I found myself in an old haunt today. Warnings of an accident on my commute route home made me decide to pop around the corner from the office to the local Wetherspoon pub. Avoiding the dodgy "alcho" pub on the corner, which often offers daytime amusement from the office window as well as very bad kareoke on a Wednesday evening from 5pm. Anyway this Wethers pub has been the site of a start of many a night out in my early twenties.
I sat there with a pint of carlsberg, thinking about nights gone by, staggering out of here half cut on the way to a livelier if more expensive "boozer". Part of me wanted to revisit this, call my friends, get them out, have a laugh and suffer a horrendoes hangover the next day whilst not working very hard (I always work hard these days).
I got out after one, part because I was driving - "have another leave the car...." said the demon - but mostly because I've changed, I think for the better. It seems almost another lifetime, I don't go out as much now. Partly due to mortagage and other commitments but mostly beacuse its not compatible with the running really... I can run the day after a skinful but I don't usually enjoy it that much.
A darker thought occured as I passed the other bar again, could I have ended up there? shuffling in at 8am half cut already, staggering out mid afternoon to go do god-knows-what those guys do with the rest of the day. I have seen some right states leaving there at about 10:30am before. How far was I from that? A few more years of the work, night out cycle?. Could I have been "that"? I enjoyed a few nights out a week, some months all my money seemed to disappear on the "razz". I have always been a happy drunk, but once or twice leant on it if a bit down, in between all the good times I enjoyed on the town. Maybe the running is the escape I needed from the stress of work and life and a healthier release than a few (too many) pints. I'm fairly sure I'm addicted to the running and the forum thing, but there could be worse things eh.
Anyhow I'll no doubt have a few heavy nights out over xmas, but not too many, after all with all these days off it would be a shame not to feed my true addiction.
Hey fella, when I think of all the years between 17 and 27 that I poured ale down my throat at an alarming rate, I too often wonder whether if I had simply not liked the stuff my athletic life would have been different. No doubt it would have. But I don't regret a single drop, for me it was part of growing up. And now I'm grown up (Questionable to some) I still drink more than a keen amateur would. Still running plans as you say, slow the consumption down and that's got to be good! But hey it's Xmas - Cheers!
ReplyDeletedid you see paul heaton ever on your nights out?i think we're three peas in a 'bargain booze' pod..or were. like steve i still drink..running is thirsty work..but can take it or leave it..usually take it! but at least the 20 marlboroughs a day are a long gone thing of the past.
ReplyDeletehappy xmas
UC - Never saw Paul, but been to a few of the same pubs. Also Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals) used to booze in pubs down Springbank near the city centre and supposedly "Everything but the Girl" were named after an advertising slogan from a furniture shop down Beverley Road nearby..... and thats just about Hull's extent of famous musicians
ReplyDeletePTR - Funny, I slowed down about 26, 27 too. These days I have a few with meals, the odd Friday or Saturday night and every month or so a big blowout where I get home not remembering how. It helps that my local late night bar is 300 metres away :)
Merry xmas (I'll be breaking my December (semi-)abstinence tomorrow night (less than 5 in a session doesn't count).