A good friend of mine quit alcohol forever this year much to the delight of their partner and everyone else. Then they had a relapse. What should I say, what did I say, and what should you do if the same happens to you. Is it OK just to carry on as before? Find out what I think tomorrow and also send in your own questions for me to answer.

I went to an amazing concert at the Palladium on Monday night given by Brit Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band and probably the best of their kind in the world.
My favourite Pink Floyd song is 'comfortably numb' and they performed this to absolute perfection. Watching them on stage however I was intrigued by the cameo play of a guy sitting 'numb' in a chair being checked over by a doctor in a white coat. Obviously the numb guy didn't move, being alive but comatose due to drug and alcohol misuse and I realised he was meant to represent someone who had fried their brain through drug misuse and what an appalling waste of humanity that was. 
It set me thinking about my brother and what he had looked like in the last hours of his life before alcohol killed him and what I might have gone through had I continued on the path I was on at the time.
Despite the wonderful music being played it was quite disturbing and even scaring to think how many people are in that vegetative state right now in a home or hospital somewhere, simply waiting to die but unaware of the world around them.
The band finished with the wonderful 'dark side of the moon' and ended what had after all become an emotional evening.
If you are unconvinced you can quit alcohol or are taking even worse substances, try and imagine yourself sat in an armchair for perhaps months or years, being fed through tubes, and having no sense of what or who you are anymore. It might sound extreme and never likely to happen to you but my brother went down hill so fast once his liver decided enough was enough it was terrifying to see. Good luck and God Bless as he used to say.

I will be live on club soda together at facebook this Sunday 18th March at 7.00 p.m.
This time I will try and improve the quality of the video as last time it was crap! I will also start off by discussing having a relapse once you have quit drinking forever, what this means, how I would react, and I will ask you to consider what you would say to someone in this position. But please do get your own questions ready for me on any subject related to booze and quitting forever. The face of my wonderful but violent cat is simple there to intimidate!

I spent this afternoon at the British Museum and in the Parthenon gallery I came across this poor fellow. He is widely thought to be Dionysos the Greek God of wine.
Looking at his complexion I would certainly say he has a possible drink problem and that gives a clue as to his identity. I am certainly no picture of beauty, but my skin has improved massively since I stopped drinking. I used to have psoriasis and that has completely gone as well. I put it down to the fact alcohol dehydrates you to such a great extent.
Poor Dionysos has also lost his left hand. The label beneath him alluded to the fact he was originally thought to be holding a goblet. This has to be a fairly drastic way to stop drinking, it surely has to be far less painful to get hold of a copy of my book!

Walking through the snow on Friday afternoon I remembered the days when I would have used the weather as an excuse to go home and 'keep warm' with a bottle or two of wine.
I was sad to read about some homeless people who are using alcohol for the same mistaken reason. Although it numbs the senses, alcohol actually lowers your ability to cope with the cold weather and so is the worst thing you can drink.
I instead spent the time usefully employed playing in the local park and enjoying the winter majesty until it thankfully disappears again until another year. two of three days is enough thank-you.

I also braved the reduced trains service to attend a fantastic lecture at the Royal Institution last night. This was given by Prof. Nick Lane who discussed his latest work on trying to discover the origin of life. It was fascinating, thought provoking and mind stimulating and I am now reading his book 'The Vital Question' which I got him to sign for me. Although so many scientists these days are proud atheists it is nice that Nick left a window open for the unknown and therefore unknowable. In other words that little spark that started life off (as we know it) so many billions of years ago, and from which we and everything else on this planet is derived, could have come from anywhere or anything. Nice stuff to get your imagination whirring.
What a difference from the drunken and unthinking slob I recall being all those years ago.