An article in today's BBC news caught my eye. It was about people having drink related accidents on holiday not being able to claim. That of course doesn't bother me any more but the fact the article stated that drinking is part of what a holiday entails did make me take notice.
I remember years ago, especially in my teens when my annual holiday did indeed involve booze, and was often focused purely around booze. The chances are I would be in Spain, the drinking would start early in the day and go on until the early hours of the next day. I would spend hours round the pool drinking beer, ogling the girls and wishing I had the nerve to talk to them and that would be the sum of my holiday.
Now I would hate to go on a holiday like that and I wouldn't be caught dead in an 'all-inclusive' resort because for one I would hate all the drunks, and two I would resent subsidising their drinking. It just goes to show what a massive attitude change has taken place since I quit alcohol and I expect the same will happen to you if you decide to quit forever.
On this note I had been hoping to take my wife on a Thames dinner cruise this summer and have been looking at what is on offer. To my disgust every cruise I can find involves a free bottle of wine per couple. Obviously I can have water or a soft drink instead, but these cruises are expensive and once again I resent having to pay for something I just don't want. Surely there must be a cruise with a menu that doesn't include booze!!!
This sort of expectation that everyone will want to get pissed or at least need alcohol involvement to enjoy themselves is perhaps the only thing that gets me riled these days. Everything else I take with a pinch of salt.

If you have managed Dry January but need something to keep you motivated why not sign up for Swimathon 2018?
I do this event every year and have ever since I used it as a motivation to quit smoking twenty-five years ago. I now swim nearly every day of the week and manage a mile each session (64 lengths of a standard pool). This keeps me fit, looking trim and swimming works every muscle for you. Why sit in a bar or at home nursing something alcoholic when you can be nursing your whole body to a great shape and taking away the desire for booze at the same time. And swimming really is a great way to focus your mental energies and boost your willpower. Sign up now at www.swimathon.org  

It is amazing how many people in my office are now going drink free and some of them forever like me. Certainly Dry January helps, but the fact that I have been working there for over four months, have enjoyed all the lunches, entertaining and other after-work activities and been alcohol free seems to have started a trend, and the realisation that you don't need alcohol to have fun and it means anything but the fact you are boring.

Everyone seems far happier, everyone has lost weight which makes them feel wonderful and all feel fitter and more alert. One unlikely chap even went to a 40th party last weekend and stayed dry. he said he felt great, drank fizzy water made to look like a G&T to stop himself being pestered, and drive a number of the drunken attendees home. His only concern is that the conversation with many of his mates was so boring after they became drunk and he realised there was no point talking to them as they wouldn't even remember what was being said. He ended up chatting to the three other people at the party who were also off the booze.

It really is such a nice environment to work in!

I am finally back from an amazing month in India. I have so many relevant tales to tell which I will feed in over the coming weeks, but once again it was a blessing not to be beholden to alcohol. As we were for the main part in remote areas of India there were so few occasions when I would have been able to buy alcohol, or at least something safe to drink, the torment of wanting a drink would have been terrible. It wasn't until we hit the tourist areas of Kerala that drink became more readily available and needless to say the locals couldn't understand why this white European wasn't in India solely to get smashed on cheap booze!