Tryers to be dryers spring into spring, not as much wine, beer or gin. We sow our seeds of hope for a dryer season, but if we drink, it's for a reason.

[Frouby]

Thread 5 for Tryers to be Dryers. A thread for those who want support for moderating or reducing alcohol. Whatever you hope to do, whether it's to have more dry days, or be less wet when you do drink, come and join us for support.

Absolutely no judgement here, just friendly support and chat, the odd swear (lots of swears to be honest). All welcome, new and old tryers to dryers.

Hi all, can I sneak in and join? Have got into really bad habits, too many drinks of an evening, both me and dh, need to cut down both for health and finance, is so hard though! Started today, a couple of drinks for both of us and that's it, fingers crossed 🤞🏻

Welcome milenium this is a friendly non judgmental thread and we all have a few AF days but maybe not enough!
Nc4 well done on your step class, I bet you feel better. I did a bike ride with DH this evening but he gave up after 15km so I carried on alone for 27. So a lot of sport today but I've eaten too much chocolate digestives have undone the good work.
Bank holiday here tomorrow.
Please don't tell me the end of Line if Duty I still have 3 episodes to watch (DH doesn't speak English so I can only watch with DD when he is away or occupied)

Hi all. Been away so not been able to catch up. Will try to read back and be back soon. As ever I’m totally not dry!! It’s more a case of how much ‘not dry’ I am!! Fml!!

Be back. Love to all x

Same here, Flossie. Hugs. xxx

NC it is isn't it. Just finished series 1. Going to start series 2 tmrw night and try and get dh to watch it with me.

I don't know why I always miss stuff the first time round, am rubbish 😂😂. I only started watching Luther at Christmas.

frouby I started watching The Sopranos well over a decade late

@leavingAqaba. I live in the UK but many places near me observe Ramadan. I didn't know it had started so I'm a bit out of touch.

All this talk of exercise classes is making me feel.like a slob. I do very little formal exercise, although am trying to swim once a week. My kids are 2 and 5 so it is getting a bit easier.

I was dry Tues. Prob today.
Have a good day everyone.

What to watch now line of duty finished. I'm watching professional bake off, made a start on sex education and a loaf of other things. I get bored a bit quickly

There’s a new Shane Meadows drama starting on Channel 4 next Weds, The Virtues. I love Shane Meadows as a writer, and it stars Stephen Graham (Combo from This Is England, and John Corbett in LOD). I read an interview with Shane in the Observer on Sunday which was inspiring and harrowing in equal measures, so I’m really looking forward to that.
I’ve not watched Luther but it looks good.

I’m having DS1 issues at the moment. Some tough love required. Usually it’s easier parenting solo but sometimes I wish there was someone else to share the responsibility. It’s a worry.

Good to see you back Flossie. Did you have a nice break?

MmeF I like the idea of bike riding. I live right on a 26 mile cycle route that goes round our city through lovely parks and past the docks etc. My brother is bringing my bike over next week, so we’ll see how that goes.

NC I might watch that, a school run mum mentioned it yesterday at pick up. Bizarrely LOD helped me stay dry last night. I knew if I had a drink I would go to bed earlier and not be able to watch as much TV, as DH had sport on upstairs. Am going to start Season 2 tonight. Season 4 is dropping off the Iplatey but think I can get it on Amazon so need to get DH involved so I can watch it upstairs.

You should definitely watch Luther. I never binge watch or even use the catch up TV stuff, but we watched all the series's over Christmas. If you liked LOD you will definetly like Luther.

Feel good 3 days dry. No overwhelming urge either way for tonight. We will see.

cotton I don't do any formal exercise either. But I do try and do 10k steps a day (weather permitting) and we have the ponies and the allotment so I am stronger than I look and have a lot of stamina. I did sprint through Tesco last night for a forgotten ingredient once I had loaded the checkout though and I didn't pass out so thats good I suppose 🙈.

flossie I wondered where you were, I missed you

I think I will watch Luther. Is it on Netflix?

I’ve realised that a lot of my drinking is boredom in the evenings, so if I can do a bit of gym stuff and get stuck into some decent telly it will help me on AF days.

Cotton when you have young children it isn't easy to do sport. I am a single mother and it wasn't until my kids were older that I could get out a lot. But walking is very good exercise and if you can manage 10k steps a day like Frouby that is excellent. I just really love sport, it is a drug but it isn't the same for everyone.
NC4 I know what you mean, I drank to relieve the boredom too. It is just breaking the habit, trying to get out if possible and come back after your usual trigger time. The urge to drink for me isn't the same after 8pm, I can quite easily pass after then in favour of a cup of tea.

Ohh I'll be signing up for the new shane meadows. Thanks for heads up. anyone else still see Lol (character from this is england) when they watch line of duty?

Yes CottonSocks.

‘Now stop making a tit of yourself and piss off’

😂 That was my favourite line of the series, and totally Lol.

Day 10 AF and BSD today and I feel great. And look 100 x better. Off out to lunch but at a place that does lunches under 600 cals so I will be able to stick to it. And am driving so no temptation there.

I think I drink sometimes out of habit as much as anything. But also because it definitely makes you (well, me) give less of a shit so I've used it for that too. So I am trying to make a new habit. I think I will have a night out with DH at the end of May so that will be planned not AF.

Hi Flossie, I hope you're ok.

I tried Luther and found it too gritty. At the moment I'm watching The Good Fight (follow up to The Good Wife), some trash and Grey's Anatomy. Between that lot and the whole of the internet I am occupied most evenings!

Passing thru again..(so manic that not even had time yet to write a full post, so apologies)..

....anyway..I’m watching The Widow currently and pooing my pants at most episodes!!

No such thing as too gritty in my line of work Water. I'm pretty much unshockable these days. I am your archetypal jaded old hack. Sometimes I think I drink just to keep up the persona.
After a horrid day with DS1 and a very gritty day at work, my finger's poised over the Fuck It button. I've already polished off about six biscuits, which are not diet friendly.
Resistance may well be futile tonight.

I like gritty but not gory or too grimy. I didn't like This Is England as I found it really grimy, not in a dirty way, just too urban and, for me, a bit close to home. I read a lot of police thrillers and detective dramas which invariably have murders in them, but as long as it's not 'witnessed' in the book by the reader I am usually OK. Hate anything with kids in it though, hate anything gratuitously violent as well.

I thought Luther was quite well done. It was scary and gripping and violent but nothing too bad, and it had some strong female characters which I like.

Not dry tonight. Had 1 gin and will have another. Having a smoked mackerel and salmon omelette for dinner. Saw rick stein do one with smoked haddock and have fancied it since, but smoked haddock is so expensive I couldn't bring myself to put it in an omelette so having smoked mackerel for the smokiness and salmon for the fishiness 😂😂.

Checking in, not AF. Still on high alert with DD but she tells me bad boy is history. I bloody hope so cos I hear more horror stories about him every day. I’m not taking any chances though and she is getting lifts to friends and not allowed in town etc as well as me stalking her on my App which she half-jokingly threatened to delete until I not-jokingly at all threatened to take her phone away! I can’t believe how much this incident has shaken me. I was a bit complacent before, trusted her to make good decisions etc. Think it’s made me fully realise what a fragile line teens walk. So with stress levels high and yet another period even though I’m in my mid 50’s and no sign of stopping yet, I’ve got wine in the fridge!

Well done Waterandlemonjuice - awesome!

Waves to everyone else - sorry I haven’t got time to name check you all.

Nc4now, that was a cracking line!

I've had a huge steak dinner and loads of bicycles, but af.

Started the Catherine Gray book today.. my word, depressing!

This was shared today on sober mummy. I like the thinking that even those with booze issues can some times do better moderating.

elemental.medium.com/the-rise-of-elective-sobriety-8989550afbcb

Bicycles?

See Frouby I liked the griminess of This is England. I liked location spotting too. I lved just up the road from Park Hill flats where some of the scenes were filmed when I was a student.

I've not cracked yet, but I'm looking forward to a large glass of vino shortly.

Bicycles it’s just another of those new diets. With steak of course.

Lol maybe if I had steak and bikes I wouldn't need fat club 😁.

Omelette was bloody lush. Will definetly do it again. Poached a piece of salmon and 2 little smoked mackerel fillets in half water/half milk. Flaked them up. Whisked 6 eggs, hand full of parmesan and some chopped chives and parsley. Wanged egg in, spread fish flakes on top, then another sprinkle of parmesan. Cooked omellete then finished under grill. Folded it and cut it in half and had it with chopped salad.

Was lovely, really summery and fresh. Made a nice change from ham and mushroom omelette and much easier than twatting quiche!

Had my fil on phone today, he's a bit of a twat too so I leave him mainly to dh to deal with. He's a selfish old bugger, rarely sees the kids, think he's met ds a handful of times despite me inviting him over (picked up and dropped off) regularly for sunday lunch etc.

Anyway, mil died 10 years ago. Fil has a new partner who is a sweet but slightly dotty lady. She lives with him in his council bungalow. Fil has had 2 strokes, is 74 and doddery on his legs now. Walks with a stick and has a mobility scooter, registered disabled. He's phoned me today to help him get the council to change his shower over bath for a walk in shower with handrails and bars and stuff so he must be struggling a bit.

He then asked me to 'have a word' with his partner. She's a hoarder. And according to fil they now can't get in the spare room at all, and shes started piling things up in their room. She has a 3 bedroom house she owns about 15 miles away and apparently that is full to the point you can't get upstairs.

Fil doesn't want to upset her, or me to upset her, but wants the spare room emptied and the rest of the clutter around the bungalow gone.

So if anyone knows of a way to cure a chronic hoarder and empty a property while they are still there I would be very grateful. Have told dh if she doesn't listen on sunday we will have to contact adult social services as they are both vulnerable and fil needs to he able to move around without tripping on stuff.

I know she won't listen though and it's her home as well. But if fil dies or needs residental care she won't be allowed to stay in the bungalow either and the more stuff she has the harder its going to be on her and because it's a council bungalow we will only have a couple of weeks.

Her house sounds like it uninhabitable, so am going to be faced with a 75 year old woman with no where to live and a fuckton of junk.

Fml, I can only hope SS help. Am going to use them coming out to sort the shower to get the ball rolling.

Oh Frouby I don’t envy you that. My best friend has hoarding tendencies and it’s very hard. She isn’t at ‘can’t get through the door’ stage, but she has piles of stuff everywhere, and feels guilty about it.
The thing is, as soon as she gets rid of anything, she just brings more in. She has ADHD and I think it’s part of it.
I hope SS can help.

Flying by on the way to bed. Ridiculously busy again today. So much so that I didn't have time to drink, as I was trapped in the car at the relevant time. By the time I got home it was 9 o'clock and I'd already eaten and didn't fancy gin by then. Woo me. Will catch up tomorrow...

No advice Frouby, that sounds hard. What does dh think?

CSWS, sympathy on teenager but it’s good that she seems to have lost interest- maybe peer pressure worked?

NC4, it’s practically obligatory to drink as a hack right?

Cotton well done on AF. I just re read Catherine Grey, hmm, it was ok but not sure whether it yelped me or not really. I also have a mindful drinking book on my kibdke which I’ve started re reading.

I had a fab long lunch with a friend, had a salad, water and coffee. Then soup this evening and a nice evening watching Drag Race with dd.

Friends have just suggested meeting at half term in May and I’m thinking I won’t be AF then but I suppose it’s only one night. Had a bit of a pang for wine earlier but it passed quite quickly.