Ölmönger: Ölmönger Special: Sober June 2017 – Diary, Part I, Days 1-5
As promised in the previous post, there will be short but pointless and boring checks how things are going with the beerless beer blogger. Since I don’t have the time to hang behind the dashboard every day, I’m publishing this month’s diary in stacks of five or more days. You and the other reader probably think – at least after you’ve read this text – that it’s still too frequent. One short summary would be enough: ”It honestly sucked big time.” Sorry, but my life is self-inflicted suffering right now and you have to face the consequences.
No tears – just walked past Kaisla and Sori Taproom on Day 5. |
Day 1
Checked out from Olutopas what’s coming to Alko shelves in June. Nothing too fancy – I believe that the Flying Dutchman will still be available in July as will probably the other couple of interesting ones -— so nothing will be missed during the break. Possibly will take some brews home to wait during the month.
Also checked out some comments on the frozen Finnish Alcohol Act updating process. It’s sadly funny to notice, how people seem to get stuck on words that politicians use rather than looking at what’s actually going on. Of course, it’s sad that the politicians tend to both exaggerate and underrate the influence of decisions but people should see things in bigger picture. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Yes, it should – unfortunately lately politicians have shown to be more like incarnations of greed, cronyism and neglect than liable, trustworthy and co-operative people.
Craving for a beer (1-10, 1 meaning nothing and 10 meaning serious shaking): 2
Day 2
Friday. When was the last Friday without a beer? Oh yes, last Friday – after SOPP Tampere. While leaving home from work today one mate said he’s gonna crack one beer open. When asking what beer he answered Hoegaarden. It helped: my craving for weekend opener dropped a notch.
One reason for choosing June for a beer free month probably was that I’m not that into summer brews. Traditional summer wheat beers suck, ”unnatural” sour ales suck even more and you can always have an IPA – and always be without having it. Right now though it would be nice to crack one hoppy one open and… But no.
Craving for a beer: 5 (after the Hoegaarden mention: 4)
Day 3
Saturday almost completely wasted. Probably too tired from the working week – mostly just sitting around. Cleaning the house a bit, mowing the lawn and playing with the iPad too much. I hope that spending time with Dream League Soccer will not turn into the favorite pastime of the month. If there are things that are fun and boring at the same time, playing computer games usually falls into that category.
The lady asked if she should bring some mild lager from the shop. Answered that if she ain’t gonna start drinking beer there’s no need. In the end, she bought ice cream instead of cider from sympathy. Nice, although unnecessary.
Craving for a beer: 3 (it was a very slow Saturday although someone mentioned the word ’beer’)
Day 4
Slow-started day finally turned into an energetic end of the weekend. In the evening though, the clock was almost stopped since having some coffee and cake at the father-in-law’s, brother-in-law’s and the latter’s son’s combined birthday party. Discussion with the youngest of them who turned four probably saved the day. Pretty analytic young fellow. To grow fast they seem, Yoda would have said.
Back at the house had a blast with the vacuum-cleaner and the washing machine. In the midst of the intensive household jobs I did a cracking amount of chin ups and push ups. Finished the day with an 8-kilometer run with a friend. An IPA afterwards would’ve been OK but managed fine without.
Craving for a beer: 2
A part of grey and rainy Helsinki caught to the memory card |
Day 5
Waking up at 4:30 a.m. with roughly four hours of actual sleep after being overalert because of the late exercise isn’t my thing. Sitting for over three hours in a train to Helsinki and drinking a cup of bad coffee isn’t my thing. Having to walk past some pretty decent pubs in the evening after the day’s workshop when it’s raining outside isn’t my thing.
Well, at least the day’s work was my thing and walking in the rain was at least refreshing. The day wasn’t completely lost. By the way, the capital of Finland is very ugly and depressing when it rains. And there weren’t too many people on the bar terraces today. I’m not bad or evil but I wish it would rain and be very cold until the beginning of July.
Craving for a beer: 3 (after the self torture, i.e. walking by Kaisla and Sori Taproom: 6)
Ölbeat
Theme song of this month. Do I need to clarify? No? Good.
Garbage: Only Happy When It Rains (YouTube)
From the 1995 album Garbage, the song was written by Garbage.