Tip-toeing back, tail slightly ‘tween legs …
20/10/11 • 4 Comments

It has been ‘ages’ since my last post and life has indeed changed quite radically. I started a three month HSM in (roughly) April of this year, having just quit my job in a somewhat desperate bid to make headway on my PhD and reset the clock of life. I completed the three months feeling fantastic, bounded ahead with my studies (though not quite finishing), got a new job, new car, new lease on ‘everything’ and leapt back into the fast lane. I also started dating again and pretty much met my soulmate (I’ll get back to this at some point because it’s pertinent to note, our first umpteen dates included no alcohol whatsoever  … and they could not have been better!!!). My first week in the post-HSM world included a nasty fall off the wagon, but then I climbed back on again and found myself cruising nicely: I enjoyed [...]

Further Post-HSM reflections
01/08/11 • 1 Comment

This week has brought about a few further (I don’t want to say ‘revelations’, but) revelations. Looking back, when I came off HSM and slipped into a vat of wine, only to then find myself so wretchedly sick the next day(sss) that I swore off alcohol completely all over again, I can now see that it was a bit like taking the training wheels off or releasing a pendulum that had been held firmly to one side for an extended period (full of potential energy). Notwithstanding the circumstances (which included a bunch of excited friends, a party that I was a bit nervous to attend, a stack of things to celebrate, and also having failed to eat lunch ‘or’ dinner in the hype of it all …) I took off down the hill on my hypothetical dragster with no training wheels and went smashing into the curb at high speed [...]

lesson learned
23/07/11 • 8 Comments

… tried going back to alcohol last night after 3 months … not good … Don’t think I can drink anymore ever … Oh lord, I haven’t felt this bad since I was a teenager and I tried alcohol for the first time. I should’ve quit there and then …

Week 11: Done
17/07/11 • 4 Comments

This week has felt significant. My goals when starting out were: (1) to finish the PhD, (2) complete a 3 month HSM, (3) get a job, (4) prepare two journal articles for publication, and (5) start living again. I can now strike one of those off the list. Exhale.   I started the three month stint having quit my job in a bid to wrest back ‘nearly enough’ time to finally conquer the damn doctorate. The logistics of the manoeuvre have involved borrowing money up to my eyeballs, halting my mortgage payments for as long as absolutely possible and taking a gamble that within three months, I’d be close to finishing the doctorate and will have secured full-time work (ideally doing something I want to be doing and ideally at my current university). Many paragraphs, job applications, serious job-preparation sessions and a number of interviews later and I have finally [...]

The Opposite of Support
07/06/11 • 9 Comments

Well, this is my sixth week on HSM and I’ve got to say, it’s been great … and much, much easier than I’d ever have anticipated. My support goes out to anyone who is really struggling with the challenge, but I also wanted to include a positive plug for anyone out there needing a bit of encouragement to give it a go. It is worth it.  Having said that, if I wasn’t on HSM right now I’d certainly be wanting to drown my sorrows in a big, neverending bottle of wine. Without going into unnecessary detail (and without wishing to sound too sorry for myself because, afterall, the situation really isn’t that bad – it’s not like I’m an animal being shipped off to a torturous end in an overseas slaughterhouse or any other form of truly desperate, shocking situation). In comparison it’s nothing at all (but please bear with [...]