A Year On The Dry

 I don’t recall the day I took my last alcoholic drink but I do know it was towards the end of January last year and that drink would have been a very nice glass of red wine or two. Or three? Maybe four? It did not make me sad that these would have been my last drinks because I fully intended that I would resume taking alcohol after a month. That was the idea.

For quite some time I’d been thinking about cutting down on the number of days during the week that I’d drink wine. Maybe I’d just have a drink on the weekend, or on some special occasions. I knew that I was drinking more that the recommended amounts and definitely far too much for a person my age.

So when Bert was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and decided to quit his nightly glass or two of cider, I joined him in going alcohol-free, partly in support and partly out of curiosity about what a break might do for me.

Well! It was all a bit dull at first. I missed my nightly glass or two of wine. The evenings seemed too long. Two weeks passed. I thought I might carry on until the end of February. But by then I’d got used to an alcohol-free life and I’d started to lose weight. That took my mind off wanting to drink. So I kept going. I was still not going to stop drinking forever.

By the summertime I’d lost 20lbs and was well-used to the dry. Christmas was going to be the decider. By October I knew I was going to have an alcohol-free Christmas and after that I only had to get to the end of January to have completed a year without wine. And you know, I still miss it. If I thought I could just have the occasional glass, just now and again I’d still be drinking.

I heard this recently. No one really wants the second glass of wine. They just want the first one over again. For me that rings true. The first one is wonderful. But then I want it again. And again.

Even though I don’t remember the exact date I had that last drink, I do remember when I stopped smoking. That was on the 15^th March 2004. Almost twenty-two years ago. I wonder what I’ll be giving up twenty-two years from now? Maybe chocolate? Blogging? Living?

By the way, the weight loss eased off but since last January I have lost a total of 25 lbs. I’m still old though.

Days of yore. I'm sure Katy is giving me a disapproving look.

Pigs and Wine and Shortened Time

I have been listening to reports about research on recommended weekly amounts of alcohol. Dr Melanie Nichols of Oxford University, the lead author of a recently published paper, said: "Over 4,000 deaths from cancer, heart disease, stroke and liver disease in England could be prevented if drinkers reduced their average level of alcohol consumption to half a unit per person per day - a level much lower than current UK government recommendations.” She went on to say that a half unit of alcohol would be just a quarter of a glass of wine, or a quarter of a pint of beer. These days a unit of alcohol corresponds to half a glass of wine – or a glass and a half of wine per week.

And here I am busily making wine with every possible ingredient I can lay my hands on. Right now I have 18 bottles maturing and fourteen gallons still fermenting. Oh dear. What shall I do? Should I empty it all down the jacks?

But, to look on the bright side, if we adhere to these new guidelines, the present amount of alcohol being processed should last Nellybert a number of years. I have done the math. There are 5 glasses in a bottle and 6 bottles to the gallon. Multiply that by 17 and that comes to 510 gallons. We would be drinking three glasses between us every week and at that level of consumption the wine will last us three years and three months.

I comfort myself with the thought that when the statistics are examined more closely those 4000 + extra deaths per year translates into a probability of the drinking classes living about a fortnight less than the abstainers. It being late, and me on the wine, I cannot be bothered to research this thoroughly but, if any reader is interested, the views of statistician David Spiegelhalter are worth a moment or two of your time.

Now as well as making wine Nellybert has also a freezer full of home-grown pig and I'm sorry to say that eminent researchers in Harvard have shown that those of us who eat red meat more than three times a week are also shortening life expectancy, so if you are partial to a bacon sandwich and a glass of wine you're probably going to live around six weeks less than an abstemious vegetarian. Well worth it in my opinion. Slainte! Bon appetit!