I’m thoroughly enjoying listening to The Sober Diaries by Claire Pooley while getting ready each morning or any other free time I find in my days (not much). I love an audiobook. I love how you can choose to sit and enjoy in peace or continue to listen while getting other stuff done at the same time and feeling a boss at multitasking while doing so.
The book was originally a series of blog posts by Claire who decided to go teetotal after realising quite how much alcohol she consumed daily and how much it was beginning to take over her life. Full of detailed research but also tremendous wit, Claire takes you through the stages of her noticing that things were getting bad and then her time without any drink at all.
She humorously tells stories of hiding the left-over bottle of red in the back of the cupboard away from the children and then fancying a tipple at 11am on a Sunday so using a mug to disguise the booze. She also discusses her denial about having a problem due to choosing classy drinks such as Chablis and declaring herself a connoisseur rather than a lush.
As well as these hilarious tales, Claire also shows thorough research into the topic of alcohol such as why ‘hair of the dog’ is called ‘hair of the dog’ and how drinking through a hangover seems to help with the logic that they use ethanol to cure ethanol poisoning. She also tells of body parts which are harmed by excessive alcohol consumption and how dangerous it can be to your physical and mental health leading to liver disease, depression and many more things.
Despite being interested and aware, I tend to tune out to the negatives because I love my wine and feel in control of my drinking (mostly). It does make me force myself to remember the last day I had without any alcohol though and when my memory fails me I just pour another glass.
Joking aside, the book is a witty and insightful glimpse into how alcohol can take over and change your life, as well as a comment on how much our society relies upon it for a good time like any time at all. So on that note I decided to come up with times it is entirely acceptable to drink a whole bottle of wine.
As you can probably tell I haven’t taken the main message from Claire’s book on board and still enjoy many a tipple throughout the week. It’s OK to do this. It’s OK to go to a pub on a Friday night and if there are two of you sharing a bottle you’ll obviously make sure that you have a minimum of two bottles. That’s one each and it’s only fair. Around friends houses the same applies. The non-tight arsed among us will usually bring a bottle when invited around friends so it’d be rude not to finish it.
When you come home after a long working day and open a bottle then realise there’s nobody else home to share with you so you finish the entire thing, that’s fine, an evening is a long amount of time. A celebration (and there’s always a reason to celebrate) that too is a perfectly acceptable time to drink the bottle to yourself along with (I’d imagine) much, much more. Dutch courage for the dance floor or before meeting your new date, those reasons are also just fine.
However, when you find yourself having a bottle before 9am or hiding the contents of last nights leftovers at the back of the cupboard to consume early the next morning disguised in a mug, then maybe have a rethink.
I’m not there yet, so will most definitely enjoy some of the good stuff tonight – cheers!