Day 9 - extended.

Just a quick one, further to the earlier entry. Something of a tough-ish test passed tonight. I went to the running club for an awesome evening run on the beachfront with some good friends and joined them at the bar afterwards. As always, the Tuesday evening after-run run social at the club bar is a pleasant vibrant chit chat with club mates over drinks, I was with some good friends who I ran with, they were drinking beer and wine. I had a Coke Zero. That is all! Some of them tried cracking jokes about "91 days to go, hahaha...", fortunately I've got a sense of humor so I laughed along.

In truth, it was tough, I was rather envious of them, a cold beer after a hot run really has an appeal, it is nice. Not a pissup, just a cold beer to cool down, it honestly is enjoyable and not for the alcohol, though admittedly the alcohol in the beer does normally inspire the next phase which at the bar usually includes tequila. THAT is the challenge in future, to learn to enjoy that beer for the purpose of a refreshing cold beer after a run and leave it at that, without the desire to get shattered further. I was proud of myself for not drinking but I really would have loved just one beer!

Anyway, the point is, I stuck to my guns tonight, despite temptation and social pressure, it wasn't terribly enjoyable in the circumstances, making it clear there certainly are going to be times that this non-drinking thing will have its challenges. Despite a general positive attitude towards this thing, I'm feeling a bit down right now. Compounded by the noise around me in this house, outlaw clanging dishes in the kitchen and muttering and the TV being so fucking annoyingly loud into a bit of an ear/tooth ache, 3 females yelling at each other across the house in high pitched voices, me sitting in the middle.

Sorry for the misery, I'm gonna hit the sack. I can't escape this racket to my whiskey anymore, so to bed it has to be.

Tomorrow will be better.... got some shit to figure out, strategies to plan. Goodnight.