OMG!! Have you read the headlines? Many airlines stopped serving alcohol due to Covid-19. This to avoid unnecessary contact between flight attendants and passengers. All in all a great thing I guess. One of the things I always say is that if there simply wouldn´t be any alcohol then it would be so much easier to not drink. What does this particular alcohol ban mean for me though…
My one out
As you might have read in earlier posts, I consider myself a non-drinker UNLESS I´M ON AN AIRPORT/PLANE! I still allow myself to drink there as my main issue with drinking alcohol is, that I don´t have a stop button. Which means that in day-to-day life I would be constantly battling with internal discussions: “How many drinks can I have without getting a hangover? Maybe I shouldn´t drink tonight as I have this thing in the morning that I can´t miss. Is it too early to start drinking yet, it´s a holiday, so… Should I perhaps only drink bubbles and no G&T´s?” Etc etc
Crushing hangovers
As I never knew where that one first drink would lead to it was really hard to live a normal, healthy life. As the day(s) after a night of drinking would just throw me off completely. To give myself peace of mind (and to never have to face these debilitating, physically and mentally crushing hangovers that would pop up whenever I drank too much, éver again), I have been trying to stop drinking alcohol for years. I always failed though as I´d feel better after a week or 2 after my last binge and then started thinking: “I´m not thát bad… Everyone drinks this much!” And while they may, not everyone gets these terrible hangovers/ mental health consequences.
Anyhow, so after trying many rules/ideas of moderation for decades, I came up with this one exception – airports/planes. And for some reason, this just works for me! It´s simple and clear: Am I on an airport/plane? No? Then I do not drink. And because I know in my mind it´s not NEVER AGAIN (that I can drink alcohol) I can easily stick to this rule.
Note: Right now I haven´t had a drop of alcohol for 108 days. And I´m on 424 days if you include only drinking on airports/planes.
The alcohol ban
So to get back to this current alcohol ban on planes: I haven´t travelled as much as I usually do due to Covid-19. I normally fly like once in every 2/3 months but haven´t now since the 15th of March. And truth be told, I´m really looking forward to my glass(-es) of bubbles on my first flight since lockdown. We´re flying to Mallorca for a family holiday next month and I´ve been waiting in anticipation for the travelling (drinking) ever since we decided to go there. And then this happens…
I read it in the news just before I booked our flights and some thoughts that immediately came to mind were: “Nooooo, fucking Covid-19, so much shit already and now it fucks up my drinking on the plane too!!!!!”. Then it went to: “Shit, maybe this is a sign from ´above´ and it´s time to get rid of my airplane rule?!?”. Next one was: “I múst find out exactly which airlines still offer alcohol. I might be ok…”.
To drink or not to drink
Yesterday I booked the flights, with Vueling, and they don´t seem to have an adapted alcohol policy. Yét, but that can change any day of course. What this panic obvs shows though is that I still (and always will – let’s stay real here!!) have a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol. And that it is a GREAT decision to have become a non-drinker in my day-to-day life.
However, with regards to my airplane rule, I don´t think I´m ready to part with it yet… And to be honest with you I really hope I can have my plane drinkies next month. Although on the other hand, I also think that if the possibility of drinking alcohol is taken away from me it makes it a lót easier to become a 100% non-drinker. Which is, I guess, my end goal anyway. So do I really still want to drink on airplanes? I will let you know what happens next month: Will there be alcohol served? Will I drink? Will I not? And how will I feel about the whole thing?
To be continued…
