Time flies

Time flies when you're drinking, or so it seems. Actually, you're either passed out for a good chunk of time or you simply don't remember it.

I had forgotten that time can fly when you're sober, too. How I ever found the time to drink I don't know! I'm not saying that I have more energy now, but I do feel less sluggish when I wake up.

It's been a busy few days since my last post - and about to get busier - and I've been suffering from the mother and father of all colds that is threatening to turn nasty because I'm not able to take time off work and stay at home to get better. Last time I was sick like this was about 4-5 years ago. I used to tell people that I didn't get colds because the alcohol killed the germs before they could get hold of me, and I must admit at the weekend I did think longingly of my favourite cold remedies - Lemsip laced with rum, or simply drinking huge quantities of rum and coke, to sweat the cold out of my system. I've been turning out my kitchen cupboards and I keep finding little boxes of hot toddy sachets, mulled wine sachets, and mulled wine spiced syrup ... It all points to how much I was drinking regularly.

On Friday night I went out with 4 former colleagues. I drank diet coke at the pub before we went to the restaurant, and at the restaurant I drank water. All but one of my friends kept asking me why I wasn't drinking (my responses ranged from, I'm taking too many paracetemol for my cold to risk it/I've got an early start in the morning/I don't feel like it/I can't taste it at the moment with this cold so it's a waste) and they all kept on joking that I'd been abducted by aliens and a stranger had been left in my place. I did feel quite alien - not myself, not the life and soul and not really very interested in anything any of them had to say - and that wasn't a nice feeling at all. I wonder if I was always so quick to drink to fit in with these people? Individually they're very nice, but I never did enjoy going out in groups ...

I'm going out again tonight with a couple of colleagues. We're all very stressed and tempers are frayed. I think I'd rather stay at the hotel! But I'll go and be sociable, and I won't retreat into my usual ploy of a few drinks to make the evening go more smoothly. I'll get the hang of this sobriety lark if it kills me!