Cracker by Damian Christie

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Cracker: Caution Boaties

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  • Tom Semmens,

    Hmmm, I'm on a training program building up to a half marathon just now as well. I have discovered that when it comes to 12km runs on sore legs, Nurofen is again your friend. Still, I've run a couple before and trust me - training for the first one is the hardest by a long shot, the body DOES have some sort of fitness "memory" where once you've run 21km once it just knows how to do it again. I haven't run one for about seven years, and feeling my body respond to the demands being made of it is quite splendid.

    Now, I have a social life that involves a fair degree of weekend mayhem, and since drunken social smoking with the hotties and vast quantities of liquor do not mix with long distance running I've also given up that for the duration (i.e. the next seven weeks). It is quite amazing how even three beers the night before a big run can affect your performance. But when you take a break, you are are right about noticing how all-pervasive liquor is.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    makes a difference, aeh?

    the heart trouble meant i had to weight off the binge drinking, and i've since had that much more time to live with i'm not always sure what to do with it all.

    i was initially also flush with cash....

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    I normally take two months off the booze each year, because one month is for wooftahs. See? All you have to do is recast not drinking as macho and you're halfway there.

    More seriously: I started this shortly before the birth of our first child, because of the prospect of possibly having to drive to hospital at any time of the day or night. It worked well enough that I've now incorporated it into my yearly routine; Feb/March are off the sauce. It's a good reality check. The way I explain it to people (and you're right, the peer pressure can be pretty intense) is: if you give up drinking for a bit, and it's not a problem for you... then it's not a problem (by definition). But if you give up drinking and it is a problem, then you it's probably a good thing that you're not drinking for a bit.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • st ephen,

    My advice is to keep your hand in a little with the smoking and drinking. One day you too may have a chronic and incurable disorder and the best the medical profession will offer is "cut back on smoking, alcohol and caffeine". And if - like me - you're already down to one coffee/week, one standard drink/fortnight and no smoking for 20+ years, it doesn't leave you with much room to move.
    Plus it's always good to have some discretionary income up your sleeve when there's a recession looming...

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Anon,

    >I've noticed how incredible the peer pressure around drinking is.

    You'll also notice how your peers change when you cut back on the drink. You will meet new and perhaps interesting peers during the Saturday and Sunday forays into the morning light.

    Anon.

    Since Sep 2008 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Savidge,

    I've decided I don't want to participate in this conversation.

    But more power to you.

    *raises glass*

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

  • Public Servant on a tea-break.,

    Well done, and you’re right, it isn’t socially easy to lay off the drink for a bit.

    The socialising with booze thing, in all honesty, is too expensive to rationalise; personally I simple don’t have enough money too regularly transfer it by biological process from my bank account into the pub urinal. However, I more than aware that there are people who feel you have insulted them if you say ‘Not for me thanks, I’m good’.

    I’m not saying you should become a wowser, but people’s priorities change, be true to yours. Your mates will understand eventually. And surely after a couple of months of finding $50-100 (or whatever, I don't judge) extra in your wallet at the end of weekend, as well as discovering how to face weekend mornings without sunnies, the short-term benefits to you will be undeniable.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2008 • 67 posts Report Reply

  • Josh Addison,

    I thought one of the signs of alcoholism is that you occasionally give up drinking for a while, just to prove that you can...

    Onehunga, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 298 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Heh, I seem to remember talking to you about this with RB and Keith once.

    The bulgy waist reduction is the neatest part for those of us who are vain. Alcohol doesn't just stimulate your appetite and give you a bunch of extra kilojoules and reduce your enthusiasm for exercise the next day, it also changes your fat deposition patterns.

    I have done the no-drinking in Feb thing two years running now, since Jack blogged about it, and I recommend it.

    I've never copped any flack for it though. Maybe the peer pressure depends on your peers.

    One thing I wish is that red wine wasn't so damned alcoholic these days. A glass that's 14.5% alcohol has a fifth more alcohol in it than one that's 12%, and leads to unplanned tiddliness if you have a glass before dinner and one or two with. I also wish I could get Bookbinder in a bottle - terribly tasty and yet lower alcohol than most beer.

    I am also reminded of a phenomenon I encountered in the West Midlands: the Muslim Friend Who Drives. Lots of the 2nd and 3rd generation descendants of Pakistani Muslims were well integrated socially with the Anglosaxons, and ended up as perpetual designated drivers. I often thought that if you were culturally (if not religiously) a non-drinker then constant exposure to your boozed mates at the end of the night would certainly reduce your temptation levels.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    I find I don't lose a huge amount of weight when I'm off the booze, as I suddenly get really, really massive sugar cravings in the evenings. I suppose I could try to fight through those, but if I'm not having a beer with dinner I'm damn well going to have some ice cream when I'm starving at 10pm.
    I do have a lot more cash in hand, though.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Sam F,

    Having lost weight and endured a few months of pennilessness at the start of the year, my tolerance has fallen quite a lot, which has enormous flow-on benefits in terms of less alcohol spend for the same quantity of fun. And a neat feedback loop in terms of reduced weight thanks to less drinking, which means lower tolerance still and a lesser spend once again.

    "Danger to shipping" is indeed a choice phrase. Our mob generally go for the more prosaic "loose cannon". It was, indeed, part of the name of an award given for outstanding effort in harming the reputation of our ASPA contingent. (There was no winner in 2007; 2008, I'm not so sure.)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • Mark Graham,

    Now if we can sort out the fireworks, you'll be a model citizen.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 218 posts Report Reply

  • Ian MacKay,

    I noticed the price of cigarettes the other day while at a dairy. I said to the shopkeeper " Hell. They are over $10 a packet! I wish I smoked!"
    She said "Why?"
    "Well if I smoked I could give it up and think of the $70 + I would save each week."
    It has been said that those who pressure you to drink more, comes from an urge to cover their own concerns over their own drinking. If everyone is drinking I must be OK. Have another damn you. It is also said that when the drinkers call quits the school gets smaller until only the drunk is left.

    Bleheim • Since Nov 2006 • 498 posts Report Reply

  • Juha Saarinen,

    With a glass of wine costing $11 to $15 or more, and beer not much cheaper, sobriety is a necessary option. It does make other people seem quite weird though.

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report Reply

  • Public Servant on a tea-break.,

    Stephen

    <I often thought that if you were culturally (if not religiously) a non-drinker then constant exposure to your boozed mates at the end of the night would certainly reduce your temptation levels.>

    You're right, it does, believe me. It is pretty hard to argue against the evidence that alcohol has a social downside when you get to carrying a drunk, and obnoxious, girlfriend out of a party, where she has just spent the last hour making an enormous arse of herself.

    Then comes the following afternoon. When you try to convince same girlfriend to get out of bed, in the face of a wall like hangover, and hammer-like flashback memories of stupid things said and done.

    More than once, much more than once, with different girlfriends. Occasionally, the girlfriends felt that the night would be more complete by lipping people, including the police, whilst on the way home...

    Special times.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2008 • 67 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan,

    I gave up drinking for a month recently too.

    I hated how much better I felt, and how much I liked Sunday mornings. And while I have taken drinking up again with a vengeance, it has definitely made a difference to my life. Sunny Saturday mornings are to good, and too rare in Wellington, to waste.

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    With a glass of wine costing $11 to $15 or more, and beer not much cheaper

    Where are you drinking Juha?! You just need to find a nice cheap dive bar.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • jon johansson,

    Mmmm...well Mr. Christie I think I had a ICR moment the last time we caught up, but I can't really blame it on the drink. Perhaps some of us are always at war with Mr. Jekyll so its part of our deep structure rather than occasional surface flooding that is our underlying malaise.

    That said, bravo bro although perhaps you might consider having one of those cold beers and nice white wines next time I'm up your way. If you put them both in the same glass so much the better...

    Wellington • Since Dec 2007 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    I find I don't lose a huge amount of weight when I'm off the booze, as I suddenly get really, really massive sugar cravings in the evenings.

    Has everyone else found this too? Late night ice cream or chocolate cravings? I've definitely noticed it.

    I think however a single magnum or chocky bar every other day is probably still preferable to three or four dozen beers over a weekend...

    Annoyingly, as I'm a freelancer, this year I've been able to write off most of my drinking - the more I drink, the less tax I pay. So I haven't really noticed the fiscal benefits. But it does leave me feeling less guilty when I go on record or clothes buying binges...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    In some ways, I think it would be easier if I had a Mr Hyde that came out when I drank. But I don't: I'm a friendly drunk, I rarely offend people and I don't get into confrontations. And I don't have massive drinking binges either, least of all out in public. So I'm down to cutting back purely for health reasons, and we all know how easy they can be to ignore ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    I'm a friendly drunk, I rarely offend people

    See, I don't get angry when I drink - and I know plenty of people who do - I just get more offensive than my fairly offensive sober self. If I turned into one of those angry, nasty, argumentative, or God forbid Violent types, I'd give it up totally. No question.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I also wish I could get Bookbinder in a bottle - terribly tasty and yet lower alcohol than most beer.

    Clearly you're living in the wrong city.

    I don't think I've binge drunk since I became a father, about 10 years ago. I regularly have a wine or beer (sometimes both) with dinner - almost every night to be honest.

    But even when I go out, which is most Friday nights, I'm driving home, so I have 3 or 4 drinks at the most. At about that much the worst I get is that I get louder and start swearing, which my friends find entertaining.

    I don't particularly get binge drinking after about 25. Doing largely the same thing every weekend for 8, 10 years? Kinda done isn't it?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    I decided to give the booze the flick for 6 months & then the boys went on a piss trip to Hawaii. They still haven't forgiven me for that.

    There is that great Joke of St Paddys Day being in the middle of Lent when I normally give up the booze for a bit and being of Irish Catholic desent (along with almost anything else) the joke is truely appreciated.

    I've found apple/orange juice better to drink when out with mates. Coke just bloats you and redbull has such high sugar it really has a go at your teeth.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    I don't think I've binge drunk since I became a father, about 10 years ago.

    Having kids really put a kink in my drinking. Suddenly the cost side of the equation shoots up and the benefit diminishes.

    But, that said, a couple of times every year I take time off from being a parent, start smoking again, and drink more than I should but less than I used to. It feels great to start, and nearly as good to stop again.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    Drink is so nice, but it makes me want to smoke cigarettes, which are not nice at all when you think about them. So, in order to stop smoking, I have stopped drinking. I am also missing tonight's Media7 gig, because that place is a nest of smokers and drinkers.

    Now what do I do with my life?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

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