Back
13/05/12 • 5 Comments

Finished my first 100-day HSM about a month ago. Since then I’ve drank a few times when I’ve gone out. No denying I’ve had a tonne of fun and I do enjoy having a drink.  Alcohol gets in the way of things for me though. Last few months I’ve figured out there are a few things I really want and alcohol doesn’t seem to fit into those plans, not for me anyway. Not feeling like being overly reflective today so I’ll leave it at that but I’m jumping on for another HSM, this time for 6-months. One thing about our culture I’ve picked up in my month back drinking is the obsession we have with everyone drinking the same amount. If guys are drinking beers, a new round can’t be purchased until all have finished their beers, even if one guy has over half his beer left he is expected [...]

Smiles
07/04/12 • 4 Comments

Quick one to HSMers old and new. Keep writing! One of the highlights of my day is jumping online and reading about the ups and downs you all go through each day. Watching people’s writing change and transform (and note they are writing how they are feeling/thinking so it’s their feelings and thoughts that are really changing) is really something special. On another note, my HSM is officially done but still yet to drink. Feeling a lot of pressure to drink this coming week with some friends in Melbourne. I’m torn between wanting to and not wanting to. Still have this feeling in my head that if I drink I may as well get wasted…, I understand that changing the way you think about alcohol over the past 7 years, can’t be changed in 3-months so I’ll be interested to see what I do

All done
01/04/12 • 7 Comments

Finished my HSM today. 3-months no booze, wierd to think I haven’t had a drink since NYE. 230pm at local pub watching the footy, a stranger sitting with us offers me a beer he got for free. I politely decline and don’t give it a second thought. 5pm sitting on my friends porch. Her housemate who I just met is sitting with me and we’re having a good chat, I notice he has been sitting here by himself for a while as he has 4 empty stubbies (I note that I find it interesting that I noticed this). He gets up to go inside and asks if I want a beer. I politely decline and think how its coincidential I get two offers of free beer on the day I finish my HSM. No real point to either of those stories, it’s just what happened today.  Not sure what next [...]

First thing on my mind, or last thing on my list?
30/03/12 • 5 Comments

So my HSM officially finishes tomorrow. Guess it’s worked because the last thing on my mind is a drink. Here is my plan for the weekend (note the complete lack of alcohol).  Woke up at 6am to a message from a friend saying “its so nice to wake up on a Saturday morning without a hangover” (p.s. only draw back to working for HSM is your friends assume you are awake at 6am every Saturday & Sunday so they like to text/call you to say how awesome they are feeling, p.p.s re-reading what I just wrote, that actually isn’t a draw back, it’s another perk!)…I continue… The rest of the weekend will involve, seeing mates, training, reading and working. Now, most people would think that after 3 months of not drinking the number one thing on the list would be – go get hammered – in fact what I’m feeling [...]

” I drink fuck all anyway”
29/03/12 • 2 Comments

I barely drink, I don’t drink, I don’t like drinking, I only drink a couple of drinks when I go out, I could easily not drink forever, I have fun without drinking, I drink fuck all anyway These are things I have heard people say when I talk to them about HSM the past few months. These people feel like they don’t have anything to learn from the HSM experience, they don’t feel like alcohol makes any impact on their life. While they may not learn anything they have the opportunity to teach the rest of us a hell of a lot. I had coffee with a guy the other day who said that people would come up to him at parties and say “we don’t get it, you’re sober and you are having more fun than anyone else” This is the experience that HSMers want, the first time you [...]