Halloween Hang Over

Friday’s Halloween Party was a blast!

Everone’s motto during the party seemed to be “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we’ll die!”

There was not so much eating though, as the caterer who prepared the special tapas buffet seemed to have miscalculated the food or simply because all the zombies, ghouls and monsters in the party consumed more than they were supposed to eat. The only leftover was the dish called “Dante’s Balls” consisting of spicy sheep testicles  and a bowl of veggy dips made from pig brain and mayonnaise.  *uurk*
 
But the drinking! Oh boy, alcohol was consumed in the same rate as SUVs burn liters of gasoline per mile. And I’m talking here of hard drinks and not some cheap Danish beer that’s the staple of many a party we have had. The sad thing was that before the party, I promised myself (as I usually do) not to drink too much. I did not want to ruin my weekend nursing a bad hangover. But the welcome Dracula’s Sangria drink proved  to be too irresistible not to have at least two servings. And the promise, for which it was made, was broken (as I usually do). And it just cascaded from there! I won’t bore you with the details but let’s just say Dracula ran out of his sangria and, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (not me!) and a female zombie were seen frolicking on the ping-pong table at the lab’s basement sucking each other’s brains out.  
And of course, my weekend was ruined. I was half-comatosed the whole of Saturday. Someone (probably Aristotle) said, “Moderation is the key to happiness”. Whoever said practiced that must be a very smart, if not a very happy dude.

“Lagom” is the Swedish word for “moderation”, and there’s a Swedish saying, “Lagom är bäst,” meaning “Moderation is best.” In my language, we also have a word for moderation (katamtaman) but I don’t really recall if we have a saying concerning this. But I can say that the root  word of “katamtaman” is “tama” which means “correct” as used in the context “tama lang” or “of being just the correct/right amount.” So there seems to be a convergence in all cultures to have everything in just the right amount!

And I guess this principle was discovered by our forefathers while nursing bad hangovers, as I keep on rediscovering over and over and over again.