I bought a new toy recently in the name of science. I have had 8 pints tonight (since 8pm) and I now consider myself to be drunk. I would not even consider riding a bush bike yet alone drive a car. However according to my breathalyser I am just under twice over the drink drive limit. 1.5% BAC to be exact.
I always though the drink limits were just right, but if my device is accurate then I would feel tipsy and still be just under the limit. I think it is has convinced me that the present limit it is too high.
As for the stories of being done the morning after 3 or 4 pints well I always thought they must be a myth and now my toy has confirmed it. When I tested myself last week I was still just over the limit by 8:00am but by 3:00pm the device said I had virtually no alcohol in my system.
What do you think?
In the past I never drove on a Sunday in case I was still intoxicated, so should a £35 device convince me otherwise?
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"What do you think?"
That your toy is not accurate.
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8 pints and LESS than twice over the limit. Perhaps calibration is in order, Rattle.
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Rattle has previously said he is a large build, and the 8 pints could have been watered down pints or pints of a lower alcohol strength (many beers seem to be around 4%) so it could be accurate.
But it probably isn't.
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After these 8 pints of i hope larger? Did you do the norm and stuff down a king size donner with salad and chilli sauce?
What strength was the beer or what beer at the pump was it?
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I doubt that it was Tactical Nuclear Penguin!
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An average person will metabolise about half a pint an hour.
That process begins with the first sip of alcohol.
Rattle drank eight pints in eight hours, them used his new gadget.
By this time, he will have metabolised four pints, leaving four pints in his system.
The gadget showed Rattle to be just under twice the legal limit for driving, which could well be right for someone with four pints on board.
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I blame that weak northern pish they call beer.
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The works Doctor who does our health checks tells us one pint takes one & half hours to leave the system.
Of course id say that depends on the body size too.
Last edited by: Bigtee on Sun 8 May 11 at 09:01
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Southern pansy's can't drink it's all wine bars.
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Wine is 12%, whats the strength of a pint of Pigeon Fanciers Wimpy brew?
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>> Wine is 12%, whats the strength of a pint of Pigeon Fanciers Wimpy brew?
So you drink your wine by the pint do you Zero? Classy ;)
I went into a North London pub the other day, and was told that they had stopped doing bitter..."no demand for it mate"...what is the world coming to?
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>> >> Wine is 12%, whats the strength of a pint of Pigeon Fanciers Wimpy brew?
>>
>> So you drink your wine by the pint do you Zero? Classy ;)
My wine glass are 250ml (thats nearly half a pint) - so No I drink my wine in "halves" with a crooked finger.
>> I went into a North London pub the other day, and was told that they
>> had stopped doing bitter..."no demand for it mate"...what is the world coming to?
He doesn't know what bitter is, you need to use brand names to the youth of today.
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Southern pansies can't afford it. £7.55 in the village pub yesterday for a pint and two halves of Fuller's ('orrible stuff, straight out of the Thames) and a bag of crisps.
People in the south seem to have an obsession with strong beer as well. If you're enjoying it, you want something you can have another pint of without falling over - like this
www.timothytaylor.co.uk/OurProducts_GoldenBest.aspx
Do you sup proper ale, or 'lager' Rattle?
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Oh I like that, "a session ale"! "Aye, get a load o' them down thy neck, our Rattle"
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Like Z I'm having a wry grin at the term 'session ale'. But thirty years ago that's the sort of strength you'd expect for a pub bitter. In those days strength tended to be expressed in terms of original gravity. 1034-1036 sticks in my mind for the Fulllers Bitter we drank in the Castle in Harrow. I guess the move to %abv is in the name of accuracy - OG is only half the fermentation equation.
I think, though I've no reference to hand, that the half pint = one unit calculation is based on beer in that abv range. For wine its based on around 10% abv and glasses of substantially less than 100ml. For a pub lager such as Stella or 1664 the abv is around 5.5 - 60% more. A house merlot or shiraz is going to be 12-14% and served in 'small' glasses of 125ml. There's no wonder people get caught out.
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Bottle of Magners was £4.15 in Middlesbrough Travelodge this week.
Next door is an Aldi where I picked up Thursday night's 4 bottles of Newcie Brown for £1.49 a bottle. Lovely.
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Ah life in the Travelodge. Its a bit like Strangeways without the slopping out.
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Easier to get drugs in Strangeways or so I'm told.
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3 nights in a Travelodge last week. First day they made the bed but that was all - no clean cups, no bin emptied,, no new bog roll etc. That was the worst, but each day had different flavours of the above.
Problem is, for price they are hard to beat, without going to B&B, which often are not en suite, and less private.
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...Problem is, for price they are hard to beat...
Just about impossible.
My brother stopped at The Golden Lion in Osmotherley last time he was in Middlesbrough on business.
We met for an evening meal.
Pleasant place in a picturebook village setting.
Brother said accommodation was up to standard.
I see they advertise £65 B&B, which is fair for what it is.
Don't know if there are any discounts available.
www.goldenlionosmotherley.co.uk/stay/
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As a caravanner I am used to being mocked, but I stay in a lot of hotels. Of course it's lovely to have a heated bathroom next door, TV, tea and coffee etc, but I'll never forget the sight of the maid wiping the cups out with a cloth that looked as if she might have cleaned down the bathroom with it. And that wasn't in a cheap hotel either. Not to mention the people who pee in the kettle (apparently).
Call me fussy, but I never take hygiene for granted in hotels.
Apologies to Rattle for thread drift. I guess he's having a lie-in.
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...Not to mention the people who pee in the kettle (apparently)...
I blame the double glazed windows which don't open fully.
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>> People in the south seem to have an obsession with strong beer as well. If
>> you're enjoying it, you want something you can have another pint of without falling over
>> - like this
>>
>> www.timothytaylor.co.uk/OurProducts_GoldenBest.aspx
Even though it is drink by Northern nancies (*), that looks nice. To be honest I like a pint on Friday lunchtime because it tastes nice, not because it has alcohol in it. British ale has a really nice flavour.
(*) just kidding.
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Do people still count how many pints they had?
Probably what Rats has done has bought eight pints but drunk four. You go for a wazz, you come back to the table, you can't remember which was your glass (or your table) and you buy another.
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The last two where in the club and there is a myth that that club waters them down, I have no idea if it is true or not.
I was drinking very steadily, I like a bit of ale but it depends on what it is, the pub I was in last night where just the typical pub co type ones sadly. I tend to drink German or Belguim beers if I am in my area, but my area seems to be the only place in Manchester which has all that stuff on draught.
I think the low reading was simply because I was drinking slowly, I was no more drunk at 2:00am than I was at 11:00pm.
As for Travelodge they have really gone down hill but if you get the offers they are still worth it. I would want to pay more than £25 a room though in most of them (depending on location). They seem to have bought lots of other smaller budget hotels but they don't do proper refurbs on them. When I was in Cornwall and Devon and I stayed in 5 different hotels. By far the most boring and bland was the Travelodge, and by booking in advance I got many good hotels for less than want Travelodge wanted.
I think I would still rather spend a night in Travelodge than Strangeways though, even though the noise levels are probably the same.
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>> "What do you think?"
>>
>> That your toy is not accurate.
>>
+ 1
Or that you are too pi##ed to use it properly.
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Its a toy, thats all it is, not to be taken seriously. Certainly not to be used to check if you are "safe" to drive.
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Sorry, perhaps I'm being thick, but I don't understand this bit:
>> However according to my
>> breathalyser I am just under twice over the drink drive limit. 1.5% BAC to be
>> exact.
then:
>>
>> but if my device is accurate then I would feel tipsy and still be just under the limit.
Why are you saying in the first part you're nealry double the limit, then in the second part that you're just under?
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...Why are you saying in the first part you're nealry double the limit, then in the second part that you're just under?...
A case of beer in, brains out?
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Given the time of morning Rats posted this, I don't think the device is as inaccurate as many of you seem to think. Presumably he'd not yet had a kip, so would probably be feeling tired but otherwise OK and probably thinking he's fairly sober.
If it deters people from driving the morning after, which is when many get caught, it's a good thing; and if it deters people from driving home after they've just had a couple, thinking they'll be OK, that's even better.
For all that some of us (including myself sometimes) think that Rats is a bit of a worry-guts, he's shown commendable good sense here and gets my respect for it.
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What happened to all the talk about cutting down and getting some exercise? Back to the old habits I presume.
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He likes to boast about his macho 8 pints habit. You don't want him to give up the one joy he has, do you? ;-)
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>> Sorry, perhaps I'm being thick, but I don't understand this bit:
I thought that Rattle had equated 8 pints with just under double the limit, and inferred that 4 pints would be within the limit yet too much for him to drive because he knows he is tipsy after 4.
Pretty impressive reasoning after 8 pints, but ignores the metabolisation bit.
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Four pints would be well over the limit, but if you drink slowly enough, and the drink is weak (say Calrsberg crap) then after an hour or so you could be just on the limit. Personally I would never want to try it. My mate once drove a short distance after just two pints of Fosters and said he would never do it again.
Now the device says I am completely sober, I would not to find out, but at least in an emergency I would trust it enough to drive.
As for cutting back, well that didn't work, but I do make sure I walk at least 3-4 miles a day and I do use my bike a lot. Stuff I never did before, so I do get more exercise than I did. I did also cut back on junk food but sadly I have not been able to be keep to that :(
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What make and model is your breathalyser?
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Rattolo's a large lad they say and drinking whatever Zero said it was. I am of average size and the first time I was breathalysed, many years ago now, c. 1970, I had had four pints of Courage Director's bitter, which I wouldn't even drink now. I was well green but the urine test revealed I was just on the borderline, and since I hadn't done anything outrageous at the wheel - just gone through Camden Town at about 50 being a minicab driver in the daytime (I wasn't working of course) I got away with it.
Made me think a bit though. However the Sheikh may not even be over the limit on 8 pints of that northern horse stuff.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 8 May 11 at 12:47
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I am not that large, I am actually quite thin but have a bit of a belly (may be that is where the idea came from?) I am about 6ft though. I probably weight 13-14 stone.
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>> I would not even consider riding a bush bike
Nor would I. Sounds painful, especially if it's a thorny bush.
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There are times when being a lightweight really helps - two pints and I'm nisely pished for hte evening. :-)
However, I have no qualms whatsoever about riding my bike after a couple of drinks, but I used to race XC and rely on instinct to get me home!
PS - 8 pints? Wow.
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And there I was thinking he'd got 140 out of the Panda...
0r maybe 60 (in a 30).
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How does anyone physically drink a gallon of anything in that time?
I'm full to the gills after a couple of pints.
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"How does anyone physically drink a gallon of anything in that time?"
As with all things , practice.
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Or out the in port, judging by the Sunday morning town pavements.
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I totally understand the joy of drinking. I absolutely don't see the attraction of getting drunk.
Did it a couple of times many years ago. Felt terrible. Decided it was something I could avoid in future. I get much more pleasure out of a social occasion if I can remember who I am, what was said and who said it.
Drunk people bore me. Mostly they talk crap too loudly.
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...Mostly they talk crap too loudly...
Thought you hadn't been posting quite so much recently.
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>> Drunk people bore me. Mostly they talk crap too loudly.
Rubbish, being drunk is a moment of enlightenment and clarity, you are just too sober to understand.
Its hangovers I can't stand.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 8 May 11 at 21:26
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If you venture into any British town centre on a weekend evenlng you can see all manner of "enlightened" people. Some of them are indeed quite amusing. A few of them intentionally.
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>> How does anyone physically drink a gallon of anything in that time?
I could manage 8 to 10 pints in a couple of hours in my younger days, and still either walk home or order a taxi if I had any money left.
Nowadays however, 3 pints and it feels like I'm wearing someone else's legs.
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My understanding is that 2 pints of bitter, ~4.5% alcohol say, can take you over the limit, or at least on the border. I will drink 1 pint at lunchtime with some food, and drive back to work, but I would never drink more. Apparently there is a large variation in people's ability to tolerate alcohol.
There are people who say that drinking one pint reduces reaction times by 3% (or whatever the figure is, but it is small, something like 3%), and hence drinking and driving should not be allowed. But a heavy cold will surely reduce reactions times by far more than that, hay fever can distract you, the mother in law in the back seat can leave you twitching and not fully aware of the road, frankly 3% is irrelevant. My one minor accident that was my fault was after I saw my mother in hospital and I was distracted. Should we ban driving if someone is emotionally upset? Do we introduce mood meters. "Sorry mate, you've had too much grief to drive, could you please get out of the car and follow me to the station where we can test the level of grief related hormones in your blood ..."
It would be interesting to hear the views of police officers given that they are at the front line in the fight against drink driving.
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This thing is Leif, it is entirely possible and within a driver's gift not to take a drink and thereby not suffer that 3%. Hay fever and mothers-in-law are to some extent unavoidable.
Hence there is a penalty for one and leeway for the others.
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Alanović said:
>> This thing is Leif, it is entirely possible and within a driver's gift not to
>> take a drink and thereby not suffer that 3%. Hay fever and mothers-in-law are to
>> some extent unavoidable.
>>
>> Hence there is a penalty for one and leeway for the others.
And it is entirely possible to avoid all road deaths by not allowing people to drive. But in practice we make judgement based on a reasonable level of risk. 3% is so insignificant that it is swamped by other factors.
One problem with a lower limit is that it risks penalising someone who has not drunk for a long while, but has residual alcohol in the blood. Not enough to impair driving by any measureable degree, but enough to lose a licence. I know the limit is lower in Europe, but I suspect they do not enforce it properly. We do enforce the limit properly.
At least that is my view.
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The DD limit is set at a perfect level, and with sufficient levels of punishment to make it effective, thereby no need to change anything
Except
Your chance of getting caught is very small, and getting smaller by the year.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 9 May 11 at 17:12
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It depends, I mean if I drove on Saturday night even at twice the limit I am pretty certain I would have crashed.
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Zero said:
>> Except
>>
>> Your chance of getting caught is very small, and getting smaller by the year.
Yes that is worrying, especially the second point. I would happily support random testing at certain times of the year e.g. around New Years Eve.
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Judging by the calculations, seems about right.
I know somebody who was breathalysed. He was virtually unable to stand when he left the party. A few minutes and a mile or two later he tested as merely just under twice the limit and spent a night in the cells until he was sober enough to go home.
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>> I know somebody who was breathalysed. He was virtually unable to stand when he left
>> the party. A few minutes and a mile or two later he tested as merely
>> just under twice the limit and spent a night in the cells until he was
>> sober enough to go home.
Roughly two pints is said to hit the limit. 4 pints and I am decidedly merry, maybe 'merely' twice the limit. I wonder if anyone has researched how much variation there is among people in terms of blood alcohol versus units consumed.
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Drink eight pints as before and then after a certain time interval take a reading. Ask the breathalyser supplier to exchange the device and then repeat the exercise with the new device. Let us know the results so that we can give our opinion.
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Calibrate it as you would a gauge on a tyre pump:
Pull the needle off
Drink as many pints as you can until you fall over
Insert probe into the correct orifice
Re-attach needle so that it reads MAXIMUM
It will now be accurately calibrated for all intermediate states.
Cheers! :)
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Twice over the limit - I am stagggered - CGNorwich
