Right I’ve had my tea, sorted out the list of chores for tomorrow and eaten a doughnut for a balanced diet. It’s now time to get into the car and drive across the town to my favourite bar to get sloshed.
But what is this?
They’re lowering the drink/drive limit from January to one glass of fortified raspberry juice!
The fellow who came up with that one must be chuckling into his telephone as he is whisked across Madrid by his long-suffering chauffeur.
–Diego, Old Sport, you haven’t filled up the decanter.
The new limit – to be five times lower than most European countries – will be 0.10mg/l once the traffic law is modified (early next year says N332).
Spain's 264,000 bars and restaurants are not going to be happy.
Now, this is all fine and dandy for the drinking gentlefolk who live in the city where there's a bar downstairs and a restaurant across the street. Furher afield, one can take the metro or a bus or even a cab. Pop into the disco and stagger home at 4.00am with a song on one's lips.
But me, I live in the country and my nearest bar is 45 minutes away if I walk - or I suppose I could take a taxi, have my beer and waggle my eyebrows at the new barmaid and then another taxi home for an expensive night out.
Unless the barmaid has a car.
The bar in question is part of our local petrol station, so one can assume a certain amount of vehicular traffic. It's a fully licenced bar, in case a non-alcoholic beer doesn't appeal. As for smoking, they ask that you do it outside - near the pumps.
How could Spain sink so low, I wonder? Isn’t this the Party Capital of Europe?
Will I still be allowed to have a beer with my curry?
In the UK, where they must drink without a sobering tapa, and everybody needs to get a ‘round in’, the limit is 0,80mg/l – which is eight times higher than what we will be suffering here.
Yes, I know, drunk driving causes untold misery – but so does drinking at home, which is what I shall have to be doing from now on.