Second Test

BUY:

$5.80 - train to the city 

$20 - round of drinks 

$50 - taxi home

WHY?

Last Saturday was a major test of my conviction to remain alcohol-free for 2012 because it was the first of three major events on my work calendar: our mid-year ball.  

That's my boss singing!

This is a huge night of awards, entertainment, music, dancing, food and drinking to celebrate successes at the half way point towards our financial year goals. Traditionally this night for me becomes the next morning, fuelled by more alcohol than someone of my size should be able to consume without liver failure, mixed with Red Bull to keep the energy levels up. 

I approached the night with some trepidation... Would I enjoy myself as much as I usually did without a bit of a buzz? Would I still enjoy the company of my inebriated friends as the evening progressed? Would I avoid the temptation?!!!

Answer: Hell yes! 

So, my purchases for the evening involved getting there, getting home at 5am in the morning and a round of drinks to keep said friends inebriated and entertaining me at 4am in the morning!

I didn't need to buy these friends a drink! They'd had plenty!!

First Test

BUY:

$10 - steak and mash (yes, I know that's a pizza in the photo. I'd already eaten my dinner!)

$6.40 - two Pink Lemonades

WHY?

Visit to the pub on Friday with a friend and first test of my resolution to abstain from alcohol. 

I passed. 

"Baby Caught the Bus"

BUY: $16.99 – iTunes Clairy Bower and the Bangin’ Rackettes: Baby Caught the Bus

WHY?

Actually, I catch the train more regularly but this has nothing to do with me and my travel habits. A review of the album in Spectrum on New Year’s Even caught my eye and after taking advantage of the sixty second preview on iTunes I knew this was an album (and local band) I would love.

Lacking the right understanding of music to properly describe the experience of listening to this album, to me Clairy Bower has a voice like whisky and cigarettes. The lyrics and sound is reminiscent of the sixties songs I was so fond of listening to when I was younger (and opened me up to ridicule on the bus to year 7 camp but there’s nothing positive about that story so I’m not going there) and the group name alone reminds me of great sixties bands like “Bill Hailey and the Comets” or “the Shangri-La’s”. Think the Ronettes fronted by Amy Winehouse!!

A couple of the songs (Far Too Late and I’ll Be Fine) create mental images of grainy black and white film clips with the backing singers off to the right, bopping along to the bee-hived lead singer in the centre.  For others, a spot light on Clairy Browne who is standing behind microphone singing her soul out to a darkened room while ashing her cigarette and drink spilling from her glass.

Defined as doo-wop, rhythm and blues, and soul , I don’t care what you call the music but I dare you to remain seated when Frankie is playing!

Reviewer Bernard Zuel writes “... you can tell Clairy Browne and her expansive band are a seriously good live act. She’s got a voice that has grit and kick but can run smooth when needed; they’ve got thrust and swing and aren’t afraid of letting go” . 

Sadly I won’t be able to see them perform live when they’re in Sydney for part of the Sydney Festival later this month as I am taking the first steps of my second New Year’s goal… to learn how to swing dance! I’ll just have to keep an ear to the ground for their next performances and put some of those moves to good use...

Summer blues*

BUY: $5.80 - return ticket to Milsons Point

WHY? To meet Mel for a walk around Sydney's harbour foreshore on a stunning summer day.

BUY: $6.50 - fresh ham, brie and baguette and $3.50 - coffee

WHY? Breakfast (and later lunch) in the shade of the Harbour Bridge

BUY: $3.40 - Cornetto

WHY? Undoing the good work I had done walking between Milsons Point and Waverton Park while watching Mel swim laps of the North Sydney Pool!

*sky blue, aqua, dark blue, bright blue...!

Resolution No. 1

BUY:

$6.40 - 8 bottles of natural mineral water

WHY?

I'm giving up grog for 2012.

Yes, you read that correctly. It's not a typo.

I may allow myself a drink or two at my best friend's wedding sometime in July or August but I am giving myself the gift of 365 days of sobriety.

I've been toying with the idea on and off for the last few weeks. However waking this morning, feeling like a cat had peed in my mouth, a small child was using my head as a drum and with no recollection of falling asleep full clothed on a friend's couch, cemented my decision.

I'm not an alcoholic (because alcoholics go to meetings hee hee), I am not ill and I haven't done a Ruby Rose and thrown up on any celebrities (or non-celebrities for that matter). I'm just over it.

Plus:

1. Drinking is expensive.
According to this blog, just between April and July 2010, I spent $292.85 on alcoholic beverages. And that doesn't take into account alcohol-associated purchases like Maccas or Panadol or the fact that my record keeping sucks, as you all well know, and this is probably only 70% of the actual amount outlaid.

2. Drinking is not good for you. 
I won't miss the post-bender blues that hit me two or three days after a night on grog and make me question my sanity.

3. You lose things when you drink. 
Dignity, inhibitions, motivation, my memory...

4. Hangovers. 
Enough said.


5. Drinking is not sexy. 
I'm not fully onboard with this statement. So I am changing it to "Excess drinking is not sexy".

And, just because I'm teetotalling for 2012 doesn't mean I have to miss out on bubbles... hence the sparking mineral water!

New Year's Eve

2 bottles of champagne $26

Taxi from one amazing view to the next $20.20

Harbour views... priceless