Battle Ready by Ollie Ollerton

Author:Ollie Ollerton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blink Publishing

CHAPTER 10

DEMON DAYS

THE BANSHEE CALLS

My brother and I had been living in separate countries for 18 years by the time I decided to return to England to set up Break-Point. Excited at the prospect of seeing my family, I phoned my brother from Australia. ‘Mate, I’m coming home for good.’

‘That’s amazing!’ he said. ‘I’m so happy to hear it. However, I’m leaving.’

‘What?’

‘Yeah, I’ve got a job in Malaysia, and I leave just after you arrive.’

Of course, I was gutted, but the silver lining here was that because of him leaving, my mum was moving from her house in Cornwall to look after his home, which left her cottage empty. Returning with empty pockets, a house to stay in pretty much rentfree was a massive help. Here, I could finally get myself focused on Break-Point, and for a limited amount of time would not be ghosted by the need to keep working constantly. Unbeknown to me, the Universe was laying the foundations for me before I even knew what I was going to do.

Mum’s place was a cute little house in Hayle, my outgoings were minimal, and I was doing the odd bit of work here and there to keep afloat. I began to plan my own personal bootcamp in 2014, and top of the priority list was getting my drinking under control. Deep down, if I’m honest, I didn’t think for a moment I could ever really totally stop. My relationship with booze was like an illicit affair with a beautiful but dangerous woman that leaves you bleeding but still enraptured, and despite the fact you know she’s a banshee and will suck the life from you then move onto her next victim, you keep leaving the back door open for her. I was fighting the constant tension of not having booze in the house but wanting it terribly, dreaming of chasing the weekend again and kicking back with her on the sofa. When I went cold turkey, the banshee sent the demons chattering around my bed in the dark, a night of cold sweats, ghosts and insomnia. In order to delay the latter, those one-day sessions would turn into three-day binges, followed by another three days’ recovery; I was losing so much time.

HUMP DAY

‘Hump day’. I hate the word. What’s hump day? It’s Wednesday. People call it this because once you get over the midweek hump you’re well on your way to the weekend. So many are living their lives for Friday – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are redundant, just blocks of time to get through till fantastic Friday.

If you only live for the weekend, something is missing, and you deserve more. Every day for me is a blessing. To me it’s not Wednesday or Thursday, it’s another day full of opportunity. But when I first got to Cornwall and was preparing for the bootcamp, I too was a hump-day believer. And by way of reward for reaching the weekend, I put poison into my body, polluting all the good work I’d done.

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