By the way . . . remember your units the next day

GOOD morning and welcome to the postBank Holiday blues. I’m sure many of us tried to squeeze as much out of the long weekend as possible. Will we ever learn that there is always a tomorrow and the desire to stay out for one extra hour makes a big difference when the alarm sounds the following day?

A lot of people will have woken up this morning with a massive hangover, and for some it will be an accumulation of three days on the party circuit. Let’s face it, we had the weather, plus there was the hockey final and just the general craic of the summer... who wouldn’t make a weekend of it?

Had I not been driving at 5am this morning I would definitely have partied with the rest of the nation. Children, dogs, exhaustion and middle age put paid to my party plans. As I sat in my car this morning I knew I was safe to drive, but some of the wobbly drivers I encountered on the road, I would say, were not.

Drinking is a bit of a national sport, and something we are weirdly proud of. Thankfully over the years the message on drink driving has become stronger and it is now something that most people wouldn’t even contemplate.

However this morning across Ireland, lots of drivers will have got behind their wheels worried more about their wine breath and eye bags than about being over the limit. Anyone who has gone out and had the proverbial ‘skinful’ should be worried about the morning after the night before. Remember, it takes one whole hour to get rid of one single unit of alcohol.

A 250ml glass of 12% Sauvignon Blanc tots up to three full units — that’s going to take a total of three full hours to wear off! This physiology goes some way in explaining why your hangover takes so long to subside. Body weight, liver function, age, sex, metabolism, medication and what you have eaten all play a role in determining how fast last night exits the system.

Over the limit is over the limit, whatever time of the day or night it is.