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A boozy night …
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It’s 12.30 am on a cold Saturday
night, and I’m looking out of the window onto the Library forecourt, where a
man is wandering about, aimlessly. After a moment he seems to collect his thoughts,
and walks steadily towards the Library back door. When he gets there, he
opens the lid on the industrial-size wheelie-bin, climbs in, and closes the
lid. A minute or two later a young man puts his skateboard down on the
library wall, wanders off for a pee against a nearby tree, and settles down
by the skateboard to roll an enormous joint, which he lights, and wanders
off. I contemplate ringing the Police
about the man in the bin, but what am I going to tell them? Is it illegal?
Stupid, yes; illegal, surely not. A man totters along the pavement
towards Another few minutes and a lad of I
suppose 18 wanders along the road, swaying off the pavement and regaining it
a moment later. He crosses the road, and disappears behind my hedge. A young
woman strides purposefully along the pavement, stepping briefly into the road
to avoid the lad by my hedge, and carries on down the road. The lad reappears
unsteadily, pulling at his trousers, and staggers off towards Two men in their twenties amble
uncertainly along the pavement, and stop to have a cheery discussion, with
much arm-waving and pointing, but head off towards It’s almost 1.30am, and the man is
still in the bin: I go to bed. Next morning the wheelie-bin lid is
open; the man has gone. But in an hour that night I saw only one person who
was indisputably sober. At what point is it agreed that there are too many
pubs, and that the national consumption of alcohol is actually “excessive” ? |
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