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Have you ever experienced a hangover so bad that you thought your life was ending? Yes! Definitely, we all have! You know the one that numbs your mind, gives you nausea whenever you smell food. All you want to do is crawl up in bed and sleep with the fan on high speed.

For some the feeling is worse, the toilet inevitably becomes your best friend as you will constantly be throwing up or feeling like it.

It’s been a while since I experienced one such hangover but believe me, I know the feeling, it will leave you making false promises of never drinking again but once it wears off you go back to factory settings.

There have been and are so many remedies to hangovers I have come across, with the most common one being “natha eyodwa uzaba right” (Just have yourself a pint you’ll feel better in no time).

Lies! Instead, it just gets you chemically imbalanced even worse. I had a little jol with some friends last Saturday. Believe me the drinks were flowing, but for some reason, I kept it cool and only had a few, it was beer after all. And maybe because I had had something to eat my palate was quite comfortable.

We all wanted to call it an early night and so we did, but obviously, among us all there will always be that one special character, one that never lets any opportunity go by. We were drinking from the car anyway and it was getting late.

We left a cooler box full of beer. So, the next day the plan was to enjoy some succulent barbecued meat, which I had promised to marinate.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, we have to meet and guess what the oddball was home, hugging the toilet chamber for chugging on half of the beer that was in the cooler box.

So, one of our acquaintances, who was part of the meat devours that day and was supposed to spoil us with a bottle or two of something, came to the rescue. You will have to excuse me for not naming the crew and especially the toilet seat hugger.

He has lived overseas for quite some time and had the best remedy for the hangover and as well as me . . . I love trying out a new drink after all.

He made a BLOODY MARY! A drink I have only seen in movies or read about in novels.
This was Thabani’s word about the drink and recipe: “The Bloody Mary is one of the world’s best-known cocktails. It is the best hangover cure. It is not something that any individual may take because of its ingredients, the main one being tomato juice.”

He said it’s mostly an American drink but its true origins were unknown.
“The Bloody Mary is believed to have contained several ingredients: vodka, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, salt, chilli sauce, and lemon juice. But like many classic drinks, it has inspired several variations.”

So, he made it with the few ingredients available. The toilet hugger went first. Results I will leave for another day but the hangover sure did vanish after a while of ingesting the drink.

Next, it was my turn, I first sipped it, it was zingy, and kind of an awful taste and appearance but because it was a “Bloody Mary” I decided to pucker up and down it. It actually wasn’t that bad, to be honest.

Apart from not having tomato juice and having to crush and squeeze a tomato, which made the appearance gross, the drink was fine. I would give it a thumbs up a possible 5 out of 10.

So, the steps Thabani took were pouring some salt into a small cup, adding crushed ice with a few thimbleful of vodka, and adding the crushed tomato, which he shook aggressively. Thereafter squeezing some lemons into the concoction, added a few drops of chilli sauce and a pinch of black pepper. He tried to strain the tomato residue but, anyway, let’s just leave that subject. Voila! a makeshift Bloody Mary was made and drank.

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l REMEMBER alcohol is not for sale to persons under the age of 18 and let’s not forget to drink responsibly.