It has been four long weeks since I tasted beer or any alcoholic beverage but in Sunday, I finally broke the streak when I tasted my first beer in England. My tolerance seems to have somewhat waned considering that I only took a sip and my head started spinning.
It took me a while to warm up my liver but after a few sips, I started feeling the right buzz. I still felt tipsy but not as much as my initial sip and luckily for me, there wasn't any headache.
The only criteria for buying the beer was that it had to be the cheapest beer on the shelf. We ended up buying 10 bottles of this whatever it's called beer for a bit over £3. Not £3 each, I'm not Elon Musk, I mean £3 for 10, so it's basically 30p each.
At 30p, I'd say it's reasonably priced and it would probably cost about the same in Nigeria. Perhaps it was as cheap because it had a Lidl logo on it or maybe because it is a very boring beer.
The original plan for the beer was that I'd sit at home and stream the match between Arsenal and Manchester United. Alas, my VPN service ended and I'm still struggling to make payments with my cards.
I was already slightly buzzed, so even when I ran down to a pub around my house to watch the match, I didn't actually drink anything there. I don't know if it's a thing here for pubs to allow you watch football without buying anything but in Nigeria, they would literally kick you out if you don't buy anything.
Next time I go there though, I'll buy a drink. Everyone could be acting like they're cool but I won't be shocked if they store my face, run it through a system and then bar me because I don't buy beer while watching football.
Anyway, the beer wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. It was like drinking water with 4% alcohol.
In Nigeria, our beer typically has attitude with some herbs and extracts always thrown in. I reckon they have this kind of beer here but it'll probably be out of my price range.
For example, I saw Desperados in Lidl but a 12 pack is like £12 or so, and I'm not trying to spend a fortune on beer when I'm poor. Then again, that's what poor people typically do.
I still have 6 bottles of the beer in the fridge and I'll be drinking it from time to time. Just like the blandness of the beer, my enthusiasm is quite low and I also need to wake up super early, so anything more than a few sips is dangerous.
Overall, I'm grateful for the experience and happy with where we are in life. We're growing and learning every day.