By: JENNY GRAINER
FREQUENTLY, I really do thank my Maker – especially allowing me to live in the beautiful Algarve where a Nanny State doesn’t try to control my life and particularly my ‘at home’ drinking habits!
In my youth, I don’t think I was very different to any other young people. I certainly had very strong opinions and knew how to rule the world – or at least my piece of it – much better than any of the old men who were then in charge (probably my age now).
The fact that many of my peers could change my opinion with a good argument in the space of an evening over a few ‘Babychams’ (Yes, I’m afraid to say that was the tipple of young ladies in my teens), to me only confirmed my liberal outlook and showed just how broad minded I was. I could, of course, be equally stubborn and hold on to an opinion, which had absolutely no root in logic, never mind fact, but that was all part of growing up, wasn’t it?
Without any doubt, I drank far too much on occasions, although I did manage to keep that from being the general knowledge of my parents and was quite clever at avoiding creaking floorboards on a late night return as I slithered along the wall to my bedroom.
Motherhood
Even though I admit that my alcohol consumption was greater than it should have been, I don’t think it can, in any way, compare with teenagers now. Whenever I see the images of today’s young women tottering around on high-heeled sandals, vomiting all over the streets, with skirts so short they do nothing to disguise the fact that they left their underwear at home – or somewhere – I do really feel that my teen years were very restrained and I certainly always kept my knickers on!
Becoming a mother while I was still only 21 certainly put paid to my version of the ‘wild child’ era and while I still enjoyed a good argument when I could get one, frankly, the bulk of my conversations were held with other young mums down at the welfare centre or walking baby in the park. It does kind of tend to put a damper on those early inspirational solutions to major world problems.
I moved to Portugal before my son’s second birthday and I suppose parenthood, at least over here when I was bringing up a young family, made women in particular live in a more insular world where making the nest comfy, warm and safe took over for a few years and, during that time, earth shaking ideas shrivelled a bit and we learned a new commodity called tolerance.
Nobody’s business
Being tolerant of somebody’s different opinions did not mean giving in – it just meant not getting violent about it anymore and accepting that everyone has a right to their own view point without trying to make you change yours, which brings me to the current situation in the land of my birth, namely England, or Britain if you prefer.
While binge drinking has become a serious problem among our young people, what’s all this I am hearing now about controlling how much we adults imbibe in the privacy of our own homes? Who’s throwing their toys out of the cot now?
If you are not a raving alcoholic and you’ve managed to hold down your job while educating your children, then who’s business is it if you want to stay quietly at home drinking your favourite tipple, instead of fighting your way through a queue to pay for another exorbitant round in a pub, full of drunken kids and ear splitting sound. If we are practically at zero level of alcohol in order to be able to drive a car, then many more people who enjoy drinking will stay at home to do so.
I’m sure they would have us believe that it’s intended to be a kind and considerate gesture, toward keeping us healthier, but I’m a bit more inclined to believe that they think they might prevent us from clogging up the already bunged up health system as our healthier older generation takes to enjoying our later years.
A unit
What is a unit? Does anyone know what it looks like? Should we all be rushing to install optics in our homes for fear of being too heavy handed with the gin bottle? Do we need to order new wine glasses with a line around the unit level so that ladies will know when they have had their permitted two measures?
Frankly, I think a government who thought 24 hour licensed drinking was a good idea and wants to open jumbo casinos serving alcohol all over the country needs to seriously rethink its attitude toward a more sensible generation that still drinks tea and coffee with their meals and quaffs its booze according to the occasion and the mood they are in.
If they plan to tax alcohol in the UK to a level that we can’t afford to drink it – festoon bottles with measuring lines and warnings that ‘Alcohol Kills’, then more and more sensible grown ups will be moving to ‘Heaven’s Waiting Room’ in the Algarve where they are allowed to apply acquired common sense to their lives.
