Wednesday

I'm saying this here, so it doesn't get lost - 

I don't care, or need to know, how much anyone drinks

Picture it, 23rd December 2018, I'm sitting in my parents house sipping a gin and tonic. I am sipping, certainly not enjoying because I don't like gin and I can't stand tonic water, I'm just drinking it because it's there and I've been offered it. 

But no-one else is drinking.

So I finally got round to doing the thing I should have done when I was a teenager, and I stopped. If I ever have to do that "what would you tell your 16 year old self" thing, mine is - just stop drinking.

I thank my lucky stars I gave up when I did, not for the weight loss, the better skin, better sleep, less anxiety or healthier bank balance, none of that happened unfortunately, but because 2020 happened and I absolutely dread to think how much I'd have consumed during lockdown. As it happens I lost weight, slept better, felt less anxious and saved money. 

The absolute worst thing about giving up was how easy it was. Not so much the conversations with people who were shocked and asked why, to which I always replied "we have met haven't we". Or the fear certain people had that I'd be boring, come off it, I'm always boring, I'm now just not ridiculous to go with it.  Obviously those people weren't actually concerned about the quality of my social life, they were concerned how it reflected on them, my actual friends were just relieved. I was laughed at once by the landlord of a pub when I asked if they had anything alcohol free, and I had a comment at the football when they introduced AF drinks where the guy at the bar assumed it was for kids and didn't think adults would admit to buying it.

Had I known it would be so easy I might have done it years ago.