Swimming Against the Tide

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