11 posts tagged “drinking”

Well, with Ireland winning against Scotland and wales and england also willing it looked unlikely from the start that me and my Anglo-welsh mix of friends would stay sober, and it being Em's Birthday meant a party was inevitable.

First me, my flatmates and J went to a Weatherspoons to see the wales match and the first half of the Ireland match. This would have been easier on me and J if we weren't still very hungover from another birthday the day before. So during the interval we went to our respective homes to eat breakfast, shower, see the second half of the Ireland match and get changed planing to meet up at Em's birthday curry. The curry was good, and the place let you bring your own drinks in. Em's Dad brought lots of wine, and we got on fine as although he was Scottish i tactfully neglected to mention that i was a supporter of the Ireland rugby team; sometimes an utterly untraceable accent is your friend. After a very fun meal and fair amount of wine we went to the pub. after the pub we went to Em's house Sans Em's parents and ordered a crate of beer form the all night booze delivery people. It was not a proper Cardiff Archaeologists night in that the party ended at a mere 3three AM as opposed to the obligatory six or seven, but fortunately it had the other one hallmark of a real archaeologists house party; it only ended early as me and a friend had to carry an unconscious third friend back to his home. Considering Wales bet Italy 47-8 and most of my friends here are welsh, this was inevitable and all in all good clean exercise.

I can now Drink in the USA as well as in the civilized world (defined as 'those countries that would let me drink already'). Brilliant!

Ireland lost their last game; this has annoyed me more than I have thus far let on.

Practically dragged from by bed by my flatmates yesterday in order to make it down town in time to get a good spot in a pub to see the Wales-Scotland game I soon found that my flatmates had forgotten to take into account the fact that said game was being played in the Millennium Stadium in Caerdydd and as a result getting anywhere on foot was imposable as the streets were rammed to bursting with welsh fans, a few Scottish fans, ticket touts, mounted policemen (pointedly ignoring the touts, they were there to break up fights and only break up fights and the touts knew this) police horses (they may or may not have been pointedly ignorring touts, with horses it is hard to say), drunks, loonies, hot-dog and other fast-food salesmen and one French fan hoping to find a quiet place to wait until the France-Ireland match started and feeling very alone in the world in the mean time. I knew how he felt.

Having settled on the Gatekeeper, which was rammed, we set about getting pints and watching the Wales-Scotland match, which wales dutifully won to the adulation of all my welsh friends who had dragged me down there, and to the slight adulation of my English flatmates with welsh girlfriends.

On the suggestion of one of these welsh girlfriends we left the gatekeeper to find somewhere a little quieter to watch the Ireland match, something that even then struck me as a bad idea given that as soon as the Wales-Scotland game had finished and the stadium started chucking out the population density off the streets outside had risen to approximately that of downtown Calcutta, and most of them were drunk. The game started in five or so minutes. Getting to the Bar in the establishment we were already in required serious effort and deployment of T.E.M, Tactical Elbow Maneuvers. Getting from one pub to another would require, preferably, a bulldozer. However as it was go with my friends or watch the match on my own I went.

Once we were allreday stuck in the streets it was casually mentioned to me that the pub we were heeding to was opposite the stadium.

Twenty-six minutes and one encounter with a megaphone-wielding evangelist later, we reached the pub. It, of course, had a giant queue to enter, but at this point all the girls were desperate for the toilet as they failed to go before leaving the last pub (why they couldn't have used the stalls in the gents in the gatekeeper like ever other woman in that bar I have no idea) and several people whom I had never met but who were from this point on referred to as "all our friends" were already in this pub, so we obviously had to wait to get it. 

The Pub in question was in fact the bar of a youth-hostel/hotel. As  it was opposite the stadium and cheep lots of traveling Scotland and wales fans had decided to stay there. As a result they could get in without queuing. The result of this was the bar filled up instantly but the queue did not move one iota for a very long time. By the time we got in the first half was nearly over, Ireland was loosing (clearly due to the fact i had not been able to wish them on as I could not see the game), the worlds tallest, biggest, baldest, nastiest looking welsh fans ever born had taken up residence right in front of the screen and as their teem had won they were partying and not moving for anybody (as a result I watched most of the second half reflected of the shaven head of the one standing in font of the projector), I had been waiting so long I had semi-sobered up and left the happy-drunk stage, I now needed the lavatory as well, "all our friends" had evaporated back into the aether without ever introducing themselves to me, and we had all waited far too long to get in here to go somewhere better. So i got a pint and watched the  second half.

Despite the best come back since Lazarus in the last quarter of the game, when Ireland were within a try of winning and in Frances danger zone in the last seconds of the game, the French still found touch and ended the game to secure them a win. This quite annoyed me, and not even the remarkably good singing of the Welsh fans behind me could cheer me up (their must have been a Welsh male choir in there somewhere). So the night ended with me going home to the worrying news our neighbor two doors down had been burgled, spending far to much money, drinking far more than is good for me, and still feeling faintly disappointed. Still, Blogging about it helps.    

Firstly, national preferences aside, i think anyone will have to admit that the Welsh comeback in the last quarter of yesterdays six nations match was a peace of utterly thrilling rugby.

As Ireland had already won their match i was happy to sit and watch the England-Wales at Rob's house and indiscriminately egg-on/mock both sides as the game progressed. What was quite fun was that out of the two Welshmen, one half-Welsh-half-English, one half Irish-half-English (me), one Australian (a girl) and two Englishmen only one person there supported england. He was quietly confident all the way through the first half. Then the second half started. Things did not go well for Wales to start with in the second half either, and so it was suggested that if Me, Rob and Joe wore plastic Viking Hats, Wales would win.as the person suggesting this was giving me beer i did not think this was a bad idea.

We put on the hats.

Wales won.

Now, a must say i cannot take sole credit for the welsh turn-around that started seconds after the plastic hit my head, Joe and Rob also had the hats on, and so the 3 million Welshmen who now owe me everything should also defer to those two. But needles to say, there was quite a party; we could, in the house, overt the top of the music and drinking, hear the distant chart of "Wales! Waaalllles!"  from every pub in Caerdydd. I can remember comparatively little of the next few hours as we went drinking when we exhausted the supply of alcohol in the flat, but i recall the center of town was packed to bursting point with jubilant Welshmen, and that i ended up drinking beer out of one of the plastic horns of the helmet (yes, as a archaeologist i KNOW that real viking never wore horns on their helmets, but real viking also did not have plastic molding and rugby) and getting very lost and winding up with a kebab-meat pizza.

which just goes to show. something.

I would like to thank everyone who helped make this weekends great welsh beer festival work out so well.

I would also like to thank Ramblers Ruin, Bullmastiff Welsh Black and Son Of A Bitch, Bull Lane Jacks' Flag, Battledown Turncoat, Mws Piws (Purple Moose) Darkside of the Moose and Cwrw Glaslyn, Stonehenge Original Wood, Valley of Glamorgan (VoG) Grog y VoG, all the German beers upstairs, and the cider and perry table, especially the dry farmhouse perry with the slight natural fizz and the old Foxwhelp Cider, plus anything i was to drunk to write down the name of when i drank it, for giving me a great three days (and a blessed four hours of memory).

and of course, i will thank the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and cask marque and all the volunteers who run this festival.

Yesterday Caedydd came more alive than ever for the france-New_zeland rugby match. The pubs were packed and I watched the match as a neutral (slightly leaning towards the kiwis) in the central. it was a good match, but the real fun came afterwards when we went out into the big wide world to drink and make merry. First I found £10 just lying in the street! With this windfall as a guide we went to the Union, but couldn’t get in. Un-deterred we went to a club downtown. It was on the way home from this club we were greeted with the most amazing sights; Drunken French rugby fans stroking and feeding an apple to a police horse as the WPC riding it smiled and waved, Old Trinidadian buskers playing musical duels with french accordionists, colossal snowdrifts of burger boxes were the street sweepers could not get through the party to clean up until 5 in the morning, more police horses getting petted by drunks, two kiwis singing the French national anthem with the words changed to very rude lyrics, more street partying, a policeman warning two Frenchmen about lurking in corners as he suspected them of urinating in public whilst his horse made far more mess and ate part of the pedestrians areas floral display for good measure.

As dad dropped me off to start this university year he, looking at the rubbish, broken glass and general detritus that is cardiff_after a Saturday night but before the cleaners move in, that one day Caerdydd will get board of its reputation as a party town and clean itself up.

Not while we're on the job!

Who are the people you've worked with over the years that you'd list as your Coworker Superstars? Why'd they make the cut? 
Submitted by bodhibound.

Rob and Joe, exelent hardworking archaeologists who just happen to be by drinking buddies.

I Discovered yesterday that my Dad is a minister in the church of Arizona. Apparently the bar they were at on the computing conference in Arizona gave discounts to pastors, so all 20 of them signed up and got ordained. It cost a mere $40. Suddenly i want to be a minister in a random church. Is also got a free Doctorate from the university of the Philippians just because the hotel he was in was giving them away.

Have you ever been ripped off?  What happened? 
Submitted by Trudie.

Yes. £7.50 for a large pizza! it's scandalous what people will sell to you when your too drunk to know better!

What? I though most mammals were meant to be mainly nocturnal?

Thursday. Had to finish an essay but had my surveying field trip, day one of 9, 0830-1800 (with no days of) on Friday and so did not sleep before handling in. At least I don’t think so. I can work 30 hours and stay alert and active if I have too (although I start singing “Bright-eyes” to myself without realising after 24 hours, apparently) but I do have a gap in my memory about 5am to 7 am that may be sleep, or just a memory blank.

Of course, yesterday was the last day of the Easter term so the Student Union bar had to get rid of all the beer it can not store over the holiday, so they have “Drink The Bar Dry”, a party where EVERYTHING in the bar is £1.50.

So of course when I got back after my 0830-1800 geophysical shift I had a beer, a shower, pasta, watched the X-Files and then went straight out to the Bar to round of my day drinking until 0100 today (well, technically yesterday at this time). So that’s 1200 noone on Thursday until 0100 Saturday with a 3 hour period that may or may not have been sleep.

AND I got up at 8 today for my day's shift.

Ahhh... the student lifestyle. Archaeology; Go to university and ensure yourself a low-pay outdoor job with heavy lifting!