Best Before Date
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: WA
Posts: 891
Best Before Date
Easter Holidays in Australia is a bit like Spring Break in the States. Universities take a couple of weeks off mid -semester and the rest of us get a long weekend. The weather is usually beautiful and many take advantage and load the car for a long weekend on the beach, the last chance before the antipodean winter sets in. Alcohol consumption during Easter reflects this is as the unofficial end of summer.
Like AFL Grand Final, Christmas and New Year, I managed to get through the Easter weekend without a drink. The cravings came and went "this too shall pass". This occasion, however, was different to the times before during my six months of sobriety, this time I had to address the "Garage Fridge".
In Australia, us blokes have a Garden Shed where we hide from our wives and the kids and many of us also have the Fridge "that used to be in the Kitchen before the wife upgraded to a massive two door model". The fridge usually resides in the Garage next to the car. It also becomes a sanctum, a holy shrine, because we fill it with Beer. The joke goes, when we open it a bright light emits and fills the garage and angelic singing fills the space.
Since I took Step 1 over six months ago and knew I'd had my last beer, the Fridge has become a store for soft drinks and food for the kids Pet Rabbit. The beer that was stocked in there before I chose to label it poison continued to take up shelf space and was never drunk. If I'd kept drinking all those months ago and remained in this house the beer now taking up space would have been gone long ago and replaced many time over with new beer. Now I had to ponder what to do with all this beer some of which was expensive boutique beers bought "for entertaining visitors" (that rarely came). I never knew this but beer has a shelf life. This surprised me because generally any alcohol bought “for keeping” was rapidly consumed, I made sure of this. The date stamp on the bottle I always assumed to be date of manufacture was indeed a "Best Before Date". Since all the beer was bought around the same time 6-7 months ago the expiry date on the bottles was between May and June this year. This left me with a problem I didn't know how to resolve as I'd never encountered beer near the "Best Before" date before, it just never happened and if it did, I'd drink it anyway? Now food hygiene seemed important: Should I bin the beer? Pour it down a sink? Give it to the neighbors or just leave it in there till visitor came in say 3-12 months and I offer them flat, unhygienic beer to save money.
In the end, there was only one thing to do, it was Easter and normal people who drink sensibly drink beer. I gathered all the beer into several ice boxes and took them to the Easter Sunday lunch at the in-laws. When my Father-in-Law saw me with the beer he was hopeful that at last I would put aside this "no drinking" nonsense and crack open a coldie (even just a light one). Imagine his surprise when I said "I don't know if you want these but they are no use to me". For me It was like handing over clothes I'd outgrown, to him it was like he’d seen his son-in-law truly lose his marbles. My Father-in-Law reluctantly agreed to taking the beer but only after asking several times whether I was sure. No one gives beer away! There was no tearful farewell, no pondering of how it could have been different, no emotion at all just "this lot is taking up room in my fridge, do you want them?”.
A year ago this would have been a preposterous proposition. I'm the man once seen at a bottle shop wailing like a Grandmother after dropping a case of beer on the road, all the broken bottles spilling forth their precious amber fluid on the asphalt and me babbling like a man broken, beyond any consolation and grief stricken. Now I was handing over beer like one hands over unwanted second hand clothing. Only later did the implication hit me. The Big Book mentioned this sort of thing. Change comes slowly and is barely noticed except by others. For me this was nothing short of miraculous.
Later I went to the pharmacy and without even thinking about it asked the Pharmacist if she had any alcohol free cough syrup? Miraculous.
Like AFL Grand Final, Christmas and New Year, I managed to get through the Easter weekend without a drink. The cravings came and went "this too shall pass". This occasion, however, was different to the times before during my six months of sobriety, this time I had to address the "Garage Fridge".
In Australia, us blokes have a Garden Shed where we hide from our wives and the kids and many of us also have the Fridge "that used to be in the Kitchen before the wife upgraded to a massive two door model". The fridge usually resides in the Garage next to the car. It also becomes a sanctum, a holy shrine, because we fill it with Beer. The joke goes, when we open it a bright light emits and fills the garage and angelic singing fills the space.
Since I took Step 1 over six months ago and knew I'd had my last beer, the Fridge has become a store for soft drinks and food for the kids Pet Rabbit. The beer that was stocked in there before I chose to label it poison continued to take up shelf space and was never drunk. If I'd kept drinking all those months ago and remained in this house the beer now taking up space would have been gone long ago and replaced many time over with new beer. Now I had to ponder what to do with all this beer some of which was expensive boutique beers bought "for entertaining visitors" (that rarely came). I never knew this but beer has a shelf life. This surprised me because generally any alcohol bought “for keeping” was rapidly consumed, I made sure of this. The date stamp on the bottle I always assumed to be date of manufacture was indeed a "Best Before Date". Since all the beer was bought around the same time 6-7 months ago the expiry date on the bottles was between May and June this year. This left me with a problem I didn't know how to resolve as I'd never encountered beer near the "Best Before" date before, it just never happened and if it did, I'd drink it anyway? Now food hygiene seemed important: Should I bin the beer? Pour it down a sink? Give it to the neighbors or just leave it in there till visitor came in say 3-12 months and I offer them flat, unhygienic beer to save money.
In the end, there was only one thing to do, it was Easter and normal people who drink sensibly drink beer. I gathered all the beer into several ice boxes and took them to the Easter Sunday lunch at the in-laws. When my Father-in-Law saw me with the beer he was hopeful that at last I would put aside this "no drinking" nonsense and crack open a coldie (even just a light one). Imagine his surprise when I said "I don't know if you want these but they are no use to me". For me It was like handing over clothes I'd outgrown, to him it was like he’d seen his son-in-law truly lose his marbles. My Father-in-Law reluctantly agreed to taking the beer but only after asking several times whether I was sure. No one gives beer away! There was no tearful farewell, no pondering of how it could have been different, no emotion at all just "this lot is taking up room in my fridge, do you want them?”.
A year ago this would have been a preposterous proposition. I'm the man once seen at a bottle shop wailing like a Grandmother after dropping a case of beer on the road, all the broken bottles spilling forth their precious amber fluid on the asphalt and me babbling like a man broken, beyond any consolation and grief stricken. Now I was handing over beer like one hands over unwanted second hand clothing. Only later did the implication hit me. The Big Book mentioned this sort of thing. Change comes slowly and is barely noticed except by others. For me this was nothing short of miraculous.
Later I went to the pharmacy and without even thinking about it asked the Pharmacist if she had any alcohol free cough syrup? Miraculous.
x
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
