Tubthumping – this is probably one of the best songs that describes a typical night out with friends from work. Which is not to say that we always aim to go out with the intention of pissing the night away but sometimes it’s a necessary evil.

It is our way of de-stressing from a darining week at work. Our way of pausing to enjoy the start of the weekend. To do some major biartching of almost everyone and everything under the sun. Drinking with a group is definitely way more fun than just doing solo drinks (which is damn sad!). And everytime we step out, there is a story/scandal that is almost guaranteed to happen.

From Jan till now there have been: People looking like the red skull (you know who you are!), to people being gloriously happy (DT), to people falling on our faces (yours truly), stumbling into a cab (almost everyone), people groping other people (hah!) to having fugue states (man oh man), to even not making it home (AY! – where the hell did you go?) – secrets have been spilled, new stories cemented and most gloriously yet, memories have not been restored.

But do we have a smashing time? Hell yeah! We’re like the PR equivalent of Anthony Bourdain – only we don’t host shows and get paid a way lot less. Details…bah!

What is starting to worry me is – what will happen if no one’s there? What if our guardian angels decide to take a break and were not watching us while we keeled over or did the Jimi Hendrix? Am I being paranoid? Well, realistic actually. I think we have to start being more aware of how much we can drink and always make sure that there’s someone who can help us home if we can’t.

There is something to be said for having safety in numbers while drinking. It’s great to have friends who are able to help send you home or even wait till you sober up enough to see yourself home. To that, I’m endlessly thankful. However, I think sooner or later, we need to assign one or two ‘safe’ people. These are the people who will make sure you get stuffed into a cab when you can’t even spell your name or be there for you. One day, we should be the ones who’d be sending the Roo-ster home drunk too…it’s only fair.

Belle and I have had our little safety measure in place for years and it’s helped us through many a party night. It’s the One Drunk rule which means that we take turns. That way, if one of us gets totally smashed, they can be assured that the other one will haul their ass home. It’s a good rule and one that works.

I think we should start implementing this for the office drinks too – buddies for everyone! Start partnering up, people! And no funny business...if you know what I mean...