Beer!

I have always had a fond relationship with beer (well alcohol), ever since my first experience at sipping from the old devil. It was when I was about 13 and, well, kids want to experiment with anything that is forbidden, or naughty, so alcohol was one of those things that adults would tell you 'not until you are older!' . Anyway, me and two friends really wanted to try and 'get drunk' after hearing about rumors of a 'tipsy' feeling, and adults always seemed to enjoy this 'tipsyness' so we thought we would try it out for ourselves. Obviously, I had never tried alcohol before and thought that the idea seemed very romantic and grown up, and I so wanted to be grown up at the time.

I'm not sure how we knew about the whole shot, salt and lemon malarky, maybe we saw it on tv or something, but that is what we attempted to do... My friend's parents were out one night and she invited us over and after a short period of searching the cupboards for anything illicit, we came upon a utopian collection of miniature liquers (probably not the best thing to have your first drinking experience with!). So we got to work.

It was a fun night, with music blaring and much laughter about getting 'drunk'. Needless to say, the shot, salt and lemon idea didn't turn out well. At one point, I remember looking down at my hand and there was blood gushing from my finger, I had cut myself with the knife used to slice the lemon! How fun!

We were SMASHED! Not a fond memory I have to say, because my house was a thirty minute walk away and I was in no position to walk home, I could barely lift my head from the toilet seat to murmer a 'I'm ok' to my other two drunken friends! Well, the other girl who had come round had called her parents to pick her up and I was expecting her to offer me a lift home as it was on the way... No such luck. I remember realising that she had already left and I had to get home before my curfew (11 o'clock!). I feel bad but I must have left the girl who's house it was throwing up in the bathroom....

And so started the saga that was my walk (of shame) home. I don't remember much of the walk really, but I know at some point that I must have fell over and dropped my fone, you know those old ones that used to shatter into ten pieces when you dropped them? Those pieces were in my pocket the following morning, along with some bruised and scratched knees from my falling over!

The part that will always stick in my mind though will be the humiliation of getting home... I just remember my mom's boyfriend (at the time)'s face looming in front of me by the front door. After which being swiflty carted off to the bathroom by my mom, who thought it neccessary, in between throwing up, to pull down my trousers so that I could wee with the comment, 'I didn't know you had started puberty Lauren!'. How embarrassing.

I think that incident stayed in my mind just because of that little comment, and I will remember it forever... Anyway, I awoke in my mom's bed in the morning hung over and shouted at for leaving my friend throwing up at her house. I was just annoyed that I had to walk all that way home by myself, god nows what could have happened to me, thank god I ran into an older girl I knew around the village who escorted me home after seeing the state I was in!!

Anyhoo, if you would like to share your first experience with alcohol please do!! (Don't be shy)

I will follow with other comments on life, such as funny stories or things that I have come to realise in my 22 years on this earth!