How do you take your January? Dry or Wet?

Drinking. That´s the theme for this week. People´s approach to alcohol consumption and alcohol induced behaviour varies hugely from one country to another. Ginmger Gerald looks at these differences and asks the question - what´s the best approach? And if you´re one of millions doing Dry January this year - do you really know why? This and more - enjoy!  

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Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to this week´s episode of Ginger Gerald you Lucky Barstard and what a lucky barstard I really am having all of you listen into my ramblings, both from near and from far.

Last week in “How much?” we discussed and compared today´s prices for just about everything with prices from “the olden days”. We went down memory lane to the days when you could go on a night out, get a curry on your way home and still have change from a fiver. And overseas we reminisced about the good old days (were they good for you?) of pesetas, francs, deutchmarks – they might have confused us a bit but wasn´t it exciting having so many different currencies to play with and not just the Euro.  Oh, and back then there was no need to download an app just to get served in a pub either. 

Speaking of pubs……this week we´re going to talk about drinking – and what a splendid topic that is - different drinking habits and how they vary from place to place. But as it´s now the end of January, or almost, let´s start with a question for you: “How do you take your January? Dry or Wet?” Come on, own up, there´s nothing to be ashamed of, how many of you did or are still doing “Dry January”? Well, if it makes you feel better or worse, I´m doing it too – although I should confess that I spotted an open bottle of left-over red wine on 1st January and certainly wasn´t going to let it go to waste. So my dry January actually started on around the 3rd January. Apparently 13 million Brits are doing Dry January this year, depending which Google search result you choose (that´s the quality of my research methodology folks) up to 30% of the over 21´s in the US were “planning” to do Dry January this year – which is a huge increase on previous years and it´s a massive number! Mind you, saying you´re going to do without alcohol for an entire month and actually doing it are two quite different things. And here´s what most surprised me about all of this – it is the younger age groups (18 - 30´s) who are the most likely to give up alcohol for a month. Far moreso than us oldies in fact. So why do people do it? Is it simply a reaction to the over-indulging that takes place during the run up to Christmas and New Year´s Eve? It´s true that in any normal week of the year, it wouldn´t cross my mind to make some mulled wine, or to enjoy a sherry, port, baileys, whiskey or brandy let alone all in one full day session! But there´s just something about that Christmas period and alcohol – they are almost intrinsically linked to each other - I find all these dusty old bottles, still half full, waking up and dragging themselves out of a dark cupboard that´s not been open for 11 and a half months and quietly making themselves available to me and to everyomne else who happens to be around.    

I guess that´s a part of it – as is the financial pressure and guilt.  Payroll´s often a little earlier in December, there are all those prezzies to buy, and the turkey, ham, beer & wine…and indeed sherry if you´ve run out,  so if you´re not careful your December wage´ll have been spent before January even begins. And January always feels like it goes on for about 50 days doesn´t it? So, Dry January is actually a necessity rather than a body-friendly, detoxing, “I´m going to annoy you all by being a super healthy version of myself this year” initiative.

Whatever the reason we do it, I guess it can´t be a bad thing – if only to make you realize how much you enjoy a beer after a game of footy or while watching a game of footy – or a glass of wine with your dinner. 

What I´d be interested in measuring is the return to alcohol on 1st February. I can see it now, people just waiting for the clock to tick past the midnight hour on 31st January, foaming at the mouth, with their very favourite tipple all ready and waiting in front of ´em! Your G&T or your Pernod and black (more on that one in a bit – I don´t think I could have one of them if my life depended upon it) or maybe a vodka & redbull or a pint of Guinness. The research I want to read about is not how many people do Dry January, but just how soaking wet is February – and does it make up for the dry spell in January?

We like a bit of a calendar-month play-on-words don´t we……Veganuary, Movember. Maybe we should have something every month….March could be the month you eats loads of potatoes, we´ll be calling that “Starch”, and whatever will we come up with for the month when we have to eat a load of capers?……you´ve got it: Capril! What a great game this is. I can feel a GGYLB social media competition coming on here folks, so get thinking, there are only 12 months to come up with and we´ve already done 4 of ´em!

While we´re on the theme of plays on words, what do you all think of a “mocktail”? That´s a great one that is, up there with Capril I´d say. Well done to whoever came up with that fabulous term – if you´re out there then give me a shout and I´ll get you on here! Oh and photos of mocktails look great on Instagram – far more interesting and attractive than a pint of lager – so that may they also help with the promotion of Dry January too.

So why has dry January not taken off everywhere in the World? Well, some say it has, or at least is doing like in the US for eg, but as other countries tend to have a bit more of a grown-up approach to drinking alcohol maybe it´s just not needed. But before we get into that one, let´s get back to where we started this conversation: drinking…… For some unknown reason, drinking “at home” wherever you define home to be, always feels different to drinking when you´re away from home doesn´t it? How many people, mainly blokes maybe, drink lager for 51 weeks  of the year, not just any old lager but always the same brand of lager and then, all of a sudden, when they get off a plane it´s Margaritas here, Sex on the beach there and I wouldn´t say no to a cheeky piña colada to wash it all down with. The rules and decision-making processes completely change. Mmmmmm this rather sweet pino grigio, which I wouldn´t touch with a bargepole at home, is suddenly so delicious now I´m sat here on a terrace on the Amalfi coast that I´ll be popping dozens of photos of it (with me looking my insta-best of course) onto my Instagram & TicToc and I´ll be expecting a million likes and lovehearts! Oh and maybe I´ll take a bottle or two home – even though I could probably pick it up in Tesco´s (it´on the buy one get one free shelf). But the truth is, it just never tastes the same in my backyard in Burslem as it does on an al fresco Piazza in Positano. And while you´re in Rome (which we weren´t but bare with me), of course you´ll do as the Romans do and pop down as many limoncellos or grappas as they´ll give to you – particularly if they are a thank you freebie at the end of a meal.

It´s not just what you drink, it´s also where and when that fascinates me when you travel or live away from home. 

I always like to kick off my examples with México, you know that, so let´s not break with tradition. Hands up – who actually likes tequila? Are you a tequila connoisseur who sups it carefully, thoughtfully with eyes closed and describes it as smooth and sensational? Or are you more of the way hey hey brigade, shove in a bit of soda water and slam it with salt and lime to take the taste way – and then put the empty glass on your head?  Whichever one of those you are – there´s no doubt that when you´re in México you´ll not leave without having a few tequilas. And why not? They´re socially enriching and you make a bunch of friends really quickly. In fact you make as many friends as bar stolls you fall off. And then, for the really brave, there´s Mezcal – have you tried that? It´s the one with the hallucinatory worm at the bottom of the bottle ….well, there´s a real market for quality Mezcal and Tequila and there´s a reason the Mexicans don´t slam the cheapest tequila mixes – and that´s probably the same reason they don´t lose 2 or 3 days of their lives trying to recover.

Moving on before I get a headache just thinking about it. Personally, I don´t like Aniseed. I´m not usually fussy about what I eat or drink but I´d never knowingly choose an Aniseed drink – on the other hand, if I was kindly offered a traditional, local drink in a nice local bar or restaurant anywhere in the World I´d be curious and I definitely wouldn´t want to offend a waiter by refusing one, nor would I want to show a lack of respect for the local produce. So for both of those reasons – and because I love a freebie -  I´d always say yes. This happened to me in Corsica. The particular brand of pastis was called 51 and it was served in a small glass on ice with a jug of water on the side so I could add as much or as little water as I liked. I took one sniff of this stuff and suddenly I got horrific flashbacks to a night out at Uni when, for some reason I can´t remember and definitely wouldn´t have understood anyway, the entire footy team agreed only to drink pernod and black. All night. The images that came back to me at that moment were just a disgrace…so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to trying my 51! And the issue with these Aniseed drinks is that it never really matters how much water you add to try to get rid of the flavour – it remains as strong as ever. I think I´d have been better downing it straight, like a tequila shot, rather than trying to water it down for a few hours until I could finally polish it off. And when finally I did manage to empty the glass, over comes the waiter delighted with my performance to offer me more……. For me this happened in France but it could be Ouzo in Greece or Zambuca in Italy …or anywhere you like to be honest. In my defence, I did set myself an objective of managing to tolerate this 51 drink throughout the course of the Summer I spent in Corsica – after all, my predecessor´d been pushed off a 2nd floor balcony for showing a lack of respect (although I think his lack of respect had something to do with the restaurant owner´s daughter and not an aniseed drink………….but I wasn´t taking any chances!)  

In Spain, I bet you´ve all noticed that people really don´t mind a drink at any time of the day or night do they? You go for an early breakfast coffee in any town, village, city or resort anywhere in Spain and you´re very likely to see a bunch of beer bottles already polished off – in Mallorca´s case they´re often surrounded by a group of cyclists heading out to do their 160kms for the day. Admittedly some of them might be the alcohol-free variety (fun fact: the Spanish drink more alcohol free beer per head than any other nation) but not all of them. They all taste of beer anyway. And there´s always a couple of oldies, or not so oldies, sat on the corner of the terrace with their Carajillos, expresso and brandy, supping away before their day gets started – or maybe that is their day. Who in their right mind would not have a quick beer with their lunch, and maybe even a brandy to wash it down, before heading back to work.

I always thinks that the European countries, like France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, are much more sophisticated and grown-up in terms of their approach to alcohol consumption than, let´s say, a few other countries. In these countries the embibing, and don´t get me wrong there´s no shortage of it, tends to revolve around eating. So the drink is there to accompany the food and the food is there to accompany the drink. That sounds perfect to me – two of my very favourite things in life and inextricably linked. Teenage kids aren´t told they mustn´t ever touch a drop of alcohol until the day they turn 18 or 21 – instead they´re introduced to a beer or a wine with food and that´s all very calm, intelligent and, yes, sophisticated.

Let´s compare that very grown-up, educational, healthy and sustainable approach to alcohol intake, for a moment, to the traditional British approach which goes a little more like this…..get home from work or college or wherever you are, eat your fast-food tea as early and as quickly as you possibly can to “line the stomach”, get to the pub immediately without stopping anywhere on the way and make sure you´re in plenty of time to get completely rat-arsed on as many pints of flat lager as the opening times allow without the unnecessary distraction and complication of having to have anything to eat. After all, when you´re finally done with drinking, and probably won´t be able to remember what happens next anyway, you can always pick up a kebab or a curry on the way home. Given the choice – which of these two approaches do you think is best? Maybe there´s a time and place for both….. Now I can hear many of you saying, oh come ont GG, you´re just so out of touch, the UK drinking culture these days is all about supping and savouring artesenal craft beers from local breweries using traditional hop roasting techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation. Well, that´s not what I saw when I was last in amongst the Brits in Magaluf I can tell you. I saw pints of flat lager, lots of ´em, lots of bare skin and more than one ambulance.  And that´s not just when Brits are on holiday…when was the last time you were in Cardiff City Centre on a Friday evening (or maybe a Tuesday lunchtime come to that!).

And speaking of the high demand Mallorcan mega resort of Magaluf, or Costa de Calviá to give it its new and proper name, that brings me onto the theme of the post (or during) drinking behaviour which varies hugely from nationality to nationality. Apologies in advance for my generalizations here folks, ´cos I´m going to make a few, but let´s throw caution to the wind and give it a go anyway..,…

After a bunch of Sols and a couple of tequilas, the Mexicans tend to get all excited and start singing their favourite Mariachi tunes like Guadalajara or Canta no Llores and they get all emotional and kiss and hug each other and that´s nice isn´t it? No harm done and all peace and love mixed with a bit of proud patriotism.  

The Spanish and Italians, on the other hand, sip their fabulous, mature, full bodied red wines, or fruity little whites, for hours and hours before being left a bottle of brandy or grappa on their table to just help themselves to. And yet they still manage to carry on as though they haven´t had a drop of alcohol all night – they just keep eating and drinking and talking, getting louder by the minute if that´s possible, after all they don´t tend to start until about midnight anyway. 

And what about the Germans, Dutch or Belgians? They´re famous for their fantastic beers and my very minimal experience of their drinking habits suggests that they are pretty efficient alcohol consumers – plenty of volume with too much mess or consequences. 

So what about the Brits? Well they tend to start off with football chants, lots of jumping up and down, and clothes tend to come off (the colder it is the less they feel the need to wear) and invariably things end in a bit of a punch up after a belly full of alcohol don´t they. Nobody´s ever too sure why or when the fighting broke out, or who was involved and who were just at the edges pretending to be involved for the adrenalin rush but not really wanting to get their nice new jeans scuffed.  

And while we´re on the subject of binge drinking as an entertainment for the masses – I´ve never lived or even travelled to Scandinavia or to Australia so maybe on of you needs to educate me here, but I´ve worked with quite a few Swedes, Danes and Ozzies and, wow, they really go for it when it comes to drinking. They make the Brits look like amateurs sometimes in terms of their speed and capacity for drinking beer. Do they all end up in an ugly big pile of fighting blokes at the end of the night? Or do they just bond happily and enjoy each others´ company irrespective which rugby or ice hockey team they happen to support?

Since living abroad, that´s about 25 years of my life so far, my drinking habits have changed unrecognizable. As a younger guy I liked pints of Bitter and could pop away quite a few of them in any given evening or even lunchtime like anyone else and with very little noticeable or unpleasant after effects. Very nice indeed and I was very used to it. But nowadays, when I do go back to the UK not only do I feel really full after about 2 pints – but I might as well just stay in the loo all night and phone when I want to speak to anyone – after all I´d be heading there every two minutes anyway. And more than a couple of pints gives me a huge headache. On the other hand, I´m a dab hand when it comes to wine – of almost any quality and quantity, I play my trump card on a G&T in a huge bowl of a glass and I can even stomach an Aniseed digestif if I´m offered one without having to put it into the nearest plan while nobody´s looking! Have any of you experienced this same transformation? Feel free to own up to it – or post an anonymous message if it´ll make you feel better! Some might say I´ve just gone soft ….what d´ you reckon?

It´s January 26th today so the end of Dry January and a waterfall the size of Victoria & Angel falls combined is already very clearly in sight for me and, I´ve discovered, many millions of others out there. So it´s time to go and polish the glasses and make sure I´ve got some accompanying olives…..

That´s it on booze for this week. I hope I´ve not made any of you guilty for drinking your way through January – you can do what you like, no judgement from GG here!

Keep in touch via all the usual channels and don´t forget to follow GGYLB if you don´t already and encourage your friends and family to do the same – everyone needs a bit of GG in their lives!

Have a great week and speak to you soon. Bye