Alcohol!

I know you all thought I'd go to the states with my friends and burn the candle at both ends....my hubby even gave me free reign to drink as much as I wanted, "I'm not gonna be there to clean up after you, you'll have no kids to mind, go crazy!" I actually was extremely sensible except for one night, and that night I debated whether or not to drink!

My lovely friends decided to have a few of their friends over for some drinks, now as there were kids involved it kicked of at five and we were still preparing the nibbles when people began to arrive. My friends mother (who scares me slightly) arrived and i decided to head over to the guest apartment (I know, swish) and have a shower. Now you guys probably think I love being the centre of attention, and to some extent that is true (why lie?) I love being with my friends, telling stories making people laugh, but I'm not good with new people, and I knew these people were interested to meet "the Orish girl", so I was nervous!

So after my shower, smelling like a candy shop thanks to lush, I had a quick vodka and orange while putting on my make up (I know....bad to drink to beat the nerves....and bad to drink while putting on makeup)So I headed over to the house, I got myself a drink and mingled, my hosts friends were all lovely, very friendly, but one interesting topic of conversation came up, alcohol! I was very aware of the reputation Irish people have for drinking a lot and being the life and soul of the party, so part of me wanted to prove them wrong and not drink much but the other part of me was on holiday and I knew it was probably the only night i was gonna let my hair down. So after downing my drink in what I considered "normal" time i went back to help myself to another one, painfully aware that I was drinking faster than anyone else!

"Do Irish people not know about liver disease?" I was asked, seriously, genuinely, not in a nasty way! Oh the lines I've thought of since "Yeah, sure we invented it!" "Yes we have we embrace it whole heartedly, it's a lifestyle choice where I come from"....etc etc! But at the time all I could say was "sure we know about it, we really just don't care", which is true! So I had a few more beers, we discussed politics...theirs, and scenery....ours. Then I asked them why the booze in the states is so cheap,( it was $26 for a two litre bottle of Stoly!)? Apparently there are stores where it is even cheaper, the State Liquor stores where you don't pay sales tax, and the Americans joked that if booze was that cheap in Ireland we'd all be alcoholics! Oh how we laughed! They were probably right...instead of buckfast the bums would be mixing martinis?

But seriously, I was in the company of lovely people who obviously didn't have any issues with alcohol (the most anyone had was two drinks -excluding me of course) these people are comfortable and not short of a couple of lobsters to rub together, these people don't live in the inner city or in a situation where they turn to alcohol to numb the pain, what about the very poor in the states, they can buy booze for next to nothing, is that OK?

Anyway at 8:45 the last of the party goers left, and I helped my friends to tidy up, then we watched a bit of TV. I can't wait til my friends get home here....it's meal and then back to my place for a few drinks (last time we went out to dinner we each drank a bottle of wine and then some), I'll have to Irish them up, remind them about liver disease!