Tuesday 13 November 2012

Super-size me


I fully intended not drinking last night, because - in my current condition - even just one glass of wine turns into an unbelievably foul headache the next day, and it just isn't worth it. It's something to do with the neuralgic sinus-type aftermath of the head-cold that everyone in Britain seems to be suffering right now.

But I arrived home intending to cook a huge meal and retire early, only to find the tiny (compact but adorable) kitchen full of family all drinking wine like it was Saturday, and planning on going out to get a load of hamburgers to soak it up. I gave up my worthy plans and joined in. Now I regret it - deeply.

After about 20 minutes of listening to the boy moaning to his mother about how someone should just give him £10 a week to make his life bearable, I reminded him of the initial plan to finance his college days, which included 18 hours a week working in his local town, and how this simple solution seemed to have gone out of the window. 20 minutes later, he was still banging on about how just £10 a week would make his life so much better, so I started to warm up and suggest that by forgoing two and a half  small bottles of beer a week, he would have that £10 to spend on whatever would make his life better which was not alcoholic. Of course, this was easy for me to say, especially after a few glasses of wine. None of us can afford to put him through college, but we have spent quite a lot getting him there.

Having had a few glasses himself, he continued to insist that someone - anyone - should give him £10 a week, and I sort of exploded and started shouting at him. This was after the hamburger. I don't regret the words so much as the volume that they were delivered to him, but I do regret the wine.

I am so fed up with how everything in today's modern Britain seems to boil down to money, or the lack of it. Everyone is expected to fleece everyone else, simply in order to survive. We'll be eating each other soon if it carries on like this - come to think of it, I thought it was just my cold which made that hamburger taste funny last night...

13 comments:

  1. Take no notice of the clock on the bottom of this blog, it's 8 hours ahead - or behind.

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  2. Our next-door-neighbour's 18 year old daughter passed her exams to go to college. Her father bought her a new car, he rented an apartment for her in Bordeaux, gave her a generous allowance (on top of money she got from a loan), then she decided she didn't like being away from her boyfriend.

    She's now living with the boyfriend (an unemployed gardener, twice her age), and has fucked up her life. I wonder what her father thinks of his nice little daughter now?

    Keep drinking the wine.

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    1. She could have done worse - she could have met me.

      I will approach the wine almost suspiciously in the next couple of weeks - like slowly putting your head around a half open door to see if the axe-murderer has left the building...

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  3. I do so sympathize with you -- on the boy, on the wine and on the burger. It seems that every time we put aside money for something one of the children ends up with some emergency or another. It's as if they have a radar that lets them know when to strike.

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    1. Just so long as everyone's eating, then all is fine.

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  4. Like you say 10.00 a week could be saved from cutting back on a couple of beers. If he wanted it that bad, he would make it happen, not wait for someone else to make it happen.

    Sorry about your sore head. 2 tylenol, 1 gravol and 2 glasses of water right away....

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  5. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it too much Tom ........... you only meant well. Even without alcohol we can all raise the volume a bit too much sometimes. We've all been there. As long as no-one gives him the £10, he will sort himself out one way or the other.
    ............. have another hamburger and a glass of wine ! XXXX

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    1. send ME an extra tenner a month and you can shout at me all month long

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  7. Even without a head cold, i find if i have more than one glass of wine, i feel anywhere from tired to really bad the next day.

    You provided rational suggestions for making do with what he has, and yet he still whinges. I don't blame you for exploding. I'm sure i'd have done the same, and probably a helluva lot sooner.

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  8. Maybe he feels quite differently about it today too, having sobered up?

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  9. I think I would have given him ten quids worth of shouting at too. But then rusty duck is quite right.

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  10. An early night with no wine prevented me from replying to all of your comments last night, but thanks for them.

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