So.. Erm... What Time Do You Start?

[GuestHouse]

On my way to work this morning I pulled up at a junction waiting for the traffic to clear, looked right towards some houses by the roadside as saw a Farang sitting on at the table infront of 'his' house wearing the regulation Camel Trophy Shorts and flip-flops and pouring out a glass of Leo - This at around 6:40 a.m.

Now he may of course have been drinking all night, but it looked more like breakfast.

That got me thinking.

I don't think I ever drink any alcohol before 'its over the yard arm' and very rarely before six or seven in the evening, unless I'm on holiday. I like my days to be sober.

So, for those of us who do drink alcohol, what time to you usually have your first drink of a day?

------

Adds....

I recall working shifts in Edinburgh and going for a drink down in Leith straight after finishing the night shift - a pub full of other shift workers (Hospital staff, Coppers etc) - It seemed sort of normal until it was time to go home, staggering down the street pished at ten in the morning looking for an Indian Restaraunt was no real fun.

[Livinginexile]

I too was drinking first thing in the morning and going right through untill I passed out.

There is a heavy price to pay for this lifestyle both physically and mentally.

I stopped drinking 2 weeks ago and I feel better than I have for many years.

It's not easy especially the first week but soooo worth the fight.

[Heng]

No rules as to start times. But I never drink until extremely drunk, vomit (not since college anyway), or pass out.

[hanno]

I used to work night shifts in hotels and did the same thing: head for beers after work and, as OP, met all the nurses, hospitality employees, firemen, cops, etc. But then we also used to celebrate New Year's Eve a few days late as the actual day was way too busy.

These days I only drink on my day off or during holidays. Days off I have my first beer with lunch, on holidays it has to wait until the evening.

[geriatrickid]

Perhaps 6:40Am was really 11:40 PM UK time. Chap was on holiday.

I'm trying to find an explanation, because the thought of some geezer boozing it up at that hour is pathetic.

[PeaceBlondie]

What's a yard arm? I quit drinking in 1964. When I started again in 2001, I knew it was a stupid past time to make a habit of. Now if I drink, it's one small beer after 7 pm and no more. Stupid, IMHO.

[Insight]

With the occasional exception, a good rule of the thumb for expats is not to consume during daylight hours.

I occasionally see Thai folks with a large Chang during the drive to work, but put it down to them being behind the wheel of a cab all night. Harmless, if so.

[JonnyF]

The time you start is pretty irrelevant, it's the amount that is harmful. If there's sport on that I want to watch that happens to be at a strange time here in LOS e.g. boxing from the US is usually Sunday morning, then sometimes I'll go to a bar to watch it at 9-10am and have a few (3 or 4) small beers during the fight. Then I stop and don't drink for the rest of the day.

I've had a few funny looks from people who assume I'm a raging alcoholic - but then these same people probably go out at 7 or 8 pm, drink twice the amount I just drank and think it's fine because it's the evening. The liver doesn't care what time it is, only how much poison it has to process.

I rarely drink more than one beer during weekdays (and always after 6pm) because I work and don't like working the next day with even a mild hangover.

[bonobo]

What's a yard arm?

  The yardarm is the short, horizontal piece of the mast which sticks out from near the top the main, vertical mast on a sailing ship.  Typically, they were about three feet long, hence the "yard" arm of the main mast.

And from Wiki:

This phrase is widely used, both afloat and ashore, to indicate that the time of day has been reached at which it is acceptable, variously, to have lunch or (more commonly) to have an alcoholic beverage. In modern parlance, the latter usage typically refers to early evening, but the phrase is thought originally to have referred to late morning and to the sun's ascent past a particular yard.

The actual time that the sun would pass a particular yard would depend greatly on the ship's latitude and heading, as well as the height of her masts, but the phrase seems to have originated in the north Atlantic, where, in summer, this would have typically been at about 11 a.m.. This was the time at which, by custom and rule, the first rum "tot" of the day was issued to officers and men (the officers had their tots neat, while the men had theirs diluted with water), hence its connection with taking one's first alcoholic drink of the day.

The earliest mention of this phrase collected by the OED is in Rudyard Kipling's From Sea to Sea in 1899, where it is used as a metaphor referring to drinking habits.

[Shotime]

I can only drink in the morning if I heat it first in the microwave. I still throw-up, but it's not as bad, and it doesn't last as long to get my groove back. I can only relate this story as I've heard it many times at AA meetings. I was never much of a drinker, but those that did drink said the same kind of things as are said here as way they felt or rationalized their feelings when they were still "out."

This sounds like an alcoholics life-style thread.

Edited May 19, 2009 by Shotime

[pattaya_girl]

I start at 7pm - Mum told me, any earlier and I would become an Alcoholic.

[a2396]

Another deep & thought provoking topic. No wonder the Thais have such high regard for us (Farangs).

[meom]

I usually drink only during holidays and start around 2-3 in the afternoon.

Sometimes after early morning sex with Mrs Meom I grab a beer from the fridge which goes down well at 7 in the morning.

[imaneggspurt]

Thailand attracts some strange people/habits dosent it, i have met 2 men that ONLY drink beer, by that i mean nothing else, no water, nothing, beer for breakfast and every other meal, bizarre, .im just glad i suffer from horendus hangovers ,as ive been tempted myself,

[a2396]

Anyone remember this quote, regarding the yard arm?

"I'll live to see you - all of you - hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fleet."

[imaneggspurt]

I too was drinking first thing in the morning and going right through untill I passed out.

There is a heavy price to pay for this lifestyle both physically and mentally.

I stopped drinking 2 weeks ago and I feel better than I have for many years.

It's not easy especially the first week but soooo worth the fight.

Well done

[dannyman]

What's your point 1900 or 0700 ?

[G54]

My first of the day is in the evening. Generally around 9 pm or so. Though if I am out to lunch somewhere I might have the odd beer but that is rare.

I never could see the point in swilling beer down my gullet early on a morning.

[DP25]

If I'm drinking, it's rarely before around 9 or 10pm.. Some times I get dragged out earlier than that, but I'd prefer not to.

And yeah, I've seen foreigners drinking that early before. Thais as well.

[PhilHarries]

When I'm on holiday in Pattaya I make a point at least a few days a week of getting up, going and buying the Bangkok Post and sitting down at a beer bar reading it over a couple of beers, this could be anytime after 00:00 GMT (07:00 local). I only ever do this in Pattaya, here in VN it is more usually mid to late afternoon before I'll have a couple. Why only in Pattaya? Because I know, via ThaiVisa, that it p1sses off some folks to the point they feel they have to vent their spleen by way of a letter to a newspaper or a posting on an anonymous website.

Under more normal circumstances I eat and drink according to my desires not the degree of the Earth's rotation. If I'm on holiday and I feel like a beer I'll go have a beer, or maybe two , or maybe three and the time is irrelevant. Not so sure about having a beer with a full on breakfast fry up though .

Why this fixation with time anyway? As someone else has remarked it's not the time you start but the quantity you drink that does the damage. According to the honorable puritans here it is totally unacceptable, punishable by a stint in the stocks, to have a few beers before a certain, undefined, set hour. However it is perfectly within the bounds of reasonable behaviour to go out after that set time and get bluted. Curious species, homo sapiens.

What is it with folks trying to impose their standards of living on others? As long as the guy having a beer at 06:40 is not going to drive a car, is not making a nuisance of himself or is so plastered he can't get himself home why does it bother you people? It is his life to lead ho he likes, within the law, and according to his own personal regime.

I don't suppose many of you have celebrated May day around Magdalen college in Oxford. I don't know if it still goes on but it used to be a morning, well up until around 08:00, of messing around on the river. To help with the celebrations the local pubs used to open from around 07:00 until 09:00 and yes it was a bit surreal wandering half pished through throngs of "normal" people going to work.

Another place I've had one of those <deleted> moments was Manila. About 10:00 one Saturday morning I felt like a cold beer so went to this little cafe expecting to encounter raised eyebrows at my request. I got in there to a full on party of about twenty people with the beer flowing copiously. Found out it was the night shift from one of the local call centers, probably they need the drink after a night of dealing with irate, sober, British bank customers.

[GuestHouse]

Another deep & thought provoking topic. No wonder the Thais have such high regard for us (Farangs).

I doubt there are as many Thais reading this thread as there are Thais who see Foreigners getting pisshed before breakfast ...... Which then gives Thais reason to have a high opinion of Farangs?!

[rak sa_ngop]

My favourite definition of an alcoholic: "someone who drinks more than you do".

How true that we are always ready to condemn people who do things differently to the way we do.

Mind you having the first beer at 6.40 am is a bit sad!

[Svenn]

...some houses by the roadside as saw a Farang sitting on at the table infront of 'his' house wearing the regulation Camel Trophy Shorts and flip-flops and pouring...

Bit cynical aren't we? Farangs seem to always hold such contempt for eachother, I've seen it in every country I go... everybody trying to compete to be 'native' and to not be 'the tourist.' Just as decent folk have been here a couple days as those who have been here for decades. Sure there are a lot of trashy farangs out there that seem to fall into categories... but certainly Guesthouse you must know about usufructs or the tried-and-proven efficiency of pocketed shorts?

[MHM]

There's a pretty hardcore group of farang boozers here in Kanchanaburi. Its not unusual to see them 'well on the way' by 10.00 a.m. and its all they ever do. No job, no activities or hobbies, the big decision of the day seems to be which bar stool to sit on. Young men, most of them, always down on their luck and prone to constant avoidable accidents. They find me a bit of a snob as I won't join them (I'm working!) but I attend their funerals when I can. Its really very sad

[Patsycat]

I did the May Day in Oxford once. Strange to go to the Pub at 7 in the morning.... having set our alarms. Back in bed by 10 if I remember. The pub we went to was the oldest one in town - full to the seams with people really enjoying themselves - no fights, etc. This was 25 years ago - I guess now there would probably be fights.

Edited May 19, 2009 by Patsycat

[Old Croc]

Drinking in the morning.

As Phil says, what difference the time of day if you want to have a drink.

I used to work night shift and would commonly have a beer or two before going to bed about the time others were getting up. But I guess that's reasonable.

When younger, I owned a boat, and would often crack the first beer of the day as we cleared Fremantle heads at 6.00am. For some reason when drinking and fishing out to sea, I could never get drunk. (although the drive home towing the boat was something I shouldn't have been doing! Wouldn't do it now.)

Champagne breakfasts used to be a popular fund raiser where I lived and many would start the day souzled after bacon, eggs and Dom James Hardy.

Some Pubs here used to open at 6.00am and there were always a crowd of regulars waiting for their first of the day.

I'm a lot more refined in my personal drinking habits these days.

[teletiger]

Anyone remember this quote, regarding the yard arm?

"I'll live to see you - all of you - hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fleet."

Captain Bligh, departing the Bounty?

Regards.

[Texpat]

I don't drink any more.

I don't drink any less

[EndofDays]

I too was drinking first thing in the morning and going right through untill I passed out.

There is a heavy price to pay for this lifestyle both physically and mentally.

I stopped drinking 2 weeks ago and I feel better than I have for many years.

It's not easy especially the first week but soooo worth the fight.

Wow, since you stopped drinking you have really shown it. I mean, you look decades younger (referring to your profile) even though you seem to be swimmng in it.

[GuestHouse]

....

What is it with folks trying to impose their standards of living on others?

....

I have no intention of imposing my own standards on others, as I mentioned in my Opening Post, I myself used to go for a beer after night shift.

I am rather asking what is the usual practice of TV members.