Apparently there are some three million people taking part in Dry January which is not a month for people to avoid rainfall but thirty one days to avoid alcoholic beverages, just the thought of it is enough to make you rush for a drink.

The thought of joining the Temperance movement is not one that I often have I must admit, I’m sure avoiding intoxication for a month would have a beneficial effect on my body although not perhaps on my mind.

Alcohol, even in moderation very soon becomes part of one’s daily ritual and I have to admit I can’t remember the last day I didn’t have a drink. There comes a time in every day when the clock hits lager o’clock and I find myself cracking a few tins until I finally drink the last one as a nightcap.

It seems worse when written down but to be brutally frank with you, dear reader, I have just realised the time and have started my first can of the evening.

There are, it seems, many benefits to taking the pledge, or going on the wagon as they say, the derivation of which allegedly stems from either, prisoners going to jail being allowed one drink before being put on the wagon and taken away and incarcerated, or not drinking because you were travelling on the water wagon.

Should one manage to partake in the Dry January experience, it is said, you will have more money, visibly better skin and not experience a hangover, although if you’re a regular drinker you rarely experience a hangover anyway.

Apparently alcohol dehydrates the body which may explain the feeling when it gets to lager o’clock, when one needs to take on board fluids to offset the dehydration.

The only two things which would encourage me to give up alcohol are the benefits to my liver, which in as little as two weeks will start to repair itself, assuming one believes you have drunk sufficient to damage it in the first place and the benefits to my waistline which could definitely be improved upon.

Having seriously considered taking part in Dry January I have drawn up a list with the pro’s on one side and the con’s on the other. My list on the pro’s side has healthy skin, healthy liver, more money, no hangover, better waste-line, no dehydration, and generally all round better health. Unfortunately it seems all these benefits are outweighed by the con’s side which contains the word lager.

Maybe next year.