Don't drink alcohol for a month

So far it is going quite well. I’ve been to five pubs since last Friday:
Friday, went over to the Gaff in Islington to see Hey. Called a pal who lives nearby. His attitude towards my drinking lemonade and lime was quite positive – wanted to know my feelings after the month was over, because he’s concerned about his own drinking. I had two pints of L&L and felt fine the next day.
Saturday I met up with a friend in Chiswick. She was drinking a glass of wine and was less accepting of me drinking coffee, saying that she was having to ‘drink on her own’, which is hardly true as she was in company, just the only one drinking alcohol.
Sunday, on a bike ride – got incredibly wet and ducked into a garden centre and then later had lunch (and an L&L) in a riverside pub. Some had beer, but I felt no temptation to do so.
Yesterday, I was ill. I’m sure this has nothing to do with not drinking – and a lot with my faulty central heating system – and even now I’m not tempted to drink whisky to cure the cold. Went into my nearest pub for lunch – a bowl of pasta and sauce, and a cup of tea. Then in the evening, to the West End and a downstairs gig by a band I’ve seen several times before. They’re good mates now. L&L, £3.70 a pint which is more than beer; at those prices I only had one. Once again, no wish to drink beer, despite most of the band being ale fans – went back to the tube station with one of the musicians and had a good conversation with her, quite sober – you see, it is possible.
Meanwhile the diary is filling up with gigs and pub reopenings (well, one) and the Christmas Bike Ride which takes place on the last Sunday of D30 – previous years it’s been an excuse for a lot of Winter Warmer (we ride to another riverside pub) but this time I just won’t. I think that if people accept me not drinking alcohol then I don’t feel put upon. Certainly if one is riding a bicycle then not drinking is understandable – though why shouldn’t it be understood anyhow?
Status: one third of the way through. My last alcoholic drink is still the bottle of Old Ale I had on 16 November.
Feeling: ill, but that is unconnected. Having been out last night (and listened to some good tunes, shared a sadly uncommon moment with my friend, and got the late train home) tonight I am staying in. Otherwise feeling good.

I don’t really expect to say much about how it’s going until it’s been a week, because not drinking on weekdays isn’t that unusual. So far I haven’t drunk on Monday or Tuesday – no biggie. But on Friday I plan to go and see a band in Islington and then possibly go to a club afterwards, this will be interesting drinking Lemonade and Lime instead of beer. Last time I was at that club I’d had too much to drink already and was quite unable to talk to a woman I wanted to talk to.
I’ve looked at the social events during the month and apart from beer festivals and pub crawls (though even that’s a possible) there isn’t anything that will require me to have a drink. The Christmas Party at work falls into this period also and it’ll be fun going to that and not drinking. People assume I’m going to drink wine or beer, that is one of the drivers for me; change.
You assume people can’t change? Especially men, for some reason; women are encouraged to change, men less so. I deny this. I think we can change, and should if we need to.

A week would be too easy – I’ve had weeks without alcohol before. But I don’t want to just quit inflexibly, because I want to have a review of the situation after a suitable period of time, and it seemed a month is right.
So what I plan to do is stop drinking alcohol with effect from tomorrow, 17 November, and with the last day being 16 December. Then I will reassess the position. I may well feel a lot better. I may decide to go back to drinking beer, but only in specified circumstances (Campaign for Real Ale meetings, etc), and not wine or spirits at all.

no alcohol since Feb 17th
I close this goal

sipping vodka as i write this…
my mums out the froint screaming accross the highway to the guy accross the road pissed off her face.
i hate this.
i hate who ive become
i cant go a day without a drink anymore
thats why im giving up on this goal

wow! ok its been 10 days since my last drink. which is great considering i used to not be able to go one day. i can do this.
no wait… australia days coming up soon haha

i plan on doing this for the month of february. i think it will be good. take a break from the whole going out scene. its perfect because a bunch of my friends said they will do it with me. =)

lol i wish. ive bene tryin for like a year but uh yeh not really gonn ahappen. i luv my alcohol =]

Had a really bad hangover the last time and I should have known better than drinking like that on a work night. Went to work feeling crappy and am just tired of that feeling.

I made it. This was a great idea and I will probably do it again in the future.