Despite being told that he needed to give up drinking a long time ago he has failed to take the advice. He will not admit that the back pains which make him feel like he has been kicked with steel toe caps are really kidney pains. His sickly pallor derives from liver problems. He is not merely a social drinker – he drinks in the way that some people smoke cigarettes: a tipple to celebrate every single action that he performs. It is not that he is not a functional drunk it is more that he is a seriously ill drunk that is worrying his friends, but they all like to drink too so what exactly can they say to him without sounding like hypocrites?





