Blue Blazer Club
So there I was, propping the bar up on my 19th birthday when along came a friend of mine, a Royal Marine as it happens. Seeing as how it was a special day, he decides to induct me as an honourary member into the Royal Marines' very own Blue Blazer Club.

What's that, you ask?

Well, one takes a capful of Sambuca and lights it. One earns their Blue Blazer by downing the capful of Sambuca without extinguising the small, but hot, flame. Success allows the flaming-capful drinker to be amongst supposedly august company.

Notice how I keep saying capful?

Seeing as the liqueur was on an optic, there was no cap to be found. "Never mind", I say feeling rather full of the dutch kind of courage, "Fill a glass with the stuff and we'll use that!"

I should have known it was a bad idea when my Royal Marine friend, who had seen live action in the Falklands and was therefore officially 'Hard', cowed in fear and passed the flaming glass to me. The glass was a large sherry one and the flame was about 6 inches high.

Snatching the glass up I tossed it back, only to somehow miss my not inconsiderable mouth and pour the flaming alcohol all over my face, which unwittingly obliged this anecdote by catching fire. Fortunately, my friend was alongside me and used his hands to put the flames out. Unfortunately, in his panic, he seemed to forget that 1) he was the Royal Marine's heavyweight boxing champion and 2) by hands, I mean fists.

So after punching me very hard in the face several times, the flames were finally out. "Blimey", say I, "that was close. Good job all that beer earlier is acting as an anaesthetic. Shall we forget the Blue Blazer Club and have another round?" Heroic old me had several more beers before returning home, only to be rushed to hospital with quite serious, but thankfully only superficial, burns to the face!

Sambuca - christing bollocks, more like!
(monkeyboys like monkeygirls, Thu 3 Nov 2005, 16:53, Reply)