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Touchy Subject

I tend to use the time honoured .....Legs to fridge....arm opens fridge...arm shuts fridge.......legs take me to computer chair......arm feeds face method!

Call me weird but it works for me.

I have known folk try and drink vodka through their eyes if that constitutes a peculiar drinking habit.


















Apologies for being cuntish...........A looming weekend duty does that to a soul!!
 
Depends what they're doing with their lives.

Most move on...more or less; and drink less than they did in the army.

Unfortunately 'less than they did in the army' may still be more than is good for them.

Most ex soldiers seem to readjust to civillian life and make a go of it. At heart they are probably a bored and unsatisfied and at heart despise civy ways even if they know better than to say so. They miss the intensity, insanity, cameraderie and physical challenge and certainties of army life but adapt to a routine and are realistic enough to get on with things. Everybody who chose to leave the army did so for a reason.

When you are no longer 19 and physically fit it becomes progressively harder to scrape yourself out of bed after a night on the urine. Hangovers get worse and bosses don't find them funny the way some NCOs did.
The first surprise of civy life is paying bills. Instead of food and accomodation being stopped at source- and it wasn't much- you now have to pay all the household bills, rent, and buy food in Tescos. Money is no longer 'beer tokens' but 'money'.

If you live on your own or with a partner you are no longer sharing a block with up to fifty other lunatics whose raison d'etre is the manic consumption of alcohol. You are not posted to Germany or Cyprus away from your family and thrown upon your mates for company 24/7 with little in the way of non alcoholic recreation. Other interests and priorities fill your time.

Ex squaddies usually calm down drinkwise within a couple of years of leaving the service but still drink more than civies. For some there is only a downward spiral and the booze kills them or ruins their lives. Whether this would have happened to them anyway, even if they hadn't served, is anybodies guess.
 
Some lads I know who are out in the "real world" have turned into model citizens...to an extent. In an unfortunate experience it was me and SO1 Domestic being invited to a wedding with oppos past and present whereupon the now-civvy groom reverted to type. 12 hours later, a pissed off bride/all civvies were glaring at the half-naked, vomiting example of squaddie sub-culture that had taken over VP's at the bar, dance floor and bogs. An excellent night out from all accounts but it goes to show the beer monster may never truly exit on payment of the pension.
 
StevenPreece said:
How many of your oppos continue to drink the same way after they leave. Who tells them to switch oFF.
Cheers

Steve

Once out you can never switch off...you will be gobbled up by the big civvie machine ....what I mean is have a good look around you when you next walk down the street or go to the bar !!!!!!!!!!!
 
Personaly, I only drink on a weekend. Albeit, I still drink to excess. I think the term is full on. Beer, training and probably everything else.

maybe its a frame of mind I don't know.

However, unfortunately over the years I have lost some good oppos who have maintained a heavy drinking habit.

I guess its all about getting the balance right.

Cheers

Steve
 
John_Charity_Spring said:
Depends what they're doing with their lives.

Most move on...more or less; and drink less than they did in the army.

Unfortunately 'less than they did in the army' may still be more than is good for them.

Most ex soldiers seem to readjust to civillian life and make a go of it. At heart they are probably a bored and unsatisfied and at heart despise civy ways even if they know better than to say so. They miss the intensity, insanity, cameraderie and physical challenge and certainties of army life but adapt to a routine and are realistic enough to get on with things. Everybody who chose to leave the army did so for a reason.

When you are no longer 19 and physically fit it becomes progressively harder to scrape yourself out of bed after a night on the urine. Hangovers get worse and bosses don't find them funny the way some NCOs did.
The first surprise of civy life is paying bills. Instead of food and accomodation being stopped at source- and it wasn't much- you now have to pay all the household bills, rent, and buy food in Tescos. Money is no longer 'beer tokens' but 'money'.

If you live on your own or with a partner you are no longer sharing a block with up to fifty other lunatics whose raison d'etre is the manic consumption of alcohol. You are not posted to Germany or Cyprus away from your family and thrown upon your mates for company 24/7 with little in the way of non alcoholic recreation. Other interests and priorities fill your time.

Ex squaddies usually calm down drinkwise within a couple of years of leaving the service but still drink more than civies. For some there is only a downward spiral and the booze kills them or ruins their lives. Whether this would have happened to them anyway, even if they hadn't served, is anybodies guess.

:) Good post. Agreed with every line of that and can still remember being shocked with myself that I had never actually bought toilet roll in my entire life until that first shopping trip as a civ. My supplies of harry black ran out last month too...
 
Good thread, delicate subject.

While heavy bouts of weekday drinking are tolerated and excused in the Army, they are not exactly welcome nowadays. I have, as a younger bloke, gone to work absolutely trolleyed after being out on the gas and getting only a couple of hours' sleep. At the time, in BAOR in the 80s / 90s it was accepted but only because a lot of people were doing it.

Imagine now, having to brief your CO / OC etc and reeking of beer - not the done thing, in exactly the same way as going in to work as a civvie in a similar state. If you do this on one or two occasions it will be tolerated as an exception, more frequently and you will get a bad name and people commenting behind your back, whatever your occupation.

What it is indicative of though, is the amount of stress a person is going through. If I have a hectic week or couple of days, I have a few beers to let off steam - simple. When in the Army I always worked like a bastard and put the hours in - and then drank to let off steam. Now as a civvie I do exactly the same.

Similarly I suppose, if you are a guy who is struggling to transition between a military and civilian career, or have troubles in either occupation you will gas it up, and / or continue to gas it up to an extent - it's stress-relief really.
 
Nice thread, Steven.

Why don't you write a book about it? Maybe you can also write your own reviews as well, and post them on Amazon with your multiple accounts.

Chopper.
 
Drinking in civvie street the same way as I did in the Army got me into a lot of trouble and strife. Its only now I have it under control (after 20 years out), its been a lot of hard work, dont touch spirits now (used to be a bottle a night during the week,. and two bottles a day weekends), only a crate of beer weekends now. I now have more money in my pocket which is great.
 
I live in Munich :lol: (Beer City) and don´t drink enough to keep up with the local yokels, specially after the Oktoberfest :lol: ( which I only managed 7 nights out of 16 this year, must practise more)
7 Maß (7 liters) in one night is average over here, after the Fest it does go down a bit though. :x
 
Fecking ell billc thats going some.

I can't function on a proper hangover at all, its a day lost. Still sometimes drink till I fall asleep, dance like a tw+t or fall over at the weekend, guaranteed weekend, big nights out are generally a thing of the past.

Waking up with the beer fear, not knowing what the feck you did for the last 4 hours of a night becomes much less acceptable as you get on

Tried to keep up with some rugby boys on a night out a while back ended up with me, strides down hanging on to a lampost asleep in the town center. Which was dutifully filmed and put on facebook.

Birds/kids sort you out and generally keep you out of trouble. If they don't it might be worth re assessing your drinking habits
 
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