Tag: alcohol

#AlcoholFreeApril

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Once again, I challenged myself to drink no alcohol for the month of April. And I pretty much succeeded.

I failed to check in on one day – which does stand out on the calendar.  It happened after a lot of deliberation with myself. I decided a friend’s (all-inclusive) wedding was a reasonable excuse to enjoy a few drinks. I convinced myself it’d be rude of me not to.

Throughout the year I feel I’m a moderate drinker.  Some nights I enjoy a beer or two.  At times though, it feels a little too much of a habit. And the reasons to enjoy a drink seem to outweigh the many positive reasons to not have one.

April is a good enough Cold Turkey demonstration that I don’t need alcohol in my life.

I knew I could do it. Although the notes I logged through the month don’t seem to show an unwavering resolve:

Once the month was done, I joked that I could wake up at 12:01am on the 1st of May and get smashed, or wait until breakfast. Instead, I stayed alcohol free a few more days into May, which is a good sign.

I might now consider a few further teetotaler initiatives which people refer to through the year.

There is the increasingly popular Dry July fundraiser, and the month of Oc’Sober’, and “No Alcohol November” which might be a good lead-up to the excesses of Christmas.

Let’s see.

In fact because of Christmas excesses, in January I used to reactively take a month off alcohol.  The results were impressive. On top of no alcohol, I would return to eating normal foods and quantities, and easily drop around 4 kilogrammes.

 

The end of this #AlcoholFreeApril made me think further into an idea I had for a supportive system – dare I say it, mobile app.
Its goal would be to help people understand their own drinking habits. It’d do this objectively, and set such clarity that it’s easy to follow progress. And intelligently it would encourage/”gamify” when it would be better to not have a drink.

Here are a few of the features I’ve considered:

  • Help to identify a goal you record & track against, which highlights how well your weekly behaviour is aligning.
  • Set a particular day or two where you never drink. Breaking this comes with a penalty.
  • After drinking for a few days in a row, there should be the right encouragement to pause.
  • And likewise, after drinking certain quantity of drinks, there is a baseline to get you back to your goal.
  • On the positive side, perhaps it could give a green light to have a drink, after a length of time or after certain physical activities/stresses .. perhaps you can save these up for the right time.

 

OR, you could just go through life using your own will-power; supplemented with the occasional month off.

Although, where is the fun in that?

Sorry again Queensland

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The week before last, was the first game of this year’s (Australian) State of Origin rugby league series.
For rugby league fans, this is one of the major events in the calendar.

Sadly, my state of Queensland (the good guys) lost in a close encounter. That gives their opposition New South Wales Blues the upper hand, leading up to Game 2 of the three game series.

It reminded me of the time 11 years ago that Queensland were down 1-0, and I felt responsible for the loss. I penned the following letter, which a few people enjoyed and was published in a local paper (and Mens Health Magazine got approval to print in their pages).

Although all the game details are from over a decade ago, I thought it’s worth publishing here for posterity.

14/06/2003

State of Queensland
Queensland
Australia

To the people of Queensland:

I feel the need to apologise to the state of Queensland. My cheering at Wednesday night’s State of Origin rugby league match was clearly lack-lustre, and it obviously led to the New South Wales team’s win.

I was happy with how I started the match with lots of clapping and countless screams of the
“QUEENS-LAND-ER” war cry, but at pivotal moments through the match I made bad judgments which lost us the match.

Queensland scored first through Darren Lockyer going out wide. I was able to set this up through some strong “C’mon”s which built up to an almighty “Gooooooo!!” which the opposition had no way of defending. At this point I felt pretty comfortable with my form, and perhaps this was part of the problem. I thought the game would soon be under control so I moved back into my seat and had a sip or two of my beer. What a mistake that was. While I was happily taking it easy, New South Wales answered back through Anthony Minichiello scoring practically under the posts. He completely caught me off-guard – I nearly sprayed the row of fans in front of me with my mouthful of Queensland’s finest beer.

Now with the scores even it was time for me to calm things down. To get the team in the right frame of mind I shouted “let’s go guys” while clapping, and it was getting results. The team was successfully absorbing the pressure those New South Wales Blues were applying, so I thought it was an opportune time for me to visit the toilet and release some of my pre-match beverages. I awkwardly made my way down the row of spectators, then down the stairs and into the toilet when I heard some of the crowd roar. This was clearly not going to be my ‘Origin night. The Blues had taken advantage of my departure with another Minichiello try. Johns successfully converted to make the score 12 – 6 in NSW’s favour.

When I returned to my seat I was determined to not let down my state again. I really focused on my cheering. And although I wasn’t able to improve QLD’s score before half time, I was content with keeping NSW from scoring again.

The half time break gave me a good chance to reflect on my first half effort, and think through my plan for the second forty minutes.

Before I knew it, those insolent New South Welshmen parade back to the field. That’s my cue to open with a strong “BOOOOOOO.” I smile wryly at the knowledge they now know they’re in for one tough second half.

The Queenslanders then jog back on to a crescendo of applause, whistling using my fingers, and a medley of previous screams. It felt for a moment that my voice was beginning to fail, but thankfully it was just a false alarm. There was an air of tension, but I was quietly confident of turning things around this half.

The game got under way. I decided to go out strong; this was to be my half. I applauded every run and every tackle our guys made. And it wasn’t long til my increase in intensity brought results. Our team’s captain Gordon Tallis fed off this enthusiasm, and scored. We kicked the goal to tie the scores up again. But this time there will be no taking it easy and having a drink. The team needs me.

Play continued and it becomes a bit of an arm wrestle with no team getting the upper hand. I know I need a game-breaker. It’s time to bring out the big guns. While we’re down in their half putting a string of good plays together I decide to go for the stand up and scream “goooooo!!”. It worked and got our captain over the line again. Then I perhaps made my biggest mistake, I chose to follow up this play with a “woo hooo” combined with a contented look around the stadium. When I drew my attention back to the field, the referee was asking for the video ref’s assistance and adjudication. I knew at this point that the “woo hooo” was definitely premature. I prayed to all deities and hope I hadn’t blown it for the team. But after an eternity, the score board displayed the video ref’s ruling: NO TRY .. I sat back in my chair, and thought of what could have been.

Soon after this our defence started to struggle. Not on my watch I thought to myself. I immediately answer with a “get back guys!” And while they did make an effort, our line became too stretched and their captain, Andrew Johns, put Craig Wing over the line underneath the posts. They converted the goal. NSW now lead 18 – 12.

With all this excitement, the NSW cheerleaders make a move and assemble behind their team’s goal line, IN FRONT OF ME. There is no limit to the dirty tricks NSW will play in a desperate attempt to get me off my game.

It worked.

The distraction allowed Andrew Johns to kick a field goal to make it even more difficult to manufacture a comeback. NSW lead 19 – 12.

At this point I should have gone back to my original plan and raised the intensity. But instead the pressure reduced me to biting my nails in the hope that somehow this would devise a new plan. Nothing came to mind, so I turned to beer for assistance. But as soon as I thought of something that would surely work, Johns runs through a gaping hole in the defence I neglected, and converts to make the score 25 – 12.

The game appears to be flying past me. I forget the plan, and my beer is empty. It’s time to get another. I go to stand up and get another but glance at the scoreboard on my way up. There is under a minute of play remaining. I sit back down with my hands over my face, and think of the many places I went wrong.

The siren sounds game over, and New South Wales have defeated me 25 – 12.

NSW take a 1 – 0 lead in the series. But I learnt a lot of lessons from the game, and the experience has better equipped me for the two deciding games of the series.

Queensland, I won’t let you down again.

Sincerely yours

A. Speck-Taytor

History goes on to show, my letter was quite unhelpful. New South Wales won that year’s series in the next match, sadly the first of three series wins in a row.

Dreamland – 04 June 2010

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Last weekend Myles and I went to Dreamland Aqua Park which is a waterpark in Umm Al Quwain – another emirate within the UAE. The trip from Dubai is around an hour, but the time went pretty quick as we saw lots of interesting or new things.

In fact Myles counted the interesting things on the way to the water park:

  1. Flamingos in Ras Al Khor sanctuary
  2. Very different traffic lights in Ajman – they had little clocks counted how many seconds the lights were remaining on Red or Green (they were also laid out horizontally instead of vertically)
  3. Six “tornadoes” (whirly winds)
  4. No pictures of HH Sheikh Mohammed (outside of Dubai it makes sense)
  5. A picture of a man that looked like Fazza (Dubai’s Royal Prince) but wasn’t (he was a different Ajman’s Royal Prince)
  6. Sharks in the water (sticks in the water)
  7. A big old abandoned plane used as an advertisement

Emirates employees get a generous discount at the park, but there was an even more generous coupon in the entertainer book which encouraged us to visit this particular water park over the other three.  We’ve been to Wild Wadi a couple times, and Elle and the boys had been to the a bit run down Wonderland.  The only one we now haven’t visited is Aquaventure which is in Atlantis – The Palm, so possibly the most well-known.

In a word, Dreamland was awesome. Myles had to be convinced that it was different to Dreamworld back on the Gold Coast in Australia. There are things to appeal to all ages. There is a good maze to have a relaxing float with babies, but we didn’t take Lewis on this occasion.  There are plenty of other rides for larger kids, and the obligatory number of scarier rides still for the adult-aged kids. There was also a bar or two if you wish for a break to whet your whistle.

I had to give Myles an impromptu Arabic lesson, more of a reminder, when I had to clarify that “yulla” is Arabic for hurry, or let’s go. Myles originally thought all the guys were unhappy because they wanted to go on the yellow slide, not because they were extremely impatient.

The only downside of the day, was the heat. We made the mistake of going barefoot from the change rooms and lockers. So throughout the day we had to run between the slides, and deviate our course to take in a bit of grass now and again til our scorched feet had reduced to a normal temperature.  Well, my feet at least. I put Myles on my shoulders most of the times.

One of the other downsides was the amount of body hair on display. I’m on the paranoid side of having body hair, and in the past have generally shaved down for triathlon events. But it was nothing, compared to the spectacle you’ll see at any water park in this region. It was interesting that you’d see what you thought was the hairiest guy at the park. But the guy would always be outdone by the new hairiest guy. You never really find the winner, you just get sick of noticing. Or you’ll spot the hairiest guy in the world, and there’s instantly no where else to go.

Myles enjoyed all of the rides he was allowed on.  There was still a few things he was not tall enough for. But we’ll certainly be back.

The trip also had second hidden agenda for the way home. Next to Dreamland is a place well-known to all expats, particularly from the West. It’s called Barracuda Beach Resort, but it’s really only famous for one thing, cheap alcohol.  But just as impressive, is the huge variety of stock they carry.  The first time I visited, I was like a kid in a candy store.  They have a fantastic Australian wine collection, with possibly more wines than a standard Australian bottle shop. And they have all the most popular Australian beers at fantastic prices. The XXXX cartons were AED 90, which equates to less than AUD $30 – must cheaper than in Australia! I’m sure anyone outside of Queensland would want to insert joke here about cat urine, but I’ll move on.

The trip home takes you through the emirate of Sharjah – which is a strictly dry emirate. So there’s always a bit of uncertainty whether we’re breaking the law or not. But the consensus is providing its within personal consumption levels, and you are licensed to drink within your own emirate, it should be fine.

We spent around 5-6 hours at Dreamland, but you could easily spend even more time.  Myles was so active the complete time we were there he was asleep within minutes of leaving Barracuda.  It was a fantastic day, and we’ll certainly be back again. Although Wild Wadi is less than 10 minutes from our house and Dreamland is at least an hour away, it has a larger layout, caters for adults a little better and is quite a bit cheaper.