I PASSED!!

OMG team, I had to share… just got my first assignment results back from my post grad journey and I PASSED!!

Pheew!

I was terrified I wouldn’t as I’ve never studied at this level before and was seriously beginning to think I wasn’t nearly as smart as I thought I was and that I’d be embarrassed in front of those people who knew I was studying.   But, I got a nice, solid, dependable high credit.  I would have been happy with a straight pass, but now I’m wondering if I have a distinction inside of me LOL.

That’s it for now, nothing much else to report.  Still not drinking, work ramping up, fitness still not quite there (I’ve discovered a strength issue with my right knee that needs work), but all is tracking along ok.

Stay happy and healthy all.

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10 Things I Missed Out On By Quitting Booze For A Year

Everyone writes about all the life life changing and affirming stuff that giving up the “demon drink”, brings.  The internet is full of positive, uplifting, fluffy cloud, I achieved my life goals stuff.  So here’s some of the stuff that no one tells you you’ll miss out on doing when you quit drinking.  I’ve not done any of the below in the last 12 months…

1. I never didn’t put the bins out
2. I haven’t forgotten to put the  leftover dinner “cooling” in the microwave in the fridge instead of finding it the next morning when it’s ruined.
3. I’ve not been to bed unsure of why I’m mad at Crazy Cat Boy.  Sure, I still went to be mad at him, we’ve been together over 20 years, but I’ve known why.  He might not have, but I was across it!  😉
4. I’ve not cleaned the toilet to make sure it was less disgusting to throw up into later that night (That’s not weird at all right???)
5. I’ve not bulk purchased vitamin B pills (my go to hangover prevention method)
6. I’ve not woken up to a disaster zone kitchen as I’ve been capable of cleaning it the night before going to bed.
7. I’ve not had to plan advanced logistics to get to and from any event.  I’ve just jumped in the car and gone wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
8. I’ve not looked at an email and been incapable of responding because I was hungover and unable to “deal”.  Any inability/desire to not respond was purely based on the inconceivable stupidity of what I was reading and my clear decision not to exacerbate the situation.
9. I’ve never forgotten to water the garden
10. I’ve not woken up thinking “This has to stop”

Yeah, ok, this wasn’t the post you thought it was going to be was it?  But, kudos to you, you made it through.  So, if you want to know the truth and give booze a rest, it can only bring good things, even if it’s the “stuff” you miss out on.  😉

No More Firsts?

Has it really been 11 days since I last blogged?  Talk about not keeping new years resolutions!  LOL.

I’m at my clients ATM and upstairs my boss is in a meeting that could change the course of both our professional lives.. it’s hush, hush, so keep it between us please 😉

If it all comes together there’ll be a number of firsts I’ll have to deal with in the very near future, and that’s ok because I’m sleeping well (ATM) and feeling pretty damn healthy due to this not drinking jazz and getting plenty of exercise.

Hang on I hear you say, isn’t the title of this post “No More Firsts”?  And here she is rabbiting on about a bunch of firsts on the cards.  Nice catch!  I only attract the very smartest of readers !  🙂

I was thinking only this morning that I’m out of non drinking firsts.  Over the past 2 years while I’ve been taking longish periods away from my beloved wine I’ve actually covered them all at some point… Christmas, NYE, Birthdays, Funerals, Weekends away*, Conferences, Dinners with friends and enablers alike, Winery visits, the list goes on….  Hell, I’ve even had my MIL stay and not drink!  The only thing I’m missing is a wedding but we are past that in my circle ATM, so I think I’m good there.  It’s true what those who have gone before say, it does get easier, those firsts come and go and you go on with your journey a little bit surer that what you doing is right for you.

 

*After looking at me like I’d lost my mind when I said I was taking the year off booze, my colleague came out with “Oh good, we don’t have to walk back to the work show, you can drive us home!” It was his car and 40 degrees, so I was more than happy to drive the drunks home.  I do love how often Aussies immediate go to is  “You non drinking freak… here are my keys, you’re responsible for us all now”  LOL!  I also enjoyed waking up without a hangover the next morning in that heat,  that was the real bonus!

Getting Your Ducks In A Row(ish)

Well good Internet people it’s week three of the new year, who’s still keeping their resolutions?  😉

I am, only 349 days left to meet my sober challenge (I’m a counter, what can I say!) and I’m making an effort to get my shit sorted nice and early in the year.

To this end, today I’ve booked a dentist appointment (to fill an annoying gap in my aging teeth) and to have my tax done next week. I’m also writing this at the same time as restoring my hair to its “natural” colour and removing that pesky lady mo LOL.

Ok, so none of this is very exciting, but it means I’m moving forward, something that I’ve been slow with in recent years.

So, this is me, gradually getting my ducks in a row, what are you going to do today to muster your ducks into whatever formation you’d like them to be in?

Back Fat & Booze

One of the “joys” of getting older is watching my body change… it’s doing stuff that I’ve never had to deal with before and I’m not happy about it.  Yeah, yeah, I know, age gracefully, be thankful that I have the chance, so many don’t, etc, etc… trust me I get all that but seriously, why can’t I just stay the shape I was?

I’m pretty lucky, I’m one of these people that have until the last few years been able to eat pretty much what I want and as long as I move a bit my weight doesn’t change a lot.

However, it was brought home to me by a young bra fitter recently that there’s been a change I really don’t like.  I was feeling a bit frumpy, as you do when you reach a certain age and decided that a new bra would cheer me up (why I thought this I have no idea. LOL).   So I trotted off to brand name underwear chain to get fitted.  All the bra’s I tried on provided me with a very sexy (NOT!) and unwelcome extra roll of fat poking out from under the arms and around the back.   “These don’t fit” I confidently tell the fitting assistant “They’re too tight, look at that bulge, let’s try another size”.  She casually looks me over and says “Nope, right size, don’t worry about that, everyone has them” she says in the comforting the old lady tone that only a retail sales assistant can carry off.

My first thought was – hey, I’m not everyone young lady! followed swiftly by, when did this happen to me, I’m not an extra roll of fat kind of person??!!

But you know what, I am now.  Years of booze (and brie)  have added an unwelcome layer of padding to my body.  It’s crept up gradually and I never noticed until I wasn’t happy with what I saw.

So, my existing bra’s aren’t uncomfortable because they are old, they are uncomfortable because I’m inhaling too much sugar and sitting around feeling hungover and sorry for myself.  Right then!

You know what, I’m tired of being tired and not being the best me.  So, 2019 is the year of “YES”, yes to opportunities, yes to new experiences, yes to no booze for the year and yes to recovering me.

PS: day ten no booze and I feel great… day ten is when the happy comes back… day 15 is where I forget what it’s like to drink and crack, so I’m on my guard!  

 

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!

 

Temptations & Marketing Tricks

Photo by Joonas kääriäinen on Pexels.com

Well, yesterday was 50 days, I’m officially half way through Belles 100 Day Challenge.

If you’d asked me yesterday morning on my cold and frosty walk I would have told you that I was contemplating making 100 days 365 days as my next “challenge”.  Then I totted off to the big smoke for an early dinner… it was a long weekend here in wine country so you leave early to avoid the banked up traffic.  This meant that I had time to kill before dinner with a friend before a cultured night at the Australian Ballet.  So I took a casual stroll around Southbank, past all the lovely restaurants with their French champagnes nestled in the window, lights glinting off polished flutes, adverts for elegant high teas, all accompanied with complimentary bubbles – the urge began to grow!    As a marketer I know all the tricks but these images were really pressing my buttons.  Surely I’m smarter than that? Mmm, I’m not so sure as my brain began it’s cycle of justification…

Perhaps 50 days is enough, that’s reason to celebrate right?  Oh damn, I drove in didn’t I?  Hmm, perhaps just one crisp, dry sparkling would be ok with dinner.  No one would ever know.  Well, not true, I’d know and be buggered if I’ll give up 50 days to start again!  Nope, I’ll just have to white knuckle it through to 100 days and celebrate with a good bottle.

Sigh, that’s not healthy thinking is it?  Really? No one is going to tell me different?  Doh!  Fine, I’ll soldier on with my big girl panties on.

I broke the news to my friend who I don’t see often and her response was “Wow, there is no way I could do that, I don’t think I could stop.”  She left it there and didn’t inquire as to why I was doing the challenge or how I felt from it, so I didn’t probe any further either.  If she asks I’ll come clean and say I wasn’t happy where I thought my current drinking patterns were taking me, but until then I’ll keep quiet.

In the end I had a Pepsi with dinner, enjoyed the ballet then drove home in my nice warm car instead of leaving it inconveniently and expensively parked in the CBD and catching the train home in the rain.  Sober has its undeniable advantages!

PS: In case you are wondering why I didn’t question my friend, we are getting reacquainted after a number of years of not spending any time together… school friendship that didn’t survive new lives, jobs and cities.

Cats Are Great Weight Blankets

Over the past few weeks it’s started to get cold out here in wine country (great living choice when you are a bit of a lush right?), that combined with the lurgy I had the other week means that I’ve taken to doubling up a king size blanket and putting that over me at night.

Now I’d heard the theory that a weighted blanket can help you sleep better.  And after a couple of weeks,I’m kind of inclined to believe it’s true when combined with laying off the booze.  I’m sleeping better than I have in ages.  Mind you, I also gave up worry, that’s probably helping a bit as well, and I’ve taken some steps to fix the major issue that was keeping me up (more on that in another post, all I’ll say is not spending your days hungover makes you more proactive!)

Last night I didn’t use the doubled blanket, I used a cat instead.  It was cold and the girl cat decided that my chest needed to be stood on while she dribbled on my chin – restful right?  LOL.   Anyway as I drifted off to sleep with her deep purring vibrating through my body and a light stream of cat drool dripping of my chin I thought that life is pretty good, I’ve got nothing to complain about, and that she was doing a great job keeping me warm.

So, my advice is don’t waste your cash on a commercial weight blanket, get a cat and save the “pay rise” you’ve given yourself by quitting booze, your life will be better for it.

PS: If you are wondering, I’m now on day 28 of Belles 100 Day Challenge

 

Pity Party & Sabotage

I’m now on day 8 of Belles 100 Day Challenge. I feel amazing but it’s not been all plain sailing.

Friday* nights are hard for me without booze.  Crazy Cat Boy and I traditionally kick off the shoes and zone out with a bottle (who’m I kidding – two bottles), watch crap TV and chat.  The first bottle is gone before dinner giving us a nice buzz and the right air of irresponsibility to crack on with the second, regardless of what Saturday is supposed to look like.

Last Friday I sulked, watered the garden and generally mooched around the house doing random tasks before slinking off to watch TV in a separate room all by myself and have a bit of a pity party… you see Saturday was my birthday and all week CCB had been making references to nice bottles of champagne with me correcting him about my “challenge”.  I think this is the first birthday I’ve done completely sober. I felt sorry for myself but I made it through.

I know CCB loves me but he’s also very good at subconsciously trying to sabotage me.  Saturday he pulled out the verjuice to cook dinner with but then went to the shop and came back with a bottle of white to cook with instead.  Now this was no ordinary we’ll chuck it in the slow cooked lamb wine, it was very nice, local drop that we quite enjoy.  The recipe only calls for 1/2 a cup and once he’d put it back in the fridge (that’s right, he bought a COLD  bottle to “cook” with!  Yeah right.) I deliberately hid it in the very back of the fridge (it’s on the bottom shelf if you are looking for it  😉  ) so it would be out of my line of sight.  That does help me, often if I cant see something I’ll forget it’s there.  I know he was disappointed that I didn’t crack and have a glass, but I’m feeling so much better for it.

I know that I can do this 100 days but I’m sure there’ll be a few more pity parties along the way.

 

*I’m telling myself only 11 more Fridays to go, counting them down helps right???!!

Challenge Accepted!

One of my fav TV characters of all times is Barney Stinson from HIMYM (How I Met Your Mother), his catch cry of “Challenge Accepted” always makes me smile, usually because it was attached to something that was never meant to be a challenge.

Well for the next 100 days “Challenge Accepted”* is going to be my catch cry as I take on Belles 100 Day Challenge – no booze until August 1st this year.

Crazy Cat Boy is concerned that this means “no drinking on your birthday” and I’m ok with that.  The next three months possibly could be make or break with me and what I do in my professional life for the next eight years that I plan on being full time.  I need all the focus and energy that I can muster up to make these next moves, and wine needs to be off the table to get me there.  I’ll check in with my progress regularly and I know I can get there, as of today it’s a 97 day challenge as I’ve already done 3 sober days.

What will be the challenge you accept?

*Ironically Barney usually uttered those words in a bar, beer in hand!