Yep its that time of the week again work is ending or slowing down for the week and its time to chill out and enjoy some time and maybe some drinks with friends.

Whether those dink’s and that time together involves alcohol or not normally that is spent somewhere. Maybe a favourite restaurant, coffee shop or bar.

Most likely thats not happening right now and i get it, not having that opportunity to switch off and enjoy downtime with friends is tough.

Help though is at hand.

Technology can help us massively. We can catch up via video group calls, its good fun, something different and gets us halfway there to the social interaction we all need and enjoy.

As you may have guessed by the title of the article, beer is the chosen drink for my friends and myself. Catching up on video calls brings the challenges of who can bring the most interesting beers to the party.

Obviously we are all social distancing so that doesn’t mean we need to flock to the shops, oh no.

The fun is dragging the stuff out of the back of the cupboard thats not seen the light of day in years or making our won beer even. It gives us a creative challenge for the week and something to look forward to on a Friday.

Music streaming is also our friend. We can create a playlist to suit us and share it, this evening some almost middle aged people in as far flung places as Kazakhstan and remote Norway will be listening to, a diverse of heavy metal and dance music reminiscent of a Friday evening in Henry J Beans, Aberdeen Scotland circa 2003.

Getting creative with this challenge is great fun. It’s also surprising to discover some stuff you hadn’t listened to in years and equally to discover that some of the stuff you listened to endlessly back in the day, is actually truly awful.

This reappraisal of our social lives and having to move online has also reconnected a bunch of us who have not been in touch for years having spread out to the 4 corners of the globe many years ago.

It’s great fun, gives something to look forward to, gives some additional challenges through the week in preparation and honestly can also be a great way to interact with friends that got lost along the way. Importantly it also does not have to involve alcohol if thats a consideration, so what’s stopping you doing the same?

Enjoy the weekend folks!