New Year’s Resolution Number 1 – improve diet!
New Year's Resolution Number 2 – make time for real Laura time!
By way of
adhering to both of these resolutions, I made a rather extreme (by my
standards, anyway) decision at the beginning of the year. Every year I have
made an attempt to at least say ‘this year, I am going to take a break from
alcohol’, and every year I have failed to even say that sentence without an
overwhelming sense of doubt, let alone make it a reality. This year, however,
despite the reactions of my highly supportive friends (said with a slight hint
of sarcasm after mutual agreement that perhaps we could all support each other
in our endeavour, followed by shock and awe at the news this weekend that I am still standing by my word), I am
making a proper go of it!
Admittedly,
I did not start at the very beginning of January, as I had to see to the
alcohol store leftover from Christmas (there is still Gin hiding in the freezer
if anyone is looking for any) to avoid temptation! However, I have now survived
three weekends, substituting Cobra for pineapple juice, cocktails for Turkish
teas and red wine for cranberry! I’ve hardly dared to openly own up to my
choice to give up alcohol for fear of imminent failure (as I write this, I
worry that I sound rather like an alcoholic – as if the ring addiction wasn’t
enough!), but this weekend marked a significant achievement in the proceedings,
so I now know I am doing well.
Last
Saturday I awoke with the most atrocious headache. It was as though my body is
so used to my usual morning-after-the-night-before state that it decided to
give me that hungover feeling just so I wasn’t in danger of missing it too
much. Of course, I was less than impressed, but thankfully it cleared and a
most productive weekend followed. This weekend has been equally as productive
and although less adventurous, with the weather as it has been, it has been
quite nice to spend some time feeling cosy inside. Friday nights spent cleaning
to music bordering on an anti-social volume (I’m simply engaging in friendly
competition with the Portuguese folk music so loud from our downstairs
neighbours that I always feel convinced there must be a live band performing in
our kitchen) and/or doing an extravagant food shop have become something I
genuinely relish the thought of (old before my time?), and mean that Saturday
is not spent in comatose, but instead has the potential for productivity and
the outdoor element of making time for ‘real Laura time’ (when I want to
venture out, anyway)!
 |
| Friday night thriller. It's how I do. |
Last night
came my real test, as all the odds were against me;
I went out
for a friend’s birthday.
I went out
for a friend’s 30th
birthday.
I went out
for a friend’s 30th birthday
where I knew no one (Dutch courage had to instead come in the form of
over-enthusiastic violin playing detrimental to the living room before I left
the house, but that’s a-whole-nother story!!).
I went out
for a friends 30th
birthday where I knew no one and drinks were in a GIN BAR (gin is my favourite,
just for future reference when this is all over)!
The thing
is, I not only survived, I really enjoyed myself. Despite the genuine shock
expressed by the barman when I ordered a gin and tonic without the gin (he was shocked? Imagine how I must have
felt!), the fact that others have expressed admiration, and that I am feeling and
(I may be imagining this but) looking better in myself makes me feel like this
is totally worth it and I have a true respect for people who do this every year!
I won’t share what’s going on in the back of my mind right now, but we’ll see
how the land lies; the spoken aim is until Easter/my birthday.
And hey, I
had three sausages for my tea tonight. That’s an odd number. I still know how to have a good time!
