A bit of wine tasting isn’t breaking the rules, is it?
So, March 1, I started Hello Sunday Morning. By March 2 I’d had a sip of wine. I would feel bad, but the point of HSM is not to give up drink, but to understand my relationship with drink. Phew.
If you don’t already know, Des Bishop and SpunOut.ie have launched Hello Sunday Morning in Ireland. It’s a concept originally from Australia where you give up alcohol for 3, 6, or 12 months. The purpose is to reclaim your Sunday mornings and not have your head in a bucket like all those other weekends. You blog about your Sunday morning excursions in a bid to prove to yourself and your readers that life doesn’t have to revolve around drink.
Saying hello to Sunday morning doesn’t mean saying goodbye to Saturday night
That’s the slogan. I like it. So, it’s Sunday, March 3. Last night I didn’t go out. I’d been up all Friday night/Saturday morning, until 6am watching Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark (2000). If you haven’t seen it, it’s a must! Bjork… just, Bjork! After spending the rest of Saturday sleepy and lazy, I went to bed later that night after 1am. Getting up early the next morning – THE Sunday morning – was wishful thinking.
I got up at 10.45am raging that I’d missed the opportunity to really get up early on a Sunday (normally I rouse at about 1pm, which is just wastefulness). I showered and went to the nearest café for a cappuccino, bagel and book-reading session. The coffee was great, the bagel was below average – in fact, it was manky. I wanted a BLT, but she gave me some weird cheese and SUN-DRIED TOMATO thing, ew – and my mood was so anti that I couldn’t concentrate on Lolita. So, I have not enjoyed my Sunday morning. Yes, yes, I know going to a café is hardly breaking the bank in terms of doing something new and exciting with yer day, but what can I say? All I wanted was a different morning; a simple, easy, me-time morning. Next week I’ll think of something better to do.
Wine
Lately I’ve been thinking about why I like wine so much. It’s the only reservation I had before starting HSM. I’m not a huge drinker anyway, so I didn’t think much of the ‘challenge’ aspect of HSM – but the wine, the wine bit got to me. I guess I see drinking wine as a treat after a long, hard, busy week. I suppose we all do that.
On Saturday afternoon I visited a really great wine seller in Portmarnock, Dublin. Jus De Vine is just the place! It has bottles of wine in there selling for over 100 quid! A good friend wanted to buy some wine as a gift for another friend. We got to taste the wine we wanted to buy, which is always a nice touch. I had been putting off drinking wine all weekend, but this was only a taster! I found the staff very approachable and friendly. In fact, the place is exactly my type of place. If it had had couches and provided books for customers it would have been a dream.
One problem: What to do about the shneaky glass o’ wine I would have at dinner sometimes. I don’t often do it, but if I were out for a special occasion a cold, crisp white would do the trick. A dry, room-temperature red would definitely hit the spot after any night out or in. Red warms me right up!
Wine is the most romantic of the alcohol beverages in my mind. A woman holding a shining glass of wine is one of the sexiest images I can think of – don’t ask me why, I couldn’t tell you! I always feel classy drinking from a wine glass. And now, when I’m out I’ll be drinking Coca Cola I’d say. I’m going to feel like a kid again. You know how some people use alcohol as crutch on a night out so they can talk to people and be social? I use it as crutch to look sexy and mysterious. I always feel cute with wine. At least this opportunity can help me test what’s on offer beyond alcohol – are there any nice non-alcohol drinks? Please comment if you can think of any!
HIYA SUNDAY!
I’ll be doing HSM for a month to see how I get on. Expect a blog every Sunday. If I feel like it I’ll continue for three months. After that, your guess of how long I’ll do this for is as good as mine! I’m very fond of the social media and blogging aspect to HSM. Blogging your experiences is important. It’ll help you keep track of your life, your feelings and why you may want alcohol soooooo much. I know for the last few weeks in Ireland people have been scoffing the idea because of Des Bishop’s four-part documentary on RTÉ One Under the Influence. You may not like the comedian, and you may feel his documentary went overboard on criticising the drinking habits of the Irish, but the man makes a good point: Why is it that our national identity abroad is so synonymous with ‘the drink’ and ‘the black stuff’? If I haven’t convinced you to do HSM yourself by now, I can give you one more major deterrent for drinking too much:
You might as well give it a shot. Here’s the social media and blogging bit!
@HSMIreland
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