I have recently been reading an interesting book about AI, and my job will shortly involve employing some advanced AI techniques to manipulate data and information to create decision support ‘wisdom’.

The book provides an interesting history of the subject and I had no idea that a charming and brilliant lady with the unlikely name of Ada Lovelace invented the concept as far back as the 1840’s.

The book also goes on to state that the concept was early applied to try and understand alcoholism by looking at and modelling neural pathways and trying to mimic how the brain works.

I am not sure what the results of this research were but what I do know is that you do not need Artificial Intelligence to tell you that drinking alcohol is for losers.
​
The fact that this is a statement that would have angered me five years ago is once again testament to the change in attitude that occurs once you have quit for a period with the forever mind-set. My life is so full and so positive now, despite what comes my way, that I would never go back to that drinking hell that I once thought of as heaven. There is nothing artificial about the negative impact alcohol has on your life.

Friday night my wife and I went to see The Godfather at the BFI cinema on the Southbank. It was the first time she had seen the film and the first time for me on the big screen. No wonder it is rated as one of the best films of all time. The BFI is one of the only cinemas you go to where the audience truly appreciate film and so generally behave whilst the film is showing, and even applaud at the end. Imagine my disappointment therefore, when just minutes before it started a crowd of rowdy drunken blokes arrived and sat next to me.
Throughout the whole film they talked and giggled, they continuously plied themselves with wine and the one next to me was even texting, the light from his phone particularly annoying me. They also took it in turns to get up and go for a pee during the showing which must have annoyed the people behind them as well.
I would have complained, but to talk to the theatre staff I would have had to make lots of people move to let me out and I thought this would be rude, and as there were seven of the drunks, all of whom were younger and bigger than me I thought it best not to tackle them myself. I did smile however when the drunk next to me dropped his phone and had to wait until the cinema emptied at the end of the film before he could retrieve it.
What most surprised me however was the foul smell of the wine. I used to love wine of course and would happily drink gallons, but the stench wafting across made me fell quite sick, and that is a measure of how far I have come since my own drunken days.
It's a shame drunks are allowed in somewhere like the BFI where film is supposed to be taken seriously. I would love to have had a Marlon Brando style character to have a sly word with, and perhaps have the offenders quietly removed...

Having spent the day walking around my local town of Bromley today, I was then horrified to read in the local paper about the number of Bromley people having to have amputations due to diabetes. From what I understand most of the cases of type 2 diabetes are ultimately caused from people being overweight, losing feeling in their feet or legs and then getting an infection which leads to the toe, foot or lower leg having to be amputated. This must be a terrifying and life-changing thing for anyone to experience.
Many of you will know that I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before I stopped drinking. When I did quit I lost a huge amount of weight which has never come back regardless of what I now eat, and it shocked me just how much sugar is hidden in alcohol. Something you never seem to consider when necking back wine, beer or spirits.
I am lucky and my diabetes completely went away due to my change of lifestyle.
If you drink too much and are overweight I suggest you have a diabetes check, apparently huge numbers of people have the disease but are completely unaware of it - mine was only spotted as I was having blood tests for gout and other issues all drink related ( and since also cured completely).
Don't risk becoming a victim to something you can cure by quitting alcohol and losing weight. Nothing is worth committing yourself to a life of misery, especially not that next drink.    

Further to my Corfu ‘Durrelling’ adventure last week, I have been reading Gerald Durrell’s biography as well as finishing the first part of the Corfu trilogy ‘my family and other animals’.

It is interesting to note that he believes he and his siblings caught the ‘alcohol’ gene from his mother, and it does show how much our drinking can influence our own children. In some cases such as mine, the drinking is part of every day fun and so it becomes the norm to walk around in an alcoholic haze. If there is such a thing as an alcohol gene, I certainly got mine from my Mum. It is only later you realise the damage being caused. For others, the violence associated with a parent’s drinking can make the child hate alcohol and all it stands for.

I hadn’t realised that Gerald Durrell died as a result of alcohol. He had a liver transplant aged 69 and then died a year later from septicaemia. Suffering with alcohol-induced liver failure his later years must have been very difficult for him, and as my brother died from the same disease, I know he would have secretly wished he had never spent all those years drinking. Being over 60 myself, it is sobering to think that had I even still been alive, I might also be suffering had I still been drinking and now counting down the days until I too say goodbye to all I hold dear.

Purely from a health perspective, the time to quit alcohol forever is when you are still healthy enough to recover from the damage you have been doing, not to leave it until you pass the point of no return.

Of course, there are a myriad other reasons to quit, most of the benefits of which you won’t appreciate until you experience the joy and freedom from escaping alcohol’s barbed embrace.
Gerald wrote the following words to go into a time capsule he buried at Jersey Zoo:
 
‘We hope that there will be fireflies and glow-worms at night to guide you and butterflies in hedges and forests to greet you.
We hope that your dawns will have an orchestra of bird song and that the sound of their wings and the opalescence of their colouring will dazzle you.
We hope that there will still be the extraordinary varieties of creatures sharing the land of the planet with you to enchant you and enrich your lives as they have done for us.
We hope that you will be grateful for having been born into such a magical world.’
 
Such wonderful words of hope for the future, what a shame he allowed his time on this wonderful planet to be cut short due to alcohol. Why not write down what words you would place in a time capsule and, think about your own time being cut short through something you can change today if you really put your mind to it.

Just back from a wonderful and sober two weeks on the island of Corfu. I am delighted to say my wife managed to locate the house used in the Durrells TV series which we have been enjoying immensely. Swimming in the warm shallow waters in front of the house was a sheer delight and the setting is truly breath-taking. It was great to think of those drunken scenes taking place with the likes of Captain Creech, and the cast drinking beers in the water where we were. Of course, none of that made me want a drink. What did surprise us was that no-one else seemed to have found the place as it was deserted. Behind the scenes however the trucks were arriving as shooting of the next series is about to start.
The other thing that struck me was settling my bill. For the two weeks our drinks bill at the hotel was £90.00 and all of this was for very expensive water. The man next to me had been having two bottles of wine per night plus cocktails etc. and his bill was just over £1000.00 for one week! I used to waste money like that!

A wonderful day with my Grandson at the Biggin Hill Airshow yesterday. Naturally he now wants to be a pilot and being only four, there is no reason why he can't be, if encouraged down that path. As an old git, I was stunned to be talking to some young smartly dressed 'kids' on the Battle of Britain memorial flight stand to find out that one of the 'kids' is in fact a Tornado pilot and another one would be flying a 'Red Arrow' that very afternoon!
Why didn't my parents and teachers stop me drinking when I was young and steer me down a far more exciting and rewarding path instead? Looking back I can only blame myself for being a drunken waster but I will sure as hell make sure my grandson doesn't follow suit. I gave in to drink, he will not be doing so!
Don't forget my latest newsletter has launched, sign up for your free copy at www.idontdrink.net

At last night’s excellent performance of Othello at London’s Globe Theatre I particularly noted what happened to poor Cassio due to drunkenness. Cassio is a sensible young man and a highly respected officer in Othello’s army.

There is a scene where Cassio doesn’t want to go drinking but is bullied into doing so by the play’s bad man, Iago.
Not only does Cassio end up hopelessly drunk and acting totally out of character, but he becomes abusive, gets in a fight and ends up stabbing someone.

Because of this he loses his job, the respect of all who know him and ends up a complete loser for most of the play, and at least until it is discovered that Iago is ultimately responsible for all the bad things that occur.

There are some wonderful words Cassio speaks which explain his reaction to having been drunk and that struck an accord with me:
 
CASSIO
I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
IAGO
Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered?
CASSIO
It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.
IAGO
Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.
CASSIO
I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is un-blessed and the ingredient is a devil.
 
There was a time not so many years ago when I was very drunk one afternoon and in a posh London wine bar, and I got into a drunken row over something petty with someone who was equally inebriated. The chap in question asked me outside for a fight, something even drunk I would never contemplate, but what really sobered me up was another chap handing me a knife for my protection and expecting me to use it!

It is unbelievable to think that drink could have led to what could have become a disastrous situation for all concerned.
Don’t forget to visit www.idontdrink.net for many more stories and more information.