Excess can be fun?

Years ago, after the death of my first wife and before I was lucky enough to meet Alice, I was working in KSA and I telephoned to what I thought was Harrods. Unfortunately I had the number wrong but a charming lady, when I explained my problem, found the number and passed it to me. A great help from some-one who could have just thrust down the phone on the bothersome wrong number!

So I ordered a case of Champagne to be delivered to a colleague, where I would be spending a weekend when I returned on leave. Regrettably when I checked later it had not arrived, so I got on the blower again (this was before the rise of the web and its easier ways of making such arrangements) and ordered another case from an offie in Manchester. Naturally when I arrived both cases had actually been delivered; I may say that demolishing two cases of the Widow over a weekend makes for a very pleasant experience. I do miss my friends Keilan and Chris, and wonder if I will ever pass by them again.

The lucky fact that champagne, although it does seem to intoxicate one, seems to avoid turning one into a debauched animal meant we managed to prevent ourselves from showing our satisfaction too obviously. However I suspect that Nanny Tony would still consider that we had taken to binge drinking!

Binge drinking is something obviously of great attraction to Singaporeans based upon the rather fine advertisement (at Bugis Junction) on the left which caught my eye and made me realise that the manner in which I drink is not necessarily for all. I do enjoy the effects of alcohol but don't want to "get drunk all day long", or at least not drunk enough to spoil the many other pleasures that exist in life. In Nilai we lived next door to a German married to a Singaporean lady. I do not ever remember seeing him without a beer in his hand. But equally I do not ever remember seeing him drunk. A can was opened at breakfast and replenished throughout the day. But he sipped slowly and took his pleasure in a controlled way that did not have him collapsing to benefit from the free straw. Good for him.