Everything you recognize when you don't drink for once

The one drenched weekend followed the next. I drank delicious wine on a daily basis during my week in Athens, sipped Aperol Spritz in Ibiza, and once home, I just continued the drinking fest. Time for an alcohol-free break. That's why I'm alcohol-free in May, and it leads to remarkable things.

1. Suddenly, you forget what else you can drink when it's cozy. Cola? Boring. Spa red? Meh. Water? So uncozy. Suddenly, it happened that I started my lunch with a banana juice. On the weekend. And the sun was shining. To annoy me, the waiter also added inedible pieces of fruit as garnish. Until I suddenly saw that there was alcohol-free white beer, and I felt like a kid in a candy store. I spontaneously rose ten points on my own coziness scale.

2. On the first day of my alcohol-free month, I stepped outside and suddenly found my nose in the cava. Life had to be celebrated, so hooray and cheers. I thanked the waiter kindly, and immediately I saw the company looking at me a bit sideways. Does she look nauseous, is she acting differently, does she have a little belly? ‘No people, I am NOT pregnant, I just ate well on vacation.’

3. Life suddenly is no longer a negotiation or puzzle. I am blessed with a friend who always wants to drive, but now I just drive myself. I don't need anyone to talk to me to transport me from here to there. And so I automatically don't find it uncozy anymore that I can't drink. It's the best mindfuck I could wish for myself.

4. People who think they need to remind you that you're doing alcohol-free, also something like that. As if my spine is such a spaghetti strand that within half an hour I throw all my intentions overboard and still go for a drink. While I was having a great time with my alcohol-free variant.

5. Maybe it's because I've only been alcohol-free for three days, but I actually find it quite nice. Tonight I will dance sober at the Friends of Amstel Live, on Saturday I will toast with a (vir)gin and tonic to the life of a friend, and maybe next week I will even take a karaoke number sober. Or maybe not? No, of course I won't do that, you can go too far. I have a reputation to uphold, so I only do karaoke in a tipsy state.

And in June, it's just over, because it all has to stay a bit in balance.