The Morning After the Night Before
I woke up at 4:45 this morning. The alarm was set to go off at 5am – our youngest is going on a school trip to France for the day, so we had to get her into school by 5:55am. Why was I taking her? Because I'm a well meaning idiot. When I got in from work yesterday evening my other half made some comment about driving to school in her pyjamas in the morning.
“It's ok – I'll take her”
“Really?”
“Yeah – I'm better at getting up than you anyway”
And that's how I found myself walking across town with our youngest at a little after 5:30am this morning. Of course there's an extra layer to my stupidity – when I offered to get up early I didn't factor in that I would shortly be leaving for an open night at the local brewery with friends. I was somehow going to drink free beer all evening, and then still get up at stupid o'clock.
The first I knew about the brewery open night was on Friday, when an instant message from a co-worker popped up, asking if I was going. To attend you need to know at least one person with a “membership” of the brewery. It just so happens that we both know somebody.
By the time we arrived at the brewery it was already filling with crowds of people. We queued for a few minutes to sign in, and to pick up a beer glass each. Each glass had a strip of five raffle tickets inside it – it transpired these tickets could be traded for re-fills of whichever beer you wanted. I stayed on a fairly weak summer beer called “Blonde”, which caused no end of jokes – especially considering one of the girls serving drinks was a gorgeous blonde girl.
“I'd like a blonde please”...
At the end of the evening – having fallen woefully (and deliberately) behind everybody else, I wandered into the brewery shop to buy something to take home for my other half. I had asked before leaving what she might like, and after a few moments of deliberation, had answered “Vodka maybe?”. After a cursory look around the shelves of the shop, I spied some rather posh looking bottles of vodka, and rum. I almost bought rum instead because it had comedic names such as “Blind Bob” – but then spied the very pretty bottles of Chase vodka atop the various other bottles. I didn't check the price – I should have.
Who knew that a pretty glass bottle will triple the price of a bottle of vodka ? (this is where I admit I know nothing about vodka – I never buy spirits, so field a similar level of cynicism to that which I level at Apple fanboys defending their most recent purchase).
I can't really remember how much I drank last night – which isn't so much saying that I drank a lot – more that I just didn't keep track. I appear to have gotten away with it. Sure – I was a little fuzzy headed while having a shower first thing this morning, but just feel a bit second-hand now. I think maybe growing up is mostly about stopping doing things before you start – knowing that the thing you are doing is going to make you feel like crap tomorrow if you don't put the brakes on almost before you start. I guess half of that decision comes down to knowing if you need to be functional the next day too.
Anyway. It's heading past 7am here. I need to go make packed lunches.
p.s. I blagged a lift back from the junior school this morning with a rather lovely friend that lives across the way. Don't tell her I think she's lovely though – I'll never hear the end of it.