heineken/chocolate mint baileys.

Once upon a time, I had a distaste for alcohol..drank it only for the sole purpose of socializing..I remembered vividly my feelings towards beer when I first tasted it when I was 9 yr old..the bitter taste, the disgusted look on my innocent face and the puzzling thought about why people actually derive pleasure from such poison..how things have changed when you grow up..

National Service did not change my distaste for alcohol..though one of my fondest memories was getting really drunk on tiger beer(yah..tiger beer, of all drinks) at one of my campmates' ord celebration in spec mess, it was 2002 december..still a very new bird posted to my unit with my ord date a far distant dot at aug 2004..the old birds had a great time cajoling us to drink..I remembered my best buddy in the unit(a fellow new bird) also got really drunk that nite..I puked all over the toilet floor even b4 I was able to reach the toilet bowl..downing cans of tiger after tiger in a relatively short time got me that reward..haha..but I will never forget the chat I had with my best buddy in ns who sleep beside me..he was spluttering nonsense and I was also talking crap..yet..that closeness in adversity and that nite brought us closer during ns..

I started appreciating alcohol or rather some alcoholic drinks when I entered nus..because of my ps clique in particular, Hong to be exact..heineken is his favorite beer and hanging out a lot for 2 yrs whereby heineken was becoming more and more of a norm in our leisure made me appreciate heineken better..from sipping slowly in my bottle of heineken and finishing 1 bottle while he starts on his 3rd bottle to drinking at around the same speed though definitely not volume. I must say, the bitter taste of heineken is actually bittersweet, refreshing and gives you that desired high feeling in the end.

The goodness of alcohol is amplified in my beijing trip with Hong...sipping Singapore Sling(yah..go Beijing drink Singapore Sling..winner) at the pub in our hotel..and of course that life-saving(haha) bottle of alcohol he had on the day where the temperature was freezing cold with really strong frequent gust of wind and we were waiting for his family friend in an open carpark to pick us up. Freezing, clattering and sounding oh-so-stupid, the bottle of alcohol tasted really sweet, it gave us such a warm feeling through the body and we could only savour it through sips because it was finishing..that was such an experience. Of course, how can I forget the drinking at the really classy pub that oversee the sea at kowloon in hk..

Besides liking heineken a lot..my next favorite alcoholic drink must be chocolate mint baileys..my first contact with it came surprisingly at mindef nexus chalet sometime last yr..when I first tasted it..I thought it was chocolate milkshake just that its even better than that..practically going to get high on something that taste really good and not at all unappealing like vodka,tequilla or chivas(never really like hard liquor)..I cannot forget how much relaxation a small glass of baileys brings you after working through the nite and finishing your essays right on the dot of deadlines or after a long gruelling mugging session. Hmm..better get my baileys from Hong soon..assignments coming in..

I need to stress that I drink alcohol in moderation though..most of the time anyway..I try my best not to get drunk unless I am really depressed and needed a form of release(doesn't happen that often). Alcohol when consumed in large quantity can actually be a depressant, the puking, the hangover the next day..its just not worth it..unless you are actually looking for more pain to override the pain that you are feeling..but at the end of the day..the pain will disappear and the problem is still there. However, the release function of alcohol does help at times..it help you to be able to just enjoy yourself and put your troubles n problems away for that moment..a sense of release like no others..and I do need a break from time to time.

* Had two bottles of heineken just now while playing pool with Hong, Lulu and Eveleen,it feels good to be able to get her off my mind for that few hours, I need to have fun and stay happy. Shall turn to jogging and readings(there's at least 200pages of readings for this opening week of my honours yr mod,can you believe it?!) when I wake up from my sleep later.