Day 114.
Up until now I've felt like I've been surfing the zeitgeist.
Every day the number of people finding my blog increased. Every week there seemed to be another article in the press about the dangers of drinking too much. It felt like we were at the forefront of a huge wave of change.
And then the sun came out.
People are no longer googling am I an alcoholic? and stumbling across me. They're googling how to make the perfect Pimms and best cocktails for a barbeque.
Journalists are having way to much fun at drinks parties on the terrace of the House of Commons to be bothered with writing about the evils of alcohol.
Everyone is off to Ascot, Henley, weddings, festivals and Wimbledon, all fuelled by a vast great lake of booze.
I feel like the sole storm cloud threatening a fabulous picnic. I'm King Canute trying in vain to hold back the wave, shouting against the roaring tide "Think about your liver! What about your dopamine receptors? Don't forget the wine belly!"
Already I get tied up in conversations with people about how they cracked open a bottle of rose at 4pm on Friday afternoon because it's summer.
Statistically, one third of the UK population confess to drinking more in the summer (and those are just the ones that admit it and are sober enough to do the maths). It adds up to an extra 333 million pints of beer and 67 million more litres of wine.
After the Christmas season, the summer is our booziest. In the US the booziest summer week is, apparently, the one leading up to 4th July. That's next week.
Oh God how I loved summer afternoon drinking. All those Pimms parties in the quads at Oxford in May week (which, bizarrely, was in June). A glass (or 3) of cold rose in the garden. Boozy barbeques, drunken picnics, poolside cocktails.
But now, for the first time ever, I am looking forward to January. Cold, dark, bleak January when everybody decides to cut down, if not totally give up, on the booze.
In January, we will be normal. In January, the tide turns again, and we'll be up there surfing the wave, standing on our boards doing cunning stunts (careful how you say that one!), while all the newbies are floundering around on their body boards.
Until then, keep swimming my friends!
Love SM x
I feel a bit like that now SM. I am really enjoying being sober (what a geek eh!) I was listening to my ipod yesterday as I was getting ready for work and on shuffle came Queen's # Don't Stop Me Now#. Bizarrely it summed up where I am on my journey. I say hurray to sober summers and being free! Big flowery Queen filled hugs LNM x
ReplyDeleteLove that song. Fabulous Freddie, who died way too young... Snake hipped, lush moustache wearing hugs to you too LNM! x
DeleteP.s My positivity is brought to you today by the fact that a) I am almost at the end of Jasey Vale's book and b) I've lost a couple of pounds! x
ReplyDeletewoop woop! Me too! 2 pounds down in one week! Bizarre....
DeleteThe day before I quit drinking (15 days ago!) I foolishly invited everyone to a bbq for my birthday next month. I'm going to make sure I have an AF beer in each hand, and enjoy waking up feeling fine the next morning. I feel that longing for a glass of something nice in the sun too. We can do this!
ReplyDeleteI accepted an invitation to a weekend camping 7 days after I quit. Camping = beer/wine, everyone knows that! So I bought a couple of bottles of non alcoholic wine, and drank it out of plastic cups (as you do) and no one even asked what I was drinking! And I had a great time!! And you will too!
DeleteHuge congrats on 15 days Susie! I bet you'll have a ball at the bbq. As per my post today on 'dull drunks' I find that I'm a way better guest and host than I ever was before, plus I can have fun without the regrets. You're doing great!
DeleteSummer has been in full swing here for a while, and it seems that every weekend is a party, and every evening an excuse for someone to turn up at our house, as we are a short walk from a popular swimming hole. I offered everyone a cup of tea the other evening. Stunned silence. He he.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I started a facebook page if anyone feels like taking a look
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/dearwinewehadadeal
Posting stuff that might be helpful for people taking the sober plunge x
great idea WB! Will look it up!
DeleteI think that call of a nice drink on a summer patio, biding away the afternoon, will always call. But I know the end of that story. I will want more. I've been there and done that enough times.
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps that was ok. I would go home and drink the afternoon away in the backyard. Friends often joined me. Lazy Saturday afternoons.
But I regretted it after. I forgot what I said. I had to deal with the resultant depression and anxiety.
So, no more afternoons drinking in the sun for me. My skin freckles. I'd rather stay in the shade and age gracefully!
Anne
You're so right. I must always remember to 'play it forward'!
DeleteStill swimming here! But it's Winter and yes Summer here is all about the booze, but by my birthday which is in October and begins the countdown to Christmas festivities I will have this. I have a headache just thinking of how that first drink in the sun makes me feel, so that I have to keep drinking to numb it. No, won't be happening for me this year. Again I am so glad I found your blog, it was the first one and has helped me so much.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much RainyDayGirl. I'm so glad it's helped!
DeleteYeah... Those summer afternoons and evenings. They always get me. I love a feeling of a cold glass in my hand. But just like Anne said, I know where I end up. I know how it ends. My summers are always filled with a lot of booze. I am hoping this summer will be very different.
ReplyDeleteIt will! It's going to be great!
DeleteI've found getting a cold af beer out the fridge and sitting in the sun with it (away from the children!) for 20 minutes hits just the same spot as it used to. To my brain if it looks like beer, smells like beer and tastes like beer then it is beer but at least after 1 I can carry on with what I was doing and it doesnt decend into more drinks, visits to the shop, late kids dinner, bath skip etc etc. And the memory of walking the kids to school the next morning in the sun with a hangover pouring with sweat and paronoid that I smell of alcohol is still recent enough for me to remember and be happy that doesnt happen now. Playing it forward it the way forward for me :)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Still enjoy the sun and have a new drink to enjoy.
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