Beer, Champagne, Bloody Marys and the inevitable hangover

Just as a plane that experiences an engine failure, or a train that is carrying a nuclear device on a downhill track that experiences brake failure, there was a certain feeling of inevitable impending doom regarding this weekend. Lets face it - Work buddies on Wednesday at Boat Quay (three pints), Sods (Tras Street) on Thursday, where we won the quiz and so imbided of beer (5 pints), vodka (2 shots) and wine (2 glasses (Chardonnay)), Friday birthday dinner and drinks at Whitebait and Kale (Yummy - 1 beer, 2 Wines, figs and a steak) for Kris followed by Bojangles (Bukit Timah) with Wai Ling (4 pints), Drinks at Bojangles with my sis in law on Saturday (5 pints), Champagne Brunch at the Fullerton on Sunday (15 glasses), followed by beers at Harrys (2 jugs) followed by 7 hours sleep and then beer at Bojangles (5 pints), and King Brew burger at Brewerkz on Monday with various married (or soon to be) friends where Bloody Mary (2 glasses) were the choice of the day, followed by beer at Sods 2 (5 pints).

And today the train crashed into central station at 180 mph, triggering a full nuclear incident. At least thats what my hangover felt like. I shudder at the memory of the headache and queasiness that took two panadol, one packet of Maggi Mee, and a melted cheese and ham sandwich to dispel. As well as the one kg that has gone back on, hiding my emerging abs much like a crysalis hides a butterfly.

In the immortal words of Job (who was hanging around in 1200 BC - when I am sure that the booze was a bit rougher than it is now!)

" If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;" (10:15)

Not sure that Job was thinking of hangovers mind you - he most probably had less pedestrian concerns. In fact, I think the more common "woe is me" is from Hamlet (act 3, scene 1, Ophelia)

"O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!"

I am also pretty bloody sure that she wasn't refering to hangovers, even if she sounds like she is having a bad mescaline trip!

Anyway, it is time to terminate this path of thought, as it is leading me to consider the talmudic teaching that that if a man is "good" or "meritocrious", wine gladdens him; if not, it saddens him (Sanhedrin 70a). Quite strange this, as proverbs tells us a different story (Prov 31:6) "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts ". Just goes to show that the Torah and the Talmud don't always tally! Anyway - just in case anyone is wondering, I am not contemplating conversion to Judaism! Remember that Religious Studies was my "thang" for a very, very long time - and just because I now have a hangover doesn't mean I have forgotten all I once knew :-)

Or maybe the alcohol has forged new synaptic pathways in my brain! Or, during my alcoholic slumber aliens have removed my brain and given me a data-esque posotronic replacement. Or, maybe I just google way too much.

Anyhoo - I am back in the Gym tomorrow, and will be back on track then. One week of good old fashioned sweat should get rid of that extra pesky kilo! On the downside I have to meet Pat Grennan at SODs tras Street today to pick something up.

Apparently William Hill is not prepared to offfer odds on my not having a pint

Taekwon