Mags1

Sober tools for the festivities.Weekenders 16 - 19 December 2022











Am I prepared for Christmas?

Are my sober tools ready and working?

This time of the year can be testing.

Being prepared for all eventualities will keep us sober this Christmas.



My humble attempt at waxing lyrical.



“Christmas is coming,

It’s not just the goose that’s getting fat!

Booze is all around me

But I’m having none of that.



What do you want for christmas?

Mr. Claus says with joy

Why, Thank you Santa!

More toolbox tools would be my ideal joy.



With tool box brimming of sober tools,

some old and some new.....

SR, play the tape, new hobbies,

just to name a few.



Hangovers, blackouts,

Crapulousness and more,

Will never pierce my sober armour,

That’s for sure!



Christmas is round the corner

I’m still getting fat,

Have a good time sober

I’ll have some of that.’







If this is your first weekend sober, or many, come join us for support and chat...as we know the weekends can be a struggle sometimes. (We’re here all week too!)

Forwards

Thanks Mags, sober tools at the ready this week!

Please may I have Shotgun?

Forwards.

ToughChoices

I’m in! Feeling festive already!

Congrats on shotgun, forwards!

least

I'm in for a sober weekend. . Love the opening poetry.

Mags1

Shotgun is yours Forward, Congratulations

Good to see you ToughChoices and Least.

Kaily

Great poem, Mags

Forwards, good shotgun, I love your politeness.

I am definitely going to need my tools tomorrow. Every year someone gifts me wine no matter how much I tell them about my difficulties with alcohol. Every year my AV acts like it is a free pass and plays a merry hell. One year I tried to take it back to the shop (Marks and Spencers) but they wouldn't take it. Another year I left it on top of a recycling bin at the local supermarket in hope that someone would take it. Once I gifted it to a homeless person.

You would think the solution would be simple, just throw it away. Well, I can't. My addiction still puts a high value on it, it becomes precious. It needs to get out of my possession as quickly as possible it creates turmoil. Crikey I've been thinking about it all week!

Tomorrow the wine will come
I hope I won't be dumb

It would be a sin
To put it in the bin

I need to activate a plan
And give it to a man

Whose life won't be governed
By the old mothers ruin

Thanks, Mags.

least

Kaily, you too are a poet.

I am frustrated by my lack of tech savvy. I took a picture of my long hippie dress to show ck cause she might want it. But I couldn't send the picture, no matter what way I tried. Tomorrow I will ask son in law or ck to show me how to send a picture from my email or a text picture would be ok. sigh... I'm a techno-dummy.

Billie is being social tonight - she's sleeping in the living room instead of by herself in the bedroom.... I look at her and get a warm feeling so I go sit down on the sofa and sweet talk her and she inevitably rolls over for a tummy rub. . I love sweet talking her. She looks like she understands what I'm saying, or at least understands the emotions behind my talking to her. My girl.

Kaily, give the wine to someone immediately after the giver leaves your house. Or challenge yourself by pouring it down the sink.

Dee74

Hey Kaily
I understand the ingrained mindset that wine is something valuable not to waste - but you're even more valuable

I hope you can re-gift it as soon as possible.


D

Mags1

Kaily, brilliant poem! If you can’t give the booze away quick enough pour it down the sink like you would bleach! They’re both poison to our bodies if we drink it.

Kaily

Thanks. That's the problem I don't have anyone to give it to. It needs to be gone as quickly as it arrives.
I can't pour it away Mags.

PhoenixJ

Pouring out the wine is a good idea Kaily...Dee is right, you're far more valuable than the cost of the wine. Sending prayers.

Dee74

I could never pour it away - until one day I did.

But...if you really think you can't pour it away, leave it in a bin or on a neighbours step or something. Of course if you think kids or other alcopholics might
pick it up or something that's not a great solution.

I know you'll find an answer that doesn't end in you drinking it.
D

Kaily

Thanks Dee I'm glad you get it

Mags1

Kaily, I hope you find a solution and give it away or gift it. Thinking about it a friend of mine always buys me a bottle at Christmas and she knows I don’t drink. She doesn’t know the full story of my drinking though so probably thinks everyone drinks at Christmas. I don’t throw it away, I pass it on to someone.

Cityboy

Kaily, I would just throw it in the trash and be done with it, or poor it out if you prefer. Just think how liberating it will be.

Haris2014

Hi Kaily
don’t think of it as a gift of wine from your friend.. think of it is a gift to flex your sober muscles.. every year you get the opportunity to reinforce your commitment to not drinking by pouring it straight down the sink. Quite a cool gift when you think about it like that😂

and hello to all the weekenders…

RunnerF

Joining all the weekenders for a sober weekend and beyond. Kaily I like Harris’s thought on the wine gift. Good way to look at it.

Pledging for today. Day 74.

Robbie64

Great opening post Mags. I like the poem.

I'm IN for another sober weekend, the penultimate one before Christmas. I have a tradition that I do before every Christmas. The weekend before Christmas I treat myself to an expensive (by my standards) takeaway meal as a pre-Christmas treat. Some years I've done this while drunk and it's been a disappoinment as a result. The last two years I've been sober when I've treated myself and I will be sober this coming Saturday too. I'm looking forward to it.

Kaily, I've been in the same situation before as yourself. Gifted a bottle of wine and like yourself I couldn't pour it down the sink. Thankfully I was able to quickly pass it on. Hopefully you can work out a quick solution to getting rid of the wine when you are given it.

I've just been for a lovely walk around the local village centre. It was very Christmassy as it was snowing. Unbelievably there were people sitting outside the tearoom / coffee shop drinking and eating. They must be mad!

I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend.

Cityboy

In the last weekender thread, there was a brief discussion I think about driving on the left side of the road in the UK. On that series I started, called Cruising the Cut, I noticed that they were keeping their boats on the right side of the canal. It appears that boating rules are the same in the UK and the US in regards to boating on the right side, said online to be because the vast majority of early boaters were right handed and steered their boat with their right hand. This led to the term "steer-board", or starboard side. Operating vehicles on the left side of the road was reported to have originated from Romans steering their chariot with their left hand so that they could keep a weapon in their right hand. We in the US are evidently nonconformists in regards to driving on the right side of the road.

Robbie64

I think the US may have been the first country to move to driving on the right, going back to 1776. Obviously it was horse and cart back then rather than cars. Yet the tradition of driving on the left had been imported into America by the Pilgrim Fathers and their decendants so obviously something happened in the 150 or so years before America declared itself independent. Napoeleon in France in the 1790s also moved his country towards riding / driving on the right and so right hand driving spread throughout all the French colonies outside of Europe.

A good read is what happened in Sweden on 3 September 1967 when the move to right side driving was introduced. At 4.50am all traffic on the road at that time had to come to a stop, then carefully change to the right hand side of the road, stop again and then restart their journey at 5am. Very efficient! It was called Dagen H https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H