"wine makes life merry" according to Ecclesiastes, but getting hold of it over here is an, errrmmm, interesting experience. Take Graham for example. For years didn't touch a drop, had a few beers on occasion and a glass of wine on special occasions, but definitely no more than 2 and was perfectly happy with that state of affairs. You would have thought that he would do well in a country with a huge history of alcoholism and hence very strict alcohol controls.
You can only buy alcohol over about 3% from the state controlled shops "System Bolaget", no delivery and if you buy a lot, they quiz you, age of consent is 20 years old and there are posters about drinking too much all over the place. The choice is OK, but limited really and the prices are about 1/3 more expensive than the UK. There is also far, far too much cheap (?) Riesling available. As you go around, you get increasingly furtive, your nose starts swelling and going red and the tendency to go 'hic' increased exponentially. It has improved though, when I was a child, you had to place your order in advance, go round the back alleys to a hatch and have your brown paper bag passed through, cash only. It was easier to buy hard drugs.
Sunday dinner came around this week and we had a glass of wine (chardonnay, yes, I know!!) with the chicken. He sat contemplating it, sipped it, sighed with appreciation and said 'it's so nice to have a glass of wine, it feels so sophisticated, I'll have another thanks....... [pauses] the system alone here is enough to turn you into an alcoholic'.
Before he was quite happy to not drink, but the sheer disapproval rating here is enough to make you want to go 'nahhhh' and drink a bottle of vodka at one go. Terribly teenagerish, I know, but there it is. I long for the days when I could go into Majestic and buy 12 bottles, to have a G&T to relax after a hard day's work a couple of times a week. Here I'm filled with a terrible urge to explain myself after buying 3 bottles, I sup furtive glasses of wine from a box at night and no G&Ts (cos of no Plymouth Gin, just stuff I've never heard of, allegedly from London) and no one I know goes out for a drink. If I do they get completely rat-arsed within 10 minutes, which is not fun.
Pricing does work though, we buy much less, but then, we never had a drinking problem...
No comments:
Post a Comment