I have just returned from the 20th birthday party of Danny Swain and I do believe that I, for the first time in my life, am officially drunk. Ever the analyst, proofreader and critic, I cannot be entirely sure that I am genuinely sozzled because I am proofreading this post as I write and I am trying to maintain a sense of coherence and mental acuity. Needless to say, when on Tristan, you can’t get lost among this extremely small community, yet I kinda lost my way to my host family’s home when I left the party at 00:50. So mark this as a milestone in the life of Craig Rowland: while some teenagers–teenagers!–get drunk for their first time, it has taken me till I was 47 to feel this way. And then I can’t officially claim that I am drunk if I am busily proofreading this before I send it off. Chalk this up to the life experiences of one of your blogging friends. I can recite the alphabet backwards just fine. However, if you asked me to walk a straight line without staggering, then honey, I am officially drunk. The 47-year-old fossil is sozzled to the gills! The Tristanians aboard the Agulhas II warned me about this. I have passed the Tristan test, though. I also won two (out of two) matches of arm wrestling, so that gained me much favour at the birthday party. I lost only one match against Leon Glass, who could beat anyone at arm wrestling just by looking at his opponent. He’s a B-I-G guy. Will I experience my first hangover tomorrow morning? Who knows. Tristan da Cunha is a home full of friends.