Wish I could offer some comfort here.
I don't like to think of you drinking alone, Vaclav, so I shall pour myself a small drink in solidarity.
What a place this world can be...

Vaclav,

Every time I drink, I pour some on the curb, the 40.  When brothas ask me why, I tell them it is for my homie V and his quest for romance.

Thinking about it, I like a few strong drinks more than I like a lot of weak drinks... Quality, not quantity. The illness used to come because I had yet to learn how to drink 'properly'. It takes a bit of doing - getting the balance right. Or at least that was my experience... You need to reach a nice happy state and then carefully maintain the same level of intoxication without taking too much on board and poisoning yourself. Drink a lot to start with, then keep on 'topping yourself up' (with some caution) throughout the evening.

Fred Perry? Yes, he was a man like you or me... Although he was a sportsman, unlike me. My Grandmother, I think, used to watch him play. She liked Arthur Ash too. I have no idea about sports, although I have worn Fred Pery shirts in my youth. The associations of them are all wrong for me now so I wear the no-logo knit shirts instead. I don't want no bovver. I'm just not built for it.

Miles

PS - I'm happy to hear that you still smoke. I miss it more than anything else, especially with a cup of good coffee.

These days Fred Perry is nebbish Mod-revivalist or Skinhead-revivalist. It's worn for the logo to announce that you belong to a youth sub-culture, by those who wear their clothes self-consciously.
Ben Sherman shirts are pretty much worn for the same reason.

The trouble with logos is that people wear them thinking that they are cool, not realising that for them to think that they are cool makes them uncool.
It's a funny business.
Ask people what is cool and they'll give you a list. If you then ask them how these things can be cool when somebody like them knows about them they tend to go a little quiet.
Ahhhhh snobbery!
It never ends does it?

Miles