The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Soaking Up The Warm Sunshine, Instead Of The Warm White Wine!

[Mouseface]

Hi, I'm Mouse :)

Welcome to The Brave Babes Battle Bus.

A place for pouring out your heart without being judged, mostly because a lot of us have been exactly where you are right now, or somewhere similar.

We've been around for a while, so there's not much that we've not seen..... or heard.... or been through ourselves.

Some of the Babes are newer to the Bus, some of the Babes have been here on dear old "Gerald" (The name this Bus was given by one of the Babes, I forget who now!I suspect IsinDe or Silver) for a little while longer!

EVERYONE is welcome here. Drinkers, those who are complete non drinkers, and those who are somewhere in the middle of all of the above. :)

Some Babes are in control of their drinking, some not so much. It's dreadfully hard some days, days when there is nothing going around your head except thinking that you MUST have a drink and you sit there trying to work out when, what time you can have that first mouthful of ice cold poison.

Whatever your goal here, or why you're here, we'll all help you along the way, YOUR WAY.

There will be one of us on here that can relate to your life story as if it were a mirror they were looking at, someone to hold your hand if you want it, catch you if you fall, which you may or may not. Positive thinking, just One Day At A Time.

No one Babe is better than any other, we've all been addicts. We've all suffered, yes some more than others but it's not a competition (and no-one gets turned away) but if you rack up shed loads of sober days, you will be a winner on the thread!!

So, if you want somewhere safe to sit and enjoy the warming summer sun, come find a seat, have a chat or just sit and listen to the rest of us yakking on!!

Nice to meet you :) all.

Also, here is the latest thread -

THE LATEST THREAD WE'VE SHARED OUR STORIES AND EXPERIENCES ON

And this is the very first thread -

AND THIS THREAD, THIS THREAD IS EXTREMELY SPECIAL BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE THE JOURNEY STARTED, AND HAS SINCE EVOLVED OVER THE LAST SIX YEARS

Hope to chat soon, Mousey x

Great idea Kumanon :) we are the same age and your experience is pretty similar to mine. I stopped for 5 months and had just the one...just the one was enough to mess it all up !

5 months is fantastic though Foof (if I can call you that?) - good for you for getting back on it now.

I've just come out of the first meeting of the new social committee at work. Planning regular Pay Day drinks for the department is an odd way to spend Day One. I will need to get used to the idea of being sober on work nights out.

welcome to you too foof. Great user name by the way
Quite a few of us on Day 1 today. The more the merrier

Just a quick update - these things are never as bad as you imagine they are going to be when you have the heebie jeebies! 1:1 was fine, and in fact reminded me why I love working where I am so much. Onwards & upwards. will catch up proper when I get home, but welcome to the new babes

Afternoon all [throws in fresh bag of green opal fruits as ticket], I'm back again on day one but with a renewed kick up the arse as the dreaded comment to watch what I drink from a medical professional has (finally) come. I've really known for a while but now the words have been said I have to listen says person who left hospital and drank bottle of wine so I really need to stop getting off the bus now, if someone could tie a knot in my seatbelt that would be awesome!

What phone apps to people use to help stop?

join us on day one. Its not even 4pm and I'm thinking about drinking - or not drinking - tonight. bloody hell, when did it get this bad?

Ok - on the bus home, this is the tough bit, but I am NOT stopping for wine.

I've bought a mindfulness colouring book to distract me. At home I've got posh soft drinks ready to go.

TODAY I WILL NOT DRINK.

Hello babes stop. I am sorry if this doesn't make sense as I am using the dictation tool on The iPad.

So much for my resolve to not drink until my birthday the last few days have been hard and unfortunately my husband keeps offering to buy wine. Today I had a major parenting fail and now my daughter is furious with me. I have apologised but there is no fury like a teenager who has been wronged!

Welcome to the new posters. I hope everyone else is managing to stay strong.

Home now, hungry and tired and there is some cold white wine in the fridge left over from yesterday. .....
4 hours till bedtime. Grits teeth.

Well, the wine witch got her butt roundly thwacked at lunch time, and at 3:30 - blood sugars, innit? Lunch time was only a passing whisper, followed by a noticeable dip in the sugar levels, 3:30 (when I'm starting to think about going home, even though I've got hours to go!) was boinked over the noggin with some sweets.
I had to stop off at a supermarket on the way home, so decided on the one fairly close to work, as I wouldn't much fancy lugging beer up the hill home. It also had the advantage of not pre-chilling the beers & wines, so I'd have had to wait to cool it down when I got home.

The 3:30 whisper was pretty scary though - even though I knew it was on its' way, as I've spotted the pattern before. When I get more on top of this proper, I'll switch from refined sugars to more natural ones, like the ones which are in my breakfast bars (honey, figs & dates), but for the time being, I'll stick with the fast acting stuff.

How's everyone doing this evening? Ma - has that bottle stopped whispering at you? kumamon - you home safe?

Gotta dash - the cat ping pong has started - DCat1 is yodelling in the back of the flat!

Welcome kumamon and foof!

I am not drinking tonight. The wine witch can do one.

Good luck all!

How are we all doing? I have roasted yet another chicken that wouldn't fucking cook, and am a bit meh. I think it's the let down of the chicken, coupled with waiting to put DP's spuds on. That is not a euphamism.

Failed. . Drank the remainder of the white. One glass (large). Weirdly it seemed to scratch the itch and I had no desire to buy more or open the red in the kitchen. But still a fail.
Sorry babes.

ma nothing on ere is a failure - nothing EVER (and you would be the first to tell that to other people). Everything on this thread is an 'experiment' - it is a test in seeing what works and what doesn't, an opportunity to examine how you feel and how you behave. So what can your 'experiment' of today tell you - perhaps that having open wine in the fridge, all cool and glassy and scrumptious, is going to be very tempting, and tempting beyond control. And maybe it also tells you that one glass - one single (large) glass - can be enough. It can be OK. You didn't rush to open the next bottle.

There is no need for conclusive proof, just observe, and notice and accept, and DON'T JUDGE. You know that one day, when the time is right, and all other irritations are gone, you will be able to use all the observations that you have made, and life will be good. It will.

ma I am with you in the sidecar of shame. But as the lovely Venus said it is not a failure, and anyway i've had more than you stop

New. Paragraph stop

And fantastic post from Venus as usual.

I have betrayed my doctor know

My daughter.

She said she feels betrayed pointy bracket

But she is a teenager, and everything is drama with a capital T. Stop

alias I think your iPad voice thingy is getting better at your accent! Am having worries about a holiday that was planned months ago due to happen in September. The issue is not so much the booze - although it was certainly planned to be a super boozy one, more to do with the expense. DP has managed to break the bedstead (it was cheap and he's a lump), which could do with replacing, we've got a wedding to save for, and we're scratching around for pennies at the moment until I get paid. Grrr!
I can't really justify the expense, whereas he says we deserve a holiday. Granted, he's not had any major time off in ages, and does deserve a break, but a week abroad, eating & drinking out all the time is not something I think we can justify right now.
I know that if I can keep on the straight & narrow, the first week after payday won't be turning into a spend-fest like it normally does (he can't budget for toffee, and when I'm pissed, I end up subsidising & encouraging him), so we'll be able to reign in the spending, probably enough to buy a new bedstead, but I'm really struggling with his plan to spend what's in our wedding kitty on the holiday, when in reality it'll only cover the travel & hotel costs.

I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet sooner rather than later, as I'm really uncomfortable about the already small kitty being used. His justification is that come October-ish he'll be on a better salary, so will be able to put lots back into the kitty, but that's not concrete, by any means. Also, I'm really uncomfortable about the idea of going away for a week with the sole intention of drinking every night. Or being the only one who isn't, and has to spend the week looking after everyone - a few of them come with more than their fair share of drama, which certainly gets amplified once a few beers have been sunk.

Sorry for the ramble - I've been up since 4:30, and this has been playing on my mind for a while now.

thanks venus and all. you guys always say the right things -I can't imagine venus being so common as to drop an "h"
joey your ipad thingy writing the punctuation marks really makes me laugh - exclamation mark. You haven't betrayed your daughter or your doctor, today is another day.
star that's a tricky one. We have had to abandon any plans for a holiday this year and its even worse if you had one planned and are looking forward to it. The lovely DCS saved up and gave DH and I £250 of Ryan Air voucher last Christmas so we could get cheap flights somewhere and have a break. We haven't used them yet because I have to add in the cost of somewhere to stay and food/drink etc but we need to use them or they will be so offended. Only got until the end of the year.......

Hello all (I'll get used to calling you all Babes soon, but I'm still feeling all shy and formal)

Star - thank you for asking after me. I did get home safely without stopping for wine and am now on Day 2.

My tactics last night were several glasses of tonic with lots of ice, lemon and lime (surprised how well that worked), chai tea and biscuits after dinner, and my new colouring book. It is all Art Deco pics and really calming to do.

Today I have done definitely more work than I normally would have by this point. So that feels good. Right now all is well.

Star your holiday does sounds tricky. Sorry if I'm asking you to cover old ground, but how supportive is your DP of you not drinking? Does he understand that this would be difficult for you?

And Foof how are you?

Afternoon, day 2 here, my usual nemesis and worse as I'm off tomorrow so head goes on holiday mode (even though it's very much not!), wine witch needs a kick today.

Well done ma, I would have walked to the shop for more wine, I can't do 'just one' (or two for that matter ).

Think I'm going to be in the sidecar tonight. chatting with DP about my holiday concerns has uncovered a much worse financial situation than expected. I'm not going to ltb over it, but I will be sorting it out since he's playing "la la la I'm not listening" with his current situation. I am a little tired of being the grownup in this relationship. we're in our 40s ffs.