Alcohol and Me

[Outdated]

Trigger warning for people that suffer from addiction. I’m most definitely not recommending this for other people, I have a very diverse neurology and an unusual character and mindset, my experience with alcohol is very different to what is considered normal.

I only ever drink when I’m happy, or if I need to do some serious socialising where I need to impress people. If I’m happy then I don’t mind a few drinks and I’m always a happy drunk, if sometimes a little annoying. In social situations a little alcohol frees my tongue and I can be very influential and persuasive, for me alcohol is a very useful tool.

For the past 5 years I’ve drank less and less, almost to the point of being a tea totaller, in me this does not always represent a good thing, it means I’m not really happy and that I don’t feel really sociable. That fits with looking back at the past 5 years of my life too, I’ve been reasonably content but that’s the total extent of it. I haven’t been really happy.

I’m drinking again.

We’ve had weird weather for the last 5 years too and that also plays a role, I much prefer cold beer in hot weather and that’s something we haven’t had in Adelaide for the last 5 years. This year it just feels like we’re going to have a normal summer again, the weather feels right in a way that it hasn’t since 6 months after I moved back here.

But it’s more than just the weather affecting me. I think a big part of it will have something to do with me having a car again and all the freedom that goes with that. That freedom makes a huge difference to me and so in general I’m a much happier person even if I don’t go somewhere every day.

There’s more to it than that though, just in general I feel happier and I feel more sociable. Maybe I’ve just worked my way through my version of depression and I’m coming out the other end. That’s my fond hope anyway.

When I say I’m drinking again – I’ve bought 2 cartons of beer in a month and I’ve only just started on the second carton. The other day I got what felt like being absolutely smashed to me, I drank 4 cans. (4.9% alc/vol) So no, I’m not suddenly turning in to an alcoholic, I just find it interesting that I’m drinking at all after the past 5 years.

 

[FayetheAspie]

I have not drank anything with alcohol in quite a while but when I do I have a 2 beer or one glass of wine limit. I have never drank anything stronger than wine. I used to have a glass of wine or a bottle of smirnoff ice to wind down after work.

 

[Judge]

Maybe I’ve just worked my way through my version of depression and I’m coming out the other end. That’s my fond hope anyway.

Could well be. Having a car after so many years without one reflects quite a profound change for one. It certainly would impact my life being without one.

But this is a good catalyst for change. Not a bad one. Maybe you're just celebrating and haven't quite figured it out.

 

[Outdated]

I have not drank anything with alcohol in quite a while but when I do I have a 2 beer or one glass of wine limit. I have never drank anything stronger than wine. I used to have a glass of wine or a bottle of smirnoff ice to wind down after work.

I used to be a big drinker many years ago, but I always had a very busy social life too and I needed alcohol for that. Finding a balance between enough alcohol to make me sociable and not enough to make me useless and obnoxious was not always easy but I managed.

When I turned 40 I decided that that was a big birthday and I deserved a big present, I bought myself a Reflux Still. More closely related to the processes in a petrochemical plant than what most people think of when they hear the word Still, it was a very efficient machine. Every week I could turn 8 Kg of sugar in to 4 litres of the purest ethanol anyone in the country has access to. I got positive comments from chemists and a policeman about that.

[Edit] You water the ethanol back down to 40%/vol and flavour it however you like. So my 4 litres of ethanol made 10 litres of scotch. I also experimented with all sorts of ideas and made lots of interesting liqueurs. [/Edit]

I always loved Scotch, and I loved making my own even more. I knew exactly what was and wasn't in it and I discovered that I didn't feel sick or seedy the next morning drinking my own grog like I did when drinking the commercial stuff.

Having that much alcohol in my house always readily available and costing only about $2 a litre changed my life. The shine went out of it, it wasn't something special any more. That was the beginning of me turning away from alcohol. I've never given up drinking, never needed to or wanted to, my own mindset governs that and keeps it in check.

I might buy another still again one day, the best are made in New Zealand by a company called Still Spirits.

 

[Judge]

I've never been much of a solitary drinker, though I do like the taste of alcohol. I suppose having a three year relationship with a "functional alcoholic" also changed some of that many years ago.

Mostly I just have a "swig" of this or that. Rarely drinking much of anything by myself. I do pound down a few with my brother, who ever so many years shows up here.

Still have about 12 bottles of Dos Equis beer, less than a third of a bottle of Jack Daniels, Jamesons Irish Whiskey and some Japanese Suntory Whisky my brother purchased when he was last here a few years ago. Oh and a bottle of cheap red wine and some ghastly pre-made Margarita in a bottle I bought half price at Safeway. They may outlast me altogether...lol.

 

[Outdated]

Still have about 12 bottles of Dos Equis beer, less than a third of a bottle of Jack Daniels, Jamesons Irish Whiskey and some Japanese Suntory Whisky my brother purchased when he was last here a few years ago.

Funny thing with me, beer gets me smashed, I get incredibly drunk on beer or white wine, can't drink the reds, they give me a blocked nose and a headache.

Scotch I can drink like it was water, if I get caught driving like that I could be way over the legal limit without actually being drunk. I really don't understand the chemistry there but chemistry it must be. It's not just my personal impression either, all my life I've had people comment about my appearance of sobriety when hooking in to the scotch.

Can't stand bourbon, just the smell of it makes me feel ill. Toluene. I've always been very adversively affected by that smell, it makes me think of cancer and tumours. I made myself very ill on Ouzo when I was sixteen and I've never been able to go near it since, yet I made myself very ill on Bundaberg Rum many times and I know I'll have another again one day.

By the way, Bundaberg also make a selection of soft drinks (sodas) that are naturally brewed in the bottle instead of being artificially pressurised. I know you get them here and there in the US, if you ever see them I recommend that you try their non alcoholic Ginger Beer. It's not what's going to immediately jump in to your mind there, you'll immediately think of what we call Dry Ginger Ale, that stuff's harsh and bitey. Ginger Beer is an entirely different thing, rich and smooth and sweet.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I never drank. I did not like the taste of beer and still don't. But I spent a decade or so with a Frenchman and it was drinking every day, for sure wine, but also hard stuff. I learned to tolerate wine and did develop a temporary fondness for some specialized liqueurs, but I have little interest in drinking now

And one needs a mortgage now to buy those specialized liqueurs. I like rum with key lime juice and sugar, but rarely drink it.

I do buy Kahlua so I can make tiramisu.

 

[Outdated]

I do buy Kahlua so I can make tiramisu.

I had a lot of fun making my own liqueurs, and they're only around 20% alc/vol so even cheaper to make when you've got your own still. I really had a lot of fun with it and I gave a lot of alcohol away too, bragging rights amongst friends - try this one.

I think laws surrounding that sort of thing are a lot different here to in the US though, everything I did (in that respect anyway) was completely legal. If I was selling it that's a different story, that's robbing the tax man and that's a worse crime than murder in this country, true, you only get 12 to 15 years for murder, you can get 35 for cheating the tax man.

I was living in Darwin at the time, tropical heat all year. I got up early one morning and went out in to the back yard (small apartments) with my coffee for a smoke. I heard the next door neighbour coughing and stuck my head over the fence to say G'day. He didn't look well, very pale and with the shakes. I asked him if he was alright and he said "No, I'm in the dog house.".

He didn't get to explain any further, his wife came out the back and had a big rant about it, and to tell you the truth I was on her side. I gave him a 1.25 litre coke bottle full of a very nice and very rich chocolate liqueur. He drank the whole bottle in one evening and went to bed and passed out. During the night without waking up he vomited chocolate liqueur all over her.

She was very understandably Not Happy. She had to shower and change all the bedding and try and clean up his unconscious body as well. He deserved to be in the dog house.

 

[velociraptor]

I had to stop drinking because I am allergic to alcohol. I break out in handcuffs every time I have some.

 

[Outdated]

I had to stop drinking because I am allergic to alcohol. I break out in handcuffs every time I have some.

Do you also suffer from my problem - Motor Mouth syndrome? For some weird and still unbeknown reason I've usually got along really well with cops, for some reason they all just seem to like me even when I tell them where they're doing it all wrong. Never in my life understood how that works, what exactly is charisma, but you bet I played on it all my life.

Mates very quickly realised too that if cops showed up I was the one that needed to talk to them. I was the difference between a bit of friendly banter or a trip to the watch house for formal charges. I always got away with far more than any man has a right to, lucky for society that I'm not a bad man at heart. Never really understood that and none of my mates ever could either, it was discussed at length many times and I was the only ND in the group. We didn't know the word autism back then, I was just weird and proud of it.

 

[velociraptor]

Motor Mouth syndrome?

Not so much. I prefer to let others talk.

 

[Judge]

I was thinking recently of scoring some Bailey's...to spice up my coffee. Maybe put some Jamesons in my coffee as well. I don't usually care for coffee creamers...but that might be the exception.

 

[Outdated]

I think Bailey's is a bit over rated, nice but not worth the price. I'd never object to a splash of Jameson's though.

My personal preference though is to have a normal coffee and a drink separate, have a sip of one then the other. The whisky as a chaser so to speak. That term here is most commonly used with beer drinking though, and a very common chaser here is Stone's Green Ginger Wine. I don't think that would go well with coffee however.

 

[stevens]

...I was just weird and proud of it.

Now that's the spirit. I relate to this.

 

[Outdated]

Now that's the spirit. I relate to this.

I was always different, and I had no fancy labels as to why I was different. I'm me, get over it. People that took objection got their noses rubbed in it. The transformation from being a poor bullied little kid to being a respected man shocked me as much as it shocked everyone around me, but I never looked back.

If you don't believe in yourself no one else will either. If you don't have respect for yourself then no one else will either. You can grizzle and whinge all you like about how life is unfair but that's tough luck. How others perceive you is entirely your own choice.

 

[Aspychata]

Just recently, we finished up pizza at Mellow Mushroom restaurant, and we all had coffee with a shot of Baileys. But Frangelico is great in coffee. l actually made pumpkin pie using Frangelico in the pumpkin part, and macadamia nuts chopped finely in the crust portion. Came out bellissimo.

 

[Tuffsy]

I used to be a wine buff (read snob). When I had a decent income I would by dozens of the best wines. I used to drink a bottle a night with no problems. Now in my late sixties I can't drink more than 2 glasses without suffering a terrible head. Anyway today is my birthday so I might just push it to 3 or 4 glasses!

 

[Boogs]

I do buy Kahlua so I can make tiramisu.

I'd recommend trying either Marsala wine or Amaretto for the Tiramisu, goes extremely well with the espresso (and traditional I believe). Tiramisu is a holy undertaking that requires only the finest ingredients and the greediest of consumers!

 

[Boogs]

I bought myself a Reflux Still.

Ah, a fractionating still, very cool, but don't you like the taste of methanol in yer drinkies then? Wimp!

This is the mistake many make with homemade stills, no fractionation (or 'reflux' to use the mildly incorrect or at least variable meaning). Makes it very difficult to avoid collecting methanol before the ethanol fraction starts.

Have to say I'm surprised it's legal over there. In the UK and many other places the government jealously guard the duty they earn from potable ethanol sales. I know some places like France allow limited production for those who have traditionally run stills (mostly farmers etc) but the laws on what they can do with it commercially are very strict.

My parents used to bring bottles of Eau de Vie - distilled plum wine essentially, from their farmer neighbours of their cottage in France (their holiday home back then), and they'd be forced to make sure it was in a different bottle so if they were caught at customs their neighbours wouldn't get prosecuted - yup, they couldn't even give it away legally!

 

[Boogs]

I was thinking recently of scoring some Bailey's...to spice up my coffee.

My personal preference though is to have a normal coffee and a drink separate, have a sip of one then the other. The whisky as a chaser so to speak.

Irish coffee - alcoholic death on (fast) wheels! You have to drink it quick or it goes cold (ugh!), the coffee keeps you up and alert, while you down drink after drink wondering why you're not comatose yet despite the floor being on the ceiling!