DRY 5

[allhailqueenmab]

Starting this before the old one gets filled up!
this is the thread for the alcohol free.
Join us!

Yes Broken you're right! I'm really looking forward to the food too!

And the run sounds like a great idea, esp with that charity. I think these kind of things just get so lost when we drink. So easy to just pour another wine and kid ourselves we'll do yoga/go for a run/learn mindfulness techniques/take up Spanish tomorrow. And then tomorrow comes and you feel like crap.

I thought of some more Christmas bonuses:

SOBER internet present shopping. So when the parcels arrive I might actually have a clue what I bought and who they're for!

And also we have a pear tree so I've made chutney for presents this year ( obv I meant to last year but guess what, somehow or another I never quite got round to it...)

I'm thinking of doing a new year day run too There's one not far from us, so I may well do that. Waking up new years day hangover free is quite wonderful;!

Sydneysuze - can you get a partridge to put in your pear tree .

I wish I could run, I seem to know more ex-drinkers who run than anything else. Sadly I have a hip replacement (makes me sound soooooo old) so running is defo verboten. I am however getting really into my Pilates and personal training. And boy how much better are those without a hangover.

I've never done a sober Xmas since about 16. I was pregnant over only one (but nine months plus one day!) and still had about three glasses of wine over the day .

I'm really looking forward to it (mostly). I will be at my MILs and there will be A LOT of us stuffed into a relatively small house. This is troubling in that I find space is key to my sanity, plus it means I will be stuck in a small double with drunk and snorey DH. But am really looking forward to being present for the kids and I will try and get out for lots of walks.

The last time I as at MIL's for Xmas - about three years ago I was appallingly drunk. Urrgghhhhh.

Tonight I'm doing another sober first - hosting my book group. I moved it from a Friday to a Wednesday which I think will help. I don't have a problem serving booze to others so should be fine.

Hope everyone is doing ok.

Definitely I think you lose all motivation to do anything when you're drinking, which in turn makes you feel more trapped by it all. Yay we could do simultaneous smug photos on New Years Day with our medals on facebook Biggles

I would love to join a book group Haggis, did you set it up yourself? What book are you reading atm? Being nosey as I seem to have got away from reading lately.

Hi broken - no I didn't. I joined an existing one about 5 years ago. It's pretty easy to set one up though if you have even a couple of people interested. I like it because I read books I wouldn't normally read. This month we read "History of the Rain" by Niall Williams. I really liked it - though it's very Irish and I wonder if it would resonate so much with the non-Irish ??. I will find out tonight as rest of book gp is English ....

Morning all!
eggshells What a brilliant idea!! I'd love to do that but it's DD's birthday that day
sydney Xmas Day last year was the day that I went to bed most proud - jeez if you can survive that day without caving you've earned yourself your own sober bloody parade in my book
Haggis There does seem to be a high percentage of us ex drinkers that love the endorphin rush of running I agree! Grim running weather today though ....

Hi all, can I come and join you? I've been here before and lasted about 3 months before cracking on christmas day and then just watching what I drink (more like watching it increase!).
So here I am again, making the effort to kick it for good. I have more motivation this time, my father is a heavy drinker and is currently in hospital. We have been told his liver and kidneys are failing and shutting down, all down to alcohol. He is delusional and hallucinating and has between weeks and months left to live, at the ripe old age of 66.
Everyone bandies around how bad drinking is for your health but seeing someone in the state my dad is in has shocked me.
I don't ever want my girls to know I chose the drink over them.
I will do it this time, I feel so much better when I don't drink, I love the mental freedom it brings, I just don't know why I went back to it.....

Welcome miserableatwork I'm so sorry to hear about your father and this must be really tough for you all. Pull up a chair and a cuppa and I'm sure some of the others will be along to say hi too

Thanks Lucy, I found this group brilliant for keeping in the right frame of mind with other people who understand. Talking of tea its been at least an hour since my last cup so I'd better pop the kettle on!

Only found this group six months or so ago so don't think we've 'met' before. Pleased to meet you :)

And a hello from me Miserableatwork. All this talk of tea is making me thirsty; high time for a cuppa! Good to have you with us. It is doable, promise. You are in good company here.

HI miserable. So sorry to hear about your father. It's like smoking - you think you're invincible until (if you're anything like me and my group of old friends) hit your late 40's and early 50's and realise that those people you smoked with are actually dying from it :( We have known five people over the past ten years under 60 die of lung cancer. Cheery aren't I? Sorry

I'll get me coat...

Hi everyone! I have opted for some nice home made biccies with my cup of tea :)
Biggles, I sort of assumed as well that it can't be all that bad because everyone does it...err no, some people just have one and then stop!
I'm going to go back to the beginning of the thread and catch up!

Hi miserableatwork that's terrible news about your father, sorry to hear that. Must be very hard on yous as a family, I was the same, off it for six months and loving how I felt before temptation got the better of me. Able to control it for a while before it crept up again.

The book sounds interesting Haggis, might check it out once I finish this Iain Bankes book I've been trawling through for ages. Miss my kindle since it broke, hoping someone has picked up on my Christmas hints!

Went for my day out today and didn't enjoy myself as much as I normally would. Felt kind of flat. Was fed up at spending money drinking coffee when I wouldn't have cared about the money if it was wine. Still home sober so managed it.

Hi All

Welcome miserable and I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad. You must all be having a very tough time. My Granddad died of liver cancer. Time for us to stop that chain of misery being passed down to our children.

Haggis good luck at book club. That was one of my hurdles this summer, hosting a group of white wine swilling ladies at mine for book club on one of the hottest nights of the year. We sat out in the garden and it was one of those evenings I'd been really worried I'd want a drink. I guess I had the odd craving but they passed and I felt quite pleased I'd passed another milestone. Plus you can properly talk about the book if you're not pissed. Who knew that book club could actually be about the book?? Good luck and I bet it'll be great. Put the bottles in front of the usual suspects and let them serve everyone so you don't have to.

A partridge in the tree would be great although it does lean quite alarmingly and absolutely everyone round here has cats so might be quite eventful...

Hi Broken cross posts. I think it's awful when we feel a bit 'meh' because it's such a trigger, but I always try and remember that however crap I'm feeling it'd be even worse if I was drinking.

Off to eat before shouting happily at The FecklessIdiots Apprentice and thanking my stars I've never had to work with anyone that dreadful

hi all - sorry I've been AWOl - but - I have been busy sorting out our family holiday to Florida next year xx. Soooooo excited - def worth being sober for x

Well done for managing it, Broken. I think it's normal to feel a bit flat sometimes. Maybe it's just unrealistic to expect life to be brilliant all the time now we're sober. There are some small bits that feel less 'fun'. But it's the old thing of - what would the day REALLY have turned into and how fun would it have been…. Key thing is - you did it. And you'll wake up tomorrow feeling pleased and able to face the day better. I am having to do some work now .The idea that I would have been even conscious capable of doing anything remotely productive at this time of night in the old days is just laughable...

Yes also I did think on when they were having the fourth drink or so that it wouldn't be enough for me and I'd be the one saying lets stay out rather than being sensible knowing I had to get home and get the dc sorted for bed. How Id have to pick up a bottle or two of wine on the way home, putting the kids to bed pissed, waking up with an iffy stomach and that paranoia of a heaviness where my liver is, anxiety and bitter disappointment in myself this morning.

Dd had me up a few times coughing and gagging because of it so very glad I didn't as I would probably would have been less than patient. Relieved is the overall feeling. Today is a new day.

broken you describe the reality of what would have been very well. I would have been similar... everyone else having a few but then able to put a lid on it, me having had my FUCK IT button well and truly pressed and wanting to carry on. Sometimes I would have just had more than everyone else whilst there and resisted the urge to get more on the way home, but sometimes not. I just love the fact now that the lovely blokeys who work in my corner shop (and who know that I'm a recent single parent) don't get to see me stumbling into the shop on occasion and insouciantly buying an overpriced bottle of Oyster Bay in the dim hope that they'll be convinced that just because it's £10.99 (rather than the £5.99 ones I should have bought because I have no money at the moment!) bottle, I Definitely Do Not Have A Problem.

Well done eggshells that was a tough day and you got through it. I'd have felt exactly the same on the day but be pleased as punch the following morning - so hope that's how you're feeling now :)
Always fancied being part of a book group but not happened so far - Haggis you'll be great for sure lovely :)
70 wow that's a great sober reward - dead jealous! :)
Lots of smiles this morning - a happy' sober day to you all!

Coincidence Haggis - I'm hosting my book club this month too. I chose "Fathomless Riches - From Popstar to Pulpit" by Rev. Richard Coles. Bit of light reading regarding drugs, debauchery, right through to... the Anglican Church. Most Christmassy :) I'd better get on and bloody read the thing...

God Teapot that was SO me stumbling half cut into local corner shop and trying to carry off vaguely 'together' image while buying overpriced Oyster Bay on the way home. They must have been laughing at me. Or pitying me - some pathetic drunk middle-aged woman. Just horrendous to think about it now…..

No one is saying it's always easy, but my God it's a lot better than that….. Happy sober day all!

Also we used to live across the road from said corner shop and would pad across in our pj's and socks for more stocks of overpriced battery acid wine as we'd drunk it all already thinking we were being terribly rock and roll
Urghhh .....
Teapot hope your book club goes well too :)

Ahh yes the Oyster Bay merlot purchases rather than the two for a tenner as if to shout I soo do not have a drinking problem see!

How did I miss your Florida trip 70, very jealous. It's on my (hopefully) to do list when the dc get older. I loved it as a teenager.

Well I was all calm and centred, trying to be mindful and ended up going absolutely ballistic at ds tonight. Big fat fail at inner peace He has been pushing my buttons rightly all week, so so cheeky and when I tell him off he takes it out on his little sister. Shoved her off the sofa in bad temper and I lost the bap so I did, channelling Jim McDonald here I know its a case of pushing boundaries but he is so bloody tiresome at the minute. Enough moaning

How'd the book group go Haggis?