Bonus drinks

The Finns are flooded by various bonus and frequent buyer points in all department stores, restaurants, petrol stations, food chains and supermarkets.

For every chain there is a different card and the points earned are counted differently from each other resulting in thick wallets for anyone living in this country. A thick wallet has earlier been thought of as being full of money but in this country it is merely the amount of plastic cards, not even credit cards, resulting in it being thick.

Smoking became prohibited in bars and restaurants from 1st of July here in Finland and I have been out a couple of times since then but I have not noticed anything peculiar about it until yesterday when come to think of it.

As I am not a habitual smoker I do not tend to notice whether people smoke or not and being on a terrace basking in the sun while having a drink the other day, well to be absolutely honest with you, the drink being accompanied by a cigar I did not even reflect that I might be breaking the law. There were ashtrays on the terrace so I guess it was allowed there, but without thinking about it I might have been lighting it inside when getting it. Funny how you tend to forget things, it would just have been natural to have lit up right there at the counter in the bar with the matches I got for it.

According to latest facts today about 25% of the Finnish women are heavy drinkers compared to only 12% in the 1960’s. Why?

More liberal drinking habits or just equality in a stupid way between the sexes, women trying to catch up with men who are physiologically better equipped to handle alcohol or are just more women unhappy than forty years ago?

Or are these the same 13% women that were not drinking then but are now retired, no job and no kids at home more having nothing better to do with their time than to drink? How is heavy drinking measured, compared to you weight, your muscle mass, what you drink, how much you drink or how often you drink? There too many factors involved in this to make any sense in anything but I just love statistics as I always come to think of new questions and you can turn the same facts any way you want to still it being the truth.

Anyway, this having a drink now and then is a good idea to use some of the points earned I just found out by accident when asked about it by the bartender paying for the drinks being out on the terrace.

Well, well, does this mean that I have to do even more shopping than I currently am doing earning as many bonus points as possible in order to pay for all the drinks I am to have this summer sitting in the sun on terraces all over town?