Food & Drinks
Why drinkers dread sitting with sober people
Friday July 07 2023
Generally, I avoid drinking while on antibiotics because I’m a well-adjusted individual but the problem is my friends. FILE PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK
I reckon, like the chicken and egg, the jury’s still out on whether mobile phones might bring down an aeroplane during take-off. Or if one might die if they drink alcohol while on antibiotics.
Generally, I avoid drinking while on antibiotics because I’m a well-adjusted individual but the problem is my friends.
Why do people insist on you having a drink even after you have told them you are either off alcohol or on antibiotics?
“Oh come on, it’s an old wives tale” they will cry. “Have a double.” It’s vexing. My theory is that people are scared to sit with a sober person because then their true selves might be discovered and one might discover how dysfunctional they are.
I was with a few acquaintances at The Mustang Lounge on the seventh floor of the Emory Hotel in Kileleshwa. I was on antibiotics, which is always difficult. We- a fairly sizeable group – commandeered a few high tables at the end of the room.
The rest of the room spread eastwards into a lounge. One length of the wall was Nairobi’s skyline and like all skylines at night, was gorgeous. The bar was fairly full and the wait-staff was overwhelmed.
I didn’t mind, seeing as I was having hot dawa and looking at everybody drinking, their voices rising, their faces getting more flashed, and feeling quite superior to them.
When you are sober and are with folk who are drinking cocktails and wines, two things quickly happen; you get tired sitting faster than you usually do, and, two, you realise how loudly people talk in bars.
How exaggerated their laughter seems. You even become boring, so to speak. And everybody, I mean everybody, asks you at the beginning, “Why are you not drinking, are you sick?”
Because you can’t suddenly be a teetotaller or belong to a sect of a church that frowns on drinking.
“I’m SDA.” I told them, “And technically, it being 7pm Friday, sabbath has started.” Oh, sorry, they said, as if I had just announced an incurable disease.
