The Sober Life

  Anyone who has watched Star Trek will know you can’t have your deflector shield on all the time as it will pull too much power from the main engine. Superheroes can’t keep force fields on for long as it weakens them. A castle’s ramparts will not withstand indefinite battering. The analogies go on and so it appears does urge to have a drink at Christmas. I had a drink on Christmas day. Dun dun dun der. I feel a little blasé about it now but at the time it was a defeat of sorts. I have no one to blame but myself and my overconfidence. If I had given up Alcohol because I was an Alcoholic it may be a different story. I may still be pissed right now but I gave up alcohol to seek and lead a better life for myself and those around me. I knew there would be pressures leading up to Christmas. This year there were less than normal. We were pretty much trapped in our houses and there was no Christmas party at work. However it is still the season of ethanol excuse engines, we even encou...

noun singular proper noun: Jib A little known alleyway or pathway that connects two existing routes. Limited commonality as it is only known and shared by a few.  To move in the most efficient manner through a busy city.              e.g. Let’s take the Jib behind Waterstones verb Verb: To jib,  e.g. “Hang fire I’m jibbing all the way” Origin Late 1980’s The Bradshaw Brothers       The bus heaved itself around the corner of Portland Street on its way to Piccadilly bus station in the cold late morning of Christmas Eve 1988.  It was laden with an elite squadron of lost souls primed to attack their town armed with the last paycheck before the big day. There was only one mission, to find something, buy it,  wrap it and stick it under the tree at home then allow some spurious bastard called Santa Claws to take all the credit. Looking through the poorly scribbled happy faces on an upstairs window of...

                                             “I knew have should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque”  Bugs Bunny I guess we all know what triggers are. They are like the flush of feeling you get when you come across an old photo you haven’t seen for a while. You get lost for a split second and are transported into the past. It is the same for me but triggers don’t just hang around in draws. They ride on people’s voices, they surf on arguments, they explode in party poppers and resonate in the bells of celebrations. In themselves these shadows of former feelings do not offer a direct threat to my sobriety. The problem is when they remind me of previous reactions and responses, this can lead to a manifestation in the here and now. Old responses quickly excuse current actions and future projections.  I know I need to tune in as in the distance the alarm bells ...

So Long Bounty Bars Hello Drunk Tank. So awareness brings on a new focus. It feels like when you see one ant on the floor and then check again, refocus and it is in fact there is a ton of ants and they are everywhere. Alcohol is everywhere. It’s on TV, Instagram, Billboards, magazines and pictures of your mates on Facebook. Everyday there has been a Covid article on broadcast news where people are bemoaning the loss of an hour of drinking or an article about another pub that may be forced to close. No one wants redundancies and bless all those in hospitality at the moment. I am not a zealot that wants this all shut down because I “can’t enjoy myself anymore”, but all we are doing is underlining the pedaling of the last legal drug as the best thing any of us can think of doing.  I have personally found the pubs the safest places to be since the lifting of lockdown apart from my own home. You have to log in there; they keep you under control and for the most part and have been one of...