Tuesday 29 April 2014

A decision

"There are better things in the world than alcohol, but alcohol sort of compensates for not getting them.” - Terry Pratchett
Vic Reeves as Tom Fun. Cakes and snouts.
In a recent post I wondered whether I could or would voluntarily give up drinking for good. After spending the weekend home alone with three small children, I can confirm it's not going to happen any time soon.

Last week one of the directors I've been working with was having a conversation with a university professor who is a theoretical expert in the process of cannabis cultivation. My director had heard, from a bloke down the pub, that a lot of cannabis was being sprayed with heroin to make up for its lack of relative strength. The lack of relative strength coming from the recent fashion of speeding up the growth cycle.

"But why would you?" the professor replied.

Turns out if your cannabis is going to be sprayed with anything, it's more likely to be sugar solution, which as it dries will look pearlescent, mimicking the THC heavy trichomes at the optimum stage of maturity on the flower. Told you he was an expert.

It is impossible to achieve anything with three small children around other than continued mutual survival. Doing so is challenging, stimulating, irritating, repetitive, joyous and generally exhausting. But it is not an intellectual pursuit.

The amount of times I mentally poured myself a beer or a glass of wine over the weekend made me realise how useful alcohol is in alleviating boredom. And much as I love my little angels, supervising ablutions, overseeing homework and watching bad animated movies is not something I look forward to fitting in around the endless food prep, waiter service, dish-washing and floor-sweeping which constitutes the rest of my domestic schedule.

Introducing psychoactives into your bloodstream in order to let the world pass by in a warm, fuzzy dream is a famously bad idea, but staying resolutely sober throughout hours of inescapable drudgery seems positively masochistic.

The "why would you?" response articulates my conclusive position on permanent alcohol abstention.

I am counting the hours till 1 Jan 2015.

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Going (London) Live to discuss not drinking

Claudia-Liza Armah, host of Headline London

Today at 1230 I will be a panellist on Headline London, a programme on the new London TV station, London Live.

The subject under discussion is whether alcohol is a requirement for a good night out. As a drinker who is currently undertaking a year of abstinence, I feel I've got a bit to say on the subject.

You can watch London Live on Freeview channel 8, Sky channel 117, Virgin channel 159 and YouView channel 8, or, of course, online www.londonlive.co.uk

Saturday 19 April 2014

God and booze

"I was forced to attend church four times a week. I vowed when I was free I would never darken the door of a church again—a vow I've kept, religiously, for forty-odd years." Dr. Bob Smith, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Good read, this.

Friday 18 April 2014

"Where there's hipsters, there's latte."

London
Whichever way you look at it, it's still £6.60 for a coffee and a slice of cake
An inevitable side-effect of eschewing alcohol is my burgeoning caffeine addiction. Basically, I've been frequenting a lot more coffee shops and drinking a lot more coffee. Like beer, the more coffee you drink, the better you get at understanding various signifiers of quality.

I was in Manchester the other day, wondering aloud whether we'd find a decent coffee close to the area we'd parked up. A member of the team indicated the high proportion of men with beards doing whatever people in skinny jeans do.

"Nah, we'll be alright," he said "where there's hipsters, there's latte."

****************

The above photo was taken in a coffee shop in London. I paid £6.60 for my coffee and cake. That's the "exposed wood" premium on top of your chain shop rates.

Of course £6.60 for something which costs pennies to produce is ludicrous, but as we all know, you're not paying for that. You're paying for the staff to pretend to enjoy serving you, the presentation, the comfy seats and the free wifi.

And yes when the unsmiling be-apronned tubby fellow with a ginger beard appeared holding my beautifully arraigned order on its own cut of hardwood I was momentarily impressed. Momentarily, because despite asking for what I wanted twice, they got the order wrong.

People in coffee shops nearly always get my order wrong. In fact, they've got it wrong in four different shops on the last four occasions. My usual request is:

"Americano, extra shot with hot milk."

Not exactly a paradigm shift in consumer demand, but they always forget the milk was ordered hot, or just forget to mention it to the "barista" altogether. I presume this is because they're focusing on the remembering the extra shot and the reblahblablablablah.

I've taken to speaking slowly and clearly, trying to make sure the person taking my order has held eye-contact with me for the full three seconds it's taken to tell them what I want. If their eyes flit away or down to the till before I finish what I'm saying, I can almost guarantee a cold milk experience. Obviously it's not the end of the world if the milk does come cold, but... why is it so hard to get right?

I had high hopes this time round, as the exposed wood premium usually comes with a degree of staff attentiveness. The wide-eyed girl who took my order was attentive, but equally unable to work out what to do when I requested a slice of cake from the precariously constructed display between us.

There was a pause as we both stood there, giving me time to wonder how ordering cake with a coffee could be such an unusual request in a place geared up to sell little else.

The stand-off continued until the obligatory artisan cake supplier (who happened to be re-stocking the display) took matters into her own hands, used her tongs to pick out the slice of the cake I wanted and waved it in front of the wide-eyed girl's face.

The girl behind the till still didn't look like she felt she should be responding to this development until the cake supplier gestured to the side plates behind the counter. This finally prompted our heroine to swing into action. She picked up a side plate and allowing the cake to be dropped onto it. Unfortunately the five second cake distraction meant my coffee order had been forgotten, so I had an opportunity to repeat it.

"Large Americano, extra shot, hot milk." I said.
"Large Americano?" she repeated, taken by this new, bohemian variation.
"Yes. Extra shot. Hot milk." I smiled. She smiled. We had made a connection. It was going to happen. But then I made the fatal error of asking if the payment process was contactless. She shook her head sadly as she took my card off me, and in that moment my hot milk request fell out of her brain.

***************

I would never dream of taking the kids into a joint like the one above, but they do consider going to a chain coffee shop a treat. The deal is they get something chocolatey to eat whilst the grown ups enjoy a decent coffee.

Unfortunately the moment the children have finished eating whatever they have chosen from the counter, their interest in being in the coffee shop sinks to zero and they start tearing round the place, or in my son's case, out of the door towards oncoming traffic.

To avoid the dilemma of losing a child or losing the chance to finish my hot drink I have taken to ordering my Americano in a takeout cup. The moment my kids can no longer be persuaded to sit at the table, I can cut my losses and leave with the product I paid for.

Asking for this at the till is the challenge, though.

"Hello. I'd like a small Americano with an extra shot and hot milk in a takeout cup. I'd also like two baby-cinos in takeout cups and a chocolate pastry with two plates and a knife. And three cups of water. Please."

It's not a massively long order, is it? Or that complicated. But there's something transgressive about requesting a mixture of takeout and eat-in containers. All bets are now off as to how many times you have to repeat yourself and the amount of supporting contextual information ("you see I need two plates because...") required before the exact order is processed.

This morning was an exception. The boy behind the counter did not seem to be fazed by the crazy crossing of takeout/eat-in protocols. He listened to and repeated my order and even offered to bring it to me as my children had already disappeared out of sight to bag a table.

A couple of minutes later he arrived and put a tray down in front of us with a flourish. Everything I requested was there.

Except the milk.