Just a small one then

But just how big is a small one?  I drop into a pub from time to time and ask for a glass of wine.  I always ask for red, sometimes prefacing my request with an enquiry as to what red wines they have on offer.  I am usually asked if I would like a small glass or a large one, although there are times when I'm offered a choice of three sizes - small, medium and large.  What I am never told is just what size each glass is.  I'm pretty sure that the so-called small glass is what was at one time the standard size, one sixth of a bottle, which is 12.5 centilitres.  I generally assume that the large glass contains 17.5cls, but what the medium is, I have no idea.

We are warned continually to "drink responsibly" and are told just how many is the maximum number of units of alcohol the average man or woman should consume either daily or weekly.  To help us, the wine makers ensure that the labels carry information on the number of units in the contents of their bottles.  That is all well and good and if the bottle contains X number of units, I know that the standard glass will contain X/6 units.  But my maths are not quite up to it when the label tells us that 10 centilitres have the equivalent 1.1 units.  To multiply that number by 7.5 and then divide by 6 is more than my poor brain can cope with when I'm dying for a drink!  And anyway, my dinner would get cold while I try to work that out.

I think I'll just stick to my one and a half glasses with my evening meal and not worry overmuch about the number of units.

~~~~~

Still in Stanmer Park, there are a couple of stones half buried under bushes in the woods marking the graves of, presumably, favourite dogs, while in the churchyard is a gravestone recording, unusually, the cause of death.