Does anyone else seem to find that everyone is obsessed with alcohol?

All people seem to have to speak about is having a glass of wine, beer after work, beer at the weekend….how ‘leathered’ they were at the weekend…and i’m not talking kids here, i’m talking about grown adults 30-50 years of age. I find the whole thing a tad cringe worthy.

My penchant is mountain biking and it has taken me all over the world ad i’ve loved ever single minute of it. At a recent party i was asked why i wasn’t getting on it…i’m riding tomorrow, up early and all that. ‘What is the point of that’ was the answer. What is up with these people? Are their lives that nonexistent that all they have to live for is getting drunk over the weekend?

I foolishly agreed to do some guiding (up a mountain in Snowdonia) a while back and all the group could go on about was getting the walk done and sinking a few pints.

My facebook feed is awash with people posing with glasses of wine or beer. Having a bottle of ‘fizz'(I effin that effin phrase by the way!) at 6.30am because they are at an airport. Is that REALLY necessary?? They go to a marvellous destination, see eff all of it and post 80+ photos of various poses around a bloody swimming pool with bottles of beer? Bore off and go and do something worthwhile.

Maybe its me??

I dont know, but as someone who is damn near tee total now i find myself noticing how much alcohol is an active part of peoples lives.

Don’t get me wrong live and let live and all that. It just bores me…maybe i need some new mates? 🙂

Mmmm…. Beer…

Have a drink and loosen up a bit will you. 😉

I don’t drink now, but have had some awesome times on it despite never going out ‘on the lash’. As such, I don’t begrudge people talking about it.

The culture around booze can get a bit much, tho, and it’s only when you quit that you see how pervasive it is in certain groups of society.

The uk’s obsession with opening hours and binge drinking has never gone away and tbh is the cause of most of it.
Go anywhere else where there were never any restrictions and you never see any of it.
I have french, spanish, italian, german, etc friends and see none of it on FB – only from the uk.
Its still seen as taboo to allow children in moderation to have a tipple.
To learn about different tastes, etc – everywhere else its seen as perfectly normal so they grow up knowing what it tastes like, how it affects them and they don’t have the need to do out and “get leathered”.

Just be grateful you aren’t one of them.

Next time one asks why you aren’t drinking just tell them your drugs don’t agree with alcohol.

Don’t tell em what drugs though. Leave them guessing. 😉

I barely drink either, but if I’m going to it’ll be a decent beer, wine or single malt. Going out and sinking pint after pint of tepid piss or house wine at 100% mark up doesn’t appeal.

Had a nice pint of Bollington Dinner Ale earlier. That’ll do for today. Or will it? Mind you I never ride my bike and drink at the same time.

I rarely drink. The biggest hassle is explaining to people why not.

jam bo….you’re quite right! Then you get the old chestnut ‘don’t be boring’ statement. Yeah, ok, based on that statement (which is like something a 15 year old would say!) i’ll bow to your vein attempt at peer group pressure! 🙂

I like a drink, but I can take it or leave it. People think it’s weird to not want to get leathered. I hate hangovers lol.

I like to go out for a few beers and can still get up to ride my bike. 47yrs old.

Nope not really.

I have a friend like you. He is very boring.

Edit : missed the 😆

Love a few (too many) drinks on occasion, recently met a girl whose life revolved around going out drinking, found her very boring.

Like a drink, quite a lot. But I’ve never let it stop me from getting out there to ski or ride. And the behavior when drunk of a previous partner was a factor in the end of the relationship.

I think those who drink/do drugs too much or think that it makes them so cool, and those who are evangelical or judgemental about not drinking/doing drugs are all rather boring.

maybe i need some new mates?

This.

Hi, I’m Ben. I ride bikes and don’t drink 🙂

I love a drink and have one or two most days..
In the past it was a problem but I think that stemmed from growing up in a t-total home..

I’ve also spent many years t-total and never experienced people giving me a hard time for not drinking, other than complete and utter bellends

Enjoy my drink but agree with the OP that it’s a bit excessive for many. Basically, everyone who drinks more than me is an alcoholic bore and everyone who drinks less is a teetotal prude 🙂

No, but do tend to find everyone else seems to be obsessed by what everyone else is doing.

The alcohol obsession is also prevalent in many of the magazine articles. You’re telling us about the riding – we don’t need to know that you had a drink every night and had to pedal off the effects every morning. It’s almost like the riding has to be rubber-stamped by the drinking and the drinking has to be justified in some way. So what?
I don’t have anything against drinking at all, I just choose not to very much these days. I think I’ve had two pints since NYE. It’s also been implied before that ‘it’s a shame you aren’t drinking, you won’t be able to enjoy yourself’. The same folk are happy to get a lift home in the car that I’m driving though…
The club rides on a Sunday morning already have me on the rivet for 80 miles or so and there’s no chance at all that I’d stay on board if I’d had a few drinks the night before.

I don’t think I have had alchohol in a fortnight. It’s not just you.

It’s not the alcohol itself, IMO. It’s that many people have small empty lives. They have nothing to fill their lives with and focus on. So they just hang around with their mates and it makes them happy. And they drink cos that’s what they do.

This is what the song “Common People” is about, in part.

A quarter of 18-24 year olds don’t drink. Hang out with some younger people.

Drinking alcohol is a tradition pastime so what’s the problem? 😛

Our native in the far east drink themselves senseless to the point of inability to work.

I mean their traditional brew is so good and so strong you will sleep for few days after drinking them.

Generation after generation of heavy drinking got many of them wasted and now they have become tourists in their own home. Essentially they are culling themselves … 😯

edit: I love drinking me! I love drinking non-alcoholic malt drink!

I like a drink but it’s not that important, summer pub rides are enjoyable because of the riding and banter, not the beer.
As above, I think it’s because so many people don’t have much else to look forward to, so a night in a pub is a highlight.

I rarely drink. The biggest hassle is explaining to people why not.

Strikes me that not drinking is somewhat akin to being vegetarian.

“But whhhhhyyyyyyyyyy?!”

To paraphrase…..

Does anyone else seem to find that everyone is obsessed with mountain biking?

All people seem to have to speak about is having a ride, ride after work, ride at the weekend….how ‘knarly’ they were at the weekend…and i’m not talking kids here, i’m talking about grown adults 30-50 years of age. I find the whole thing a tad cringe worthy.

😉

I’d say a lot of it is down to our work culture these days. In more recent years I’ve found, in the office world at least, there’s an obsession with work, working all hours possible, sat at a desk all day without breaks (even though they should take them), eating lunch at the desk, not chatting to each other and generally getting stressed a lot.

Stressed out, go home and crack open the beers or down the pub, etc.

Come the weekend and go crazy.

Work culture in some other countries is far more relaxed, long lunches and although they might involve a bit of wine, it’s all spread out and no obsession at the end of the day or weekends with getting tanked up at the first opportunity.

It’s no bother to me what and how much people drink, I just get a bit pissed off
that I’m not seen as a proper member of my cycling club as I barely drink anything from one end of the year to the other. Unless you’ve had a skin full on a Saturday night and then as a consequence suffered on the Sunday club ride then you ain’t proppa hard!

I’m 22 and don’t really drink, I don’t really enjoy it I’d rather spend my time and money doing something I enjoy more.

I don’t like musical theatre either, yet never seem to be given a hard time about that. People are different and like different things, but saying you don’t drink is just unacceptable for some reason…. which is what gets me.

If you like a drink – great, I’ll happily buy you a pint!

Strikes me that not drinking is somewhat akin to being vegetarian.

Oh come on its not that bad.

more like being a vegan

I really like biking and really like booze, crazy I know. I have cycled in many places around the world and also had a drink in them too. I really like girls and music too. I don’t really care if anyone else likes these things or not, and have no wish to try and be smug or better than anyone about it either. I’m such a chameleon.

Some people just never get over the novelty of alcohol. Drinking culture is the worst thing about the UK.

“Alcohol” is sooooo STW, Spice is the new kid on the block, c’mon keep up!

Pays my bills.
I think its great . A decent pint of real ale in a proper pub at the right temperature, star bright with just the right amount of white creamy foam on top. Tastes even better after a few hours of exercise , if thats riding, sailing , running etc doesn’t matter .

Going out to get battered and spend the next 18hrs regretting it, spending 100% of your weekly disposable income on alcohol in 4 hours on a Saturday, fighting, vomitting , falling over, blood, memory loss. These are the worst parts of it.
A friend from scouts went out on his 18th, got hammered , fell in the road, hit by car , dead. Worst part of it.

There’s only 1 million visits per year to hospital due to alcohol related issues.. only costing about £3 billion. What harm does it do……?

it’s not half aa boring as peoples obsession with football and their incessant talk about it in the office, countless sweepstakes and fantasy leagues going around, armchair managers who are convinced they can do a better job that the current manager. Whenever I mention i’m origianlly from Manchester within a second i’ll get the old chestnut about which of the Manchester sides I support, quickly followed by the dazed and confused look when I say I don’t follow football. It’s commercialism isn’t it. Advertising. Football, alcohol, celebrity etc. It’s all the stuff that big rich organisations spend billions of pounds every year advertising and pushing onto people.

Socialising is one of the countries biggest industries and socialising revolves around food and booze and for the millions of people who don’t have anything outside of work other than socialising they’ve not got much else to talk about.

My wife is a non-drinker, which is quite handy for driving duties, but I miss the drunk version of my wife.

There’s only 1 million visits per year to hospital due to alcohol related issues..

Where someone might of had a drink. The box ticks alcohol, not how much, not how drunk, not that it contributed, just that they had alcohol.

It’s commercialism isn’t it.

Don’t think so. It’s the one thing more powerful than that – peer pressure.