It was then that she realised that she was a total lightweight
Just before Lent my mum, sister, boyfriend and I made a pact – no booze before Easter. In Ireland this is called taking the Pledge and it keeps beer-soaked hoary old Irish men off the sauce for a bit. We hoped it would do the same for us.
I had an ulterior motive. Not being religious, I was determined to try the sober life for the sake of my health and bank balance, as well as sanity, in the stressful preparation stage before going away.
It was hard at first. Jamie fell off the (band)wagon just 6 days in, leaving me to carry the candle for our household. My sister decided that Lent only applied to Monday to Saturday so would get obliterated in the hours after Midnight on Sunday morning and raise a glass on boozy family Sunday lunches, while I looked on like a wolf at the door of an orphanage.
I was amazed by my own willpower though. After 3 days at a family history fair the first weekend I was desperate for a glass of wine. I resisted. During the long, warm, unfeasibly-summery evenings in early March I could have cheerfully assassignated a cold beer or two, but I resisted. By the end of two weeks I felt smug, by four positively saintly.
However, despite the obviously plusses, my mood was little short of demonic. I was cranky, irritable, stressed out. With no glass of wine as little stress reliever, acting like a circuit breaker, my thoughts went round and round and my emotions bubbled over like a neglected saucepan on a hot stove.
On evenings out with laughing mates I often felt out-of-sorts, irritated beyond measure with the slurred giggling speech of some of my closest friends. Like Fun Bobby, in Friends before me, I realised what put the spark in my firecracker, the bounce in my step after a long day at the office.
So although I was spending next to nothing, my health improved, my skin was soft and clear, I was so angry, so puritanical, so BORED. Now it’s Easter Sunday I will be proposing a toast – to a more fun Sarah, sharing the unhealthy life with friends and family and to a life lived with a full glass.
