Alcohol consumption is something you have to work at, here in Abu Dhabi. Muslim country, alcohol technically illegal … Drunkenness is a fairly serious crime, and if you have any alcohol in your system and you are involved in an auto accident … you’re going to spend some time in the Abu Dhabi Graybar Hotel.

Generally, you kind of give up, particularly when alcohol isn’t an essential in your life, and it isn’t, for me.

But there are times, at the end of a week, or after a tough night, or even after a Thanksgiving Day’s Eve Dinner … when you would like to have a beer or a glass of wine.

You have three ways to make this happen. And one of our co-workers … has just accomplished the toughest.

The UAE liquor license!

Back up for a moment.

Here are the two easiest ways to get alcohol:

1. Every time you come into the country, at an airport, you can buy up to four bottles of alcohol, per person, at the Duty Free shop. After you clear customs. (As long as you have a passport from a non-Muslim country.) We bought eight bottles when we landed, back in October. One bottle of champagne, one of tequila, six of wine. (That becomes your own private stash.)

2. The most common way to handle your thirst … is to go to one of the Western hotels. Nearly all of them have a bar. Or five. You can’t take any booze out, and it’s semi-expensive, and it’s one of the few purchases in the country that is taxed … but it’s convenient.

And then there is the third path, that our co-worker negotiated.

Yes, the liquor license.

To read official documents, it looks like an enormous hassle to get a license. Presenting this and that document, photos, forking over some cash, and doing it at a specific police station out at the airport. Then, eventually, your license comes through. And it just all seems an enormous hassle.

Our co-worker, however, noticed/realized that it didn’t have to be that hard. That the British/American supermarket named Spinney’s will handle all the paperwork for you. One stop liquor-license shopping.

Who knew?

The rest of us didn’t.

So, he turned in his documents, waited a few weeks, and back came an official booklet, like a mini-passport. With his picture in it, his name, and several pages for entries, and showed if off at our Thanksgiving meal. We gazed at it longingly.

The rules are … he can’t spend more than 10 percent of his salary on alcohol. (And yes, we are paid well enough that it would take enormous appetites or lots of parties to consume that much booze.) So, each time you buy some wine or beer, they note it in your liquor license, and keep a running tab, and as long as you don’t get over that 10 percent figure, you’re fine.

And (and this is the best part), you can buy your beer and wine right there at the market. In a little kiosk around the corner from the main market. No duty-free shopping, none of the overpaying at the bar and not being able to take anything out. You buy it, you take it home. Bam. Our co-worker is set.

Which now puts us in a position … of teenagers hanging around the liquor store to see if some older guy will buy a sixer for us. We are the kids. Our licensed co-worker is the cool guy over 21.

“Hey, Dude, could you pick up a Grenache for us? Maybe an Australian? … and maybe a Syrah? We’ll make it worth your while …”

So, the liquor license. It’s not like we’re dying here, but it would be nice to have one. And if we ever reach a point where we’re entertaining, we don’t have to wipe out our Duty Free stocks.

It’s on our to-do-someday list. The UAE liquor license.