what shores?

I was brought up within a drinking culture.  Actually, I was brought up in a smoking culture but tended to veer away from that. My smoking career lasted from about 1973 to 1980.  I remember giving up on New Year's Eve 1980.  That's when it stopped.  I didn't really enjoy it - except for rolling your own Gauloise tobacco  cigarettes - well, we all have to grow up. And cycle to and from work. However, I've never given up drinking.  I can't see the point. What would be the point?  Health reasons?  The only doctor whoever mentioned it to me, mentioned it with a smirk.  I later found out he was the biggest dipso in our town . . .  and the only reason for our discussion was a brief course of antibiotics.

Anyway, alcohol.  Today on Radio 4 they made great play of the fact that it was the most destructive drug . . . blah, blah, blah . . . ad nauseum. Oh come on, I know people who have managed to wreck their lives by NOT drinking - choosing other ways to entertain themselves. I'm still around and I have a reasonably long list of friends who are much the same as me. Okay, I know that drinking isn't the answer - but it is an answer. Martyn Cornell runs a website about beer (http://zythophile.wordpress.com if you're interested) and has recently posted about the fact that ladies don't tend to drink beer despite the various attempts of the brewers to entice them to.  I maintain that the female of the species has more of a tendency to change over the years than the hairier of the species.

Personally, I enjoy drinking - it's social, fun and leads to great stories and I have had some of the most fantastic experiences of my life being involved with like-minded people. Okay, most of them can tell a story about me which I may not fully remember, but at least they remember who I am the next day!

And nowadays, I can remember them, too!

And please, check out the red triangles on the beer bottles in the Manet painting (Bass - remember?) - or else I will have to buy Brendan a pint.