You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Booze, Crocs, Tea, Scrubs

Despite owning a fair amount of booze, I don't really drink that much -- I have no anecdotes about throwing up on myself, or funny stories involving urine. (Well, no funny stories that involve urine and alcohol, anyway. :) So when the drinking stories started flowing in the room last Friday, I couldn't do much more than listen... and reproduce some of them for your benefit.

One of the big discussions was about rules for drinking that would ensure the least pain the next day (including social pain) -- what drinks not to mix, or the "You can always finish with beer" rule. Someone who was a big drinker in his student days said that his rule lately is, "Don't drink anything but beer, and don't drink fast."

His partner's rule is, "Don't drink anything that comes out of a bathtub or bucket." :)

There were also plenty of throwing-up stories -- the one that was generally acknowledged as being the topper is the chap who puked through a screen door. (He was running for outside, and didn't quite make it; his girlfriend got really annoyed with him, because he ran right past the bathroom to do it.) There were also the full bladder stories: several people had tales of waking up to find someone peeing next to them, but the one that took the cake was the guy who woke up to find himself peeing in the corner of his room...

Then there's the random stupidity, like the alcohol-cocooned treks through the night (sometimes waking up in distant towns; occasionally, in the police holding cells of distant towns for disturbing the peace). For some reason, the most worrying stories seemed to come from the student population of Dunedin -- I don't think I'll reproduce them here, since they are more hair-raising than hilarious.

I guess one of the things that stood out for me is -- while the NZ tendency towards binge-drinking probably doesn't help matters, teenagers do stupid things, and they'd still do them if the drinking age was thirty, or if they had been having vodka with their cornflakes since they were three.

***

"Warning! Most kinds of crocodiles are known man-eaters. If you ever encounter one approach it cautiously, even if it's wearing a pirate hat or playing a guitar." This, my friends, is the advice of The Secret Crocodile Adventure Club. And jolly good advice it is, too.

***

While clearing out the garage, Mum came upon an ancient appliance of mine -- a Goblin teasmaid. This venerable piece of electrical history is basically an alarm clock; but it's an alarm clock that can make you a cup of tea in the morning! (Or soup, I guess, if you put soup-mix in there instead of tea-bags. But why would you want to be woken up with soup? Get out of here, you weirdo!)

Hey! You could totally use the Prenzels' mulled wine mix instead... one of my workmates has just pointed out that if you're going to do this, you could just have a bottle of whiskey beside your bed.

He seems frighteningly keen on the idea, actually.

***

Season 3 of Due South has had to go on hiatus briefly, even though we've just had Fraser talking to his father in the closet. Why, you may ask? Well, initially it was Pride & Prejudice, as I've mentioned before; but now it's because Season 2 of Scrubs is now available, and I have bought me a copy! :)

I'm just lucky I've managed to avoid buying Civ4, or I'd be getting no work done at all.

On a tangental note -- while looking for a copy of the a cappella version of the Charles In Charge theme tune that The Blanks performed on Scrubs, I discovered that they released an album. But even more interestingly, there's the album Saturday Night Hay Fever, a cd of bluegrass covers of disco hits. I must admit, it's pretty tempting...

Posted by svend at November 8, 2005 2:24 PM