Going out and getting drunk at my age!!!!

I consider myself lucky to have a wide variety of friends and colleagues that have also become friends. The drinking bit though is mainly based around my colleagues as opposed to my friends I have made in other areas of my life. If I go out with these other mates I know that should I decide to go home early or turn to soft drinks during an evening I would be in no way encouraged to drink more, or be called boring! On another thread it was mentioned that awkward situations with workmates are more challenging as you see them on a day to day basis, therefore your day to day happiness is in jeopardy.

A couple of my female workmates are prolific wine drinkers and somehow whilst they get extremely plastered it doesn't seem to affect the way they feel the next day, where with me I can drink half as much as them and go to bed a good couple of hours earlier than them, get up later in the morning than them and feel like crap for the entirety of the next day! I don't want to make excuses not to go out, 'cause don't get me wrong, I enjoy socialising with them, but would like to be able to be in control of my own drinking and should I refuse the offer of a drink for this to be respected and not met with...."Go on, you know you want to"..."I've got to get up at 6, you're off tomorrow, at least you can sleep it off", "Just one more, go on, don't be boring"!!!!! - and here am I thinking to myself "for heaven's sake most of us are fifty plus - have we not gotten over going out with the sole intention of getting hammered?"

Our group of colleagues vary in age though the youngest being mid twenties with the majority in our age bracket (I'm 51 btw) This Saturday I was invited to one of the younger one's birthday, for some reason I thought we were going for a cheapy meal and a drink, but it turns out it's a pub crawl starting at 6pm in our fave cocktail bar. I love this cocktail bar they do bogof cocktails, but the trouble is, our table is reserved at 6pm but at 7pm we have another reservation in another cocktail bar which is a good 10 minutes walk across town, so I really don't fancy having to guzzle two cocktails down in the space of around 45 minutes. I'll prob try and arrange to meet them at the other place at 7 and be able to pace myself and get away with sneaking in a few softies!!!!!

Oh dear!

I worked with a younger crowd that hit the booze in a big way. I just didn't go. They seemed to still like me and continued to invite me. Left around 6 years ago and still I'm touch with one young chap.

Most of my colleagues are big drinkers when we go out, but as I rarely drink, I just add a soft drink between every alcoholic one. Seems to do the trick. I still get quite 'merry', but don't suffer too much the next day.
They obviously don't mind because I still seem to get invited to every night out.

I can recommend taking some Milk Thistle before you go out and a soft drink between alcoholic ones. Doesn't always stop the hangover, but helps!

I remember now, you suggested it before. I had a quick check as to where I can get some in town, and the only one I can afford this week is a milk thistle fizzy capsule and as it contains sorbitol (to which I'm intolerant) I'd probably best give it a miss. However might buy some of the proper capsules when I 'm slightly less skint! It might be that I'm not going out anyway as I have just come down with a cold, obviously don't feel 100% and wouldn't want to pass it on to my friends. I shall see how it goes! Thanks for the advice though x

A cold the perfect excuse

Hope you feel better soon, and if you do go out, have a lovely time!msx

I went out and stayed out all last night, in Burford, one of the loveliest Cotswold villages. I also got very slightly sozzled! Felt distinctly off colour this morning, but not so bad as I might have, I remembered to take my Milk Thistle before I went out! Was it last night you were going if your cold didn't get any worse? How was your night?msx

A good night! And as you can seem I'm "up and at 'em!" Was persuaded to meet at 6.30 as by pure luck my closest workmate called and said she wanted to get there early 'cause she was going out for the day with her hubby the next day and had to get up really early so she was going to call it a night at about 9.30, and of course me and my cold, which incidentally sounds worse than I actually feel as my voice is croaky was the perfect excuse to join her and leave at the same time. Her hubby came to collect her and offered to drop me off home on the way, which was handy, I was indoors by 9.45!

The evening itself was great, I had one "proper" cocktail in the first bar and subsequently had two drinks in the second one, one cocktail and one "mocktail" so I feel ok this morning! The evening itself was fun, there was so many of us that leaving early didn't cause too much of an upset, but good company, good conversation and good fun and left early enough not for any of us to be completely trashed, though I'm surprised that birthday girl was still standing as everybody bought her a drink!!!

Another "Night out" is looming lol! Part of me wants to go as the girl obviously is making a big effort to get everybody from work together to enjoy themselves, especially since it's quite stressful at work at the moment - however, I've thought about it and as you know it's really not my scene, had it been a night with an activity say a meal, a show, bingo or bowling - I'd have jumped at it. I've said thank you for inviting me but I'm afraid I'm already busy that night as it's my friend's birthday do. Technically this is true but my mates do is daytime affair so I could probably actually go, but for the same reasons above I cannot face the thought of it. I was lucky last time and I fear I won't be again....I feel bad saying this but I really cannot face a night of staggering round noisy pubs and bars pumping out music I can't stand, making mindless "whooping noises" and watching the inevitable "workplace" flirting, selfies and not being able to hold a conversation with anyone 'cause it's too loud. Grumpy and old - that's me. Having said all that I really do appreciate being invited!

I too am very sedate these days, the idea of trolling round a series of pub/nightclubs was never my idea of a great night out anyway, but since my twenties, I'd rather go to the dentist (and I have to take a day of work for a dental appointment!!!!). My idea of a great night, is a concert/film/show/a meal good friends and good wine, may be a little too much good wine!!!! I hope you have a good time doing something you enjoy, if you decide the night out as planned is not for you!

mediastar said:

I too am very sedate these days, the idea of trolling round a series of pub/nightclubs was never my idea of a great night out anyway, but since my twenties, I'd rather go to the dentist (and I have to take a day of work for a dental appointment!!!!). My idea of a great night, is a concert/film/show/a meal good friends and good wine, may be a little too much good wine!!!! I hope you have a good time doing something you enjoy, if you decide the night out as planned is not for you!

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I totally agree with you, but I have had a stroke of luck and that is hubby noticed an poster on a telegraph pole of all places advertising that there's going to be an open air production of "The Importance of being Earnest" in the park just up the road from us and it's on that Saturday evening! He said "shall we try and get tickets?" A big yes came from me!!! This means I can still see my friend in the afternoon as the play doesn't start until 7pm! I told the work crew that I'd forgotten about these tickets 'cause we'd booked them ages ago, so I definitely won't be able to come out and appologised profusely!!
Now that's what I call a good night out, something a little bit different, and hopefully it'll be a lovely evening weather wise - sure beats the hell out of trolling around the town on a Saturday night!
Unlike you, way back when (and I mean way back when) I would have been in my absolute glory prancing around town in my high heeled shoes, three sheets to the wind, eyeing up the "talent" singing, dancing and generally making loud noises!
It's my idea of hell nowadays, I wouldn't go as far as to say I'd rather visit the dentist, but I seriously would rather do a shift at work!

Oh that sounds lovely, I love going to open air theatre! Hope you have a lovely time!

The open air theatre was brilliant, we really enjoyed it - Just up my street - literally as it is in walking distance of my house. Didn't even realise it was there! Found out that it's a permanent fixture every summer! So were definitely going to go again before summer's out. Very lucky with the weather last night, it was perfect. Ironically the "dreaded" night out was cancelled anyway due to the lady who was organising it's baby sitter letting her down, so it's going to be rescheduled d'oh! With a bit of luck it'll clash with our next theatre trip lol! I probably wouldn't mind these nights out, if you weren't pressured to drink more/stay out later than you want to etc. Would be more than happy to go along early, have a couple of drinks with them and go home - but sadly it never ends up that way. It's all very well me saying look, I'd love to come but I only want to stay for a couple, but once people start getting horribly drunk they start getting very difficult to deal with, and trying to break away about 10pm ish is always met with vehement resistance!

I am so pleased you had such a brilliant time! I went to work to catch up on some boring paperwork on Saturday, then, end of an era, my best friend is moving out of the area for a better quality of life (this area is almost as expensive as London, without the accompanying salaries!) her house sale is finalised in two days, so Saturday night we had some food and a few(?) too many drinks and a couple of films on DVD... I shall miss her so much, but she deserves a good life, she's a wonderful friend! Hope you manage to arrange your next night at the theatre to "clash" with the next night out!