Thank you for your good wishes GettingOn.
Do I sound lively when talking about food / cookery???? That's interesting - I hadn't quite thought of it that way. Y'see, I've been on my own for soooo many years now, and that, after all the years of being the mum / wife and cooking for everyone, that I actually struggle - as many single people report - to get excited about cooking. I think what I was referring to a few posts back was more a way of diarising the actual experience of a particular dish (say, the soup) which has resonances with the turning of the seasons, and probably lots of memories of who I've made it for and eaten it with over decades.
But yes, simple things like cleaning and walking....gardening, etc etc are indeed almost lifesavers, or at least sanity-savers at times. And of course when one has been drinking - depending on how much and how early in the day too - to even attempt those simple tasks or bits of exercise can just seem too physically hard.
The corollary of that is that I'm one of those drunks who got into the habit, over many many years, of doing virtually EVERYTHING at home especially with a glass of wine at hand. Indoors and outdoors. I've certainly, however, become much more aware of the greater physical difficulties in doing that when I drink now; not surprising given my age (late 50s) and other chronic conditions which are exacerbated by both exercise AND drinking.
I haven't given up on quitting again....for those latter reasons, alone. Apart from all the others.