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

The 2000 days milestone is approaching...

18/6/2018

I will shortly have achieved 2000 days without a drink. To celebrate this milestone I am writing a new newsletter, producing a video and will be writing some blogs. Make sure you are registered to receive a copy of the newsletter by visiting www.idontdrink.net As well as talking about how it feels to have achieved that long a time sober, what if anything I miss, and what problems I might have experienced along the way, I will also mention a recent experience I had involving a binge drinker that really affected me. If you binge drink this is something you need to read!

Corporate greed and total irresponsibility

29/5/2018

The news that Coca-Cola are entering the alcohol market to exploit the young drinking culture in Japan makes me livid. In years to come this same company will be trying to say how responsible they are whilst wriggling out of law-suits for having helped to fuel an alcohol crisis that will cause ill-health, misery and death. It really proves the point that most corporates are purely driven by greed and shareholder returns than any moral responsibility.
I don't drink Coke but I will studiously avoid any drinks from the coca-cola company from now on by way of my own protest. If they get away with this in Japan they will do the same in many other countries where the government is weak on protective legislation for its populace or open to bribes. One day when alcohol consumption has the same stigma attached as smoking Coca-Cola will no doubt be paying out billions in compensation, but by then the management and shareholders of today will have moved on and be enjoying the wealth earned from the misery of others. Bad move Coca-Cola.

Back from the Pilgrimage

29/5/2018

We are back safely from our walk from Trafalgar Square to Canterbury Cathedral to help raise awareness for the plight of the homeless. We met some fantastic people, got a few blisters and overall had a wonderful time.
Talking to some of my fellow pilgrims it made me realise just how many people have experienced homelessness, often through circumstances out of their control, or through drink and drug abuse, themselves often driven by factors that would be difficult to control. We on the walk were the lucky ones.
There was a time when I was in my mid-twenties when I could so easily have become homeless and have lost everything and that was ultimately all a result of alcohol. I was lucky I had some family to reach out to. Not everyone has that available to them.

It made me smile to see the instruction sheet we were all given before the walk started that stated no alcohol was allowed on the walk, and even though a few people did venture to the local pub in the evenings, during the day there was nothing alcohol in sight despite the heat and the many wonderful village inns we passed. The old me would have been going beserk for a drink and would have hated to have been given such a dictate, but then the old me would have never even considered doing such a walk as this in any event. The old me never had time for charity or much that wasn't self centred.

So yet another occasion when I realise how lucky I am to have quit alcohol forever and how wonderful it if to be free of the stress and frustration that the nagging desire for a drink brings with it.
I hope you like the photos. I particularly love the one of the cake stand. We came across one of these every couple of hours at a church hall where the local ladies had made a special treat for us and to keep us going.
I have to admit I have probably swapped the alcohol habit for a cake habit, and no wonder.
Finally, many thanks to everyone who helped me raise money by sponsoring me. If you still want to, here is the linkhttps://pilgrimage2018.everydayhero.com/uk/julian

God Bless

It could happen to anyone...

23/5/2018

Only one day to go before my wife and I set off on our 74-mile pilgrimage to raise money for the homeless.
The connection at St Martin’s is London’s busiest homelessness charity supporting more people than any other away from the streets through specialist services including: a day & night centre, street outreach, help finding employment & specialist mental health & addiction support.
Many of the homeless have drink problems and I remember there were times when I was an alcoholic, and how near I came to losing everything and ending up on the streets. sometimes there is only a thin line between holding things together and letting go. I was lucky.
On the Sunday night as over 100 of us gather round the fire I will try not to bore them silly as I read a story from my comic memoirs ‘The 7.52 to London Bridge’, and also offer to help anyone learn more about how I managed to quit alcohol and what life is like five years on!
You can also help by sponsoring us at this link:
https://pilgrimage2018.everydayhero.com/uk/julian
Every pound given to help the homeless really makes a difference. Thankyou

Please help me to help the homeless

16/5/2018

I don’t normally ask for charity sponsorship as I make my own regular charity contributions through an association I belong to, and all the proceeds from my book sales also go to help the connection at St Martin’s charity. But this is a bit different:
The connection at St Martin’s is London’s busiest homelessness charity supporting more people than any other away from the streets through specialist services including: a day & night centre, street outreach, help finding employment & specialist mental health & addiction support.

On the weekend on 25th-28th May, my wife and I will join 98 others and walk the Pilgrims Way from Trafalgar Square to Canterbury Cathedral. A total of some 74 miles over mixed terrain and living rough overnight.
We know it will be hard going but we expect to have fun, meet some fascinating people along the way and learn a little more about ourselves too.

Please help this very worthy charity if you can by sponsoring us at this link:
https://pilgrimage2018.everydayhero.com/uk/julian

Thank you

Cast off the voice in your head.

16/5/2018

I saw this statue of Dionysus at the Acropolis museum in Athens last week, he is the Greek god of wine, beer and all bad things associated with being drunk.
The awful aspect of the statue with people originally sitting on his shoulders and whispering in his ears reminded me of the voices in your head you get when you are trying to reform and quit alcohol. That awful voice that says don't quit now but wait until after the wedding, or your birthday or the party at the weekend, or that suggests you have one last glass. It's also the voice that tells you that you CAN manage your drinking and so only need to moderate and not quit completely. The voice that hints that drinking is actually good for you and that quotes all that crap you read in the paper about one glass of wine helping you to live longer.
If you are getting those voices, try and imagine you being this statue (less the scruffy beard I hope), and those voices actually being unhelpful souls you are having to carry with you wherever you go and that are leeching off your life blood.
Cast them off and don't listen. The voice is your subconscious trying to hang on to the effect it gets from the chemicals induced by alcohol and that it doesn't need but has come too used to. It is the habit playing with your mind. Look in the mirror and try and imagine those creatures on your shoulders. Do you really want to give them a free ride? No wonder Dionysus looks so bloody miserable!

Drunken ramblings in ancient Greece!

13/5/2018

Last week I spent a few days in glorious Athens enjoying the incredible history, the Acropolis and other amazing sights, the wonderful food, culture and of course meeting the Greek people. Needless to say I didn’t try the local wines, beers or spirits but enjoyed instead drinking copious litres of water at sensible prices as opposed to London. The most I paid was 40p for a bottle of water and that was at a posh outlet in the city centre! I also noticed that despite being out and about late each evening I didn’t see many drunks. Not so the Greeks of old it seems!
One day trip I made was to the site of the famous Oracle at Delphi. This is where the rulers of Greek cities would go in ancient times to consult said Oracle, and to receive advice on what major decisions to make. The picture shows me at the temple of Apollo in Delphi which was finally closed down in about 400 AD but which dates from 500 BC, the site having been used as a base for the Oracle since some 2,000 years before that!
It appears that the Oracle was in reality an aged lady of the day with ‘seeing’ powers who would sit in the temple and screech and wail unintelligible ramblings. These would be interpreted by highly paid priests who would then offer ambiguous advice to the leaders who had gathered to consult. Things like ‘if you go to war one side will lose’, or ‘if you invade so and so a kingdom will be lost’, without saying which kingdom of course. It also appears that the aged Oracle lady actually sat over a fissure in the rock above which the temple was built and through which ethanol fumes would emanate. Ethanol you will doubtless know is what we call alcohol and so the old lady with the amazing ‘seeing’ powers was in reality, out of her brain on booze fumes!
I can remember many times sitting in the pub and talking incoherent rubbish after much wine and cider and probably also trying to give sound advice to whoever was unfortunate enough to be in earshot, I am just grateful no-one thought to stick a bloody great temple on my head.

Its that day again!!!!

28/4/2018

Once again it is time for the annual Swimathon and in less than three hours I will be plying 200 lengths of the pool and trying to beat my time of last year 1.52 hours.
This year I have roped my daughters and son-in-law into doing it as well so it will be a real family event.
To think that had I carried on drinking I wouldn't be doing this because I would have been dead, I wouldn't be having such a wonderful family day, and I wouldn't be enjoying watching my gorgeous granddaughter watching me swim!
If you need a reason to quit, think ahead to what you want to be doing when you also get to sixty years of age, or what you will be missing if you die from alcohol or at the least wreck your life because of it instead.
Have a great day, I know I will.

Great things to do to yourself - part 1:

22/4/2018

Listening to some drunks on the train home last night, as they shouted into their phones what they had been up to, it made me think of all the expressions we use to describe getting pissed. Very few of them are nice and I have spared you the expletives of which there are far too many to name. It struck me how strange it would sound to a visitor from another planet who had never encountered a drinking culture if we were to say 'let's go out and get hammered and legless.' In the end the crowd in my carriage were too loud and abusive and so for the sake of my wife we changed carriages. I resent having to move because of other people's behaviour but then I haven't always been perfect. There were times when my brother and I were drunk on our commute home from work and I would have absolutely hated to be in the same carriage - of course at the time I thought I was hilarious.

Time really does fly!

16/4/2018

It was brought home to me this weekend that it now well over 5 years since I quit alcohol forever. Being alcohol free is so much part of my life, if I wasn't still writing books and blogs I wouldn't even realise the stuff existed. It was when my youngest daughter expressed shock that it had been so long I thought back and realised it was all those years ago that I was a complete wreck and expecting to be dead way before I was sixty.
It also made me think of my eldest brother Paul. He was five years older than me but having died when he was fifty-six I will soon be five years older than he will ever be. When I think what has happened to me over the past ten years since he died from alcoholism and what he could have achieved and witnessed had he also quit alcohol it is quite scary. I mean that from the perspective of the fact I could so very easily have ended up the same as him.
If you are wondering if you can cope without alcohol I can assure you that you can. You won't miss it and you will end up like an ex-smoker, resenting the stuff as much as I do. I hate so much about drink now, especially seeing people wreck their lives and seeing how the media and even government promote alcohol to such an extent. Please don't ever be like my brother and let it kill you, give up mow and find a whole new life.