Lent, alcohol, and an update

I met a friend for lunch the other day – I was about to say an old friend, but he is about the same age as me, so I’ll give that one a miss. It was a radiantly sunny day and we found a pretty pub that was new to both of us.

At the bar we ordered – wait for it - a diet coke and an orange juice. Admittedly it was lunchtime, but in days gone by there might have been a glass of beer on the table. For a variety of reasons, lent included, alcohol was off the menu.

I don’t need to say that it didn’t in any way spoil what was a great catch up. Of course it didn’t - it had been a while and there was loads of news. It’s amazing how people don’t change – and despite quite a few years’ gap it was we were back putting IT systems to rights in no time.

I have to admit I have hardly missed the wine at all. I say hardly at all because there have been occasions when a glass (or two) would have been nice. But it’s honestly been no big deal.

So from the perspective of doing what I said I was going to do – it has been a success.

From a performance point of view, however, it hasn’t been quite the silver bullet I had hoped for. I still have days when I am totally turbo-charged, but also days when it’s a bit of a struggle to get out of bed (much less frequent, but they do happen).

So, what can I conclude? I certainly think it helps. But then a glass or so occasionally helps too. After the fabulous bottle of red Burgundy I am planning with some Roquefort over Easter, I will be sticking to weekends only for the vino.

Somehow, though, I think that might be more difficult than abstaining completely. I’ve never exactly been the moderate type. As the wonderful

Gretchen Rubin pointed out recently:

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”

Leonardo da Vinci himself said that – it’s an odd thought that he might also have struggled with such banal matters.