The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Braving The Wine Witch & Her Alcohol Free Autumn

[Mouseface]

Hello

I’m Mouse one of the Brave Babes who ride on this wonderful Bus, called Gerald, along with all the Opal Fruits wrappers and of course Barry The squid.

We all have a wise variety of life experiences and experiences with alcohol too. We’re not admirers of hang overs and we certainly don’t do judgey pants!

We’re here to ride along with you, when life is pants but also when it’s not as well and you my want to celebrate that bit too much!

So find a seat and come take a ride. I’ll link the previous and also the very first link and the reason we’re all here.

*Mouse

Happy 2018 everyone.

I only had one glass of wine and an inch of vodka last night so still have two large glasses of very expensive wine left in a bottle. I can't decide whether to tip it down the sink or whether to have a glass tonight and tomorrow night so that I can get to sleep?

Gosh I really do not want to go back to work tomorrow. I mainly love my job but it is incredibly stressful and very responsible and grown up. Like cupcakes I would like a job nearer home and with less travelling really. First things first though eh?

I went to Tesco and got lots of good food. Am treating myself to a bowlful of ready brek with blueberries for lunch Also bought some Becks Blue as someone mentioned it upthread, and a Belvoir elderberry thing.

I intend to pamper myself when I would be drinking. Also hoping to get the tree and decs down today.

Oh, one other thing - yorkshire your name made me think to get some good quality (Yorkshire) decaff teabags so that I can have a cup of tea near bedtime without worrying about adding to my insomnia.

I hate those first few days of not just passing out through alcohol but I know it will pass.

Also bought some Senna as I know I will need that too....

Bernie if you can find it and enjoy quietly brilliant independent films, try The Station Agent, Peter Dinklage at his pre-GoT, pre Elf best.

Rothbury - Yorkshire Tea actually do a bedtime brew which has herbs and stuff in it to help you sleep. It’s not too bad. I’ve just found the whole Grey’s Anatomy back catalogue on Amazon Prime which is going to help me through any sleepless nights.

Morning Bear - give it a couple of weeks and we'll be sleeping much better.

I've just arrived back in London ready for work tomorrow (we both have jobs that require us to be in town but we don't live here when not working). I must say I am feeling considerably chirpier than if I'd had a hangover.

It's grey and raining and I look like an enormous whale, but I'm sober :). Normally upon arrival back into the big smoke we would recently have gone down the pub to ease ourselves back in - instead I'm in bed with MN, Dawsons Creek and glass of San Pellegrino & lime.

Afternoon rothbury - missed your post just now! I also have a stressful and v responsible job that comes with an amount of travelling. I know exactly how you feel. I detest Sunday PM arriving back in London for the sole purpose of a week of work ahead.

If you think you can stick to just the two glasses to finish the bottle then I'd be tempted to say to go with your plan of not going cold turkey - otherwise you'll be awake for half of tonight with the Sunday dread + the DTs.

Thanks twattage I think I can just finish this bottle as don't have anything else other than some leftover Baileys which has about 7 million calories a centilitre so I won't go anywhere near that.

I will think about it later - see how I feel.

Great idea about the tea yorkshire thanks. I have just remembered that Camomile tea sends me straight off!!

Omg I've just weighed myself and lager has made me gain 10lbs. Twattage you are right in not bothering until the end of January. I should've done that too! I was thinking of buying Becks blue for the weekend but I think I'll have to stick with tea now.

Oh dear bakingcupcakes - bad times :(. However by end of Jan off the booze we'll be feeling much better.

I have just had a good look at myself in my 'thin mirror' which is my full length in London (as opposed to the 'fat mirror' at my other place). I look enormous in the thin mirror - I'm not going anywhere near the scales until the morning of 25 Jan when I'm off on hols.

According to my WW journal I was 10'13 on 8 December so if I could be there or slightly below that would be a good result and will mean I won't go on holiday feeling too bad.

keeping busy. tree and decorations down and have been using up food as part of my war on waste. So the wrinkled tomatoes are now part of a roasted pepper and tomato soup, and the shrivelled apples are currently transforming themselves into a spiced apple cake. smells good!

DS(15) was "helping" with the cake ie getting in the way but made me laugh when I put it in the oven saying "in she goes", and he responded with "how very genderist of you. What gives you the right to determine the cake's gender? This isn't 2017 mum, it can identify however it wants!"..

Happy New Year babes. I have succumbed as ever to Christmas and Nee Year blues. It has been a hard month and am lying on the couch feeling self pitying. This time of year absolutely kills me. Dry January beckons. Sending you all love and.will try to check in more in 2018. I need to stop for good. Moderating is too hard and drinking increasingly makes me feel mental.

Study tidied and vacuumed (first time I have been able to see the floor for months ); three black sacks of rubbish put in the garage for the tip - including one just of wires and leads for long-gone electronics, I made DH do that along with a promise to completely empty the study cupboard of the other four boxes of wires and electronics that have been there unopened for three years. Two pictures hung, so now to do a bit of French practice.

Well done Ma, that's the sort of thing my DS would say too .

The DJ app adds up the estimated calories from the average you set. Mine is almost 4,000 calories a week. It takes 3,500 excess calories to gain 1lb, so just cutting that will be 1lb a week, but once my blood sugar evens out, I tend to make better, smaller, food choices.

Can anyone advise re the DJ app - I went to do it but it asked for name etc. I don't want anyone to be able to find me on it for professional reasons. Does it display your name or email address?

TIA

Happy new year babes!
Tried to post earlier but failed
Dry Jan starts today for me. Emptied half a bottle of wine down the sink (it was a sweet, white dessert wine, which is not really my thing, so no great loss) this morning and put the small bottle of cognac in the back of a cupboard, where hopefully it will get forgotten. Gave the last of the beer to DS1, who is a very moderate drinker, as he left last night.
Mr Flowers decided he was 'stopping completely' on the 27th, and hasn't had a drop since. I'm very impressed. He really struggles with anxiety and insomnia when he doesn't drink. I'm hoping he gets past that soon. I have the opposite problem and sleep much more deeply and struggle to get out of bed in the morning.
Looking forward to no booze all month. Maybe I will want to carry on all year. I sort of hope so.

Rothbury have a look at the 'I'm Done Drinking' App - anonymous I think x

rothbury I tried to get into the DJ app yesterday and today and it just says 'cannot reach server'. Maybe it is overloaded! Am assuming if you just logged in with details rather than with FB account that it wouldn't show your name.

flowers - I would have thought Mr Flowers will only have that issue for a few days or a week...I always get it when i stop as well, but it does pass.

I did it! I did Hogmanay dry. How bloody boring it was too! I did manage to reach level 100 on Jewel Quest though.

Himself drunk a half bottle of whiskey and made a show of himself at the party, not in a good way, including slagging everyone off loudly there . He's got the fear in a big way as I drip feed more and more to him. Oh, and some of it was live streamed to Facebook. So yes, I'm feeling a bit smug that it wasn't me.

I've been dry since 26th December when I had my terrible moment. It's bloody hard. I almost poured a glass of wine earlier.

I will catch up with the thread in a bit. It's time to kill Christmas and pack in back in boxes.

well done mint.

The witching hour is here now for many of us. stay stong and stay hydrated with AF liquids

I’m sorry mint but that’s funny. Thank fuck Facebook didn’t exist back when I was a young’un. Hope your dh can see the funny side- maybe in a weeks time.

Big hello and love to all old babes and newer ones too. We can do this together.

I still feel a bit rough tbh so no problems staying off the booze tonight. I’ve put on a lot of weight in the past few weeks and that is definitely a wine belly. Sounds sexy,right? 🤫

Mint you should feel a little bit smug because you've done really well. When I was on the wine I used to make a fool of myself regularly, getting shit-faced, falling out with so many people, constant arguing - urgh the shame.

I'm on my third rooibos tea, I'm watching World's Strongest Man, and then I'm going to bed (work tomorrow).

guggenheim - yes I know the weighty issue :(.

Hello everyone, so good to see you Hope. You sound so down hon, but the worst is over and we can all return to some kind of normal this week. Keep checking in when you can.

My brother and my Dad are still here and still doing my head in, but I just park them in front of the football when I can and escape to my bedroom to read or MN. I’m reading a great book called “We Are Not Ourselves”, I definitely recommend it.

We had a big lunch at my brother-in-law’s today, but I am feeling so bloated and gassy from a week’s constant eating that the thought of booze was in no way tempting. I realized that me not drinking has taken the tension out of social occasions - it has made everyone more relaxed as that unpredictability of “what’s she going to say/do now?” has gone.

Doing sober NYE also made me realize how far away from being a “normal” drinker I was. My brother’s girlfriend is a normal drinker - she had a couple of beers and a glass of fizz at midnight. My Dad and my DH the same. I would have been the one opening bottle after bottle and pestering them all to keep up with me. I shudder at what a lush I was and how I was a lot more conspicuous than I realized.

Day 136. Today I will not be drinking.

margie on Christmas day I was shocked at how little my sil drunk. I'd always been too drunk to know so assumed she had had a bit less than me. But I had the same revelation.

I was in a whole world of denile I think!!

On my third cup of herbal tea and reading Catherine Grey's Unexpected Joy Of Being Sober. I can heartily recommend the book but the tea tastes like cat piss .

Evening all, Have made it through to 8pm despite lingering hangover from NYE. That in itself has strengthened my resolve as I promised myself I wouldn’t drink too much last night but of course did and spent all morning in bed, couldn’t face the walk I’d been looking forward to. Anyway have packed away all the Xmas decs and about to have a bath, still feeling a bit grim so will have an early night. BTW for anyone looking for a good bedtime tea, Pukka Teas range is really good - there’s one called Nighttime Tea which is quite drinkable and also if you have cats they go mad over the smell, same as catnip effect. Mine love playing with the empty packets!

Evening all!, somehow I've managed to drink 3 litres of fizzy water today! I'm so thirsty - is this normal?
Had a wobbly moment earlier around my "witching hour" which is about 530 but I didn't succumb but will plan to eat earlier from now on I think. Tonight I've shared a roast with my ds (I usually eat later than him so I have more time to drink) which was great and now my kitchen is clean and all dishes washed!
After reading DementedMas post earlier, I took down the tree and decs which is a great feeling.
Twattage the app was down today and they were hoping to be back up later today (could be back now)
Off to bed soon but hope everyones evening is going well x