Happy Hour

By Johanne James

Hello everyone.

Let’s talk about the Happy Hour.
What does it mean? Does it mean that you have one hour to be happy and the rest of the day you spend in the doldrums, in the depths of despair, anxiety, frustration and for a brief moment you are allowed to be free? Hmm. You don’t need one hour to be happy or is it now law that you have a window of opportunity to feel liberated? Failing that if you overstep this mark of time you shall spend the two years behind bars asking yourself what you did wrong? Anyway, it seems that this so-called happy hour tends to leave its mark on those who like to drink, as far as I can tell. So from let’s say 1pm till 2pm you can get absolutely plastered and if you can find your way back to the office, you can then see out the rest of the day in relative oblivion. Happy hour has been the singular cause for binge drinking and a rise in alcohol related incidents. Doesn’t sound very happy to me, especially when you can’t remember what it was you did to end up where you did in the first place! Wow, that was a good night wasn’t it? What was, I can’t remember a thing? Oh dear, all the pics on Facebook will tell the tales of drunken misbehaviour. Am I mistaken or am I talking on cross-purposes here? Alcohol can be liberating, it can also liberate you of your memory, money, freedom and life!
Truth is you don’t need one hour to be happy, unless there is a curfew on happiness and your time allocated is now up and thus have to return to a sense of morbid normality. What was that song, `Don’t worry, be happy’!! You have a lifetime to be full of joy, unless you don’t. And as for Happy Hour, why not Happy Days or even Happy Life!

Thanks for listening.

Johanne James