is giving much more prominence to the 1 litre bottles.

Thankfully, my working class roots preclude me being a wine drinking middle class secret alcoholic.

 

There's a scene in the Danny Baker childhood comedy with his parent are drinking a bottle of wine brought back from (someone else's?) holiday. It was a novelty for them which shows how far we've come.

[Hail the Tripod]

2 hours ago, DTMark said:

Not been in there. It's only about five minutes from here - I thought it looked familiar. Small world, etc

He was a farmer with land close to Farnham, in addition to being a political reform campaigner. He was later an MP for Oldham, Lancs. Funny how even back then middle class southerners got parachuted in to represent northern constituencies... 

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

15 minutes ago, hotairmail said:

H

At least someone has started early tonight.

[RentingForever]

I regularly catch an early evening train back from London to the south coast. I've started noticing that whereas before you'd see people with one of those M&S plastic glasses of wine to see them through the journey, I'm now seeing people with whole bottles. Usually empty by the end. And these are commuters, not people celebrating a special day out.

Admittedly this is Southern Fail. They would drive me to drink (with a delay and a cancellation) if I had to use them every day.

 

[ARIMA]

On 17/04/2017 at 4:15 PM, knock out johnny said:

I'm a serious big time drinker

Went to AA at the behest of a mate who was a former coke fiend. AA was the most depressing night of the week. I know you're meant to do 30 meeting in 30 days, but I couldn't.

It just didnt work for me. I drink because I'm unhappy, whereas AA was full of testimony of people who were unhappy because they drank (I am totally sympathetic but every meeting was a horror story. Enough to drive you to drink)

On the positive - I did look into the posibilites of being a 13th stepper  There was a lot of good looking tail in the room although the emotional cost was probably not worth it.

I'm an alcoholic - not happy about it, but the alternative is worse!

 

A candid post indeed.

Two questions:

1. What's your poison/tipple of choice?

2. Why are you unhappy?

[Sledgehead]

1 hour ago, GARCH said:

A candid post indeed.

Two questions:

1. What's your poison/tipple of choice?

2. Why are you unhappy?

I suppose one knows one has a problem when the answer to 1 and 2 are the same : "Everything!"

 

[winkie]

 

[crashmonitor]

Just watching Midsommer Murders and Barnaby has just overfilled his wife's  large glass with red...about 300 ml I'd guess ( about 4 units).

Little things that normalise habits, a bit like people subliminally aping chain smoking from movies in the past.

[Economic Exile]

57 minutes ago, Sledgehead said:

I suppose one knows one has a problem when the answer to 1 and 2 are the same : "Everything!"

 

Indeed.!

In the last years of my drinking anything would do as long as it was some kind of spirits.

Maybe KOJ hasn't reached a rock bottom yet? I do empathise with anyone addicted to alcohol. It's a living hell. Not easy at all to stop or even limit intake.

Having sat in many AA meetings I know many other people's rock bottom was much further down the scale than mine. Mine was bad enough for me and thankfully I met a good crowd in AA and had great support. I really really wanted to stop drinking booze and I think that is a necessary mindset for quitting.

After two plus years of sobriety my kids were born. Son 1993 daughter 1994. Then ex husband f**ked off with a bar maid from village hotel. ?

The kids and the responsibility of raising them was down to me. Because of them I never touched a drink again. They're 22 & 23 now and doing well. So am I! Glad I'm not a slave to booze now and much better off financially!

 

 

 

[blobloblob]

29 minutes ago, Economic Exile said:

ex husband f**ked off with a bar maid from village hotel. 

I'm glad it sounds like you've turned out OK in the end as I'm already feeling guilty that the irony of this bit made me laugh out loud. 

[Economic Exile]

1 hour ago, blobloblob said:

I'm glad it sounds like you've turned out OK in the end as I'm already feeling guilty that the irony of this bit made me laugh out loud. 

LOL myself at your comment. In hindsight I find it funny.

It was tough at the time being left a single parent with no father to support kids but the ex and the barmaid were both addicted to booze and in her case drugs too.

Luckily I had made a decision to stay sober and had good support. He didn't want to quit and still hasn't neither has she but they aren't together now. Rarely see either of them but if I do I'm thankful that I'm not like them! 

Yes, overall life has been at least ok for me and lots of achievements and good times over the years in sobriety. Kids doing well which is good but I'm aware they don't have the life chances I had forty years ago ?

Neither of them seem to be addicted to booze or drugs but my son did go through a spell of drinking excessively. Two years ago he was locked up in a cell for drunk and disorderly behaviour. He didn't like that or my ultimatum that if he didn't drink sensibly he could f*ck off and find his own place to live. I will not enable him to ruin his life by excessive booze intake. Thankfully he seems to have cut his intake considerably so he's still living with me. 

 

[ccc]

I love booze. However i wouldn't describe myself as middle class so I think i get an exemption from this thread. 

[Austin Allegro]

On 4/22/2017 at 7:30 PM, Sledgehead said:

I suppose one knows one has a problem when the answer to 1 and 2 are the same : "Everything!"

 

One thing I've noticed as I get older is that alcohol seems to become more of a depressant than it used to be. If I have more than 2-3 pints of beer in a night, I'll usually feel a bit down the next day. If I do it two nights in a row, say Friday and Saturday, I'll feel more than doubly worse, with depression and anxiety. 

It affects people differently of course, but I think as you get older your sleep quality tends to decline (which is why elderly people tend to wake early and take afternoon naps) and alcohol makes it even worse. I hate that feeling of waking up depressed at 5am, and it leads to a vicious cycle of consumption because you want to feel better the next day. 

[DTMark]

4 minutes ago, Austin Allegro said:

One thing I've noticed as I get older is that alcohol seems to become more of a depressant than it used to be. If I have more than 2-3 pints of beer in a night, I'll usually feel a bit down the next day. If I do it two nights in a row, say Friday and Saturday, I'll feel more than doubly worse, with depression and anxiety. 

Exactly the same here. I tend not to drink before about 9pm so my drinking is 'time-compressed' which doesn't help.

1 can = I'll know that I drank something last night. Overcome by one coffee. Not a problem.

2 cans = Slight fogginess. Overcome by two coffees. Not a problem but not a great start to the day.

3 cans = Half the next day is lost to foggy brain. Will make stupid mistakes or do things in non-optimal ways as brain not firing on all cylinders.

4 cans = Forget about achieving anything the next day.

Repeated two days in a row = anxiety and sense of depression with a "fractious" feeling all day.