Tom, Tom, Tom - A Cautionary Tale

The weird British roommate stories continue, soon you’re gonna think I’m making them up. This man is simply a story in contradiction. Early after arriving here, he criticized cameras as girly and smart phones as risky (along with complaining every time me or our safety officer Seelan used wifi on our phones), then he ended up buying an iPhone and taking pictures of everything. Be reminded, he bough this iPhone for RM 3000 (about $1000 US) after complaining that he didn’t have enough money to buy more shirts for work. Since we’ve been here he’s boycotted (either short-term or permanently) foods such as bread, rice, noodles, and chicken because he claimed they don’t agree with his stomach. But he will eat weird foods, including octopus, stingray, fermented beans, durian (these are just some of the ones I’ve physically seen), with no hesitation at all. But none of that tops his contradictions when it comes to alcohol. First of all, the first time we ever went out drinking here in Malaysia, he was talking big junk about drinking ability “Oh, Americans can’t drink, the British have to show you how it’s done,” etc. Then the first two times we went for beer, he tried to outdrink me and failed miserably and then felt terrible the next day while I felt fine; and I don’t even really drink beer back home. So he decided afterwards that he would go with us to the bar but he wouldn’t drink, he would watch us drink while sipping ice water. This happened several times. Then once we went out to a club with some Chinese ladies we work with and had bottles of Hennessy (see blog entry “The Bite”). When we first got there and the bartender put Coke in my Hennessy, he sounded off “I thought men were supposed to drink it on the rocks” despite me not requesting Coke. So the rest of the night I drank it straight. By the end of the night, he was drinking ice water again. But his latest fiasco…SMH. We were without power at our apartment for a day and a half because someone at our headquarters was slack paying our bill. Rather than sit in a hot house, I ended up going to some friends’ place and chilling with them. He chose to go to a bar, by himself. Going out drinking already seems like a move of desperation or alcoholism, but whatever I don’t think much of it. When I get back, I go straight to sleep and I don’t see him in the mornings because we now work on different projects. That afternoon, he can hardly eat because his stomach has been weakened. I inquire why. I find out that he apparently drank an entire bottle of wine in the span of about an hour and followed that up with tequila shots…by himself on a weekday. He doesn’t remember how he got home or much of the night, all he remembers is waking up in his bed in a puddle of his own vomit. Absolutely terrible. Most people I know, myself included, are social drinkers; they go out drinking with other people to have some fun, you know about where your limits are but sometimes people go a little overboard if you’re having a lot of fun. Or if you do go by yourself and drink a lot, it’s probably because he was entertaining some chick he met and was trying to enable a good time with her or something of that nature. The concept of drinking is usually to have fun in the company of others. For this reason, most people don’t really go out to a bar to drink by themselves. I mean I understand if someone goes out alone and has a beer or two while he watched a game on their TV. But to down a whole bottle of wine in a short span and follow it up with tequila shots, which result in you swimming in a pool of your own regurgitation, is not cool by any means. It seems even more odd when this is the same guys who has sat at a table full of coworkers and cute bar girls while we were playing a drinking game with dice and chose to drink ice water instead of participate. He didn’t even have to drive that night. I simply don’t understand. I’m not sure I ever will. Wish me luck, I will be traveling with him to Singapore for Christmas. I’m not sure what to expect. Selamat malam…