Oh God, just the thought of the stuff has made my temples approach each other. I think I'll avoid it till next year, it'll taste so much sweeter.
So you've been on the Absinthe eh? -brave man. On a stag weekend somewhere abroad, it may have been Portugal, I spent an hour or two drinking Absinthe slammers. It was a passport to the underworld. Shortly after I got involved in what I was told was 'the ring of life'. This involved sitting around a table with a bunch of your 'new mates' and a bottle of Sambuca. The unlucky first participant (me, in this case) dipped a finger in the Sambuca, set fire to it, and then passed the flame onto his neighbours finger. Once everyone on the table could simultaneously hold up a flaming digit, then the ring was complete.
Obviously things didn't go quite as planned. I had to set light to my finger many times, just to get the ball rolling. Each time, there seemed to be more Sambuca sloshing around, the horrible sticky stuff was all over the table and to be honest, my co-ordination and eyesight had been shot to pieces by the Absinthe. After about the umpteenth attempt the flame got half way round the boys, when it was pointed out that the table and pretty well most of me was alight. There was no real exit from the bar, and I couldn't feel my legs anyway.
There are still parts of my body where hair refuses to grow, and I'm forever in debt to the barman with the soda syphon.
Drink Absinth with care and only those you trust.
H
