Dry January

I will be having a dry January (although the weather definitely won't be).
All the other eleven months of the year will also be dry; it's now nearly nine years since I gave up drinking alcohol and it was one of the best decisions that I have made in my life.
Very occasionally at party, I get bored as people ramble on about stuff, but I often forget that it's the booze talking. Parties are about talking and listening anyway, aren't they?
When I do buy a round in a pub (I'm not mean!) I never stop being shocked at the cost of drinks. There is no way I could survive financially if I was still a drinker.
All those pages in the Sunday supplements: wine-on-a-budget, craft beers, cocktail recipes ('You must try this one...'), mean nothing, because they are ways of dressing up an addictive poison so it looks charming and harmless.
All those TV soaps set in the pub- free advertising for the brewers!
Quite a few people that I knew have died because of alcohol, and many relationships and marriages have broken up (didn't know what they were doing, because they were pissed, apparently).
What a spoilsport I am! One of those drunkards who gave up, and now starts preaching about it; except that I don't most of the time.
I think it's everyone's own business what they do to their bodies, probably, although the hangovers are a nasty consequence that sometimes lead to violence and fear, and that's not so glamorous.
The best gift that stopping boozing has given me is time; the hangovers stole whole days from my life.
Quite possibly I would be fatter and less healthy as well, but how could I tell? It's the time that I welcome; time to write blog posts to explain how time is valuable, precious, and only noticeable when it's not there any more.