TBK tries- Alcohol and me

The One and Only Great Bahrain Beer Festival

My dad was a doctor. Everything in moderation was his motto. He would pour one glass of wine, put a piece of card on it, place it in the fridge to cool and savor it over dinner.

In the days when I drank alcohol, I would have 5 bottles of white wine in the fridge and 5 red wine in the cupboard, bottles of Tanqueray gin, and a case of beer and happily sample them all.

Christmas in Bahrain , when I drank

Family Christmas as a teen was hell. My 25 year old brother would have drink and drugs in his room and disappear for long periods with a smile on his face. Father would pour us all one glass of wine and that was it. When I got older and dared to ask for a top up he called me an alcoholic. In my twenties I also bought my own wine!

My mothers last Christmas she could not cope so we went to my eldest brothers where a spreadsheet dictated what we drank, when and how much. When I said I wanted red not white he said I would have what I was given, it was his house. I said in my Hotel Management training we were taught the guest should have what they want , so he told me to go to a hotel. I walked out reducing my mother to tears. I have never been back to the UK in 12 years and spend every Christmas having lunch in a hotel!

When I ran a bar at University we did not get paid but I was told I could drink as much as I liked, and being a student , I did.

Drunkards at the Awali Swimming club

The real realization of the evils of alcohol was when I came to Bahrain, and due to my Hotel background was asked to run a bar. There I saw expats come as soon as the bar opened and stay until well past closing time. They would complain about the prices , which were very low, insult people, go home drunk , sleep all the next day and not remember anything about it when they returned to work. Week after week. I realised that if I did not stop I would end up like them!

So that was when I stopped running the bar in 2011 and I stopped drinking a few years later. I have always been a party animal and entertainer and had regular lunch and birthday and Christmas parties. These became no smoking ( I gave up in 2004) and no drinking ( I gave up in 2015) events and people stopped coming.

My 50th Birthday party

"You are having a party where you cannot smoke or drink- what's the point?" said one American expat.

I decided I had made the right decision at that moment.

Alcohol in Bahrain is imported and heavily taxed and I used to go once a month to get my supplies and regularly spend 14,000 pesos at a time , even after a healthy discount from my time running the bar. I used to buy high quality wines and real ale and the best gin. Then my Expat and Saudi friends would come, and if they bought anything it would be cheap out of date lager. Then then they would drink all my good stuff like it was lemonade.

My brother at the Tennis Club bar in 2010

When the town where I lived in the Middle East was set up in the 1940's by the Americans the houses had walk in cupboards in every room with locked doors to keep your alcohol safe, There were sporting clubs set up around the town each operating on a different night, so you could go drinking at the Awali Football club on Monday, the Swimming club on Thursday, the Rifle club ( by invitation only) , Golf Club, Tennis club, Riding club etc.

We even had, back in 2010, the Awali stagger, a three legged race between the bars. In 2010 for my 50th I organised GBBF1- the first, and only, Great Bahrain Beer festival! It started at the Tennis club bar then we walked to the Car Club, on to the Sailing club and staggered to the Football club.

Steve, arrived drunk at one of my parties after a Friday brunch

People even set up regular drinking events, like some former friends who had "Temperance" dinner every Tuesday at the Bapco club restaurant, where they would giggle like girls, get drunk, and insult people. Then when you reminded them the next day they would deny all knowledge of it. Another expat could not function without alcohol and stories of people coming back to work on Sunday smelling of Booze and going home for a snifter at lunch time abounded. Another expat could only be pleasant when his kids came to stay and he could not drink. On other days he would go to sleep on one of the Hospital beds in the afternoon. On one occasion my Physiotherapist asked me to delay my treatment until he woke up. I reported his behavior several times but later found out Alicia was his friend and drinking partner. So no action was taken.

Some guys were a little more discrete and would head off to Thailand to play "Golf". Unfortunately one time they stayed in the same hotel as me and whilst there was a lot of playing going on it wasn't golf.

Petri's 50th at Crazy Davy Stir Fry

We were very fortunate to have free homes, tax free salary, allowances for transport and utilities and free fuel. That left a lot of money and I could not believe how these guys just pissed it up the wall. With beer at 1 bd, ( 135 peso) a 3000 bd a month salary ( 407,513 peso) bought a lot of beer. ( 3000 cans or 100 cans a day) . These serious alcoholics rarely bothered with food, and certainly did not send money home.

Patrick and Corleen at a Bapco Brunch- 6 bd a head for all you can eat

On Friday's when I took 2 Pinoys to the Bapco club for a non alcoholic all you can eat lunch for 18 bd ( 2445 peso) for the 3 of us. My alcoholic colleagues would spend twice that on an all you can drink brunch at the Ritz Carlton, Sofitel etc. just for one person. They would get so drunk, arriving first at 12 moon and leaving at 7 pm that they would have to have a taxi home.

Sofitel Brunch- 36 bd per head ++ for all you can drink

And so it was hardly surprising that when the Awali Teenagers ( average age 55) returned in 2019 to visit the town in which they grew up and threw up, they repeatedly told stories of coming for a 2 year contract and being airlifted home in a medical evacuation 32 years later and not remembering any of it.

In 2015 I gave up the demon booze and surrounded myself with like minded Pinoys and saved my salary for my retirement. By 2018 I was a Millionaire and in 2021 I stopped working. In 2022 I moved to the Philippines and never need to work again. Sadly for them my drinking colleagues, many of whom built bars in their homes, had to carry on working into their sixties and seventies until Bapco threw them out. Even worse was life for the few single females who suffered sexual harassment at the hands of these drunken men. It's sad when a Manager tries to chat up a 19 year old cleaner or one of his colleagues daughters. Another expat , now retired to Thailand frequently criticized the amount I ate or the amount of water in my fridge. Until now I stayed silent and never criticized the amount he drank or his drunken behavior!