Written 2^nd Sept 2014

In my opinion, adult life requires that we drink. My current drinking break has lasted maybe ten days and many bottles of alcohol free, or low alcohol beer. I know I needed to take a break from drink, but I’m not sure if it has been a good thing.

At the moment, I am relaxing and I am catching up on my articles. Currently, I’m only one behind. It has also allowed me to think less about the annoyance of my work life. You could say that work has driven me to drink, but I walked there myself – drinking and driving is a bad thing.

The result, is an almost finished bottle of well priced discounted wine. The £5 paid for the £8 bottle will best be judged in the morning. Hopefully, the hand cut chips and rib eye steak will negate the effects of a bad wine. If not, maybe the mushrooms and the fried tomatoes.

I have to say, that given all the horrible things going on in the world, this is helping and a great anaesthetic. My problems are insignificant compared to other people in the world. But my problems are real. And so are the people causing them.

It may be worth saying at this point, that I’m drinking red wine from a mug – like a tramp. Don’t judge me on this. I also drink cider out of mugs, but only because all my glasses – except wine glasses are broken. Anyway, it tastes the same!

One of the reasons I don’t mind having some red wine is that I’m “self medicating”. I’ve done this for pain before, but this time is for asthma. It’s been two or thee years since my last attack, and this one caught me by surprise. It was nothing serious, but bad enough to make me feel bad. And I’m directly linking this to my temporary temperance. So, I’m having a drink and putting my problems on hold until tomorrow morning.

My conclusion can only be is that I am drinking much less than other people. The problem being the short term effects of hangovers, and bad moods. The longer term effects being much, much worse.

Today, the bottle of wine has done it’s work. I wasn’t well enough to exercise, and just today I’ve given up. For now, I’ve relaxed and de-stressed. Tomorrow, I will come back fighting.