Meenzer

Already perfected. Who needs Apple?

I'm still about 8kg above the lightest I've ever been as an adult and that's still about 7kg above my ideal weight. Depressing really.

Give him a couple of hours in the kitchen and CT can make you a completely black bird for the price of a £2 broiler hen and some leccy.

I'll have been into three figures units-wise by the end. Drinking fairly consistently both daytime and night - as you say, working from home was unquestionably a problem, or at least a handy convenience. Plus (without wishing to sound like an arse) I'm pretty good at the rather limited job I do, so even doing it hungover or actively drunk I can still produce perfectly passable work. In hindsight, not an ideal combination for someone with a tendency to the addictive, I guess. It's still just a mindset shift though, at the end of the day. Quite a substantial one, but still.

I went to my GP first. Wasn't prescribed anything but she referred me to the local "integrated misuse service" (ahh, NHS-speak) where I had a couple of one-to-one meetings with an advisor and attended a couple of group sessions over about a four-week period. It would/could have been more frequent but the period coincided with a week's holiday in mid-December then Christmas and New Year, and by the time we got to January I'd been dry under my own steam for a month or so and basically no longer fell under the centre's remit (though the door was and remains open if I were to relapse or anything). Anyway, in my case I think all I really needed was to be honest and talk about it in order to start getting a grip on things, particularly since (fortunately) I wasn't actually physically dependent yet, so it was "just" a habit that needed un-learning. Also (as bad as I feel for saying as much) it also didn't hurt to experience first-hand how I could end up if I didn't deal with things - you see some sights in an integrated misuse service waiting room. Obviously it's on my medical record now, but that's hardly uncommon, it's just that there is (to use the word) a stigma that makes us believe there aren't as many people struggling with it as there actually are. Fortunately the liver is quite resilient as long as you don't fuck it up completely - I had regular (bi-monthly) blood tests for the first six months or so and I'm basically back to healthy levels in terms of most things, and the rest will come with time and/or as soon as I can stop my occasional binge Haribo-eating sessions. too. I'm fortunate in that it didn't affect my work sufficiently for it to become a problem from a performance/disciplinary point of view, though, and it definitely alarms me to think what would have happened if it had. Hadn't thought about the insurance thing either, now that you mention it...

The thought is still a bit daunting tbh, but it just becomes your reality. Mind, I was at a point where I wouldn't have kicked it in the first place without a bit of help, so it's a different scenario really. I get the impression it's a lot easier to be a non-drinker among drinkers than it once was, though - drink-driving was effectively stigmatised starting from a few decades ago so there's often a designated driver around anyway, pubs have loads more interesting non-alcoholic drinks so it's not just watery Diet Coke from the tap, and so on. My life is better, but it's certainly a bit less fun. Fewer peaks but also fewer troughs and a better average trend, to get all HF about it.

That's been one of my most effective motivations for staying off it tbh. Obviously I've "had" to for other reasons, but remembering how bad mid-30s hangovers had become and thinking that they were only going to get grimmer.... ouch. Good work Stevie, I won't say the worst is over mentally (you'll always have that urge for a pint while you're off it, especially on a nice day or in a familiar old watering hole) but physically at least it should start getting easier. And at least you've got the carrot of a potentially fatal session of pure excess dangling in front of you.

Takes me back to the heady days of "manc-foplite", that does.

New episodes of Only Connect and Pointless?

England done a win.

Christmas (Yew) Tree

That does sound like a recipe for emergency-level trapped wind.

An appropriate start if ever there was one.

I can recommend a fake Nepalese restaurant.

I'd stick up for the choyla too, except apparently it's traditionally made with buffalo meat. Less easy to come by over here I suppose.

https://twitter.com/jfpenman/status/508883298790412288/photo/1

If we're bemoaning authenticity, the specials menu even had Haggis Pakora on it. I had to try it.

He does.

This. To be fair, I haven't a clue how authentic the menu is or otherwise. All I know is you shouldn't note its similarity to Indian food within earshot of the owner.

Nepalese food tonight. "Might" eat the restaurant out of hansh bhutuwa. (Duck isn't only for pizza!)

But enough about CT...