A new year resolution to give up cake usually lasts just over a month – if I’m lucky – since February is when my birthday rolls round and it would be rude to refuse. Oh, go on then, just one more slice, if you insist. So, this year I tried something different.
In January, with a three-month-old absorbing every spare minute, bottles of kindly gifted booze stacking up and the idea of going to the pub a distant memory, I resolved to drink more often. Now, there were obvious dangers to the idea, but I thought it was time I learned to drink without getting drunk. I had previously had that very British attitude to booze, in that I tended to drink to excess, then regret it horribly in the morning.
With a baby, this was no longer viable (not to mention the damage I was surely doing to my ageing liver). So, out with dry January – what a waste that would be of the nice bottle of homemade gin Auntie Lisa gave us to celebrate the baby’s arrival! Instead, I decided a few glasses of wine or bottles of beer in the evening might add a bit of pleasure to the cold months stuck indoors with my cute, but pretty uncommunicative, child.
Of course, a commitment to drinking more frequently has to come with caveats. Drinking every night seemed like a bad idea, as did cracking open a bottle before 5pm. Certainly, it is not something I would recommend to anyone who has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. But, as someone who tended to binge, rather than modestly imbibe, having the odd glass of wine before dinner has only helped foster a more reasonable attitude to the demon drink.
I also decided to be more discerning with my tipple – I wasn’t going out, and the added cost of the baby hadn’t yet kicked in, so I vowed to splash out on something nicer than the £5 special offer from Tesco Express. I ventured into the fancy off-licence, owned and run by local people, and bought a bottle for more than a tenner. Extravagant, I know – but if I was going to drink little and more often, I figured I could afford to spend the equivalent of three pints.
Truth be told, it hasn’t been a hard habit to keep up – although the fridge is bare of beers more often than it used to be. My resolution came into its own when lockdown began; it has been good to relax at home with a drink and feel (almost) normal. In any case, having a small child was an excellent warmup for a global pandemic – what is this “going out” you speak of? – and video-call drinks with friends added a social aspect to our domestic drinking.
The adjustment was seamless and, with our favourite baby-friendly local pub having gone out of business during this miserable summer, cocktail night in the living room looks like it will continue for some time.
