Minor victories

I feel as if I chalked up some minor victories this weekend. It was the first really hot weekend of the year, here in the damp dismal UK and I got caught up in the two most popular activities of such a weekend. 1) Gardening 2) BBQs. Both activites are long associated with drinking for me.

The BBQ was quite an impromptu and low key affair, just me and the kids cooking tea outside, but on a hot summer Saturday evening after a productive day gardening, sitting with a glass or few of wine to admire the fruits of my labour was almost compulsory in summers gone by. Most of those evenings would end up with me well into the second bottle of wine long after the sun had set, however.

I was aware as we sat down to eat that something was missing, but it was just a fleeting thought, no strong cravings. I could hear the neighbours getting louder and louder as they enjoyed their drinks in the garden and just kept concentrating on the fact that I did not need alcohol to enjoy the evening and whats more, I would not enjoy the following day if I did drink.

All in all I was pretty pleased with my success and it managed to reinforce the thought in me that I DO NOT NEED TO DRINK. There is no situation I could be in, good or bad, that requires alcohol. I even stayed up late last night, after all the neighbourhood lights were out and reveled in the fact I would wake up feeling good. I intended to sleep late today, but since I've stopped drinking I seem to wake early anyway. As a result of not drinking I was also able to give my son a lift last night.

Consequently Day 47 arrived today intact! Woo hoo for me!!!