The year no-one was expecting

This time last year, I made my decision to make 2020 an alcohol free year, not knowing then that this year would be an absolute shit show! We were all looking forward to Christmas, planning things for 2020, enjoying parties, nights out…..

Fast forward to the present day however, and things are a little more sombre. No christmas parties, no big nights out. I have spent more money on pyjamas and slippers this year than any other type of clothing! Oh how things have changed!

I am nearly at the end of my little experiment, and i will be posting a ‘lessons learnt’ piece over the next few weeks. But, I just wanted to share something I have been thinking about over the past few weeks, and something I have been asked a lot; come January the 1st, will I be drinking again?

The simple answer is, I don’t know. What I do know is that I have a different opinion regarding alcohol than I did a year ago. I know now I can have a great time without it, that hangover free Saturdays are amazing, and that not drinking, for me, should be the norm. Let me explain…

A year ago, if we went anywhere that served alcohol (and I wasn’t driving), I would probably have had an alcoholic drink. This year, that has not been the case, and I would like to keep that as the norm.

Also, I used to use alcohol as a way to relax. Obviously I haven’t this year, and I have still been able to calm down after a long day at work, so I know this too is possible.

This week has been a particularly tricky one; I finished working at a company which I have absolutely loved. This is to start a new job in January. I finished early so that in the gap, we could move house. Its all complicated, but it meant moving into rented after we completed on ours, then completing on the new one in March. As we had this deadline of my new job, and we were just waiting for the i’s to be dotted, we decided to just go for it…. Only to receive an email from the seller of the house we were buying, on saturday, when guy had spent all day moving stuff into the rented house, saying that they no longer wanted to sell. Obviously, they are well within their rights to do this, and it was our risk to take. But, still incredibly frustrating 14 weeks into the process, after we had bent over backwards to accommodate the sellers needs. We are both devastated, out of pocket, and have our belongings spread across 2 houses, 10 days before christmas!

I really wanted a drink. But didn’t have one. Having one would not have made the news any less shit. It would just have meant that it would look even shittier in the morning, with a hangover.

These things happen. We will chalk it up to experience, and move on. Right, best go; need to move all our stuff back home!