A Big Event

You know that thing where you go to a stadium for a big sports event and because it's a ...

Big Event!

You have a couple of drinks beforehand and then when you get there you buy some more drinks even though it's horrendously expensive because ...

Big Event! ...

... and then you get a bit shirty when someone in the crowd knocks you and some spills so you stink a bit of booze but you drink the drinks merrily anyway and do a bit of chanting and maybe also the Mexican wave when it comes around and then you need to go to the loo and while you're there you grab another couple of drinks because...

Big Event! ...

... and now you're a bit sozzled and are not really concentrating on the game and your bladder talks to you again and so does the bar and then it's all a bit blurry and sloppy and you chant loudly and get distracted and forget the end score and the trip home takes forever and you sleep like crap and wake up hungover and wonder if you embarrased yourself and wonder why you had to drink so much at a Big Event which was already super-fun and wonder yet again if your drinking is really serving you at all.

Yeah, that thing.

I don't have that thing any more. This photo above is me watching, along with 32,000 others, New Zealand's awesome Football Ferns play in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

I drank a ridiculously overpriced coke and ate some ridiculously overpriced dumplings, chanted merrily ("Let's Go New Zealand!"), stood and cheered for half a dozen Mexican waves, asked my foodball mad son many times "why did that happen?", and overall just felt very happy and proud and moved by the spectacle of thousands of kiwis supporting elite female athletes.

This Big Event had everything going for it and didn't need enhancing with a liquid drug. I was surrounded by happy, excited people. I had my loved ones with me. I wasn't at work, wasn't commuting, wasn't doing chores, wasn't dealing with admin, wasn't bored. I was a part of something fun, cheering and waving, full of happy hormones and sensations. There is nothing that alcohol could have added to the event and everything that it could have taken away.

Don't be fooled that alcohol is going to enhance your Big Event. Remember that the big event has everything inherently contained in it to give you the best time possible, and that feeling things in the raw is infinitely better than feeling them sozzled. 

There is nothing I love more now than a sober Big Event. It takes a bit of adjusting when you're used to Big Events always being boozy, but trust me, you'll get to where you enjoy them in the raw as well. No booze required.

Mrs D xx