The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Here's To STAYING On A Sober Holiday!

[Mouseface]

Hello, I'm Mouse

I have an abusive and volatile relationship with alcohol.

This is the Brave Babes Bus, it's filled with sober, drinking and somewhere in between Babes who are all here for the journey ahead, whatever that may entail.

EVERYONE is welcome on this Bus. No-one will judge what you are going through, what you drink, what you don't or what you do.

Come take a seat.

Take a peek at the journeys so far (including the thread by JWN that started this whole journey off) HERE

Hello all, sorry for the absence, rl getting in the way a bit.

Sitting on my balcony watching the most amazing electric storm over Bangkok, tall cold glass of water in hand. Resisting all urges so far, urges are bad sometimes, but I know I need to resist.

Sleeping better, lost 3lb last week, skin clearer, eyes brighter and am more patient with dd. What's not to like?

saf am I right in thinking you are a single parent? If so, I take my hat off to you, and to all the other mums who cope on their own, day in day out, because after 2weeks of dh being away, and even with home help, I'm frazzled. Am finding I'm up till the wee hours trying to stay on top of work, home, helping dh sort things for his family, trying to organise dds first day at her new school, all a bit much. Sod the single mum bashers, I for one think you are amazing.

legal glad you are staying, your posts are so honest.

wantto you rock. Well done, well done, well done and hang onto those happy thought because they keep you going in the harder times. You've made the hardest step already.

mouse make sure you find time to look after yourself as well as everyone else, my lovely.

Am catching up on thread, so for all those I missed name checking, apologies and like arnie, I will be back

Good afternoon lovely Babes,

Hello to all new babes, and a belated glad to meet you virtual hug!

I have been away on holiday and only got back last night. I went to a beautiful village in the countryside, and should have come back refreshed and ready to go. In my dreams .

Dh got food poisoning on Tuesday night, and spent the next few days throwing up, and other things!!! I spent the time ferrying DC1 and GF to train stations, so that at least their holiday wasn't rubbish. (Yes, I persuaded Dc to come away, so as to have a relaxing break with us!). In between, I fielded about seven phone calls a day, when there was a signal, from Dsis about problems in her family, and DC2 about all sorts of angst at home.

La, la I wish I had stayed here!

Love to all, will catch up properly later.
xxxxxxxxxx

Hello everyone,

Not posted for a while but have been reading the thread every day.

Have managed to cut down my drinking now and just have a drink on Saturday night. Its getting easier now and my husband is also cutting down which helps a lot. Its great not having a hangover but I I keep waking in the night still, its driving me mad! Also my dreams are really weird (now that I can remember them!) some are quite disturbing and embarrassing too, does this happen to anyone else?

Wantto I hope everything works out for you, I was nearly in tears reading your posts.

Legal glad you are staying on the bus!

Feebz xx

Feebz/isinde - I read somewhere a long time ago that dreams were a mental equivalent of clearing out the filing cabinet/junk drawer - a chance fot your mind to go through the day's happenings and forget the not so useful info. I suspect that this process doesn't happen in alcohol induced sleep - so that when you stop drinking there's a massive backlog of mental junk to be cleared. Not aware of any scientific evidence to support this though .

Have had a g&t and about to pour a glass of wine with dinner and x factor. Not bad for a Saturday. Have recipes on my mind and have been pondering the idea of "matching " non alcoholic drinks with food. If it works for wine and beer, why not?

I also occasionally have the weird dreams, the worst one I have had, was when I dreamt that I had been drinking, woke up in a real state, was horribly panic filled and fearful for a good ten minutes. Reminded me why I am on this bus,

Hope everyone has has a good day, my kids went out for the day with their grandad, so I got loads of housework done, all ironing and washing up to date, and I have spring cleaned two cupboards, so feeling like I have accomplished something worthwhile, tomorrow I am giving myself permission for a lazy day!!

Made a lovely tea, and am totally up for your idea legal about the recipes and cooking,
Watched dr who with the kids, and am now been subjected to x factor, last year I pretty much missed it, what with being pissed on a Saturday night . It is fairly bad, but hey a small price to pay for sobriety!

indie. Fight the feeling honey, you know you can do this, you will be so proud of yourself in the morning if you wake up totally clear headed!

can I just say I have never run a half marathon in my life, not do I intend to . it was a 5K Indie and as i haven't been out once since I totalled the car 6 weeks ago, I'd be hard pushed to do 5 minutes!

Thurso have been thinking about you and wondering how the holiday went. Sorry DH was ill, but at least it would have taken his mind of other things.

Have had a couple of glasses of wine, but can't be bothered to drink the rest. Am down to about a half bottle at night. don't know if that's progress or just trying to put a positive slant on the fact I'm still drinking too much.
Well done to all those making real progress out there.
scaredy come out and talk to us.

Doctor who here too. Enjoyed it, but am not sure about the way that this and the last series have episodes that are very interlinked - if you don't watch every episode you have no idea what is goi
going on. Not ideal for under 10s.

Thinking cap on re recipe for next week (guess I have to go first). Am thinking something with chicken and not too many ingredients - have some great se Asian recipes but they do require a large number of spices in the store cupboard - cheap but only if you regularly cook Asian food.

Am the same legal. Am finding I really need to concentrate, my kids especially ds love it, and will rewatch it over and over, so things they miss out the first time, they eventually pick up - and then explain to be!!
Glad to be sober watching it though!!
Really glad that wantto managed to drG my out of hiding, I had forgotten how much I love being on the bus.

Kids are away to bed, so gonna chill in front of sone reasonable tv!
Night all

Ha, that half bottle would have been a large glass to me started

Night Isinde x

Agree half bottles are not a behaviour I am recently familiar with! Well done inde - I've been lucky not to be in the situation lately but wonder if I am wrapped in cotton wool too much, now you know you can do it.

Whenever I dip my toe in the rest of Mumsnet I do come running back here sharpish! Agree with venus and others about how lovely and supportive this thread is even with its very necessary tough love. (Am reminded why I never touched Oxbridge with a barge pole though! Very happy with my second rate qualifications!)

I am grateful this morning, for sober sleep, for my plans for lunch with friends, for a roof over my head and for great new friends. Hope everyone has a good day.

Morning all,

Dh been up in the toilet not very well again all night.

I came down, looked in the fridge, and calculated that I had had 9 units last night, which I thought was quite good, as not enough to give me a wrecking hangover , WHAT! where is my head at the moment!!!!?

Back to the drawing board .

Love to all
xx

Boing

Morning all
Hope you all slept well, I was up at 2.30 for an hour for some reason , got up emptied the dishwasher and had a cup of peppermint tea, ds has just brought me a cup of coffee in bed, lovely darling that he is.
I did loads yesterday, so today is definitely a human "being" day rather than a human "doing" day!

ma I also fondly imagine you as a half marathon runner!
indie I hope that you are so proud of yourself!! you are overcoming these demons on baby step at a time. Hope that DP is as proud of you as the Bb's are!!
noteven nice to see you - stop worrying about whether you are wrapped in cotton wool (a little bit of projecting there ) you are sober, and happy and ODAAT rebuilding, so what if you don't think you could sit at a dinner table where wine was being served, you got through a Sat sober, and 10 months ago that would certainly not have been the case!!
faire it would also have a been a large startoff glass to me , and led to me being a crabbit cowbag if that was all there was for the evening . Gosh - I am just a much nicer person when there is not alcohol in my system, or constantly being a facor in my life!

Hey there Thurso - what do you want to see happening with your drinking, if you tell us exactly what you envisage, maybe between the lot of us, we can put together a plan.

For the record, I really do take my hat off to all of you on the bus, who can do the controlled drinking, moderated drinking thing. I just know, that even thinking about it, I start to feel anxious about how I would stop the craving that would kick in once I started. I also don't think that I could deal with my emotions with regards to alcohol, and my mood being dictated by whether I was allowing myself to drink or not.

Right, have drunk the coffee, sorted out the first fight of the day kids pah!! Need to get up and grab a shower and sort myself out so as not to scare everyone at church.

Have a great day all!!

Bafana

Boing here too.

Quick post as I am fielding incessant questions from DD but guess what ... Had my first Saturday night without a drink since re-boarding bus. Had a fee glasses on Friday and last night just could not see the point, so stuck to my 0% wheat beer (which tastes lovely).

Hope everyone else getting through the weekend. It's always my toughest time and all week I was wondering what my only drinking at weekends rule does with bank holidays! Well done for getting through the sat night isindie (and huge apologies, called you wasindie a while back).

Also random q - are any of you lovely folks cat owners? We are thinking of getting a Siberian in the hope that its a cat I won't be allergic to it. No psychology needed to see it's a child substitute but I think that's ok. Carry will be loved, DD will have a pal and I'll have company at home when working. DD loves our friends cat (who comes over to visit) and is definitely feeling a bit 'only child' at mo so hope this helps. Am I crazy? Will my furniture be scratched to pieces? Shit in my nice home?

Hope lovely babes are all ok, I am not drinking today.

Catty not carry

Month advice on the cat msgee they make me sneeze! Mind you alocohol made me half crazy and I still managed to pour it down my throat
wasindie and bafanaa we are hardcore. We know we can never drink in safety. All the yets people told ma about happened to me. I will share my experience soon. Well done wasinde and chill out today bafana.
Off to a big meeting then home to clean grrr and dp bringing baby tomorrow and I see my other angels in disguise for a few hrs too.
I can't moderate my drinking. I no longer wish I could. That obsession must leave me. I had a great chat with a friend yesterday and out shared experiences on drink would make your hair curl. If I drank today I would give myself a week tops before my world crashed again
Well done and boingy boingy to everyone on this amazing thread in their own journeys
This time last week they were just opening my cell door! Me a middleclass mum of 3 with a degree lol
Day 7! Kerching!!

Month advice on the cat msgee they make me sneeze! Mind you alocohol made me half crazy and I still managed to pour it down my throat
wasindie and bafanaa we are hardcore. We know we can never drink in safety. All the yets people told ma about happened to me. I will share my experience soon. Well done wasinde and chill out today bafana.
Off to a big meeting then home to clean grrr and dp bringing baby tomorrow and I see my other angels in disguise for a few hrs too.
I can't moderate my drinking. I no longer wish I could. That obsession must leave me. I had a great chat with a friend yesterday and out shared experiences on drink would make your hair curl. If I drank today I would give myself a week tops before my world crashed again
Well done and boingy boingy to everyone on this amazing thread in their own journeys
This time last week they were just opening my cell door! Me a middleclass mum of 3 with a degree lol
Day 7! Kerching!!

msGee we are cat people
In fact this has been the first time I've been catless in all my life, since dM (darling moggie) died last month. there is a cat shaped hole in my life just now. If you get a rescue cat, not a kitten, it will already be house trained so no shit in the house. Also, if he/she goes outside there won't be much indoor scratching of furniture.

I quite like being thought of as a half-marathon runner - should I change my name to marathonma? I suppose I could just nip out for a quick 10 mile run but don't know if I could tuck my gut into my running shorts and anyway, 10 miles would hardly raise a sweat!! (NOT)

Today's plans, take DD2 for singing lesson, take mother shopping, take DS to local festival thingy, ironing.......might grab a minute or two "me" time if I'm lucky.

hi all!

I had a g&t and some wine last night, and came down this morning convinced I must have drunk a bottle. Half of it is still in there (same as last week). I was astonished. I don't even remember making a conscious decision to stop drinking. To be safe think I will put the rest of it in the freezer so I don't keep staring at it and consider polishing it off during the week. For the record, according to my rules bank holiday monday is not a weekend day.

will be interested to hear about the cat, DH is allergic and I spent ages googling hypo-allergenic cats at one point. Decided I wanted a Savannah cat (they're part serval),and then decided I certainly couldn't afford one. So that was that. DS an only child, so I suspect a dog may be on the distant horizon. I'm not keen on small furry rodenty animals, and I want to head off the idea of a pony...

am planning an afternoon slumped on the sofa pretending to watch football while surfing the internet watching football -two rounds of manchester vs london this afternoon... (have never been interested in football but am having to adopt an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach with DS and his friends).

BOING!!!! - sorry babes, im in a social whirlwind right now, just home to change outfit (and shoes, new pink and cream and orange wedges with ribbon ties!! [grin[)

so much to catch up on and im failing but here goes!

scardy - i drank a good 75 to 90 units on a 'good week', at least another 20 to 30 if was partying! - i went cold turkey, no fits etc, just deep sleep and sense of well being! (sorry, i missed your post, just guessing at its contents!)

i have 4 cats, dds bf is now much better re allergy! - he seems to be becoming immune!

legal - hang about wiv us! we is boss init! (just heard from a bunch of kids outside! )

i like the idea of swapping friday night recipies, i find its too easy to get in a cooking rut, all ideas welcome!

everyone else, have a good day, hang on in there and try and remember that you arent alone!!, there are loads of on here, all trying for the same thing!!

love you all babes, see you later!

L XXXXXXXXX

btw, the rumour that i have MIF locked in my cellar wearing a gimp mask is a vicious lie!! lie i tell you!!!

methinks the lady doth protest too much jesus....God help Mif if you have him on a chain licking all your shoes clean! Should we mount a rescue mission to save the poor man?

I nearly did get another cat but was accused of being insensitive by heartbroken DD!

Missed the Friday night recipe thing - what's the plan?