My regular readers will know I had my first cataract operation just before Christmas with, hopefully, the second in early February. Now I have 20/20 vision with my left eye and can read a car number plate at 1000m, well it feels like that, but the sight from my right eye is a bit of an uncorrected blur! For the last fifty years or more I have worn daily contact lenses and removed them before climbing into bed. The habit remains and every evening I instinctively want to remove my non-existent lenses!  

Funny things, habits! A long time ago I used to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Too easy for one’s behaviour to become habitual, without challenging it. I gave up cigarettes at university and put the saved 50p, it was decades ago (!), into a piggy bank and paid for a holiday in Spain with the contents. But one evening many months later I fancied a late drink, popped down to the Hall of Residence’s bar and bought a pint and, oh! why not, let’s have a little Hamlet cigar. A week later I did the same, twice! Then I found myself buying a packet of 5 Hamlets and …….

There was no Government Health warning in those days!

Every so often well-meaning chums give me some non-alcoholic wine which are often sweet, but the ‘00’ beers have improved dramatically, driven by the demands of both Millennials and Generation Z. I have tried and not enjoyed wines which contain no alcohol but been pleasantly surprised by those that have a smidgen, say 0.5%. A red 0.5% was rather good, jangling those taste buds and bringing back faint memories of a good Barolo or Grenache.

In PC 368 I wrote that Duncan had brought a couple of bottles of Nozeco, a French 0.5% sparkling wine, to end the year and toast his new triptych. My newsagent Rahmi had also bought me a couple of bottles before Christmas so, with my turkey crown, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce, I had a couple of glasses and jolly nice they were too! On New Year’s Eve I thought I would have the other half, kept fresh by a champagne stopper. And it was still good ….. and then in the second week of January I thought I would open the second bottle I had in the ‘fridge. …. and that’s when the brain kicked in! This is the way it is for those of us with slightly addictive characters. It sucks you in, the desire, the habit ……

Addiction is defined as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you. We probably use the term quite loosely to describe actions which, in themselves are not harmful, but their pursuit could eventually be. I have been accused of becoming addicted to the hot yoga series, I guess because at one point any social engagements had to fit around my daily practice! In the days before 00 beers were actually lovely, I got into drinking Red Bull, and enjoyed its lift. Like all addictions the more I had, the more I needed; it had to stop!

Any one for chocolate? Do you have any in your apartment or house? I certainly do and love having a little Cadbury’s Whole Nut with a coffee after lunch. It’s so, so good and in moderation, like most things, it’s OK.

I went to Google for a definition of ‘an alcoholic’ and found that it’s not a term used any more in ‘medical care’ but we all know that it means someone with a strong, often uncontrollable, desire to drink. The new term is ‘alcohol use disorder’, for women 8 or more drinks in a week, for men 15 or more a week. Fortunately apart from historic addictions to cigarettes and alcohol (Note 1) I have never got involved with any form of drugs, although recognise that their availability and acceptance today would be a big challenge.

Today’s the nineteenth of January, so if you started some New Year’s resolution, either giving up something or, on a more positive note, taking something up and are still focused on that, well done! Apparently it’s normal for most people to ditch the idea around the 12^th January. The Times’ columnist Janice Turner wrote this paragraph, cleverly entitled ‘Uncorked Whine’:

“I don’t usually do Dry January, but now I’ve started, I’ll try to finish. It feels right to be ascetic at this time of year. Yet — and I know it’s frivolous to say this — it’s given me renewed respect for friends with serious alcohol issues who’ve totally quit. Because even as a very moderate drinker I’m finding it hard. It’s the weekends that suck. I can easily forgo the odd midweek glass (or two). But no “wey-hey it’s Friday!” cocktail, no crisp white with Saturday’s  baked sea bass, no big red with Sunday’s apple and wild boar sausages in lentils? Just water for me, thanks. That won’t in any way diminish the meal …
Except it does: dinner without wine has no grandeur, no ceremony, no thrill of a popped cork, no pleasing glug, no first sip and satisfied “ahhhh!”
Three more weekends to go.”

I enjoy my no-alcohol decision, certainly don’t want to bang the drum for abstinence, but recognise that for instance some 17% of the issues that our wonderful paramedics are called out to deal with are alcohol-related and that’s not good!

Richard 19^th January 2024

Hove

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PS Luke’s WhatsApp group heard on Tuesday that Josh is alive. He’s suffering from concussion and has some very small pieces of shrapnel in his left leg. More news anon.

PPS See also PCs 15 ‘Alcohol and Other Drugs’ (June 2014) and 257 ‘Alcohol and The British Issue’ (November 2021)

Note 1 If you challenge yourself with the question: “Am I an alcoholic?” the inner voice replies “Oh! No! I’m just a social drinker, once or twice during the week and more at weekends, obviously. Good to unwind! That’s OK Isn’t it?”