The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Off To Find The Summer Sun and Sobriety!

[Mouseface]

Hello, I'm Mouse :)

Welcome to the Bus, take a seat and enjoy the ride. We're a Bus full of drinkers, non-drinkers, those who are trying to give up for life, those who are giving up for a few hours because that's all that they can manage (which is fine!) or quitting just for today......

We don't wear Judgey Pants (they're far too last year darhling ) but we have hugs a plenty and tough love when it's needed. Which isn't often!

So, what have you got to lose? If you're reading this, you're thinking that you are no longer happy with the way you drink, which tells me that this is the Bus for you. :)

If you'd like to see where we've been so far and what we've been up to, take a peek HERE

And if you want to knnow why we're here in the first place, take a look at THIS THREAD RIGHT HERE :)

See you soon x

Thanks Mouse, great to see you. Holiday was fab. Went to France. People there do like their wine, but they usually just have it as part of a meal. Really throws UK habits (going out to get wasted) into a bad light. Of course, nothing wrong with having fun, but drinking heavily seems more part of socialising here.

If ever I realised the perils of drink, I did when I read that a female "celebrity" on Big Brother got drunk and wet the bed.

Morning babes!

Well this back to work lark is messing with my posting on the bus! There is nothing for it, I will have to resign

So once again a rushed post, sorry, but love to you guys and it is great to read all your posts. Hello to Red and well done you are doing so well. Hope to get to know you better (when time allows!)

Ma well done on 2 days. Funny what you say about reading about how many days AF others have done and feeling like that, as sometimes when I have posted (back when I did do well, ahem!) I have thought it looks a bit easy and glib written down, I have wanted to say 'but this is how bad I was' and list the long long list of things I said, did and felt when drinking that makes me want to claw my skin off remembering it......

What you wrote really chimed in with those thoughts.

The pit I was in was a very deep one. So any lurkers out there, don't ever think your drinking is too bad (or not bad enough) to board the bus. Cos it ain't.

Anyway my lovelys the race is on for the bathroom and I am going to win it, thanks to a clear head and a bit of boing!!

Have a good day all

Pink X

Hi mouse
I make the mistake of promising myself an AF day in the mornings then by tea time it goes out the window,

I did ok before the holidays with cutting down to one drink per day I don't feel like missing out on something just for me in the day I still get my 'little moment' but was at least going to be sober

That's my aim for today just one x

Thinking of everyone one this lovely bus

Good morning everyone! Thanks for the cheerleading and encouraging words, Mouse. :)

Stuck to my plan yesterday. Today I poured half the bottle away before I even left for work.

I feel physically better already, even though I am still drinking so much. Yesterday after leaving work I drove 30 mins to the beach and paddled. Usually I would have gone to the pub or gone home.

This morning though I have been feeling so regretful at all the TIME I have wasted drinking. I have been drinking hard since I got this job some 8 months ago. I have wasted just so much time.

I am not sure what my drinking goal is right now- to cut down or to stop. I DO know that something has to change.

Thinking of everyone today. :)

[waves to Pink :) ]

Morning babettes x
Small boing here though had the most awful dream last night. Dreamt of an ex that I left years ago in the dream him and his brother were mocking me for leaving him. I always felt guilty about that :( Think its haunting me now as current relationship is going tits up.

Day seven here. Ma I relate totally to what you say about smug posts re days a/f. I think for me the reason I list them is to give me hope/strength so I can look back if I slip up iuswim..

Plan for today is again keep busy Ive got the urge to excerise but got dd2 tied to me today. Will probably have to wait until she is back at school net week.

Ma how long have you been running and how the hec did you start it? Im neary dead after a min jog.

Will check in later with you guys. LOVE TO ALL X

Sorry if my posts are smug - not meant to be - just no one else will understand what an achievement it is :(.

I never found JWN posts smug just inspirational - maybe that's just me

maybe people would prefer to hear how shit I feel most of the time - that I still really worry about my health - that every day is a battle - that my life is hard - finances are hard - life is shit etc etc

Apologies for trying to be positive :(.

I'm lurking a bit at the moment, but just wanted to say, I don't think you're smug at all lonnika and your posts are really helping me to think about how good it is when you get sober for a longer period.

Please can we not get into calling posts like that smug?

I know I've in the past found it really difficult to identify - I had the obligatory stroppy run-in with MIFLAW back when he was regular on here. While I do get why I found his posting style annoying (and I don't think he would mind me saying that), I have to admit that personally, it was the sort of annoyance I would have let wash over me if I'd not known this was something that mattered a lot to me.

(Sorry, really arrogant to de-lurk and then come over all 'can we not' ... ... but I mean, I really don't think it is smug.)

Hi babes
lonn and LRD
Didnt mean to offend in any way think its just an insecurity on my part that thinks oh god how crap am I that I cant get past day six/seven or what ever.... Though really truly lonnika your posts do inspire me and spur me on!! .... So I guess I am contradicting myself a bit.
Its just we are all human with quirks :)

You certainly didn't offend me!

I'm in the same boat trying to get past just a few days (fewer than 6 or 7 at the moment).

Lon I ^luuuurve your posts. So many lurkers join the bus because of posts like yours. They follow your journey (just like we followed JWN* in the beginning) and are inspired to join.

Those who keep trying, failing, stopping, starting and get a bit fed up that others are doing so well are also motivated. Why else would they keep trying?

All the posts are helpful and useful to others, as well as ourselves, of course. Because whatever is going on, good, bad, or indifferent, there will be someone out there identifying with it.

If we were all successfully stopping and living happy, sober lives, some posters might feel that they couldn't posts about their struggles. If we were all falling down drunk every day, unable to function properly then some posters might feel that their 'problems' weren't serious enough.

So, with the variety of characters and diversity of challenges, we are a 'catch all' sort of bus.

Please keep us updated with your fantastic successes Lonnika

Pleeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaase?

There is a strong focus on alcohol in the Big Brother house this time. Carole McGiffin is a self confessed heavy drinker. The young girl who wet the bed is from Georgie Shore. I don't watch GS but apparently it's entertaining to watch young women get so drunk that they are literally out of control and regularly wet the bed, throw up everywhere, have sex on camera and worse

What is our society like? How can that be acceptable? Carole has tried to talk to her about it, kind of passing on some advice from an old, hardened drinker. But to Charlotte, it's her job. If she stops, she's out of the limelight, out of a job and out of cash.

She has admitted to Carole that she fakes it sometimes because she really does not want to get stonking drunk every single night. But then Carole told others that she fakes it and now Charlotte feels like she's in competition with Carole to see who can get the most attention for being the most drunk on tv

Hence the bed wetting. It really is very sad.

Hello peeps. Sorry pervy I can't report back on sober festival because I didn't have one but I'm okay and back on the bus.

Can't train due to injury and pain (again!) so feeling a bit flat but still on the diet, following a bit of a fail at the weekend. Happy to be not drinking again. I have noticed a huge difference in my patience even when I only have a couple of glasses the night before, i am very impatient with DS and also feel quite down-that's rubbish isn't it?

Sorry not to NC i'm very behind in the thread. lon I love your posts, keep telling us the good stuff :)

Hi all
This celebrity BB think will have to watch it later. My god how sad that she was so pissed she wet the bed !!! W T A F! On live tv!
What the devil have we come to?
Mind u remember that girl and the wine bottle in the b b garden a few years back !

afternoon gorgeous babes

Big lonnika fan here, keep posting my lovely.

Re taking offence to posts about length of sobriety: I don't think it is smug, just adds to the knowledge we have to share and I've needed lots of help on here many,many times.

I also wanted to point out that getting sober is one aspect of sobriety but maintaining sobriety is quite another. I need to post and read here to stay sober,simple as that. I hope I'm being helpful at times,but suspect not It really isn't a case of getting sober and then forgetting all about booze, i have to work hard to stay clear of the ww.

People mentioned MIFLAW and I don't think I ever encountered him but I did once manage to inform some long standing bus members (think it was venus and faire, can't quiet recall) of it all being dead easy for them not all hard,hardy,hard like it was for me. Really, they take all comers on the bus, and a god job too.

Right will have a go at NC, which I'm not good at hi there:
jango and greeny,faire,LRD,red,tango,pink,paw,mouse,ma,ladame,isinde,obrgda,annie And everyone else

Good!-a good job FFS!

red that's a very good plan. make sure you have some soft drink in the house and some snacks to replace the sugar. Stick to your plan and you will feel better soon. However hard the job is,the booze isn't helping it in any way.

Big brother & drinking- it just sounds vile. Even the worst old soaks are going to feel ashamed of getting that drunk in public. sounds like she' being taken advantage of really.

Oh for fuck's sake. I can't spell at all this afternoon- it's quite NOT quiet.

Lon You are an inspiration. I don't doubt in the slightest that it has been a hard task for you to get this far. Even babes that post on af day 1, 2, 3 or whatever will have agonised in some way to claw those precious hours away from the WW. But most important of all you are a babe. All of us belong on the bus, all of us have our stories and all of us identify with those stories to some extent. I also believe that there are many lurkers whose stories are similar to at least one of ours.

Hi Pawprint Yes, what you have said is so true about the drinking culture in France. It is completely different! Where I am, the French have a definite period of time for aperitifs usually 5-7pm. Wine is never served then, it is usually a Pineau (sherryish), or a spirit and mixer, or a kind of punch. Then usually only one drink, very rarely two. It is unheard of to drink wine without a meal (unless you are a Hunter and have a glass of rose with your coffee in the morning before you go out and shoot defenceless little rabbits

To 'go out for a drink' doesn't really exist in the French way of life and they seem completely mystified as to why you would want to go to a bar and just sit there and drink. That being said, when they get together it is usually a very boozy time. They just don't do it the same way as us.

Hi babes, sorry I've not being around, I picked up a nasty tummy bug from my dd and due to my crohn's meds which suppress my immune system I have been very, very poorly, this is the first day in a week I've managed to hold anything down (TMI), anyway I'm back and a lot thinner and tonight I will not be drinking!!! Love to all will catch up with everyone later, missed my wee gang x x x

Lonnie, please come back and let us know how you are.

I am sure your feelings have been hurt but please stay with us. You are an inspiration to many, especially me and I look forward to reading your posts.

It's a bit like a slimming magazine I guess, they put the people on the front cover who have lost all the weight - not the people who still need to - as the inspiration for others is seeing someone who has been there and done it all already and is feeling great for it.

We need you for that same reason but also we WANT you on the bus because of the person you are and ALSO should add - because the WW can strike at any time, we are here to support you should she come creeping up, ready to belt you round the head with a copy of Weight Watchers magazine and entice you to have a little drinkie.

Love Pink XX

Pink yes well said ! x L

Hi everyone
I have stook to my goal today of just one
Not sure where I will go from here x

Wow! Never meant to cause any offence and certainly never used the word "smug".
Was trying to encourage a struggling babe by making the point that when you are in darkness, someone else shining brightly can make the darkness seem even darker in comparison.
A humble well done to those who are racking up the days and apologies to anyone whose delicate sensibilities are bruised.