Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Christmas Cheer


It's all going on chez Sara.

Here I am. It's Christmas, and I'm clean and sober for the first time in years. This is not to say that I've given up the booze as well as everything else, it's just, like, everything in moderation, you know? Kind of a scary thing for me.

Most of the Christmasses I've experienced over the past ten years have been spent in a haze of alcohol, starting with champagne for breakfast, moving on to wine at lunch and a naughty vodka or six before dinner. Last year, if I recall correctly (and my powers of recall are certainly not that reliable) was the year that Helen and I shrugged off our families and had Christmas together; we started with a line of coke each for breakfast and the day deteriorated from there.

So this year has been a bit of a shocker. Just Mum and I in our echoey old house, all glammed up and nowhere to go - my mother being a bit of a stickler for formal dress (her idea of casual is a heel lower than three inches). Turkey for two is a difficult act to pull off at the best of times and resulted in a fist-clenching, gritted teeth show of forced cheer. But we got through the day without killing each other, something I never would have thought possible.

No word from my father and the Ice Queen. I guess they wouldn't want to interrupt their month-long holiday in the Far East to lick a stamp and slap it on an envelope. Oh well, whatever. Merry Christmas, you old bastard.

I spent today being elbowed viciously by the hordes of desperate bargain hunters rooting around the sales racks in Selfridges, in the vain hope of finding something drop-dead sassy for New Year's Eve. Forget it. It's the same thing every year, and every year I neglect to remember all these garments are cut-price for a reason - that nobody else considered them hot enough to pay the full price before Christmas.

I'm seeing in the New Year with James. I'm a bit nervous about it considering that his friends are, on the whole, a bunch of gormless twats. However, it's either that or spend New Year in an orgy of narcotic excess with my friends - not a good idea considering the pain I went through last month to detox myself after years of enthusiastic abuse. So James and I will be swanking around some crumbling country pile for a sit down dinner and God knows what else. And I have to survive the whole thing without the comforting fog of being utterly shit-faced. This promises to be a true test of my resolve.

Wish me luck!

18 comments:

kimmyk said...

I hope that 2006 is a wonderful year for you!

Juggling Mother said...

Luck - you won't need it. If you can manage a christmas day with just your mother for company & avoid screaming rows, you'll breeze through a swanky meal with James at your side:-)

Have fun. Tell us all about it. And have a fantastic 2006.

.- said...

fabulous to hear from you - good luck and Happy New Year

pkeclub said...

be strong!! the human spirit is tough. and you sound tough. keep it up.

miss goLondon said...

you are my hero! that level of detox is a massive feat of will power, and you restarted the james and you engine. congrats and i hope the NYE is special despite pretentious surroundings. look forward to your posts in 2006.

WDKY said...

Brilliant. Mind you, that cold turkey (excuse the pun) will be like a walk in the park compared to an evening with James' friends ;-)

Anonymous said...

Glad to know that you're back. I've missed you. I'm glad that you're still on the wagon and take it day by day.

I kept things in moderation with the alcohol too but that was just to make sure that my BF's family didn't think I was a lush LOL

Happy New Year, luv!

Ms.Catherine aka NYPaganChick -just in case you forgot :)

Anonymous said...

Good luck Sarah! You can do eet!
Random reader
xxx

positronic said...

Well, sorry for not commenting for a while. I hope your 'in moderation' Christmas went well, and I hope you're having fun tonite as well. Happy new year.

Anonymous said...

none of this have a wonderful year pig swill horsey shite luv, just get fuckin twatted sazzle. you r a legend - ur blogs make me simultaneously have hernias, shit my pants, cough up blood and snot all over the keyboard. i think i nearly asphyxiated once. nice one - remember drugs are fun, sort of when u've got a headache that is...

.- said...

I'm baaaaaaaaack...
Happy New Year sweetie - You have been tagged. Stop by and see what all you have to do
;)

NML/Natalie said...

Happy new year! I hope you had a good one x

Aginoth said...

really glad to hear you have managed the detox.

Happy New Year :o)

positronic said...

A bit late for 'good luck' now. Sorry. So, how did it go? And what on Jupiter did your mother do with all the leftovers!!! Do you now have Turkey sandwiches to last you till next Christmas?

Anonymous said...

Hi Sarah
how come u dont post anymore?Hope everything is going well, would be lovely to hear from you soon
take care Julia x

Anonymous said...

anyone any ideas whats up with Sarah?is she ok?
Em

TJ said...

Hey Sara,

I was glad to read your holidays were good and hope that 2006 is off to a great start.

Looking forward to reading your next post--best wishes.

.- said...

hope you're ok - and look forward to you being back -