The Wine & Whisky Thread

[Marco]

Never smoked in my life, or drank alcohol to excess. The fact is *nothing* (short of pure poison) is outright bad for you when consumed in moderation, but a lot of folks simply don't have the willpower to consume something that they love the taste or effect of in moderation (they get greedy for it/the 'hit'), and that leads to the consumption of it in excess, which is where the problems start...

Plus, when it comes to alcohol or drug abuse, that usually happens when unhappy people are trying to escape from their unhappy/unfulfilled lives, and blot it out, which is why having a 'happy head' is the best cure/antidote of all for any bad habits

Marco.

[Made in 1968]

Thats right, i used to booze for england as an escape. Which led to being very over weight cos id already consumed my daily Calorie intake in Booze before i even started eating..

[Marco]

Yup, dude, it's a vicious circle.... Recognising the problem though [and not constantly being in denial], is the biggest step to doing something about it

Marco.

[Alex_UK]

Alex:
That was a new years resolution the same as me then?

It was. still like a drink though, not sure I would ever want to give it up, as Marco says, in moderation. Just need to moderate a lot more!

[Marco]

Yup, the other thing to remember is that alcohol is a depressive, and so too much is not only bad for you physically, but mentally... The trick to enjoying it in moderation, is just like with anything else you enjoy in life: always control IT, and never let it control to YOU

Marco.

[InThe Sticks]

I gave up smoking after 30+ years in April after my doc thought i had throat cancer and upon arrival for tests at the hospital i was accosted by an irate Romanian who was shouting at me for stealing his parking space.
After i removed him (by his throat and dumped him in a flower bed) and had the tests which were clear, the decision was made to never smoke again. Why would i want to go through that again?
But, i still like a tipple, and my guilty pleasure tonight is…

[Marco]

Ah, 'proper' cider, Jon [i.e. stuff that's actually been made from apples, rather than simply chemicals]. Lovely stuff, but for me mostly best drunk ice-cold in warm weather

I'm lucky to have this place just down the road: http://www.rosiescider.co.uk/

All the local shops stock it, and the pubs serve it on draught!

Marco.

[Alex_UK]

Aspall is a stone’s throw from me, and a nice drop of cider, albeit as with Marco, more of a summer drink for me. Nice drop of “winter warming” Old Speckled Hen for me tonight.

[InThe Sticks]

Aspall is a stone’s throw from me

Me too, a few of us usually ride past Aspall on the way to Eye then across to Aldeburgh for fish’n’chips on the beach.
It really doesn’t get better, especially after a pint of Adnams Ghost Ship.

[Marco]

Aspall is a stone’s throw from me, and a nice drop of cider, albeit as with Marco, more of a summer drink for me. Nice drop of “winter warming” Old Speckled Hen for me tonight.

Yeah, real ales always hit the spot during winter months, and conversely lager during the summer.

Just briefly returning to the alcohol thing, I think one of the reasons why I never became 'hooked' is because I grew up with it. In Italian households wine is as commonly drunk as water, even by children (albeit in diluted form), and so from about the age of 4, I drank watered-down wine during meals. Del was brought up the same in her German background.

It's also common in Italian families to have a well-stocked drinks cabinet at home, for both pre-meal aperitifs (which I was introduced to around the age of 15) and to offer to family and friends visiting, plus the use of alcohol features heavily in traditional Italian cooking. Therefore, I was both used to its taste, and surrounded by it, from an early age, and so unlike most British kids, for whom it had been strictly forbidden to drink by their parents, when I became of legal age to drink at 18, it was simply 'no big deal'...

I wasn't tempted to go out to the nearest pub and get pissed, as I'd been drinking alcohol for years beforehand, in moderation, and crucially always accompanying food, and grown to respect it, with such taught to me by parents who had been brought up by their parents to do the same. In my experience, that's often rather different from the situation present in most British households.

And my healthy relationship with alcohol has remained the same to this day

Marco.