i don't drink - 'I don't drink!' How to quit alcohol - a drinker's tale

'I don't drink!' How to quit alcohol - a drinker's tale

Lane Rage!

28/1/2016

You don't have to be a Christian to turn the other cheek - but being sober helps!!

Readers of 'I Don't Drink!' will know that I now swim every day and I have just witnessed a classic case of 'lane rage', at my local pool of all places. Two middle-aged guys were about to come to blows over who had more of the fast lane than the other. They were shouting and hurling abuse and that with a school party of children in the next lane. It was shameful to witness and a good thing the lifeguards booted them out.

I used to be a bit like that, especially if it was the morning and I was a little hungover, or the afternoon and I needed (thought I needed) a drink - in other words all the time! I have even had written complaints to the management about me before!

Now I am so chilled out and patient with people I can't see myself ever getting into this sort of state again. After all, why not just change lanes, or let the faster person go by at the end of the lane? There is so much more to life than fighting over a lane in a swimming pool, isn't there?

The joys of being sober are truly boundless.

Wondering what to do with all that extra time on your hands?

28/1/2016

Now you have kicked the booze into touch you will have all that extra time on your hands in addition to far more physical and mental energy. Why not take the time to write that story that has been in your head for years, or simply start compiling your memoirs like I did? Self-publishing your own work has never been easier than it now is but you do need to follow some guidelines if you want to make it successful. This book produced by the group I belong to www.chindi-authors.co.uk contains all you need to get started. Don't sit there confused and wondering what to do with yourself, get the creative juices flowing and use that time to start something completely new! Good Luck. The book is available on amazon.

I MET the MOB

26/1/2016

It was great to meet attendees at the www.joinclubsoda.co.uk mob camp last night and have the opportunity to share my experience with them. I hope they found it useful. It was interesting to hear peoples reactions to actually doing a dry January, something I would never have been able to do as I would have focused exclusively on my next drink come midnight on the 31st. I think a couple in the group were doing the same, but then they were looking to cut down their drinking and not quit once and for all. A number of people also said how tired they felt despite expecting to have a new lease of energy course through them. A lot of people say the same and I wonder if it is not the body just relaxing from all the alcohol stress and taking time to rejuvenate, I certainly know my poor body needed a considerable dose of renewal. I never felt over-tired when I quit but then I was changing from someone crippled with gout and other ailments to someone who could run, swim and have great fun, so any improvement was going to be massively noticeable. Good luck to everyone doing Dry January.

In a wine bar at 10.00 a.m.? Me?

23/1/2016

Yes, actually I was there at 9.30 but not for some wine I hasten to add. I was hosting the award ceremony for a short story writing completion run on behalf of the local newspaper and a group I am involved with www.chindi-authors.co.uk The star guest to present the prizes was none other than famous author Kate Mosse pictured here with me, and what a lovely and interesting lady she is. Not long ago at that time of day on a Saturday morning I would have been nursing a hangover and I would never have 'found the time' or the patience to be involved in a writing group like this. It was quite magical to see the thrill on the winners faces, especially the children winners, and wonderful to be involved in something that brings so much pleasure to others and that involves so many fun and exciting people. Just look what I was missing out on when I was a drunk. I love my new forever sober life.

Another dreadful photograph!

21/1/2016

A nice piece in the Chichester Observer this morning. I am also set to do a talk at Chichester library on the 22nd March this year. This is certainly a very supportive city if you are prepared to make the effort.

I did send them a copy of my book cover and a really nice photograph of me to go with it. I can only assume they like using the one they have because I look like someone who needs to stop drinking or more to the point, someone who is slowly making their way round a prison yard!

Ice with everything!

18/1/2016

Well this weekend was the annual corporate ski trip to Les Deux Alpes in France. As I don’t down-hill ski and they don’t do cross-country skiing at this resort (it’s too mountainous) I spent my time walking in the mountains wearing raquettes (snow shoes). Apart from the fact I no longer have any skin on my heels it was great fun and fantastic to be in the crisp mountain air and enjoying the wonderful scenery.

The picture of me with the mammoth is taken in the ice cave at the top of the glacier above the village. The altitude was 2 miles above sea level and the temperature outside was -20 with a wind chill factor of -50, at one stage I thought my ears would fall off so I quickly made my way down to a lower altitude where it warmed up to a comfortable -15!

The not drinking seems to be catching on in the company and most of the people I was with were either copying my example or limiting their drinking simply because we were having lots of fun and drink didn’t need to be part of that. One of my UK colleagues said on the Sunday how fantastic it had been to be up early and skiing without feeling dehydrated, without a constant hammering in his head, and devoid of the usual overall feeling of death he had experienced in previous years.

Most evenings we didn’t get to bed until way past two in the morning despite the early morning starts. Those that did decide to get drunk tended to stay in bed until lunchtime and so missed the morning’s entertainment and many of them felt too poorly and drained to dare venture onto the slopes. The highlight for me was finding an outdoor heated swimming pool with the water at a very pleasant 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Laying back in the warm water being snowed on and looking up at the mountains and the daytime Moon was simply magical.

I am so so glad I don’t drink, and what a shame I wasted so many years of my life missing out on all this enjoyment. I think next year I will actually have some ski lessons.

Skiing and Booze!

12/1/2016

As those of you who have read my book ‘One Less for the Road’ will know, one of my clients invites me every year to go skiing with the rest of the company. When I used to drink I was never invited and thought nothing of it as I am not a full-time employee, only a consultant. What I never realised is that I was such a drunkard I was viewed as both a liability and a potential embarrassment and that’s why the invitation was never extended to me. It’s awful to think I missed out because the management didn’t want their French staff to see what a drunk they were employing in London, and because I might have injured myself on the slopes and wrecked the weekend for everyone. It’s only because I have such a long standing relationship with the owners of the company I was probably tolerated at all.

Now things are different. This will be my third year skiing with them and we fly out to Lyon tomorrow. There will be Nordic skiing for me, raquette walks through the forests, sledging, snow ball fights and a whole lot more besides. In the evening I will certainly be the only sober member of the party and I don’t care because I know I will have just as much fun as everyone else, I don’t have to worry about making a fool of myself, and in the morning I will be up with the larks whereas everyone else will be nursing a sore head. I am so lucky I knocked the booze on the head.
I will post and let you know how it goes. Now let’s hope for some snow in France!

The Child-catcher?

9/1/2016

I have been in Zug in Switzerland for a business trip this week. One evening meeting was with a potential client who asked in advance that my business colleague and I ‘go easy on him’ because he was trying Dry January. He expected that being London City boys we would get him wrecked and I have to admit in the past we would have done, especially me, as I was the worst culprit for encouraging others with my favourite remark, ‘one for the road.’ Imagine his delight to find not only that I don’t drink anymore but I also gave him signed copies of both my books. We had a great evening, some fantastic fish freshly caught from Lake Zug and lots of fun and laughter. My client and I stuck to water (the Swiss don’t seem to do lime juice) and my business colleague had a guilty beer and glass of red wine.

Later we went for a walk around the old medieval City which is beautiful and reminiscent of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with its cobbled streets, its castle with pointy turrets and towers and dark narrow streets. I even imitated the infamous Child-catcher calling ‘Children, come out Children’ in a loud voice and creeping about in sinister fashion wearing my dark raincoat. Needless to say there were no children to be seen, in fact everyone stayed well out of my way. See, you don’t need to be drunk to make a complete nuisance of yourself!

The Nightmare TV Interview

6/1/2016

Well here is the interview as promised. I look like I've had a skin-full of booze which I promise I haven't, and the interviewer clearly has an issue with what life without booze must be like. I had to set him straight and I also left him a copy of my book! There is a part two but I will save this for another day, I don't want people using watching me as an excuse to drink!

On TV again!

4/1/2016

The stress mounts as I have been invited to be on TV again tomorrow night. This time I will be live on air at 5.00pm GMT talking about my new book and Dry January in general. I will record the session but to watch live That's Solent can be found on channel 8 on Freeview in the UK. What will I say, what will I wear, what will it be like, arrgghhhh!!!