Booze, Friends, Nostalgia and Romance

I'm a sucker 4 all the above!

One of my favourite ways 2 spend an idle evening is to sit down with a couple of close friends and drink - slowly. Not with the kind of hurry we used 2 do it when we started out as teenagers. Somebody i know said "Drinking is a lot like sex. You can't recapture the pleasure of the 1st couple of times you did it. But later you learn not to hurry through it, but to enjoy it slowly, the way it really ought to be. And yeah - you do become more refined".

When Kraz came over here about 2 weeks back we had a marathon booze session that stretched from about 8 in the evening to 3:30 in the morning. We weren't drinking copious amounts, but we did drink quite a lot - much more than my usual 3 drink limit. But more than that, we talked. I love drinking that way - with good friends who don't just gulp the stuff down in pints and then go off 2 sleep almost immediately, but actually want 2 have a conversation while you drink (Again you can notice the parallel with sex - strange coincidence?) Kraz and I usually have really amazing conversations over booze where we discuss everything under the sun and give advice to each other on our love lifes, plans for the future, what makes life worth living, the new books we've read, the new movies we've seen, what other old friends are up to... It is usually a shameless indulgence in nostalgia and a very strong occassion of male bonding. Perhaps no coincidence that most of my best friends are also guys for whom drinking comes naturally ;-) In fact, when i roll into town and give somebody a ring what they say is - "So, how about lets go grab a beer or something". I'm not an alcoholic (not yet anyway) - but just a regular. though moderate drinker, who enjoys it socially (i never drink alone - tried it twice - gave it up!)

I've heard of this new social structure - they call it the Urban Tribe - a bunch of guys/girls who are single and rely on the whole gang for emotional support. You can say it is a substitute for what the extended family used to be. For a lot of us, I think we will see that happen - when you get closer to some friends than your long lost cousin whom you see every year for exactly 2 holidays when the whole family gets together.

I think i've written enough about nostalgia already ;-) So i'll duck that one.

A lot of guys think that being single is the only way to live - and though nobody i know has gone to the extreme of starting a "Bachelors Anonymous" (Wodehouse fans will know what i mean), we still talk of a guy who's gotten hitched as if he got murdered ;-) Unlike a lot of my friends though, i'm not 'happily single'. Like i've confessed before, i'm a hopeless romantic and i'm getting pretty tired of living all alone. Now i really feel the need for a relationship. Perhaps no coincidence that i find my taste in movies increasingly moving towards light romantic flicks like Serendipity and Four Weddings and a funeral. When these movies were released i'd have never thought that i'd be watching them - used to skirt clear of the entire genre ;-) Now i seek them out!

While Kraz and i were talking we were wondering what really goes into making that 'Really great relationship' that we all dream about. Is it just affection between two people? Is that enough? Is it shared dreams and interests and lifestyles? Or are these the ingredients for a good marriage, but not one for love. We both agreed that there is that something else that makes you fall in love. Of course being in love just means that you start your relationship on a good note. It need not mean that it will last. But isn't it better to have tried and lost than not to have tried at all!

So here is to Serendipity - and hoping it'll bring the right person into all our lives!

ubergeek, the