herradura

Owington,
To be fair, I would take English food over French food any day of the week. Not a huge fan of sauces and gravies and tiny portions of delectable bits of food. Pub fare is awesome, but I would die in a month if it was all I ate. Indian food in London is fantastic, if you like Indian food. In my travels of Europe, Germany is the place for me. Lots of good food, and I am 80% German. I like Italian food too, but you really have to have a lot of $$ to get full over there.
Sorry about the weather. when I was in Seattle we went 27 days without sunshine and I swear I had mushroom growing on my umbrella.
Good luck to you and eventually the sun has to come out!!

owington

To be fair we've had a pretty good summer here even up North where I am. I live with a German (Shepherd) and she doesn't mind the food here at all. Doesn't touch alcohol at all through so I'm not entirely sure she's pure German. ha ha.

WillB

Think again owington...I never ate better than I did in the UK and I've traveled extensively, including France.

I'm with the all that have said alcohol and a reason to imbibe can be found anywhere in the world. I would only add that has always been true and for many unlucky souls it will always be true. We are the fortunate few that have found the road we were on is a dead end and have come to realize the time for making excuses is behind us.

I can say from my own experience that anything can be contorted into a reason to drink. Good times, bad times....two feet of snow or a glorious hot summer day...an exciting sporting event or even staring at the wall. I've had to start over, again but can say that I am tired of giving in to any reason I can think of to drink.

Instead, I'm now looking at reasons not to and ask you to do the same. I will be on holiday with my family tomorrow so today I choose not to drink so that I will be at my best tomorrow.

owington

Thanks mate, and to all of you. I know I'm kind of going off topic with my posts but it's keeping me busy and most importantly at home not drinking. I'm starting again, I know I can do it cos I've just done it. Minor blip I hope. Just think a bit of banter and something else to discuss apart from drinking can't hurt, and if nothing else make some new friends. (internet friends still count right?)

herradura

I live with a Dutch wife, from Holland, she does drink alcohol, but usually tequila(Mexican), and a Golden (retriever) who will drink anything put in front of him. He loves beer, wine, and water. He does not have a problem with it though since he is a retriever and not a recoverer.
WillB, I too have used every single excuse in the book to drink, sunny, rainy too cold, too hot, won something, lost something, tired, feel good, no anxiety, anxiety, depressed, the list goes on and on and on. The reality though is it always delivers the same effect for me. Very happy for three hours and then a sleepless night full of self hate, self loathing, followed by a morning of regret and feeling like hell. That is when it is a "good night" or day of drinking. That is when I don't do something very regrettable. So the choice is not to have the first one.
Honestly, the best night of drinking doe snot compare to the worst night of not drinking the morning after. I just have to convince my self each and every day, sometime every 15 minutes. So you agree with me about French food? It is tasty, but again you need about $200 to get full. Except if you go to load up on cheese at Caufaurre(sp) and awesome bread.

herradura

Owington,
I appreciate the banter too, lightening up a little is always a good thing. I don't think your dog is a real German!!

LBrain

I have to say that I never drank doe snot.

herradura

LBrain,

It is very hard to come by. There are two types of deer around here, Mule deer and White tail deer. You need to catch a female Mule deer to get the doe snot, of course only when they are in season.

owington

Not sure herrandu, she's layed out flat on the floor in a surrender position.

trachemys

I'd just like to remind the Brit that we are so different we revolted.

just kiddin. 'Cept my royal relatives in Scotland say I'm not.

Still, just kiddin.

herradura

The other 20% is English, Irish and Scottish. Someone went off course back in the day, but we have most of the UK covered. County Cork(Irish)(Smith) and Mothers maiden name is Earl(English). I do love a "Scottish egg" but again, it would kill me to eat too many of them, maybe 4 or 5! Keep up the good work. Still going to find out what the heck grafting means.

owington

grafting means working hard mate

herradura

Thanks! Here it means connecting two different type of plants/trees together.
Like grafting a root stock of a winter hardy tree to a top which is a great producer. It involves splicing and or cutting and taping them together. Done it several times with limited success. Did the hard work thing for a long time too.

owington

Still sounds like graft mate. Basically if youre moving and doing something youre grafting. Example, " you grafting tomorrow?" " Aye mate, got a big job on" If youre drinking youre not grafting

aborkie

We don't drink as much as you guys. Hell there's a pub every fifty feet in London.

owington

Can we swap your steak houses and burger joints for our pubs?

LBrain

Speaking of doe snot, yesterday I went to the county treasurers office to pick up my doe permits. Less than a month away for the early bow opener around these parts. Unfortunately I won't be able to use my bow because of a bum shoulder. But I do have a crossbow for just such an emergency. I prefer the bow though when up in a tree.

Back to the topic, the major difference between the US and UK is that you call soccer football, and we call football, well football. Football is played with an oval shaped ball.
Soccer is played with a many faceted sphere like ball. Of course we are the only ones to call it soccer. Football was already taken when we finally discovered out how great a game it is.

herradura

Good doe snot can not be harvested from an injured doe, but you still need a license. I get to hunt for the first time this year. Been three times in the past, all three times the hunting got called off because of too much beer. Funny, never thought that was a problem, but obviously it was.
Going to use a .308 or 30/30. Lots of trees where I am going to go so don't need anything longer distance.

owington

What the hell is doe snot?

SonomaGal

I grew up and still live here in California's wine country, along with craft beer microbrewery extraordinaire. Drinking A LOT of fine wine and incredibly strong hoppy beer is beyond socially acceptable and people come from all the world to do just that. The whole area is awash in the false glamour of heavy drinking (which is how we do drinking here in wine country). I've seen many a finely dressed woman throw up in the streets, and men punching each other after a day of delicate wine tasting. When it comes to drinking problems, wherever you go, there you are.