First Sober Date Night!

(Me and My Boyfriend.)

My first sober date night was a success guys! I asked my lovely boyfriend to join me on an alcohol free date and he was more excited than me!

When I first met my boyfriend, I was in an awful place in life and I would go out and get black out drunk most nights. I hated myself, I hated my situation and I honestly thought my life was well and truly over. Our first date, we went on a lovely walk and then... went clubbing. I am very surprised he came back for a second date but I think he saw past the broken person that I was at the time. I am so, unbelievably lucky that he did too. He is the reason I am sober, he is the reason I even cut down on the drinking all that time ago and he is the reason that I have the strength to get better in the first place. With all that being said, I do want to add a disclaimer that I am always there for him too, he is not my carer and I am NOT an inconvenience. We look after each other and share all of the highs and lows with one another. That is the kind of love we have and it is the type that I spent many broken nights hoping for. So, now that you have a bit of back story, let me tell you about our date.

(Waiting patiently for my drinks!)

Where we live, there is tons to do and it is a big mix of things too but I really wanted to do our number one favourite thing and that is to go for a drink and to talk shit. We do this often and it feels amazing. We talk about everything from our hobbies (books and football), to any issues that we are personally facing. It feels really good to sit and to listen with intent. So, that is exactly what we did. We hunted down a Weatherspoons and we got ahold of their NA drinks section. It turns out they have a lot of new NA drinks in stock. The main one that I wanted to try was the NA Becks as my parents said that they enjoyed that one, however, I did not like that one at all. All of the other NA beers were really good though and I would 100% drink all of them again. It was really good to be able to have beer and wings still as well. I mean what a combo, am I right?

We also tried a Raspberry Lemonade Kombucha which I did not like, it was really sour. My boyfriend really enjoyed it though, he said it was a very interesting flavor. I would be interested in trying other Kombucha's though. Finally, we tried the ONLY mocktail that spoons have and that was the Raspberry Refresher. Honestly, it did taste exactly like the sweets. I did wish, however, that it was fizzy. I took note of the ingredients and I am gonna try and make it fizzy at home because my boyfriend LOVED it! I think that this date has inspired me to hunt down some good mocktail recipes because I am very picky when it comes to fruity drinks and I really wanna try and make something that I can take with me to parties and for special occasions. Even something I can make as a gift to give instead of buying someone a bottle of gin or wine! If they drink alcohol, they can just add to it if they want to.

We then headed into town and went on a little walk by the canal. It was nice to be sober enough to walk next to a body of water without worrying about falling in. Where I used to live before I met my boyfriend, there was a canal right next to my flat. I went on walks along it so often and it was one of my most enjoyed pass times. I used to look at all the back gardens that lined it and wonder what my life would be like if I lived in a house with such a big garden. Would I have BBQ's. garden parties, etc... So this was so lovely. There weren't houses next to this canal but there were bars and restaurants that were booming and it was nice to see other people also enjoying themselves. It was also interesting to see people rat arsed, it really reminded me of why I stay sober now. We did go into a club and walked right back out again, I decided that I was too sober to be surrounded by drunk uni students who were making out and fighting all at once!! Great entertainment if you like people watching though.

After walking around for a bit, we stumbled upon a very quiet and almost empty All Bar One. This bar reminded us of an earlier date that we had been on at the start of our relationship. We giggled for a bit at the memories and decided to go in. We found a booth in the corner by some fairy lights and sat ourselves down. They didn't have too much in terms of NA but they did have a cider so we grabbed that and gave it a try. This was probably my favourite drink of the evening. The whole vibe of the bar was so nice, nobody was visibly steaming, so everyone kept to their table and their circle of friends. This meant that we were on a pretty much deserted side of the building. It was probably the most peaceful and calm date that we have ever been on. We looked back through old pictures and laughed at the memories we have made. It felt very, very wholesome.

Honestly, as a sober person. I had a great night. I felt like I had some kind of superpowers when I saw everyone else off their heads drunk. It felt like I had such a different worldly perspective. The only part I was jealous of was the fact that a lot of drunk people were not feeling the cold... I was. I do just want to say though, that I am in no way judging them for being drunk. It is not my life to make choices with. If they are having a good time, then props to them, after all, that was me not so long ago and I would not have liked a sober person trying to force their way of life onto me. It was my choice to be sober and its a choice someone has to make for themselves. Over all, the night in general was a huge eye opener to how great I truly do feel living sober and to be honest, I didn't want to order an alcoholic drink at all. We also didn't have to pay for an uber because my boyfriend could drive as he was sober too!

Also. as a girlfriend, I had a great time too. My boyfriend has been the biggest supporter during my sobriety and I will never, ever forget that and I think if we are celebrating my 40 Day's (41 now) sober, then we should be celebrating him too because he has done this with me and sometimes for me. I wouldn't be able to do this without his support, I love you M x

Our NA Drink Ratings:

Raspberry Refresher:

Spoons

BF: 9/10

Me: 5/10

Strawberry & Lime Kopparberg:

Spoons

BF: 10/10

Me: 10/10

NA Heineken:

Spoons

BF: 6/10

Me: 8/10

Raspberry Lemonade Kombucha:

Spoons

BF: 7/10

Me: 0/10

NA Stella:

Spoons

BF: 8/10

Me: 8.5/10

NA Becks:

Spoons

BF: 4/10

Me: 8/10

Strawberry & Lime Rekorderlig:

All Bar One

BF: 8/10

Me: 10/10

I want to end this post with some comments from my boyfriend about this date night;

"It was very enjoyable and I had a placebo moment when walking towards the toilet at one point and not being drunk at all, made it funny. We had a very wholesome evening, it was fun and being sober surrounded by drunk people gave a lot of perspective as to how we would normally act. It was nice to be in each others company out and about, without it being influenced by alcohol. we ended up being able to drive home and we actually got in to bed and watched telly, rather than going to bed with the room spinning."

That is all from me today!! Thank you for being here and for reading about our first sober date night. If you want to contact me or to follow my journey some more, you can find me on threads and insta as @imsoberpositive !! I would love to connect with you, to know what you think of these blogs and what you would like to see next.

Until next time,

Keep going & remember, one day at a time.

-P x

imsoberpositive