The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Giving Up Booze For Lent.

[Mouseface]

Hello.

I'm Mouse.

We are a Bus load of posters with various relationships with the demon booze. Some are sober, some are not and some are inbetween.

So come say hi and meet the rest of The Babes, there's always plenty of room on the Bus, the doors are ALWAYS open.

No judgy pants are worn on this journey, pants yes and even the odd Tena Lady but always of the non judging variety.

Previous Threads

Just a thought, when I see my name mentioned on this thread it gives me the most wonderful feeling (embarassing to admit!) so thanks to those who have asked after me. Bit sorry for myself and carrying everyone else in RL at the moment so any shreds of kindness are so appreciated.

Rose I'm usually in from 5ish so will pop in for a chat.......as for tonight, it's never too late to stop.

Ok dementedma, if your up for it lets do it. munky I'm afraid once the bottle is open I can't stop until it's empty

thornrose it's a deal. Seriously. I am like you with the whole bottle thing - . I will promise to be on soft drinks tomorrow if you will. We will keep each other company. don't buy any tomorrow and i won't either.
anyone else up for it tomorrow?

BB - Bloody well done you HUGE achievement. You should be very proud of yourself, I am. (proud of you that is)

IsinDe - would it be okay to tell you that I heart you? You always have nice things to say about the Babes, always make me xx

Rose - Sorry you are having a tough time in RL. There is always a Babe here around that time, most of us wobble then! Huge hugs xx

Munky - thank you

And you BB.

I know the empty bottle trick all too well. I'm with you tomorrow, soft drinks all round it is

I am deadly serious, I am going to get tonic water tomorrow and drink it with ice and lemon. I did 5 days without alcohol a couple of weeks ago so all is not lost. I have spirits in the house but I won't have them unless I've already had wine and don't want to stop drinking. My addiction seems to just be to wine if that makes sense.
upsy do you fancy joining us?

Right, I'm off to watch CSI, once Postman bleedin' Pat has finished

Night night Babes. Thank you for all the kind words, I shalln't be such a drain tomorrow.

Let's kick ass tomorrow shall we? A mid week 'fuck the fuck off to booze'?

Sleep well all, especially you IsinDe and your darling girls.

Mwahs xxxxx

a midweek FTFO it is! Tonic and lime for me - shall we have a wee mid-week party ? A quiz? A truth or dare?
Can we wear our pjs and slippers and park Gerald up somewhere in the wilds where there are no offies?
I will bring kettle chips and dips.

Loving it - my daughter has a friend over tomorrow after schiool and I have to drive her home at 6.30 so definitely won't drink before then.
God I am already feeling anxious about not drinking tomorrow, but from experience once I get the first day over it gets easier.

ma I don't have pj's but do have a rather fetching pair of joggers and a vest

Can I make garlic bread (home made with melted mozza and basil oil)?

Rose don't make yourself anxious now, just make sure your first thought in the morning is 'Today I will not be drinking'.

Cup of tea for me and bed, night babes!

Joggers and a vest is what I'm wearing right now! I can make bruschetta with some gorgeous "posh" Italian bread I found in Waitrose today!!

Getting too into this - I do know I won't really be cooking

I'm out at choir tomorrow Rose but will send you vibes (better than me singing thru your window, I can assure you)

Hi I'm back (and sober).Just to flesh out my story a bit more, I've been drinking nearly every day for about 16 years, apart from during 3 pregnancies. DH is also a heavy boozer and it's always been the kind of elephant in the room that we don't discuss. I've always been able to basically handle my drink until about 2 years ago when I started to have more and more blackouts and DH began to get really angry as he had to follow me up the stairs every night to make sure I didn't fall over. The lowest point came on Xmas day 2009 when I drank nearly half a bottle of whisky by 2pm, collapsed in a heap and had to be put to bed. DH began to talk about leaving.I've never felt so full of self revulsion but it did inspire me to get help. I saw a doctor and was prescribed Antabuse which was great for a while - I abstained for 5 weeks, then had a blip for a few days and then did another 3 weeks. Since then, it's been a pattern of controlling it for a while, a few days abstinence here and there and then a night like last night when i wake up with some injury that i don;t remember getting.One of the issues for me is that, despite going on and on at me to stop, DH continues to drink every night and, when I did abstain for a while, I felt that he was trying to sabotage it by saying things like I could just have a couple. I think it was hard because he'd lost the moral high ground when I was abstinent and he was sitting there boozing every night and i think it meant he had to take a look at his own drinking. And trying not to drink when there's always a bottle of vodka lying around is incredibly difficult. I think what I'm really struggling with is accepting that I won;t ever be able to drink the way I used to do ie socially and in moderation and that feels like a huge loss because it was great fun.I'm angry and disgusted with myself for getting into this mess. I feel like the choices I've got are to carry on drinking and hating myself or stopping and feeling this huge kind of loss. Things have been really bad between me and DH for a long time and I think we may be heading for separation but at least I'd be able to see things more clearly if I took alcohol out of the equation. I do quite often drink because he's being a complete shit to me - I know it doesn't solve anything but it does make it go away for a while. Sorry, I know this is turning into a novella. I have so much admiration and respect for those of you that are trying to beat this - you're really inspirational. I need to hear that life can still be fun without drink because that's what i find hard to believe at the moment. Anyway, I haven't had a drink today and will be on the bus tomorrow.

ooooh, garlic bread and bruschetta - get you lot
We can have mocktails or the very popular drink on this bus N&T - nowt and tonic.
Dress code is pjs, joggers, slippers and slum wear. JWN - no leopard skin or Louboutins!!!(spelling)
Very sadly, i am looking forward to it!!!!
I can imagine the conversation in work tomorrow:
"whatcha doing tonight?"
"going to a party"
"where?"
"on an invisible bus called Gerald"
"who with?"
"dunno"
"what's on the menu?"
"virtual food and non-alcoholic drink"
"are your friends going?"
"yeah"
"which ones?"
"oh, Mouse and Indie and Thurso and Rose and JWN and Venus and Cailin and Munky and Bafana and Qo and Upsy and Silver and MIFLAW and LOADS of others whose names I don't know"
"right"

Ma Maz & Rose it is all in the planning, and with your added team spirit I'm sure tomorrow is going to be a good day.

Isinde, thanks for your kind words. Do you know what, I give myself treats all the time, because now I feel I deserve it. I used to hate myself so much, I felt I didn't deserve stuff or couldn't justify having this or that because of the drain on the finances of funding my habit. Now I can spend money on myself and am still saving £££, previously spent supporting the evil drinks industry and the exchequer!!
Maybe I am mercenary, but counting up the money saved has been a helpful incentive for me.

I gave up smoking some years ago and the main reason I was able to was because the disadvantages outweighed the advantages. I wanted to smoke 20 a day but could only afford 10 so was always feeling like I wanted more. I couldn't smoke in my own home so was constantly hanging out of a window or outside. I read the Stop smoking book by Allan Carr and it really made sense.
I gave up drugs because again I could rationalise that I was better off without them (although that was really, really bloody hard!)
I too find it hard to accept a life without drinking at all will be fun at the moment.

Upsy not drinking doesn't have to be a loss, I feel that I have gained so much of myself back. OK it is hard at first to go to a party or a dinner and not be able to have a few glasses of wine, but for me it is never a few, and the joy of waking each morning feeling good about myself outweighs missing out on the 'few'. And I do have a lot more fun because I feel well and perky (nearly) all the time.
You just have to look at JWN's posts to see how much fun and joy can be had without drinking.

cailin thanks in advance for the vibes

upsy - in the spirit of sharing I have been downing a bottle of wine virtually every night for the last 7 years or so with occasional periods of being on the wagon. I have recently found at weekends that a bottle is not enough which terrifies me.
I have gone to the loo in the middle of the night and woken up on the floor with an "egg" on my head and a black eye which also terrified me! I realise lately I am not going to sleep at night, I am passing out!
God knows what I am doing to my liver.

I LOVE the fact this thread is non-judgemental, but I could stand some hard straight talking if anyone feels up to it.