I’m back logging pizzas again after a break. There’ve been a few recently due to running season!
This is one I had in Colne a couple of months ago – we went with Geth’s mum Anne to try out the new pizzeria at Boundary Mill.
The toppings on this pizza were absolutely delicious, and the stonebaked base had a lovely texture to it. I will be back at this restaurant!
Geth and I have a guest staying tonight, so I’ve had a fairly busy day of getting the house ready, and am now getting on with some admin and writing. At least being active today has meant that my legs are now properly recovered from Sunday!
More admin to do tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Justin Timberlake – Can’t Stop The Feeling
Ed Sheeran and Stormzy – Take Me Back To London
Revo – The Land Of Immortality
Haim Saban and Shuki Levy – The Mysterious Cities Of Gold Main Theme
Pepsi & Shirlie – Heartache
Duran Duran – My Antarctica
I was really pleased with my race time yesterday, but it has taken a lot out of me, so I’ve just been curled up playing videogames today. Back to work tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Mark Knopfler – Local Hero
Duran Duran – Planet Earth
Michael Land – The Barbery Coast
Michael Land – Woodtick
I had a great GNR today and got a half marathon PB! Will do a full post about it in the next couple of days.
Absolutely knackered now, and am somehow still hungry even after demolishing a Domino’s pizza order. Looking forward to a recovery day tomorrow!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
Chesney Hawkes – The One And Only
Matthew Wilder – Break My Stride
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Dua Lipa – New Rules
Oasis – Wonderwall
Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse – Valerie
DNCE – Cake By The Ocean
I went for a shakeout parkrun this morning, which was nice – it’s always a good atmosphere at Newcastle parkrun on GNR weekend. Felt really comfortable and absolutely ready for the race tomorrow now.
After catching up with some admin, Geth and I played a couple more missions of the Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth boardgame, and I’m now settling in for an evening of Strictly and Puzzle Pirates.
I’ll update about the race tomorrow evening!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Philip Bailey and Phil Collins – Easy Lover
Mike & The Mechanics – The Living Years
Duran Duran – Girl Panic!
Rizzle Kicks – Mama Do The Hump
Muse – New Born
Michael Land – Jojo The Monkey
I’ve spent all day doing editing work for clients and sorting out my to-do list, but I’m finally done and Great North Weekend is here! It won’t be as intense as it usually is as there’s no CityGames athletics to watch on the Quayside this year (they’ve moved the event to Stockton-on-Tees for some reason), but I’m still looking forward to a shakeout parkrun tomorrow morning, eating all the pasta (may have started already) and watching the Strictly launch show before getting an early night ready for the race on Sunday.
In the meantime, it’s another evening of escaping into my videogames. I’m finding that it’s really helping me to relax at the moment.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – Woodtick
Arcadia – The Flame
It’s been an okay-ish day. I had a good loss at Slimming World this morning (not sure how, but I’m relieved to be losing again after a few consecutive weeks of gain!) and have been writing all afternoon. Geth is out boardgaming this evening, so I will be going back to my videogames.
Work all day tomorrow and then it’s Great North Run weekend!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Timecop1983 and The Bad Dreamers – Back To You
Duran Duran – Rio
Disney – Prince Ali*
Shakin’ Stevens – Green Door
Pretenders – Back On The Chain Gang
The Beatles – Drive My Car
*Still the 1994 videogame soundtrack version 🙂
I didn’t do a seven-month update because things were so busy last month. I think that shows that sobriety is starting to feel more normal to me and I’m not as obsessed with counting the days as I was at the start of the year.
I suppose my main preoccupation on the subject over the last couple of months has been the double-headed discomfort that (1) drinking is so normalised in society – while I do make use of various sober support groups, I find that in my ‘real life’, I’m the only one who doesn’t drink – and (2) problematic habits around drinking are not taken seriously and seen as a bit of a laugh by a lot of people who still drink. I obviously used to have this attitude too – it’s the way I grew up, because it’s the way we all grow up – and now that I’ve been detached from it for a few months, I find it quite scary how insidious the whole thing is. Whether it’s my Slimming World group endlessly joking about how really we should be called an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, or a favourite podcast of mine doing a special episode where the participants are drunk, I find that at the moment I’m just really uncomfortable with alcohol use being treated in such a lighthearted way. Maybe I’ll never be comfortable with it again. I don’t know.
I also ran into a lot of difficulty on the synthwave night out last week. Being stone cold sober when other people there were really, really drunk (too drunk even to stand up or hold a conversation in some cases) was really quite unnerving and a bit upsetting. I didn’t feel comfortable at all – I had been looking forward to enjoying the music, but I found that it wasn’t really a space where I could do that.
I’ve started to encounter things that make me sad and nostalgic about drinking itself. It’s taken longer than expected, but it is occasionally happening now. This week, I’ve been playing pirate video games – pirates are one of my favourite themes, to the extent that the novel I’m querying at the moment (and have been working on since 2011) is set on a pirate island – and of course they’re all full of rum and drinking games, and I’ve just been feeling sad about the fact that I can’t identify with all of that anymore. Maybe I should watch a few recovering alcoholic cop shows for good measure. Bergerac was always a favourite.
Two minutes is my current limit when standing in the alcohol aisle at the supermarket before I have to get out of there. I discovered this today when Geth and I were hunting for Nosecco in Sainsbury’s. Still, it’s an improvement on early sobriety, when I couldn’t go near the place.
I’ve reviewed a grand total of one booze alternative over the last two months:
This is mainly because I’ve been a bit too busy for non-diary blogging lately, but also partly because, as I mentioned in my last update, I know what I like now.
I’ve also been a bit too busy to keep up with my recovery support as much as I would like, but I have been working on it here and there. It needs to be more of a priority over the next month.
A double set from the Embankment today!
(Coordinates 51°50’21.2″N, 0°12’39.3″W.)
This pair are the last ones along the Embankment on the London Marathon route – there’s just a few dotted around Big Ben to go!