The giving up/cutting down alcohol support thread!

Bismarck

biscotte wrote: »

Hock doesn't even exist a a wine type in Germany - it's a 'pretend' name that was used to market dire wine to young Brits - Different Corner, i also sank a fair amount of this gut rot as a student -- my constitution must have been a lot stronger than it is now!

used to quite like Hock

ho hum! quite amusing in hindsight

Different_Corner

biscotte wrote: »

We lived a while in France and there is of course a whole industry and tradition around food and wine so I hope I learned to really respect good quality when i got it, even though the vaste majority of my intake was pretty mediocre!

Biscotte, it is an ongoing debate isn't it, how our European friends appreciate and relax around wine with food, being a big part of their culture, yet we don't seem to have grasped it quite correctly.

shopaholictiedtheknot

biscotte wrote: »

interesting question. i've drunk a lot of wine in my time and most of it was really for the alcohol.


Hock doesn't even exist a a wine type in Germany - it's a 'pretend' name that was used to market dire wine to young Brits - Different Corner, i also sank a fair amount of this gut rot as a student -- my constitution must have been a lot stronger than it is now!

LOL a bit like Korma or sweet and sour then - have to admit I like them all, we used to buy the 1.5litre bottles of hock when I was in my early twenties:o

Hate the stuff now though it is far too sweet!

I have had two AFDs so far this week, it is my wedding anniversary today though and it is steak and wine for dinner;)

polaroid

gut rot!!!! ROTFL! thats the funniest name i have ever heard for cheap plonk - i love it biscotte!!

i used to think cos i was drinking nice wine and kinda knew a bit about it then it was ok to drink it...a lot...

i am facinated about the difference in cultures of drinking habits. the french and italians think nothing to having wine with lunch and with dinner - but they dont do it to get drunk do they. i wonder why they dont appear to have the "drunk" gene we have in the UK, they seem to have a much more civilised approached to it dont they. i never drink during the day, i cant even have a glass of wine with lunch, its a downward spiral i just want more. its a shame i would love to live in france!!

everyone ok?? xx

climbgirl

It's a cultural thing Polaroid, in the UK a social life revolves around alcohol, to a far greater extent than it does in other countries. I moved to the UK about 5 years ago from NZ and I was stunned at how prevalent drinking was in UK culture, I thought we were bad! It's hard to meet up with people and do something that doesn't involve drinking, social life here revolves around the pub. In NZ it's more of a cafe culture, we sit around all weekend and drink coffee! It's almost expected here that you'll turn up to work at least once a week with a terrible hangover, it's a badge of honour. At home doing that more than once or twice (ever!) would be a disciplinary offence.

I dated a kiwi bloke here in the UK and he was a raging alcoholic - first thing he did in the morning was head for the fridge for a beer (relationship didn't last long!). The point is that here in the UK it was perfectly acceptable for him to go to the pub every lunchtime and drink 2 or 3 pints. He's moved back to NZ now and has lost 2 jobs in a year because of it.

My point is that the culture here in the UK is built around drinking, we make it some kind of rite of passage or badge or honour to get wasted. It's not cool, it's not particularly clever and it causes all kinds of health and social problems. A change of attitude is required.

I applaud people here for giving up, I can't imagine it's an easy thing to do. I cut back on drinking recently without even realising I was doing it. I just didn't really enjoy losing control anymore or feeling terrible the morning after! I drink now about once a fortnight (by which I mean one glass) and I might have a biggish session about every couple of months. I feel so much better for it but you wouldn't believe the number of comments I've had about it! Hopefully attitudes will change, it's pretty sad that we see getting wasted as our main way of socially interacting with people.

Different_Corner

polaroid wrote: »

i am facinated about the difference in cultures of drinking habits. the french and italians think nothing to having wine with lunch and with dinner - but they dont do it to get drunk do they. i wonder why they dont appear to have the "drunk" gene we have in the UK, they seem to have a much more civilised approached to it dont they. i never drink during the day, i cant even have a glass of wine with lunch, its a downward spiral i just want more. its a shame i would love to live in france!!

everyone ok?? xx

Spot on polaroid.

Drinking during the day has always been a no-no for me. Just can't function.

I grew up in a country pub, funny thing was on a Sunday lunchtime (talking early 80's here so 12 - 2pm ) all the men would turn up for a few pints before their Sunday lunch, rare any of the wives would be in tow - unless they'd put the yorkshires in and had time for a quick pale ale ! But the men would usually be in their Sunday best. Now that was a little more civilised than what we have now.

eselt

Hi all- hope everyone is OK and not getting the midweek cravings- I think the debate around whether people drink for the taste or not is really interesting. I think there is quite a chemical snobbery in this country, people think if they drink expensive wine and take cocaine they are somehow different from the people who buy cheap cider- at the end of the day its all alcohol and the price they may pay later on is the same, they've just got there by different routes. I remember when I was in hospital detox how amazed I was at the cross section of people in there with alcohol problems and the process was the same for all of us in the end- when your liver starts to pack up it doesn't really care about the quality or taste of the stuff that you've been drinking. Mind you it really brought it home to me in detox about how far I had fallen...I remember eyeing up the alcohol based handwash...that makes hock sound very sophisticated and exotic!!!!

Best of luck everyone...missing a few old friends (winebox, molly, jo etc) hope you are all OK.

beachbeth

biscotte wrote: »

Hock doesn't even exist a a wine type in Germany - it's a 'pretend' name that was used to market dire wine to young Brits -

Like onion bhajis then! This doesn't make sense in India either and doesn't exist there!

Bismarck

eselt wrote: »

Hi all- hope everyone is OK and not getting the midweek cravings- I think the debate around whether people drink for the taste or not is really interesting. I think there is quite a chemical snobbery in this country, people think if they drink expensive wine and take cocaine they are somehow different from the people who buy cheap cider- at the end of the day its all alcohol and the price they may pay later on is the same, they've just got there by different routes. I remember when I was in hospital detox how amazed I was at the cross section of people in there with alcohol problems and the process was the same for all of us in the end- when your liver starts to pack up it doesn't really care about the quality or taste of the stuff that you've been drinking. Mind you it really brought it home to me in detox about how far I had fallen...I remember eyeing up the alcohol based handwash...that makes hock sound very sophisticated and exotic!!!!

Best of luck everyone...missing a few old friends (winebox, molly, jo etc) hope you are all OK.

well said, eselt!

just because it's expensive stuff doesn't mean its free from harm.

hope everyone's OK....

shopaholictiedtheknot

Ok today is the day!!!

I am going teetotal from this day forward, I had a big shock yesterday when my company announced they are putting everyone on short time (I started a thread on it yesterday), although I am staying on my normal hours for now it was a big wake up call to me and I have realised that a large part of my debt is due to the evil stuff!!

I have decided that cutting down just does not work for me and it HAS to be all or nothing! I am going to try and get a part-time job on evenings/weekends and plough all the money I can into becoming debt-free and then if the worst does happen at least I won't be as far up the creek without a paddle:o

Anyway guys I shall be on here a lot more from now on as I am sure the cravings will be hitting me before long - so wish me luck my friends as I will need it!:beer: