Well, yet another dry January draws to a close…thirty days off the juice and just a single day to complete the month. What an odd state of affairs, this has all been so easy I am tempted to keep on going. Almost tempted to be exact. We’ll see how Wednesday pans out.
Beyond the benefits of recovering, once more, and once more again, my pre-adolescant liver (so it was said), Dry January has become an inspiration. I have to write a thesis (thesis sounds like a very big word to me) for my MBA, and the phenomenon that is Dry January seems very apt. It has spread from the UK to the States, and now even to France (although quite how you buy the rights to a month of alcohol abstinence is a slight muystery).
I had only ever reflected on the personal benefits of a month of abstinence, but according to Emma Dawson, MW, the financial effects for the wine trade are increasingly pronounced and an annual challenge, and so to my upcoming thesis: a study of the effects of Dry January.
Good, my tutor said, a thesis on health. Bad, I replied, a study of the economic effects of Dry January on the wine trade, with hopefully some figures on exactly who is not buying what. Is it a middle class scourge?
I am interested to see how many of those who sign up and pledge on the Alcohol Concern website, live out the challenge, or subside mid-stream. In my MBA class we were five out of 25: 20%. And now I am the remaining and only 4%. Everyone else is damp at best, or drenched.
And where to re-start? I am tempted by a dry Martini and alas, my Amontillado cupboard is bare. In either case, something muy secco and cool will hit the spot.
Legless in Burgundy 