When I was ~22 I had a brief spell of unemployment. My dad, who was a malt whisky distillery manager, said I could work for a bit at his distillery as a warehou

When I was ~22 I had a brief spell of unemployment. My dad, who was a malt whisky distillery manager, said I could work for a bit at his distillery as a warehouse man to fill in for one of the workers who was off sick. The job mainly entailed rolling filled casks from the filling store into the warehouses, unloading empty casks delivered from the coopers, moving and loading casks of mature whisky into lorry trailers, internal cask movements and cask "dipping" and inspections. Dad was a real stickler for time keeping and we had to be on-site and in the rest room for the day's briefing by 0800 on the dot, not a minute later. I had been sailing pretty close to the wind for a few days and then one Thursday night went out and got quite drunk with pals, eventually getting to bed at around 3am - and yes, there was whisky involved. The next morning I had a stinking hangover, slept in, and arrived a whole five minutes late at the rest room. My dad said nothing about being late except for suggesting that it was about time I learned the ropes on filling whisky barrels. For the next two hours (and for my sins I suddenly realised) I filled whisky casks. This was done by hand. You basically have a big hose with a nozzle and a tap. The flow rate is quite high which means there's a high speed out-gassing of very strong whisky fumes that hit you right in the face. The last thing you need with a whisky inflicted hangover is to be around the smell and fumes of more whisky, especially when it's hitting you square in the face like a small gale. It took all of my being not to be sick, or faint (pardon the pun), and was probably the best lesson on time keeping and not partying on his watch I've ever had. He never said anything that day except for a knowing wink and a wee grin that he gave me from the window of the weighing office as I silently retched and struggled to maintain my composure surrounded in sickening malt whisky fumes :) We still have a laugh about that to this day yet.