Well chumlies, here we are again. Another Wednesday, another January, another New year, another bleary eyed start to the day.
I like January actually. Same way as I like Mondays. it's the start of something, a beginning, there are possibilities ahead, challenges, the road is open and untraveled.
I like the clean slate feel to January. When I was young I always got a huge sense of other worldy magic to the first day or two of January. I don't get that anymore, possibly because I'm not riding across a frosty field, not am I a teenager, but I still retain the pleasure in the newness of it all, in writing up plans and resolutions.
This years resolutions are-
1- I plan to get up earlier. For those of you poor souls who must go out to work everyday, I salute you. Working from home affords me the opportunity to lollygag about in bed longer than I should. I LIKE sleeping, a lot. But I genuinely feel I'm losing out on the day be sleeping in so often and so readily. So I'm going to resolve to get out of bed no later than 8am.
2- I am going to train more frequently and more diligently. I've definitely let the running and the gym slide in December as I dribbled into a fog of going out and dancing and hooching it up. I and my 3 kilos extra can attest to it. But now it is January. time to get back into the runners and haul my expanding arse back out onto the road.
3-Drink less.
Oh this one is my doozy, for anyone who knows anything about anything know that I like to drink. It says so in my profile, I am a DEVOTED drinker. I like wine and beer and rum, especially rum. I could drink rum all day long-if I didn't need my liver or my job/home/relationship/health.
But now I am in the second day of a two month detox. I will be off hooch until Sam come over at the end of Feb, then off it again until Medbh arrives. Also I will be off red meat and most dairy ( oh cheese, I will miss you the most) It's only a few weeks I keep telling myself. It won't undue December's Bacchalian excesses but it will kick start my system.
4- I will run the Dublin City Marathon this year in under 5 hours.
5-I will stop getting outraged by Reiki and psychics and.... No fuck it, four resolutions are enough for any person.
So there you have it. There I have it. It's in print, in public, on screen. Of course I didn't get up until almost nine today and I'm still in my gown, but I've started and I will run later today, after work. I will, I swear. I know it looks dark and miserable out there, but I'll throw on my new wind repelling jacket-thanks Finn- and I will hit the road. Even if the road hits me back, it will be worth it.
Happy New year folks.
This year I am not making any specific resolutions - other than to try and look on the bright side and be mostly optimistic; and I will try to spend time in the company of friends and acquaintances who are life enhancers. Last year I spent too much time trying to be a shoulder to cry on for some of life's eternal whingers - and no matter how much anyone tries to advise or help them they still whinge on about their problems, never once asking about yours. So this is gong to be a year of selfish self-preservation!
ReplyDeleteI have failed my only resolution this year, oops, well the only one that I told anyone about anyway. I gave up drink for good about 6 mths ago, well not so much gave up, I will still have one or two on a rare occasion and managed a half a bottle of wine on NYE (I was hammered on that much) I just gave up getting shit faced, and I feel so much better for it, good luck to you FMC!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I should have added, a very happy new year to you, FMC - let's hope this will be a really good one for you. I hope you win a well deserved Best Blog award this year!
ReplyDeleteHappy New year to you to Dahling.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're quite right, there really is only so much of someone else's crying a gal can be expected to cope with Shebah. Especially if that person do NOTHING to alter his or her circumstances.
Babs you nailed it. Country Gay and I were just discussing how much we can drink and still feel relatively normal the next day-albeit a little fuzzy, and he said, 'maybe it's just normal to us.' And that bothered the shit out of me. So I'm off now for the two months, and then I'll keep things on a tight rein for a while afterwards and she how she goes.
Happy New Year FMC. Cutting down on the booze is top priority so far for the NY resolutions, after that I'll maybe stop kicking squirrels. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteFMC I used to drink everyday "socially", my boyfriend at the time is now a conessed alcoholic, I used to polish off about 6 or 7 drinks every evening, I could get by without it but it was better with it. A while ago, I was out with some people I used to hang about with more, I consumed a hearty 14 drinks (pints of beer to start moving onto whiskey), I am 5 foot four inches, I weigh in at 9.5 stone, I am not big, I shouldn't have been able to consume that much, I should have been on the floor or getting my stomach pumped, I was out of the brains, but still fairly coherent, as in, I didn't black out and I remember the important events of the night, I didn't like how I felt in the taxi on the way home, I was alone, on about a 5 mile trip, I knew that if anything were to happen I wouldn't be able to fight back as I was way too shitfaced, I decided the next day that I was never going to get that way again, and I haven't so far, now if I could only do the same with the dreaded fags.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you dropped #5 or I'd never read your blog again.
ReplyDeleteHNY to ya, HoNeY.
Happy New Year FMC.
ReplyDeleteNo resolutions for me this year - too lazy to think of any. Maybe I should just have 1 - put more effort into stuff in general.
Babs Jesus 14 pints, I think I would be dead although I find the quantity of alcohol you can consume often depends on your humour. 14 pints though, would it not cripple your stomach the next day? It is most commendable you successfully gave it the boot, well done.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year Miss Cat & Co good luck with the resolutions!
My newspaper to-day says that a bit of alcohol is very good for you, it keeps the arteries unfurred, staves off terrible brain diseases in later life like Alzheimers (Sp?) and Parkinsons, keeps you from getting stress related illnesses - all in all just the kind of scientific info I want to hear!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, FMC.
ReplyDeleteI'll also resolve to drink less, get up earlier, and then my big resolution is to write a book. Finding a job would also be a bonus.
You have my vote for Best Blog and totally deserve it.
I hear you you Babs, I can put away most of a bottle of Rum easy and I had some heavy sessions over the christmas break that would floor most people I know. But I noticed the increase and I noticed the 'justifications' I used, so I'll be rolling that dial all the way back down.
ReplyDeleteAs Shebah points out, moderation is the key to everything, but I genuinely wanted to do this little detox, I'm off red meat and most dairy as well. I'll give it a whirl for the two months and see how I feel afterwards. It sure as shit can't hurt.
Happy new year to gary, primal, Ba and nonny. I hope you all had a wonderful break and are feeling chipper.
Medbh! Well done. That's so exciting. What are you planning to write? Fiction, non fiction?
Nonny: You would think that I would be in a total state the next day but never once did I suffer more than a mild hangover, I got up at a normal time and ate normally all day, I am not a puker either when it comes to drink, that was the most I had ever consumed and it was not pretty, I ws actually scared of the state that I was in.
ReplyDeleteFMC: I found my tolerance for alcohol went way down, so now I get the desired effect after 2 bottles of beer, tis great, cheap date tastic!
I've used the link on TwentyMajor's blog to the Irish Blog Awards to nominate you. Go girl!
ReplyDeletehttp://awards.ie/blogawards/nominations/
"I can put away most of a bottle of Rum easy"
ReplyDeleteWow, rum like Bacardi is that not like 40ish% alcohol? Would you not be falling all over the place? This is most interesting. I honestly don't know what my drinking capacity is. I know sometimes I could go out and only have a couple of drinks and know I am pissed yet other nights I’d have the same amount and be fine but a bottle of Rum fuck that I’d be dead. Could yee always drink like this or is it something that you acquire? I must be weak. Fare play to you lot giving it up.
Thanks Shebah.
ReplyDeleteBabs, if after two months on the dry one delicious cocktail makes me buzzy I'll be very pleased.
You might give one of Allen Carrs book a try-if you're considering giving up the fags. I did it when I turned thirty and I haven't smoked a fag since, no 'orrible twinges or longings neither and I was a 20-30 a day girl.
As I said to Finn recently, Bacardai is to rum as Puddy is to bengal tigers. But yes, over the course of an evening out I could put away most of a bottle of rum, I would be drunk, but not falling about all over the place. But then I also find rum a really 'clean' drink, if it was vodka I'm be lying under a table somewhere.
ReplyDeleteOh good. An entire post about something I can understand, the pros and cons of overindulgence. Phew! After the horrifying trilogy of Amanda,Danny,Carrot Toppage, I was thinking some of your local chums should be staging an FMC intervention. Nice to know that won't be necessary. Happy New Year & how does one vote?
ReplyDeleteNo now my nautical chum, don't try to pretend the ginger doesn't make you quiver. Happy New Year to you.
ReplyDeleteYou can vote by popping over here.
http://awards.ie/blogawards/nominations/
I get there is all different types of rums but what is nice, is dark rum nice or what about something like Morgan Spice Rum, tell me the name of a good rum please, I want to see what it is like.
ReplyDeleteGrossly inappropriate as people are talking of giving it up but I am having a house warming the weekend and want to stock up now!
in USVI i found delightful stuff called blackstrap rum (Cruzan) -- heavens it's tasty and expeditious.
ReplyDeletejust want to clarify -- a glass of wine doesn't qualify as hooch, does it? right? no i'm NOT shrieking.
Havana 7 is a good rum too.
ReplyDeleteFinn, it counts. It ALL counts.
My local offies has some dark spiced rum for a tenner - can't remember the name of it, but it tasted yum. Silly buggers didn't see me coming. Oh the sheep and I had a merry ol' nite that nite.
ReplyDeleteWhy do most rum drinkers love Sailor Jerrys? Its far too sweet.
Ohh yep, yep they are on my beer list Havanna Club 7 and Cruzan but there are about 30 different kinds of Cruzan Rum. I’ll go with the Havanna and the Cruzan, people keep telling me about that Morgan Spice, maybe that’s the one your talking about Sheepy, it’s cheapo cheapo but apparently it is delicious. I’m gonna get the three of them. I hope they are all good to go in cocktails. I also hope my guests can operate with the same level of decorum as Miss Cat and Babs when fully loaded.
ReplyDeletewhoa there nelly, cant we go through the seven stages of grief first??
ReplyDeleteWe can, but only if we call grief by its true name, procrastination.
ReplyDeleteRight, I'm off to put runners on, eeek it is cold out there and dark and there is vind, viiind, VIIIND!
Hi! Happy Christmas/New years to you too and yes I was drunk....wherever I was; your guess is as good as mine there.
ReplyDeleteI've also resolved to get up earlier each day, no later than 8:30 though. This is meant to go hand in hand with my new attempt to work in the library each day and not from my 'desk-of-many-distractions'
I reckon you'll emerge a new fatmammycat on the other side. I gave up drinking altogether between 22 and 24 and then again between 26 and 30 mostly to get pregnant, feed babies etc. Then for a few years when the girls were babies I was just too knackered for it even to occur to me. We'd just moved across the country and we didn't know anyone so there was noone asking us out or anything. When we did, finally, I was happy enough to be designated driver. I can't say I felt the better of not having it 'cos my body was otherwise engaged in other mostly uncomfortable processes. But it did make an unrecoverable dent in my tolerance.
ReplyDeleteI went from a pretty typical Hebridean drinker - all we Lewis girls were able to outdrink the fellas in the Halls of Residence at uni - to a 2 glasses of wine... thwump kind of a gal. I drink like a Scottish person, which is to say lots of fast sips so I quit wine for beer cos I was just drinking wine faster than I could deal with it. 4 beers used to be about it for me - so much had my tolerance been reduced. A few years later and find I can pretty well drink beer all night without getting too fucked up. It took years to get back to that though and any whiff of spirits has me pretty swiftly on my arse. I don't get messed up that much really, but I thoroughly enjoy it when I do. Going home always brings the teenager back out in me. When I come over to Ireland I shall be without kids and any responsibility for anyone but myself. That rarely happens so I intend to make the most of it and have much much fun with the gin and the wine and the beer.
Good luck with it, fmc - and well done on giving up the smoking so resolutely. I dinna smoke myself but I've heard that, of the two, that one is by far the hardest. If you can do that, not drinking for two months'll be a breeze.
Don't worry Sam, when you come over I'm taking you to Krush, where we can sample their seven deadly sins cocktail list. Sloth is delicious.
ReplyDeleteRA! And merry happy returns. So you too have a desk-of-many-distractions, and here I though I was the only one. The getting up thing is really a bit of a bugger isn't it. I'm all full of good intentions and what not, but come morning I'm toasty and my intentions seem to have fled.
I have just returned from my first post boozefest run. You simply cannot imagine how ungainly and huffy it was.
I have an Allen Carr book, I just can't seem to locate it! Oops! I quit for a year before, I am a thick. Captain Morgans Spiced Rum, yum! If only I was able for it these days. I sound like a granny, but I am only 24. I also don't drink on nights out with my friends as none of them can be trusted to be the designated driver, they are awful, I am dead set against even one drink and getting behind the wheel, so I take the responsiblilty as I could never forgive myself if I let a drunken friend get behind the wheel and where we live, there are no taxis, or maybe one if you are lucky and still hanging about at 5am.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as you are forgoing red meat and dairy, might I evangelise for trying a wee bit of vegetarianism. Trust me you will feel super dooper.
ReplyDeleteMy one resolution was to compete in the Wildflower Olympic distance triathlon, (very nasty hard one in Monterey). I have never done a triathlon, despite having swum, (did the Alcatraz to San Francisco swim a few years back), and biked forever. However, my torn meniscus has seriously put that in doubt. I am still entering. We'll see how training progresses. There's about 7lb's that need to be lost for starters...
Babs, If you did it once you can do it again-the smoking I mean. And you're quite right about drinking and driving, I always leave the car behind too if I'm going out.
ReplyDeleteJohn I don't think I could give up everything. I mean, the way this works I'll be eating mostly fish anyway, but to give up meat completely is slightly more than I can think about.
But huzzah and congrats on entering your first triathlon. When is it? Do you feel you might be healed by then? What sort of training are you doing? Seven pounds eh, I figure that's close enough to my xmas extras too. Damn that brandy butter.
Thing is a meniscus never heals. Once you are passed your late 20's most people don't have enough blood supply to the cartilage to make it heal. Mine was on the outer part of the meniscus so there was a very outside chance there might be blood flow, and it has improved, but 6 months on its still there, so I figure I am stuck with it. Dr says its a a matter of operating and removing the torn cartilage, or me deciding I can put up with it. I am taking sodium Chondriton and Glucosamine and it does seem to have helped. It's unproved medically though.
ReplyDeleteRe training. I am going totally scientific. My friend runs a company which trains endurance athletes. You start by measuring your based level, VO2 max, wattage output and host of other measurements and then set a training program accordingly. With kids and work I can't afford to bash away at it, and with my history I'll just injure myself. I plan on optimising my time, cycling to work, (28 miles return), and there is a pool near work so swim at lunch etc.
Seeing as you are forgoing red meat and dairy, might I evangelise for trying a wee bit of vegetarianism. Trust me you will feel super dooper.
ReplyDeleteThat bloody John Mc and his crazy ways. Don't listen to him. You might catch vegetarianism from his evil prose.
In fact I'm going to eat a handful of raw mince just to be on the safe side
ReplyDeleteWell fair play to you, that terrific. Very admirable. I'd liek to try one some time, but I am a poor swimmer and I'm not particularly speedy either.
ReplyDeleteAisling who drops by here regularly is plotting a triathlon this year I believe and Finn up above there is a super triathlete. It strikes me as very tough, much tougher than a marathon because you've got to be master of three trades, where as poodling along until you cross the line, while tough, is very doable. Mind you I may need to revise that statement if I want to include some actual speed into the equation.
When is it?
Twenty, we passed like two listing filthy tankers in the night. I'm not sure raw mince is all that good for people, but I'm willing to bet that won't make the slightest difference to you.
ReplyDeleteVegitarianoitus, heh maybe it is a internet virus and you will all catch it, ah haa damned the lot of you.
ReplyDeleteGreat, Twenty's probably gone out hunting unsuspecting cattle with a Bowie Knife and Basterdface as we type.
ReplyDeleteWell, goodnight. If I am to have ANY chance of getting up early tomorrow I must away to bed, also I have many new books to devour. Bless you christmas presents.
Ahh bed won't be getting there for another couple of hours at least. Goodnight, may the morning deem you an early riser.
ReplyDeleteTwenty
ReplyDeleteJaysus, at least cook the mince - beware mad cow disease.
FMC,
Tis on in May, at the most beautiful location. I have been warned the hills and wind make it difficult and I should do an easier tri first. The website describes it thus - "1.5K open water swim, a 40K (extremely hilly bike course) and a brutal 10K run course"
eek, nice use of adjectives.
ReplyDeleteNo fags for almost 24 hours, I am feeling wretched but know that it will be over soon, this is the longest I have lasted the last ten times I have tried!
ReplyDeleteWell DONE!! See, and nothing bad has happened to you. You haven't ripped your hair out or fainted. If you keep going nothing bad WILL happen to you. Bravo girl, Bravo indeed!
ReplyDelete