The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Shaping Up For A Super, Sober Summer!

[Mouseface]

Hey, I'm Mouse

This is 'Gerald', our trustworthy, non judgemental Bus, full of a variety of posters who have travelled long and far, or even just joined us a few stops ago.

This is a place where you can be who YOU want to be. 24/7, 365. This lovely place is just like your best friend, there's no slagging off, no judging, just us.

Drinking or not, embarrassed, fed up of the way things are, or just lonely of living the way drinking makes you do, come and take a peek and see what you think.....

THIS THE LAST THREAD WE HAD

AND THIS IS WHERE THE BUS WAS BUILT, WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

We can't wait to meet you, we won't bite! Well, unless you ask very nicely.

Take good care until we see you. :) xx

Marfisa what a lovely post and AMAZING 8 MONTHS that is FABULOUS Babe you are doing really really well. It's so good to hear from you Please keep posting on the bus as it really helps and encourages us all. Thank you for your inspiration.

Hope so so pleased that you stayed sober, excellent news, so good to have the upper hand

Ma hugs to you x

I've got that 'Monday I've got to got to work feeling' Urgh!!! Had a fitful sleep worrying about stuff but nothing in particular. DD1 calculator paper today (Nuff and Hands hope it's ok for your DC)

Meh onward I will go, hangover free, always tired, forcing a smile, head up, norks out (not that I really have any!!!)

Have a good day all

Morning ladies Day 8 here! I've gone a whole week AF . None of my family or friends would understand what a big deal that is for me but I'm feeling ridiculously proud of myself. The hangover free zumba class was fab!

Marfisa 8 months! Congratulations . It's so encouraging to hear you can go days without even thinking about alcohol because I'm still really struggling with cravings. I've taken to drinking pepsi max in the early evenings which I know is really bad for you but sparkling water just doesn't seem to hit the spot. I need to cut down on chocolate as well because I can feel the pounds piling back on.

Spanna good luck to your DD today. Maths is DS's strong subject. I just hope he hasn't been complacent and has put enough work in.

Hope do you have to be really fit to do spinning? I'd love to give it a try but am worried I won't keep up with everyone else and will collapse in a heap at the end of the class.! Well done on your AF night out. I don't know whether I could manage that just yet.

Sorry not to nc everybody. Need to do school run. Have a wonderful day babes xx

Can I join please, I made an absolute twat of myself last night and haven't made it to work today . I'm lying in bed crying.

I have to stop drinking.

Are you ok stillstaying? You've definitely come to the right place. Whatever you did last night we've all been there and know exactly what you're going through. Hugs xx

Hello bus babes, I'm waiting at the next bus stop to get back on. Funny where 6 months goes, time to face reality and give up the drink so stocking up on green opal fruits for you lovely lot so you've the energy to put up with my ramblings.

Thanks Hands I feel utterly pathetic .

I have to face up to the fact I'm on the slippery slope to addiction, sad but true.

Well it looks like I'm back on board then! Cheers isinde!

Hello my darling Babes,

Welcome to the new Babes!

Hope everyone is hanging in there today.

Day 2 here. Very unwisely had a bottle plus some on Saturday because my neighbour friend was told she probably has cancer but still would not stop drinking and as is always the case, no excuse like impending death/unemployent/whatever, to justify a bottle.
And I had not yet fully recovered.

Happy Monday!

welcome stillstaying and welcome back to popcorn

hands you are doing brilliantly. Well jel!

Hey isinde how are you doing? ma is obviously 'busy' sorting out her soldiers this afternoon

at indie and makes note of second option as business idea. I have already discussed something similar along the lines of "castling" (like dogging but more mediaeval) with a very funny and rather naughty senior officer at an event one evening. Everyone wondered what we were laughing at.
But, keep guessing. It is a genuine business idea and it does involve soldiers....and sailors....and airmen!

Indie you've cheered me up beyond measure - thank you! Ma - castling, love it . I have a nagging, nasty feeling that my entire evening will be taken up with pondering breaching ramparts and the like, whilst speculating on Ma's Great Idea.

Hands, before the tone gets irredeemably lowered - Well Done You on your 8 days. That is a massive achievement and you should be justifiably proud. You sound like you are approaching all this so sensibly - just don't let your guard down (or you never know, one of Ma's Men may come poking around with a lance or something).

Gonna be a long night, I can feel it..

A lovely,lovely hug a handsome man in uniform scheme? count me in

Umm...my minds boggling a bit ma

I know - Kiss a sailor in a 'kiss me quick' hat- has to be!

I made my wobbly way back to work today. Did those kids have the slightest respect for their ill supply teacher? did they feck!

marfisa I though that was a really profound and sober post. It reminds me of all the good things about aa- they way it works like therapy and helps you to rid yourself of the gremlins behind the drinking. Wonderful news- well done

Welcome to all new babes ,you will never regret not drinking.

ramparts breaching tee hee!

Apologies hands well done on your excellent achievement. ignore ma and her filthy ways with uniformed men

We thought up good tag lines for our castling business:
Rogering on the ramparts was one. It was quite surreal. A very very senior officer bedecked in medals with an even filthier mind than I have..... Every so often someone would come up to talk to him and he would be super polite and efficient, then when they went away he would come up with an even more rude suggestion involving more double entendres than you could shake a stick at! Very funny......but not the current business idea...
On an aside, tomorrow I am giving a workshop to 15 officers. Dirty job, but someone has to do it.....

Ma Giving a workout to 15 officers Oh Workshop wrong glasses

Isinde thanks Babe x I had a good laugh reading your guesses, thank you for cheering me soul lovely.

Welcome back Popcorn glad to have you back on board

Welcome Still hope you're feeling better

Guggs glad you're feeling better. You will never regret not drinking - Thank you, such wise words

Hands hope you've had a good day and DS did well Maths is DD1 worst subject, fingers crossed that she passes (English is her thing) You are doing really well babe, keep going, one day at a time, it does get easier I promise x

Fox hello you I feel the pain of the long evening ahead. I'm completely shagged out. I've watched all the Housewives, Millionaire matchmaker I can stomach over the passed few weeks (Very high brow don't you know) I have lots of very practical jobs I could be doing around the flat but NO I've worked all day on my feet and I really don't want to do chores Verbal spillage over So tell, how was your trip, it's always nice to be home again. I hope you have a good evening lovely, look at us Sober Babes

Khalisi Hello darling, come and sit next to me and have some of these opal fruits that I've just found. Always good to have you aboard

Hope how are you? One week, come on babe you can do Dry June, I'll hold your hand and feed you lovely sweet things, hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, and yummy smoothies after your spinning class It feels quite empowering being sober, I think I'm beginning to realise this.

My eyes hurt, see you later on lovely Babes

Hi there, thanks for the welcoming messages.

Day 1 of sobriety over, I don't want to start drinking again but I know it's going to be really really hard going.

Hey Still congratulations. Day 1 is the hardest (for me anyway) so well done xxxx Stay on the bus for lots of support. In bed and half asleep so not read back but just wanted to note your achievement today and say welcome . Will message the rest of you crazy lot tomorrow xxxx

Thanks for the lovely words, spanna! Hope your Monday went well.

Hands, bravissima on your day 8, and yes, it definitely gets easier. Much, much easier! If I had had to struggle every day the way I did in the early days, I never would have got this far. At the start it also felt incredibly strange to be surrounded by other people drinking and not drinking myself. Now it just feels normal.

Stillstaying, hurrah for your day 1! That's brilliant.

Welcome back Popcorn.

Khalisi so sorry to hear about your neighbour.

Ma and Isinde, you're hilarious. Ma, good luck with your 15 officers tomorrow. I'm sure you'll have them all eating out of your hand.

Thanks so much for the support, guggenheim, and yes, AA at its best is definitely like therapy! A lot of the language involved in 'working' the 12 steps is crazy religious, so I do a LOT of metaphorical interpretation. My sponsor is in the NA fellowship as well and I have found that I vastly prefer the NA literature, because everything is phrased in more modern terms. For instance, I'm now working on step 7, where you "humbly ask God to remove your shortcomings". Which sounds uncomfortably retro and to me conjures up unhelpful associations of Biblical sin. But the NA step 7 prayer says, 'Grant me the freedom to live beyond the limitations of my past ways.' That totally works for me -- thinking about the things that have limited me in the past (lack of self-esteem, procrastination, fear and so on) and consciously thinking about how much better my life could be if I could put some of those limitations aside at least some of the time.

I also read somewhere that AA was originally very much conceived for men, because it's all about crushing the ego and replacing arrogance with humility. But in the case of women, most of us don't really need much ego-crushing - our egos are badly damaged already! So what we need is a view of self that doesn't make us envision ourselves as either the worse people ever or the best people ever, but simply as human, with strong points and weak points. That is simple but I find it quite comforting.

On a less sublime level, I seem to have just consumed most of a container of M&S mini teacakes. Oops.

G'night Hope. xx

Good Morning lovely Brave Babes

Ma enjoy the 15 men

Still Yay well done lovely I'm up for hand holding this evening if you need it

Hope Day 9

Hands keep going darling, have a good day x

Isinde have a lovely day honey x

Pay day today (not that it's much) I can go shopping for lovely drinks and food after work I'm becoming very familiar with the food isles in M&S Guggs we don't have a Waitrose near us, snot posh enough down 'ere I hope those little buggers are kinder to you today

Right must dash have a meeting about some missing macaroons on DD2 school trip.....the plot thickens yet we all know who nicked them! Why did I agree to be there at 8.30am

Love to you all, have a good day folks

Spanna - the case of the missing macaroons? That is so mysterious - do tell! What did you do yesterday eve, in the end? Worthy tasks or crap tv? Have to confess I just went to bed - I could still sleep for England, several months into sobriety. Odd, but nice - tho I can't help feeling there are more exciting things I could be doing. I love being sober with you, lovely babe, and always look forward to finding out what you're up to. Have you thought any more about the future, whether you're going to try moderation or stay dry? Have a lovely day, anyway xx

Ma, I had very odd dreams last night and I blame you . That's all I'm saying.

On way to work so am on phone and can't NC back, but well done to all those in their first weeks - so, so hard to do and it sounds like you are all doing amazingly. Keep posting!

Have good days, all.