Sick
Saturday night I went back to my native North East to meet up with some friends who I haven't seen in almost a year. Sitting in the same pub we've been in countless times over the years, I was reminded of the Car advert on at the moment where the people stay the same, but the fashions and hairstyles change to show time passing.

Nine years ago, when we really all became close, we all had longer hair than we do today, with Indie centre-partings and in one notable case dreadlocks masking our somewhat spotty faces from the outside world.

Today, we've all gone for much shorter, and more respectable cuts, as the demands of our respective employers took their toll upon our hairstyles. It's funny how time, in one sense, had stood still, although admittedly we all looked slightly older, and at least in my case a bit fatter than I did back in the long hazy summers of our youth.

One thing that has changed over the period was our capacity for and choice of drinks (together with the level of female company we now have). I can safely say that we all now drink more than we used to, as prolonged periods as students saw us all increase our alcohol tolerance to governmental health warning proportions.

My problem is that unlike a few years ago, I can no longer drink anything and everything in front of me impervious to the consequences to my digestive system. Where once I consumed paraffin (I was fire-breathing drunk, and swallowed some – I don't recommend it), now my stomach struggles to deal with red wine topped up with Newcastle Brown Ale.

The sorry result being that I had a rather prolonged bout of Exorcist-style vomiting around 4am on Sunday.

It's strange to think how little has changed in the way that my friends and I can pick up conversations we began years ago at the drop of a hat, and funny to think of how we've changed both physically and emotionally in the past nine or so years. That's why I love these people, and why I miss them when they are on the far side of the planet.

However, if I could not drink so much I'm sick copious amounts of brown vomit next time, I think we'll all feel better for it. I know I will.

- posted by Paul @ 4:09 pm