The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Driving Through A Sober Winter Wonderland.

[Mouseface]

Hello, I'm Mouse

Welcome to the Bus, he's called Gerald.... he takes us up and down and this wondrous land, searching high and low for Babes in need of some support, a warm place to sit and chat, and to have someone to listen to them.

So, grab a seat as we swing by your way. There's lots of hot drinks, food and fleeces, places to just be and places to sit around and chat if that's what you want.

We don't judge, because we've all be in your shoes, be they stilettos, wellies or crocs!...

We're just us, we're just honest and we just do what we can to help, if we can, when we can. Let's try and have a Merry Christmas without getting off our faces this year.

Here is the very first, emotional thread if you would like to see where this all started

And the last thread if you want to keep up!

Merry Christmas every one!

May the spirit of Christmases past take the train and not oor lovely wee bus jog on, hurtful memories. We are one, we stand shoulder to shoulder and support each other, so there.

May the ghosts of Christmas present help us stuff jabby holly up Saggy's awd arse so she can't sit beside us today and may the spirit of Christmas yet to come show us a beacon of hope, light and joy to guide us safely through the coming year.

Love to you all, you've got me through some tough times,

Have a lovely day, and baby? In my heart we are riding through glittering frosty fields, rosy cheeked and joyous. Joy is never very far away, you are soooo right. Sometimes we just have to lift up the corner of life and it's right there...

Xxxxx

Morning wry you're sounding a bit more yourself! xxx

Had a wonderful day so far. Hope you all have too!

Hey joey how are you lovely? Hope your day has been fab! Aww ma pleased ye've had a good 'un!

I'm on call today and tomorrow, but having a lovely day so far, my brother and his family are out, no leftovers at ours, my brother is the original locust/ hollow legged man..

I live for the day he develops a big old gut but it just hasn't happened.

If I sneak a cashew my arse grows an extra dimple in two seconds flat.
Little is in her element, small children drop quite a bit of food and she has skills to equal the Dysons. She has spent most of the day wagging.

Hope you've all had a wag on today Lovely Babes, catch ye later! Xx

Hey wry. Happy Christmas to you quine.
I have had some lovely gifts. The kids haven't fallen out, dinner was fine if a little stressed and we are now just chilling and getting ready to watch Miranda and then Downtown Abbey

Hmm, I didn't start drinking til 6pm but since then have sadly guzzled a fair bit. Have got a glass of water now. Tired of trying to control/justify/anticipate everything.

The first hour was nice - after that, not so much...

Merry Christmas babes, hope you've all had a good day.

Happy Christmas to you all. I haven't drunk but I have eaten far too much!

Hi babes, just popping into the bus to say hello to you all. I hope you've had a lovely Christmas. Or failing that, that you've survived!

Huge to those of you who have been going through hard times lately, especially lookingforhope and wry.

Baby, that was a beautiful post; you sound so strong.

I made it through my first sober Christmas since my teens. It felt a bit flat tbh and the day seemed long at points but now that the day is over and everyone is in bed I feel a calm descending.

I've actually gone 75 days now without a drink. Incredible. That said, I still frequently find life hard, which is partly why I haven't been checking in on the bus. (I'm around lurking in the shadows though!) I still wrestle with depression and anxiety, and I haven't quite got used to the fact that all my emotions even normal everyday emotions feel so raw and intense when I'm not using alcohol to take the edge off. In short, I'm still trying to find strategies for coping with life that don't involve binge eating or compulsive shopping or compulsive internet surfing AARGH!

Don't get me wrong though, I am SO much happier sober. The cravings that obsessed me in the beginning have massively decreased. I'm not living from drink to drink and constantly wondering in the back of my head when the next opportunity to sneak a bottle glass will be. It's very, very freeing. I go to several AA meetings a week and have found them an enormous help - I have a sponsor who is fabulous; she seems to know exactly when to be tough and when to be gentle or back away entirely. I feel very lucky in this respect because I know people have had vastly different experiences of AA. But for me, it's been a godsend. Like the bus.

So holiday love to all of you babes! xx

Me too ashtrayheart.

Morning all. Had a fair bit of wine yesterday but paced myself and feel fine. Might drag myself out for a walk later if I can be bothered. Still in bed at the mo.Ds has a stinking cold,dd2 working today (retail, it will be hell) and dd1 still in bed. Lazy household here.

Merry Christmas everyone (albeit a day late). Hope you all managed to achieve what you wanted to with your drinking yesterday (either abstinence or a reduction). I love having the two girls home from uni but it does make it hard to get on the computer to get on here!!

We were visiting friends today and I was in charge of all the puddings - was having a bit of a dilemma because all my favourite recipes seemed to be full of booze. There were several children attending as well as a couple of pregnant people so I adapted all my recipes - swapped Grand Marnier for clementine and ginger syrup, swapped Baileys Cream for condensed milk with toffee and vanilla flavouring, swamped cherry brandy for cherry and almond juice. They were the best puddings ever

Hoots wry how are you doing?

Fit like joey ma quine? Whatcha been up to? I'm fine Chucky egg, just chillin, watching Coronation Street poor Roy.

No alcohol has passed my lips, but several million calories have diet in the New Year...

Away to have to cheese on toast as a snack, I just can't help myself. Lakeland have discontinued me Lancashire Sauce cheese on toast just won't be the same. I'm going to nurse every last drop out o my bottle.

Sorry I have succumbed tonight after 10 weeks AF

But - damn no I should not put but

No excuses.

Hi babes. Big hugs to all of you doing well or not so well in the AF stakes. I am drinking but not too much. Had a nice Christmas, by our standards anyway. Gave in and had wankbadger's family over today, put on a rather nice spread if I say so myself. Had a nice time actually, though dd is being a bit challenging. Tweenager issues . Definitely need to diet in New Year. Thinking I will do Dry January, though as per last year may start on 5th and go through till February 5th.

Big hugs to you all xxxx

joey don't beat yourself up. You have done brilliantly and will do again.
hope glad you had a good time. I will join you in dry January I think. I managed about 10 days last year which was good going for me so I should really give it another try.
Fed up with the house looking like a tip now so it will be a run to the dump with all the paper and packaging today and a throwing out of leftovers.

OK babes - starting sober January early - going to be hard - but I know I can do it with the help from all of you on this bus x - have been drinking but sick of it x

I'm going for a full dry 2015! oh lovely babes.
The most important aspect of this alcoholic lark is that we are aware that there is an issue and everyone on this bus has those thoughts constantly at the back of their mind whether they're in the side car or not. To me that is a huge step in the right direction. Who cares if you're in the side car for weeks and months and years. What matters is that you are there at all. And not in total denial. So just dust yourselves off, keep posting, keep on keeping on. Xxx

just getting a seat!
keep it up

wry, my eye fell on that bit about you nursing every last drop from the bottle - then I realised you were referring to Lancashire sauce! I confess I've never been privileged to taste Lancashire sauce but I'm so sorry for your loss.

It's OK, joey, you have all those weeks of sobriety behind you (well done!) and you know you can do it again (board the bus for the long term) if you want to. I almost drank on Christmas day myself. It just felt so weird and wrong not starting the day off with the usual champagne breakfast.

I confess I'm kind of hating this time of year because it's my first sober Xmas and the people around me are drinking so much. Not DH, bless him, he's drunk far less than usual himself this Xmas. But it seems like every day we're at some event or other where streams of alcohol are flowing. I'm trying to just let it go and have a good time and generally I succeed but sometimes I get really grumpy. Another event tonight when we're meant to go round to someone's house and read a play together (it's a long story, but yes, my friends do geeky things like this!) and I'm not looking forward to doing a whole play reading sober. Especially since I'm usually the one jumping up every two minutes to look after DS2 while everyone else (DH included I'm afraid) sits around deeply engaged in conversation and getting progressively more sloshed. I feel like some moaning Minnie begrudging them their fun, but ugh. Just not looking forward to it. Never mind, rant over, it might turn out to be good fun after all.

Oh, and I haven't been getting to any AA meetings - there are lots of schedule changes over Xmas and I'm not sure TBH which meetings are still on. There's a good one tomorrow am that's definitely on though, so if I can make it till then I'll be OK. Never thought I would find myself saying, "I NEED a meeting", but here I am.

DS2 has turned the microphone from his new toy piano into a 'naughty baddie' and there is a big battle going on between the baddie microphone and a gang of Marvel superheroes.

Good luck to 70 and SoberSoc and everyone else going for a dry month or year! (And good luck to the sidecar babes as well obvs)

Thanks ma I did feel very guilty - as well as drinking, I also ate far too much and did feel a bit ill! I have to plan what to do tonight.

Did you manage to get your house looking back to normal? The aftermath is astonishing to behold...