How did I get F%^&*ing old?

Ok, its’ been a weird week good internet peeps.  I should have been launching a couple of promotions, putting the finishing touches on my next quarter campaign and looking the very picture of health as I get ready for my first 100 days booze free to end.  But am I? Nope, I’m writing this from bed, my bed, which is a nice change as last week a Cold, that’s right, a Cold put me in hospital!

What The Actual Fuck?!

I thought I was at least experiencing something sexy and serious like stroke, but no, simply the mundane. I couldn’t see properly, which turns out is an issue as you cruise down the freeway at 100 km and then try and negotiate city traffic on a week day.  To say I made a strategic error going to work on Thursday is an understatement.

The lovely emergency department Dr (who was quite cute and well dressed for a 12 year old…. god he looked  young!) ran through all the tests, CT, MRI, bloods, you name it, they did them all (they came back negative for anything serious) and then announced that they were keeping me in for observation overnight. The head Neuro guy came in with his prep class (more well dressed 12 year old’s who’s name tags all inexplicably read “Dr”) the next day… I’d started to make very strong “my preference would be” type statements about them letting me go home, so I think they decided to call in the big guns to exert some authority over me.  LOL.  He proclaimed that I was free to go home and that as we age our eyes tend to turn and this coupled with my “compromised immune system”, eg, case of the sniffles (FFS!), can manifest in blurred vision and it should sort itself out.

So that’s my life now is it? A couple of sneezes and I become some sort of house bound invalid?  Bloody hell, this is a bit shit right?  I’m supposed to be celebrating 100 days booze free tomorrow and instead I’ll be trying to muster up the energy to shower!

Got to tell you, I didn’t see this coming.  I’m grateful that I live in a country where I could pull up at the hospital emergency department and within a few hours find myself having undergone a battery of expensive tests and tucked up in bed for the night and it won’t cost me a thing*.  We are very lucky here in Australia to have such a fabulous system of public healthcare.

 

*It does cost via tax, but I’m ok with that, I think we should have a system where we can offer the very best healthcare to all, especially people who can’t afford it.  Not that I’ve used our public medical system like this before, I’ve never been admitted as a public patient. In fact the last time I was in hospital I was 22 and having wisdom teeth out.  I must point out that I’m kidding around, the 12 year old Drs, while looking like mini hipsters, knew their stuff and were very thorough and professional.

 

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The Booze Filter

I had a good friend come and stay with me for a fun girls weekend, naturally there was lots of Instaing, discussion of different filters to apply and which photos could make the social channels.  This got me thinking about the variety of filters that we put on our lives.

I know I filter myself at work… good corporate worker drone, always the sensible one (ok, read the kill joy one, it’s probably closer to the mark! I’m the Terms and Conditions department LOL).

I absolutely filter my social media presence, well, us marketing types call it “curating content for audience”, coz we’re fancy like that 😉  Usually only the best thoughts, never a negative comment, keep the religion and politics out of it, checking in at the “right” spots.  You all know the drill, we all do it, even if subconsciously, we want people to think we are more glamorous than we are (well I am, I know some of you have awesomely interesting lives and jobs).

Then there is the filter that alcohol puts on your life, stops you seeing and feeling the real you.  It all goes a bit soft and fuzzy, like someone put an old school layer of vasoline over the lens.

I’ve got 7 days left on Belles 100 Day Challenge and I feel like the filter is off of my life for the first time in a long time.  The reality of where I am is confronting and a bit unsettling if I’m honest.  I’m worried that I’m also a bit dull. I don’t seem to have much to say of interest anymore IRL.  What happened to the girl that went out and found life wherever it was?  Now life just seems to be something that happens to me.

So, my next challenge is to turn my IRL into something that I don’t have to run a filter over, and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to continue this no booze challenge into the new year.

What will you be taking the filter off of?

Where’s all this cash come from?

I stared at the computer screen for a while confused, scrolled though the bill pay list on the bank app, looked even more confused, checked that mortgage payments were clearing, nope, no answer there either.

So,where has all this extra cash in the account come from?

We must have missed paying a credit card bill, we are so about to be hit with an interest payment and overdue fee, Doh!  But the thing is, I can’t see where it’s happened.  Everything appears to be paid up and on time.

That was last Friday and it puzzled me all weekend. We lost incoming cash in January due to a job amendment in Crazy Cat Boy’s world, we’ve been going out to dinner and the movies regularly over the past few months, something we don’t normally do… apparently leaving the house gets in the way of slumping on the lounge in front of bad TV chugging back a couple of $25 bottles of wine, so going out wasn’t really on our agenda at all.

Now, we aren’t talking about a retire tomorrow sized amount, just more than enough to make me sit up and look for a problem.  The only thing I can think of is we are seeing the cumulative effect of 6 months of very little (and now no) booze, more organised food planning, me spitting the dummy at my car insurance renewal* and finding a better deal and some other $20 here, $10 there changes.

Now I know we were spending at least $100 on wine a week… Crazy Cat Boy god love him had it pegged at “about” $40 pw for some reason!  But this, coupled with these other small changes have put us in the position to put some more cash into our Vanguard EFT this week.  That’s our long term retirement income stream plan.

So not only will I live longer by laying off the booze I’ll also have the money to!  LOL

*I swear, Insurance is the only service that you buy where you are penalised for long term loyalty! What’s with that?  “Oh, you paid us on time for a service you haven’t used for 6 years, here’s a hefty increase in your premium for the next 12 months” Well I’m not taking it anymore!  Now, if I’d been drinking at the time I’d have ranted and raved and NOT done anything about changing service provider.  I’ve saved $30 per month with a quick Google and online quote.  Not bad for 10 minutes work on a sober Tuesday night.

Friends + Booze = Help?

Spent the weekend in the big smoke with friends we don’t see often.  Drinking has always been a big part of our time together so I’d warned them ahead of time that I was on the wagon via text so the shock wouldn’t be too much.  I knew I’d be “enthusiastically encouraged” to drink as Kate* is a very big drinker, as is her husband William*.  Mind you, I’m not about to crack on day 80 something for people I don’t see that often, so I wasn’t too concerned about any pressure.

Kate greeted us at the door, glass of red in hand and “Here are the teetotallers”.  Hmmm, might be a long couple of days I thought to myself.  Our not drinking was the topic du jour for almost the entire time we were together. Kate seemed keen to know the ins and outs (I kept it at “It’s an internet challenge”, while I love her dearly, she does love to share  juicy information with others and I don’t need my reasons out IRL!).

Around midnight Saturday after a couple of bottles of bubbles, the best part of a bottle of red** and sharing some very unsound taxation advice, Kate came out with “I just can’t face not drinking forever”.  She seemed genuinely sad and worried about her drinking and I’m now worried for her.  I didn’t judge, hell, who I am I to anyway? Three months ago I’d probably been having the same conversation, the only difference is that I’d be two bottles of bubbles in myself!  Instead I shared some of the blogs and the benefits that I was seeing from the time off and encouraged her gently to go for it if she wanted to.

I’ve come away from the experience wondering if I could do more to help.  I’ve sent the links I said I would and offered to do the 100 days with her – no issue for me, I’m going to do them anyway. I’ll wait and see if she decides to go that way and I’ll help in anyway I can.

FYI, I’ve all but decided that I’ll continue through until at least 1st Jan 2019 and really, if I can do that, then it’s only another 4 months to the year… got to be worth it right?

Oh, and 85 days of Belles 100 Day Challenge today… should be working, blogging here instead, somethings haven’t changed! LOL

 

*Not Kate’s or Williams real names.

** Kate had consumed, not me, I was good I promise! 

80 Days!

Busy with work and not much to share but I’ve hit 80 days of Belle’s 100 Day Challenge today…….

(sorry for the delay in this post, just had to go and shoo a bird out of the back yard – the cats are out at the moment – the photo above should be captioned, “But why can’t we chase the bird?”)

……. Actually, I take that back, I do have something to share.  Work isn’t just busy, it’s Insane, yep, with a capital “I”.  I should feel like I’m drowning but I don’t, I feel calm.  I’m still not getting much done, so perhaps I’m not calm, perhaps I’ve gone into shock!  LOL.  In all reality though, it has to be down to not drinking, I’m also sleeping through the night and in these circumstances that’s just about unheard of for me.  Normally I’d either by laying awake worrying or at my laptop at 3 am trying to wade through it all. Something’s definitely changed.

I’ve also started the ground work for “the chat” with Crazy Cat Boy.  You know, the one where you gently break that this 100 day thing is probably going to become a 365 day thing.  Don’t want to scare him too badly all at once, I’ve got another 20 days to soften the eventual decision delivery.  😉

Have a happy and healthy day all!

 

10 “Amazing” Things That Happen When You Stop Drinking

 

Not much time to play today but wanted to celebrate yesterday’s milestone – 70 days of Belles 100 Day Challenge done and dusted!

Everyone talks about the obvious benefits of not drinking, health, self worth, better relationships, hope, etc, etc… Ok so they are pretty big etc’s LOL!  But, I’ve noticed some other more everyday “amazing things” that I thought I’d share, and before you ask, yes, my life really is that exciting that I’ve noticed these  😉 …

1. My bins are mostly empty (we are generating at least 1/2 as much recycling, no bottles, but  weirdly only about 1/3 of the hard rubbish we were prior)
2. I put the bins out and bring them in without whinging about it (or feeling hard done by)
3. Washing gets put away (often on the same day it dries!)
4. I know if I’m being lazy but don’t care (because it’s my choice, not my hangover)
5. I remember to take bags with me to the shops (so I don’t have to stuff 3 days worth of food into my Furla tote at the cash register and suffer the odd looks from the checkout girls)
6. I’m calmer at Bunnings (normally the place makes me lose the will to live (it’s a hardware store here in Australia if you are wondering))
7. I’m more assertive with the remote control at home
8. If the dirty microwave bothers me, I clean it!  (I know, right??)
9. I’ve been composting more diligently
10. I’ve been using all of my social media feeds, yes, even SnapChat (I still don’t really understand how it works – all my “stories” consist of one image and a random filter #SocialMediaMarketingGuru  #Not LOL)

 

So, that’s my benign 70 day sober challenge update.  Small things but they can make quite a difference in my everyday slightly mundane life.  Big things have changed as well, however they’ve been well documented by more eloquent bloggers than this Crazy Cat Lady.  I’d love to hear your “small thing”, so feel free to play along below!