Back when I was still living in the Philippines, I drank alcohol whenever the opportunity presented itself. If there was a drinking session every other day, I did it. I enjoyed it. I loved making pulutan. The company I believed, were my friends for life. For better or worse.

When I left for New Zealand and went home for Christmas nearly every year, things inexplicably changed. I couldn’t find my friends. Texts went unanswered. It dawned on me later that for reasons still unclear to me to this day, I was actually ghosted. And whatever part of me that wanted to stay in the Philippines died. I know it sounds melodramatic, but that was the drinking culture; it wasn’t just a bunch of bored men making tagay from a single glass (you’ll get hepatitis C, my mother would scream to my face). It was a communion of people who shared the same dreams and aspirations even if uhm, mine was different being wayyyy older than everyone in the group. I may have been naive to believe that it was going to be for life.

But I guess life changes; the kids grow up; and I was still the same (what did I know about the struggles of having kids, constantly jealous wives and thin paychecks?).

Anyhow, I think that stopping the habit may have allowed me to possibly enjoy my later years with (fingers crossed) the least problems health-wise. All that drinking continued all the way through your forties wouldn’t have been good.

Here, there is a certain caution when it comes to alchohol. The laws won’t even allow you two beers if you’re driving (if you get caught). The company that you keep also determines how and when you drink, and after three years of initially being out there (again, with people younger than me), I’ve decided that the company I wanted to keep was my own as well as a tiny circle of people. Currently, I would drink probably, four times a year if ever?

I never get the urge to drink by myself at the end of the day. My dad did it, and a whole bunch of people do, and I think it’s WEIRD.

Anyhow, I bought a bottle of Luxardo cherries to put onto an ice-box cake that I’m making for Sam’s birthday this weekend and I spied on the website that they also sold Aperol. There was a boxed set with good Prosecco which was even better, so I got one only because it’s currently my go-to drink on the rare times I find myself at a bar or restaurant. And besides, it’s been so hot lately, that why not celebrate the heat with a slight buzz?

The classic spritz that you make it with, is crisp, refreshing, unbothered and uncomplicated - which is what I like my life to be. Cheers!