Combating stress
14/01/12 • 2 Comments

Yesterday, from about 11am, I made it very clear to all of my friends that I was having a “glass of wine on a Friday night”.  The stress at work by that time had been enough to declare that was what I wanted! It is what happens though when your job is changing from one employer to another (in my case, my entire department is changing from a State Government to a Federal Government position).  As part of the transition we had to apply for our jobs again.  No easy “unfair” way to say it, but when you have to be transparant (as the Government does need to be) we had to prove that our skills matched the new roles (I’m quite ok with that and agree that we shouldn’t just be given a role because we’re doing it already).  Now that all happened at the end of last year, [...]

Back to the grindstone
06/01/12 • 2 Comments

While (it seems) everyone else had another week of holidays, I returned to work.  There was no mention of the Christmas drinks at work last year so it seems I didn’t do anything too bad (that I can’t remember)… or everyone else was equally as drunk and didn’t notice Normally work is one of those catalysts which encourage drinking.  I think it started from living in London.  From working there I learnt that, after work, you had to drink on Monday (normally the most stressful day), Tuesday you probably had as non-drinking (unless you’re still recovering from whatever hell Monday was), you drank on Wednesday (hump day), you drank on Thursday (almost the weekend), and you drank on Friday (well it is Friday).  I haven’t always been like that, and even when I returned from the UK, I stopped drinking like that… for a while.  It’s probably only in the [...]

Happy New Year to everyone!
31/12/11 • 1 Comment

Last night we hosted one rather larger party. It will be our last party ever in our wonderful apartment and so we wanted to make it good. I should say that we have an apartment with a 100m2 balcony that overlooks Brisbane and looks straight down Brunswick St Mall – so even though we’re up high, we’re right in the centre of all the New Year debauchery.  We were set up with a full deck and a number of DJs to entertain. I think we kicked everyone who wasn’t sleeping out at 4.30am. And I had not one droplet of drink At about 5.30pm I really thought I’d made a mistake and should have waited until after NY. But I knew that that would just be an excuse, and another excuse would come along soon enough (I’m already being asked about Australia Day). I admit, I felt smug looking at [...]

Day One…
26/12/11 • 1 Comment

So today is DAY ONE of Hello Sunday Morning. Officially anyway. I didn’t drink yesterday or on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day I did drink… because I felt I “had to get rid of the Moet”. Although it’s remarkably easy at the moment. Mainly because I have a cold and do not feel like doing anything.   I am doing this now for a number of reasons.  The reality is I’m a middle-class person, living in the inner city (at least for another month – apartment is under contract), in successful employment.  I don’t associate myself with the stereotype of an alcoholic, partially or wholly.  BUT, over the last 5 years, alcohol has become part of my social life and I don’t want it to be a permanent part.   I was looking for a photo to upload, and struggled to find one which was not one of me with [...]