What a clever plan, I thought, and away we went! First evening on holiday my mother-in-law pulls out this fancy and delicious sparkling apple juice from France. The label was all in French and everything. Yum yum. So far so good with my clever-post plan...I snapped a pic...
Next evening I was poured this delicious lemon, lime and bitters cordial mixed with lemonade. It's got bits of peel in it and everything. Great! Another snap taken. Took me about five goes to get this one for some reason. Hard with the phone in one hand and the drink in another. You can see my middle guy through the glass playing a ukulele (arty me).
Um..... and then .. well .. that was it. I took no more photos for the rest of the week! I thought about taking more photos.. but the truth is I wasn't really having any 'alcohol-replacement' drinks. I kind of stopped bothering. Gone are the days when I have to have something in place of the wines at 5 o'clock. Most days I didn't have anything pre-dinner, and just took a glass of water to the dinner table.
And (I can't believe this) I hardly even notice other people drinking any more. I used to feel quite self-conscious when the booze came out and conspicuous in my not-drinking.. but now I hardly register it and if I do it's barely in passing. I certainly don't count the drinks other people are having like I used to. Sometimes I'll catch sight of a glass and think 'jeepers that's a big pour' but the thought passes by pretty quickly. I just don't really care.
HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT???!!!
I remember my sister telling me ages ago about a guy she knows who is many years sober and how he once told her 'I don't even notice other people drinking any more'. And I thought (skeptically) "Really? That can't be true." I just didn't believe that could happen. Well I think it's slowly happening to me. Hooray!
Just checked and I'm 683 days sober... this is proof should I ever need it that the longer I live sober, the easier it gets. It just gets easier (even when I'm bloody stressed with loads of stuff going down and not sleeping very well but I won't bother going into details about all of that!).
Love, Mrs D xxx
