Drink up

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blog challenge. 

PJ, our host, picked an interesting subject for the month of April. He asked us to drink up! Well, if we have to!

I'm not sure about your neck of the woods, but in Switzerland, restaurants have been closed since before Christmas, and prior to that, they had to close at 7pm, basically to ensure nobody was getting careless by drinking one too many. 

South Africa has even banned alcohol altogether. 

What a difference a year makes though.This time last year we didn't leave the house in four days. Yes, in Switzerland Easter is a long weekend, starting with a day off work on Good Friday, and after the weekend there's Easter Monday, which is also a paid day off. In "normal" years people use this for a mini vacation.

So, I was saying, last year we were "celebrating" by adding toilet paper rolls to our Easter baskets and FaceTiming my best friend, each of us had a glass of Prosecco, and we toasted each other through our screens.

This year my parents are vaccinated, indoor meetings are allowed for up to ten people, so they invited us over for brunch. They were babysitting the 4-year-old son of friends, and the boy had a lot of fun finding and re-hiding Easter eggs. My Dad even opened a bottle of sparkling wine. It was really nice and relaxing.

A few days later, even though the weather forecast had announced it, I woke up to a white surprise. It was just a dusting, and I brushed it off, pun intended. The next night it came down pretty hard, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I decided to go with the flow. 

If nature gives you snow in April, 

let's deck the window sill!

Haha. go home, nature, you're drunk!

Fortunately - after some back and forth - spring decided to return for good, allowing my best friend and I to celebrate her birthday on her balcony. The creature you can see in the background is a a Gargoyle, an architectural feature used to divert water from the roof and away from the building's wall. I'm so glad I have knowledgable friends explaining these things to me! 

Recently I came across a debate about so called privileged white women who enjoy crafting and displaying signs about crack homes (vs houses), and suddenly it's not pc to put a wine glass in every room and call it a wine tour? Or to remind your friends to drink reasonably - don't spill your wine. 

Or to claim it's wine' o'clock somewhere? This sign was made by my childhood friend.

I'm not saying we should glorify alcohol. Addictions are devastating.  

In Europe, especially in mediterranean countries, kids are being introduced from a young age to responsibly enjoy a glass of wine along their dinner. That way they learn to handle alcohol consumption, and they won't drink secretly with their friends (because what's forbidden is much more interesting) and / or binge drink as soon as they turn 21. 

In Switzerland, young adults are allowed to purchase and drink beer when they're 16, and hard liquor when they're 18, which is also the minimum age to learn to drive a car. 

I tried to research if this approach helped in any way reducing chronic alcoholism. While it's easy to find data on average consumption by country, we don't seem to know if there is any correlation on how early in life people start to consume alcohol.

Here's some general facts I found about Switzerland:

5% of our population chronically drinks hazardously (up to four "standard glasses" of an alcoholic beverage every day) 16% (particularly young men) binge drink at least once a month (five and more units)

In the U.S. on the other hand there are states that allow kids as young as 14 to drive to and from school, but they risk criminal charges if they're caught consuming a glass of sparkling wine at their graduation?

I came across this bottle of "Bad Girl" at one of the take-out places I have been frequenting lately. 

Tasting notes suggest Sushi as a food pairing, so that's what we did. After all I have reason to celebrate. Today is the last day of the annual A - Z Blogging Challenge. I participated for the 7th time, and it's been a great journey!

What's more, my 1,000th post is coming up! Time really is flying if you're having fun. 

I'll do a separate post to properly achknowledge the occasion. For now I'll  just raise a glass to you - Cheers!

Thank you for visiting today and all the other times, thus being part of my journey!

Please also check out my fellow bloggers' contributions over here.