Drinking's still awesome, like. It's one of those things that can adapt to any situation, for any need. I've gone through a lot of them. When I was 17, I started getting some relatively serious depression. Drinking was a way to unplug from the real world and just be a careless idiot for a while, which was fun and made me feel good. When I first came to Scotland and was single, drinking was a great way to socialize and make new friends. After a year or so here, when I had a good social group, drinking was a great way to get closer to your friends and learn stuff about them. Also, a good way to help them out. When my best mate got dumped, I immediately dragged him to the pub and we got drunk and silly and stupidly bromantic about how great we both were. Fun times. Now that I'm in a serious relationship, drink is still there for when we need a kicker to forget our daily troubles (bills, work, obligations, etc) and enjoy each other on a very basic level, but it's also there for when she's out working (like tonight) and I'm at home having some me time with a bottle of Famous Grouse. She's not the biggest whisky fan, so I don't get to drink it that often, but tonight I'm just lying on the couch, playing football manager, yelling at Muslims on the internet, and enjoying some good hearty scotch. Makes me fuzzy enough to be happy on my own, distracts me from being upset that my girlfriend works in a strip club.