I’ve consumed more alcohol in the last month in this city than I have over the last year. The drinking culture here is intense. Not only have I been to more bars and pubs in the last few weeks than at any other time, but I’ve never been more busy. It seems there is an endless list of people to see and meet. I feel like the most popular kid in school. It is exhausting.
London is a town of many acquaintances. It is a hotbed of friends-of-friends, long-lost cousins, workmates, visiting workmates, friends of your new significant other, gym mates, dance class mates, relatives passing through. There’s always someone stopping over during a work trip, stopping over between flights, stopping over just because. And sooner or later, the rule of six degrees of separation proves itself scarily and regularly true with the people that you know. Someone knows someone who knows your cousin and you should meet with them tomorrow night!
This is all wonderful and social and exciting but wow, it’s a lot of beer/wine to be consuming on a weekly basis. Here, people hardly go for dinners out. They’re expensive, they’re time intensive, they require advance planning. Restaurants are packed early and close early (kitchens usually close at around 10 or 11!). You need time commitments, a booking, a planned transport route to get everyone to the same place at the same time without risk of losing your table. Too much work. Instead, we meet for drinks. Drinks after work, drinks after dinner, drinks before the movie, drinks after the movie, drinks at multiple locations on the same street. Drinks from 6pm onwards and into the eve. And before you know it, it’s 9pm, kitchens are closing, you’re tipsy as a bat and there’s nowhere left to go but another pub. Your dinner’s worth of calories have you staring down the bottom of a bottle and there’s still another 3 hours left in the evening before the tube (subway) shuts down.
So, you drink. You toast. You order rounds and accept rounds. Of beers, of ciders, of shandies and Pimm’s. If you’re brave, you’ll try for the pub house wine and if you’re smart, you’ll try to get a side of peanuts to help neutralize the effects of litres of alcohol on an empty stomach.
Rinse and repeat. From Monday through Saturday if you so choose. And realistically, drinks every night of the week isn’t an impossible task. Actually, it’s much harder to avoid than you think. And before you know it, your diet consists of breakfast, lunch and booze. The diet of champions!
