Hamish Champ: Which profession carries with it the biggest thirst for the booze?

By Hamish Champ

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Drink Drinking Public house Edinburgh

It was with some interest that I read a news story at the weekend which suggested that 'media workers' were the biggest boozers in the country.I'm...

It was with some interest that I read a news story at the weekend which suggested that 'media workers' were the biggest boozers in the country.

I'm not casting doubts on the research, but I can think of several far more stressful occupations than working in the media that might lead one to quaff more than the national average.

Being a nurse, a general practitioner and a teacher are three lines of work that spring to mind which might cause one to perhaps push the boat out on a regular basis.

Similarly, I see no need to drink any more - or less - than the next man or woman, simply because my job involves putting pen to paper for a living.

When I sometimes manage to put away a week's worth of units in an evening's drinking it is generally on the basis that I'm having a bloomin' good time, not because I made a particular career move.

Take this last weekend, which found me in Edinburgh for the Heineken Cup Final. I can't remember seeing the 'Athens of the North' quite so awash with booze.

Edinburgh is a city that for me is inextricably bound up with the consumption of alcohol. It and drinking are the heartiest of bedfellows. And not having been for a while I was happy to dive in. But being a journalist did not cause me to drink more than I might have otherwise done if I'd been say, a gynaecologist.

That the place was full of rugby fans from South of the Border and across the Irish Sea - none of them slouches when it comes to knocking back a few beers - meant that many a hostelry was going to be quids in by the end of the Bank Holiday festivities.

And there's another thing; quite where people get the stamina to hit the tiles three or more nights' running is beyond me. My companions and I managed two nights of what I shall euphemistically term 'robust drinking', before easing off on Sunday with just a pint in my favourite Edinburgh watering hole - the Bailie, in Stockbridge - and then a bottle of 'Bitter & Twisted' over lunch.

Despite this 'winding down' exercise and all the reminders about responsible drinking what I put away over the three days would probably give my doctor palpitations. Not especially big, nor clever, but I wasn't doing anyone any harm, apart from me; for some hours each morning I couldn't move for all the drilling going on inside my head. But hey, at least it was self-inflicted.

In these troubled economic times it helped many pubs in the city that not only was there a major sporting event in town but that the weather was absolutely glorious. Certainly the several boozers we visited were packed to the rafters from the late afternoon into the evening and beyond.

More worryingly, the friends with whom I stayed for the weekend said Edinburgh's pubs were noticeably quieter these days during the lunchtime sessions than they used to be two or three years ago.

They couldn't put their finger on the cause. Can you?

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