Past few weeks/weekends

Well this isn't going particularly well...

Past few weeks I have done a few things.

Went to Scotland, met Michelle McManus, saw Ricky Gervais, saw the Amateur Transplants, did the Edinburgh Fringe, revisited Glasgow, saw Stirling, had lunch in what used to be the post office, found that the Fubar was still there, Enigma had changed to "Dusk", saw the remains of the Shack, discovered my first year room in halls was now part of the kitchen, visited the old chalet, saw Bev + 2 small children, saw Babs, saw Alison, didn't see many other people.

Was good.

Since then - I've got back to work, slept, ate, and had my hair cut.

not having plans is exactly what i've needed.

International weeks in football suck.

NFL season starts this weekend.

I have no internet at home.

Bonus.

Last weekend and this weekend.

Well i'm not very good at this blogging lark...

Last weekend went to Wales.

Ate a traditional Japanese meal for 4 hours - and it was the best food i've ever had.

Had no internet/mobile signal so was blissfully unaware of the outside world.

It was glorious.

Only downside was the travel there and back...

This weekend am going to Scotland - floating between Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling.

Should be good.

Also seeing Ricky Gervais' new stand-up and the Amateur Transplants.

Should be good.

No drinking for me this month at all - am away when its my friend's birthdays...

A lovely healthy month with lots of travel and activities...

Bonus.

A few weeks with no updates

Well I've been lazy. Lazy and fairly busy I suppose.

Had the wedding - it went well.

Didn't shit myself when giving my part of the best man's speech.

Had fun.

Am now back at work.

I can't really remember the rest of what I've done recently - but I'm sure it was fun and I'm fairly positive I spent too much time pissing about doing nothing.

This is all for now.

Bish Bash Boshed

Well this weekend just passed was my birthday. And I was expecting the usual 2 pints then water - but thanks to my lovely sister instead I was given a day off. And so I managed to drink and drink and drink. Which was actually a very pleasant experience.

It did come all too naturally tho - which was surprising -almost 5 months pretty much off the booze and the 7 pints of hoegarden and leffe blonde were fantastic.

I have missed the taste of beer actually, which I wasn't sure about until I was about 3 pints in... but to have good beer was the icing on the cake.

And talking of cakes - I have again my sister to thank for getting me some of the greatest cakes the world has ever known.

Candy Cakes is the greatest cake shop in the world.

I have one on my desk - its actually the one in the picture.

Mmmmmm Cake.

Anyways, this is pretty much all for now. No more booze til birthdays in August - of which there is currently one that I know of.

Stag Do Weekend

Well that was a busy weekend, after months of planning myself and the other 2 best men put on a treat of miraculous proportions... well it was pretty good.

We managed to humiliate the stag quite a bit - although not as much as we wanted to... we were actually fairly nice.

It was a successful weekend tho - lots of activities and laughs - there are also photos although none of me in a purple hat... which i managed to wear most of the saturday night!

I did spend a small fortune though and I am still tired from it almost a week later.

This weekend is my birthday, and as I don't really celebrate my birthday I'll be checking that others celebrate it for me.

My dad's over from Brazil which is nice - and the black sheep of the family is coming up from Cardiff which should be good.

Anyways - I am tired, lazy and currently poor so can't get out much this week.

This is all for now.

The Last Week/Weekend & An Interesting Frst Impression

I don't really update this very often anymore - I guess the novelty is wearing thin... and I'm getting my usual summer heat laziness.

However there are a few things that need to be written down as there were a few incidents that still make me laugh thinking about them.

The end of last week was taken up by not much work, our year end work do, and a birthday night out.

Work seems like a breeze at the moment as I don't have much to do compared to my 60 hour weeks so I get to relax, take breaks and even get away from my desk for extended periods of time.

So lets move on to Thursday night's work do. This was a very interesting and entertaining night - although I wasn't drinking at all this was the one night I've had so far that I've really wanted to drink.

It started fairly innocuously - we had invited the new intern to come out with us even though he wasn't starting officially until this Monday. So myself and the current intern were chatting to him and getting to know him. Other colleagues were really getting into the party mood and drinking heavily and quickly - this provided much entertainment for everyone as he was hilarious.

The new intern and the current intern were having a chat in the front window when I went out for a smoke - when I returned they had company, although this didn't last long as the young lady was soon escorted out... Curious we all tried to figure out what had happened and as it transpires this young lady had walked straight up to those boys and grabbed on by the arse, and the other by the balls and propositioned the two of them... One of them made all sorts of excuses why they couldn't even pulling out the last resort of claiming to be gay and involved with the other... Soon enough however the young lady was escorted out by the management.

Now that was a great first impression! Being molested by a random in front of everyone they work with... including the UK manager... These two were absolutely loving it though and proceeded to tell the story over and over again all night long...

The three of us soon ditched the work do and instead headed to meet the other interns in another bar. Still not drinking and surrounded by interns 6/7 years younger than me I really felt old! I met quite a few of them and they all seem pretty sound so all was good with the world.

Friday night was my mate Tommy's birthday, so I enjoyed my first pints in a month. Luckily for me we were in Zero Degrees so I could have some of my favourite drinks - Black Lager. There were some appearances of people I hadn't seen in a while which was really good - and I found out that a friend of mine had just recovered from swine flu, and that its not quite as bad as people think...

The rest of the weekend was spent sorting out my speech for the upcoming wedding - which could well be tricky as I won't be drinking - but I may have a word with my sister so that I can at least drink the toasts.

Writing speeches is hard, I sometimes stutter a bit too so I'm going to have to sort this out in a way that I'm not talking for too long...

I will be saving the missing kidney story for the Wedding itself - so this should be pretty good.

The stag do is this weekend and we have everything organised so hopefully it'll run without any hitches and everyone will enjoy it. Not drinking will be a bitch though. Hopefully I can make it through - although it may be handy having someone not pissed to help with the organisation and itinerary...

Fingers crossed...

The past few weeks

These past weeks have been busy. The weekends too.

I'm trying to arrange a stag do with two other best men, which is tough and we're having to sort this out and the best men's speeches...

Had ma's bbq on sat - in the roasting heat standing next to a bbq is not the most fun in the world - I must admit I was sweating like a rapist...

Anyways work has calmed down now - its a lot easier and I am now even slightly bored from time to time as i'm not constantly working.

That's about all really - been trying to organise a night out since May which looks like it may come to fruition this weekend - hopefully but these days you never can tell.

That is all for now.

What's been happening.

Basically nothing.

I work too damn hard.

Doing 2 people's jobs at work at the mo.

Sucks ass.

No time to do anything else but sleep - which isn't too terrible.

That is all.

Last Weekend.

Well, Last weekend was spent mostly sleeping as for some reason I am just so tired at the moment.

Friday night was the perfect example - I came straight home from work so I could take a power nap before going out for my sister's boyfriend's birthday - and proceeded to sleep through until the morning...

This was really annoying as I'd been looking forwards to this night out for a while - and from all accounts it was a good one.

I saw this for myself on Saturday as I arranged to meet my sister and a few guys for lunch - and they were ridiculously hungover. One of the guys couldn't even eat - and we had some really good tapas.

The day started to drag on after a while - everyone was recovering and so the rest of the day was spent just messing around.

Sunday I did some gardening - that is all...

This week I've been doing 2 people's jobs and it sucks ass.

But I'm not one to complain so I guess thats it for now.

On A Side Note...

Well on a side note I've just found out that Japan are the first team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup Finals - 2 hours before Australia...

So to celebrate this event I've been reliving my favourite World Cup goal of all time - and the best goal of the last World Cup - Its the first goal here

(Apologies for the music - its youtube so you can't always get what you want...)

Last Weekend.

Well, this weekend was basically wasted... But it was relaxing and in parts very funny.

My phone broke again Thursday night which sucked - this time the screen just suddenly stopped working... so I'm currently using the worst phone in the world that has a set call volume which means I can barely hear who it is I'm talking to.

However, it only took 1 email to get this sorted - to the O2 complaints department and I've got an N95 on its way to me as a replacement. Not the phone of choice but a ready alternative - lets just hope that works...

Friday I didn't go out for once, it was one of those days at work where there was nothing to do and I almost fell asleep a few times. I wasn't allowed to leave early to go to my opticians however as I couldn't find cover which was an arse and the day took forever but it wasn't too bad.

Friday night I had to tidy things up and create space for my Sister who's moving back home - I must admit I was having a very lazy day so I didn't end up doing much...

Saturday was an all action and all comedy day. It started at 12 when I really should have been up and heading into town to meet some friends - this didn't happen as I was being lazy... I ended up going in at 4 to watch the football - England vs Kazakhstan which kicked off at 4 so I only watched the second half, which was good as the game was pretty poor - it had 4 goals but minimal entertainment...

After this I went to meet some friends, one of whom was up from the West Country for the weekend. These boys are deviants, complete and utter reprobates - and as their drinks were flowing it was absolute comedy gold, we went from talking about fishing, the cost of motorcycle repairs, and investing money to some comedy bar billiards, screaming, shouting and swearing very loudly in the space of two pints... And the funniest and most effective case of peer pressure I have ever seen.

At times I was almost wetting myself with laughter at these boys, all of whom were getting very raucous and loud drunks... As I didn't have a single drink all i could do is laugh at these guys. It was very entertaining but as the afternoon turned into the evening the novelty was wearing thin... so I left around 8.30 still laughing at them for more tidying and rearranging.

Sunday was a good day, my sister came back home to sort more of her room out - and we had a roast - for the first time in ages which was tremendous. After an afternoon of digesting in front of the tv we rocked out the Wii Fit for ma and my sister and its got to be said that watching people try the hula hooping is hilarious.

The evening was spent getting my geek on and sorting out my laptop again... I must say that its an absolute pleasure to have a laptop so small you can carry it everywhere. Although there are some limits as to where I will take it...

All in all a relaxing and hilarious weekend with a gran total of 0 drinks again.

3 months down, 11 drinks in total had since the 2nd of March. 9 months to go - 36 drinks available - with a stag do, wedding, holidays and my own birthday still coming... its going to be a very interesting time...

The Weekend.

Well, this has been a rather interesting weekend. I found myself in London and I had a tremendous time...

Lets start on Thursday actually, I went out for a leaving dinner with my team from work. One of our student interns was leaving so we all went out for dinner and drinks which was nice. It was a really nice evening out, very civilised and lots of banter. Over the course of the evening we realised that one of the guys we work with is all mouth and no trousers; and that he could well either be a smuggler or an arms dealer as he often receives "packages" in the mornings and so works from home; he also spends a ridiculous amount of money on his girlfriend... so therefore our logic decided that he's pretty much an arms dealer - probably a good person to know in this day and age...

Friday I had a long long day at work, and ended up going for just a couple of drinks afterwards. It was a fairly low key night as I had to be up early on Saturday morning to help my sister move all her stuff back home.

So Saturday was not great fun, I woke up early, lugged boxes, suitcases and furniture around - and then spent the rest of the day organising, and moving boxes and other stuff around and didn't even get time to really put this stuff away in the attic - which I'll have to do this week instead. This meant that I was too late to meet some old uni friends, which was really annoying as I got bogged down with all this instead. Especially when one of the guys was down from Scotland only for this weekend, and it was my mate's birthday too...

So Sunday, well this was the best and most interesting day, I met up with my sister and her boyfriend and we went for some lunch. The reason we were meeting up was because I had found a website through facebook that was about being half-Japanese. Its called Hafu and the ladies running it were having a photo shoot for an exhibition - this has been running for a while, but it was really good to find out about this and get involved this time around.

We turned up at someone's house and after some brief introductions to some lovely people we had our photos taken professionally. Although I was told that my posture is bad, that I slouch, and that my head is slightly tilted to the right it was great fun. We met some great people and hopefully there will be more events coming up this summer that we can get involved with. What I am really looking forward to is seeing my portrait in a gallery...

The cherry on the top of this weekend was the greatest cupcake in the world. The pic at the top shows a version of the cake that almost made me cry when it was all gone... It was from Candy Cakes and I am unashamedly able to say it was the greatest the world has known. I know now where I will be going next time I'm in London...

Oh and I only had one drink this weekend on Sunday with my sister - so that was allowed... every other day - it was water all the way.
Not drinking is easy...

The Upcoming weekend.

This weekend should be an interesting one.

Tonight I'm not sure if i'll be out, although will probably stop in town for a few hours to sit in the sun with a few friends after work.

It'll have to be an early one for me tho as I'm up in the morning to unload a van full of my sister's stuff as she's moving home soon.

Then its up and away to London for a night out with some old uni friends, and there has been talk of the Ritz... and although that means dressing smart with shoes and everything it'll see be a nice cheap night out with no drinking...

Sunday is the really interesting day this weekend as I have a photo shoot... for a very interesting project. Its called "Hafu" and its about being half Japanese. This should be a lot of fun, and here's hoping that it all goes well.

Thats pretty much it for now

The long weekend

This has taken me a little while to put together as unfortunately i'm rather lazy...

Anyway lets recap. Friday I finished work and went to the pub to meet some friends, they were drinking I was not. This wasn't the most fun - and as I had some laptop memory in my bag I left around 9.30 just when the drunkards were beginning to irritate me...

Saturday my new laptop arrived, a sleek, sexy 10" beast... So I spent most of the day getting my geek on... upgrading the memory and installing Windows 7, which took forever but certainly makes a difference and makes everything look tremendously good.

Saturday night I met up with some more friends for more water and more drinking, this was going to end up in the small hours of the morning but as the final destination was to be the Turtle I politely declined and went home just after midnight as I have had bad experiences drinking from the glasses in there... they make stuff taste funny... and so as I would have to drink water from them I decided it was to be the end of the night for me.

Sunday - now this was a good day. After a lovely morning sleeping in, I went to the pub to watch Newcastle get relegated. This was especially fun as one of my friends is a Newcastle fan - and although there weren't enough tears the satisfaction of a win for the mighty Villa accompanied with the relegation of Newcastle made these moments so much sweeter.

After this - and the bbq that I was obliged to have at half time it was then time to walk into town (as I couldn't be arsed waiting for a bus) and go to another bbq. This was good fun - and this second bbq had every single base covered, it was very impressive and although I had already eaten I couldn't resist some olives and humous... There was even some rugby ball based amusement and this continued into the early evening up at my friend's flat where the Wii Fit was put on show and watching someone trying to hula hoop is just comedy gold.

Monday was a fairly quiet day for a bank holiday where I got my geek on again and played around more with my computer before heading into town for some Nandos and Star Trek... Nandos was very amusing especially because some of my teacher friend's pupils were sitting close by. The boys I was with were both hungover, one of them incredibly so which made my sobriety that much sweeter. Star Trek wasn't a bad film, and if it wasn't so geeky it would've been a good film.

The rest of this week has been cursed by having to work, but as my computer is actually working and not trying to goad me into throwing it out of a window its gone fairly quickly and easily.

Champion's League final was good last night - watching Man U look like a team of retards always brings a smile to my face.

The past few days...

Well, its been quite a busy few days for me - and of course many opportunities to drink alcohol. I have as usual remained strong and even withstanding a great deal of peer pressure. I am proud of my self that I'm doing this well and sticking to the confines of the challenge and I must admit that with time it is getting easier as the days and now months pass.

Back to the past few days, they've been interesting... On Friday I took the day off work to go into London with some friends to audition for the tv quiz show Eggheads, which was really good fun. Although the audition did involve some quiz questions, and a brief but rather amusing chat with the two lovely ladies who were in charge of the process, the most difficult part of the interview was getting your head around having to answer the questions by ruling out two of the options and giving your reasons for them. Explanations are much harder than you think, especially when the answers are ridiculously obvious, and its hard to explain why a certain answer is wrong when you're put on the spot.

A couple of the guys had a drink, or in one case a couple of pints, in the pub beforehand as we chatted and got to know each other as a few of us hadn't met each other before... I also realised that maybe I'm not quite as clever as I think I am which was a bit disappointing, but I think that our youth and the banter we had during the interview could really help us with getting on the show - fingers crossed.

I returned from London and went straight out to the pub to meet some friends in a great pub, one of my favourites actually, where we played some bar billiards, darts and had some inane chatter. They were pretty easy going when it came to me not drinking, although they did poke fun at it from time to time, but I am yet to crack in more appealing circumstances and they just accepted it as who I am at the moment which was good.

The rest of the weekend was spend relaxing, organising, and planning. The insurance money finally arrived this weekend, and now its just a matter of waiting until the cheque clears and then its time to get myself a new laptop and tv which will be very handy and what i've been waiting on for a while - I may even be able to find the shoes I'm looking for...

This week at work is a nightmare tho - I've worked for 19 hours the past 2 days, and although it will be easier from tomorrow onwards my computer and the software I use has been crashing and basically making everything I do so much harder. Which is very irritating given that I work at a software company.

Anyways, enough about work - I've realised that there are 2 things at work that can take my mind off things going crazy. Lots of coffee... and my work scooter Monty. Its amazing how much better you feel when you're pinging about the office on a scooter than sitting at your desk swearing loudly at your computer...

Hopefully this week will be better, we've got a work dinner sometime this week where Wagamama is one of the options. I really hope we don't go there as its an abomination on the face of this earth but as its for someone's leaving do I won't complain (too much)

I'd Rather Be A Goat Than A Donkey

Well...

This weekend was pretty boring, there was basically no-one around on Friday night so I didn't go out for drinks... Met up with my brother and had a civilised coffee instead. The rest of the weekend was spent trimming bushes, playing with dogs, reading, and just taking it easy and enjoying the sunshine.

Monday we went to the pub quiz after taking last week off. Our great team "I'd rather be a goat than a donkey" came in a pretty poor joint 4th after some ridiculously bad answers, for instance the notorious website that was launched in 2005 was youtube not youporn... and I must admit that there were often occasions that we guessed the answers and then decided to put down something else instead...

But - who can tell the difference between the Fiennes? and who really needs to know how many brothers Alec Baldwin has...

Anyway, we were commended for our picture of a goat and a donkey and although we didn't win or come that close it was a nice evening out.

This week there isn't much going on, although on Friday I will be auditioning for a television show with some friends which could provide my televisual debut... this could be very interesting and all in all it'll be a nice day off work and in London.

On a side note the insurance money for the break-in should be coming this week which will help - as currently I only have 5 television channels and that sucks ridiculously.

This is the story of the weekend. Still sober, still nicotine patched up to the max and staying away from the cigarettes, all is good.

Here's hoping that Friday will go well.

Its been a while

I haven't posted here since the middle of last week so I guess I'm due an update.

Well I had last Thursday and Friday off work, which I used to help a friend move house - which was nice although it really is amazing to see how much crap you can accumulate over time. After two whole days of lugging boxes around I ended up going for a couple of pints of water with a couple of friends on Friday night, which was good fun - except for the incredibly dodgy nature of the conversation. This was to avoid going to the Beer Festival, which I was assured this week wasn't as good as it has been before. My conclusion was that it was my absence that was the major factor in this...

However, I could've really done with some hog roast - as that is one of the main reasons that I usually go...

Saturday was a day for doing absolutely nothing - which was glorious. I didn't do much apart from relax, and not smoke - which was a bonus. I can't even remember exactly what I did - although I did read one of my recently bought books.

Sunday was a great day, although the weather didn't look like it was up to much in the morning I headed on an intrepid adventure with a couple of friends into London.

We headed up for a friend's birthday, and had a great day in the park. There's something incredibly relaxing about sitting on the grass talking shite with friends (and strangers as we didn't know many people there...)

We also played some rounders, where I figured out that I can't throw straight anymore - although I can catch and I can hit a ball with a small bar. I personally blame it on the fact that my patch was feeding my throwing arm nicotine... but it may just be that I'm not as good as I once was. Hopefully this isn't another sign that I'm ageing... although I still look young (and my new manager at work thinks I'm a student).

Anyway, we stayed there in the park for a few hours, having to use the toilets in a children's playground which really felt dodgy. There were even signs up saying that video cameras were banned and that unaccompanied adults would be asked to leave. Needless to say we didn't go on our own - as this would be rather suspicious.

After the park activities we retired to a really nice pub, where all the furnishings were apparently for sale. I cannot for the life of me remember what this was called but it was something inane like "The Public House"...

This being a birthday I was able to enjoy the pleasure of drinking alcohol so I had two organic lagers. These were costly and very tasty, and they came in a larger than ususal bottle so I believe I had more bang for my bucks than usual. We stayed for a few drinks here (I stayed with just my two beers) and then moved on to find something to eat.

We wandered up the road and found a Turkish restaurant which was fantastic. Its called Gem i think (my memory isn't as good these days), and the food was lovely. We had a full three course dinner, for a very respectable price. After dinner some of the guys had to head back to the 'ding but as I was staying with a mate we went our separate ways.

We had quite a trek to get back to my mate's place tho - Bank Station decided to close when we were there so instead of hopping on a DLR we had to get the bus. Finding the right bus took quite a while but it all worked out in the end.

On Monday I was supposed to be meeting up with my sister and a mate but as I hadn't heard from them in the morning we instead decided to see some culture and went to the Royal Academy of the Arts to see an exhibit of Japanese art by Kuniyoshi which was fantastic. I really enjoyed it and it was nice to experience the artistry of my ancestors...

After this we decided to take a wander around and ended up in the Trocadero where my friends tried (and I really mean tried and failed miserably) to play Street Fighter...

My sister being the woman she is decided halfway through the day that she wasn't going to be leaving her house... So that fell through. I did end up meeting my other mate tho - who has more hair that I've ever seen. It was crazy!

We ended up walking around for a couple of hours, looking for a shoe shop in Soho... We eventually found it - but it was much smaller than I remember and didn't have anything that I wanted...

After leaving there I ended up heading back home, and after all the walking and sleeping on a couch I was shattered. Mondays is usually pub quiz night, and Aston Villa were taking on Hull that evening, but I was absolutely exhausted so really wasn't up for doing anything.

This week's gone by in a blur really - I've just been tired and irritable all week.

I am now known in my friend's phone as "Angry" as its actually quite ridiculous how irritable I am.

Well I think this is quite enough for one post...

Fat Kids Are Hard To Kidnap - and the Beer Festival

Well its been a week since my last post - and thats mainly because I haven't actually done much...

Well - lets recap. Last week I went out a few times, drank nothing, had one cigarette on Sunday.

Friday night was fun though. I met up with quite a few friends who i hadn't seen in ages. It was really good to see everyone - and randomly my friend who's been sick for what seems like the whole of this year (although we all think he's a hypochondriac) was not being weak and was able to join us for a few drinks.

We sat in the sun and had some drinks before moving on to play some bar billiards, which is great fun - although makes you count constantly. I must admit my non-boozing state did assist me with this, so i did have an advantage over everyone else...Anyways, the rest of the weekend was spent playing football, relaxing in the sun, and basically just enjoying myself.

Monday. Now this was a good day. Even though I was stuck at work for much longer than expected, it was a nice day (apart from the rain). And of course we made an appearance at the pub quiz.

Which we won, by a fairly comfortable margin. Our triumphant team "Fat kids are hard to kidnap" romped away with the mighty sum of £17 - which split between two wasn't too shabby (especially as I was on the water so made a decent profit - the same of which I can't say about my friend who was drinking beer so ended up down...)

This week will be interesting - I have Thursday and Friday off this week, which I had planned on going to the Reading Beer Festival but due to my non-drinking commitments I am forgoing the torture of seeing everyone man and his dog drinking randomly named beers and gradually sinking into drunkenness... I am tempted however to go as they do a fantastic hog roast... It would also be the first beer festival I've missed in years...

But instead I may well turn up in Scotland to see some old friends - I've been talking about doing this for a while - and although they're all big drinkers too - it'll be easier (I hope...)

Anyways - on the cigarette and alcohol count I am on 1-0; still a little disappointed regarding the smoking - but thats coming together now too. I'm still nicotine patched up so hopefully soon it will be as easy as not drinking.

The Weekend Just Gone, A Terrible Pub Quiz And The First Pints In Ages...

Its been a strange few days... With giving up smoking and drinking at the same time things are rather difficult just now. There's stuff changing at work, and for some reason - when you say happy birthday to someone on their birthday they never respond... weird...

Anyways, the first weekend after giving up smoking. This was a rather strange one - I went out on Friday night and struggled... It was really quite hard as we were sitting outside in the beer garden, and I was watching everyone drink and smoke... and I was sitting there drinking my pint of water. It sucked really badly.

Needless to say I didn't stay out very long - the rain kinda helped out with that one too. The rest of the weekend I spent doing stuff around the house, gardening and such... which took my mind off not smoking although I did crack on Sunday as people were giving me gyp - but only one. Still no drinking tho.

Monday was an interesting day, I met my new manager at work (who thinks I'm a student intern), and as it was my sister's birthday I was able to celebrate this with a couple of pints. I decided to unleash myself on the drinking classes during a pub quiz, which coincidentally we lost - rather badly. The Fact Fisters grand debut and we were gubbed ridiculously by being 10 years too young, and having jobs...

Nevermind tho - I managed to spread out my 2 pints over the course of about 2 1/2 hours and although initially they did taste like the sweet sweet nectar of the gods, this gradually went away and I was drinking warm beer instead.

Last night I realised I don't actually miss drinking beer, it was nice to have some, but it didn't make me want more.

Smoking on the other hand is still a daily struggle, I've pretty much sorted it out at work - but when waiting for a bus or walking back home from the bus stop it still feels strange not smoking.

That will come with time - and I'm nicotine patched up to the max so all I need is clear this out in my head.

Its happening...

Well, its now (fairly) official... I'm quitting smoking today. I have one left, which is earmarked for this evening... I pick up my nicotine patches after work, and tomorrow I become smoke free.

In doing this I'm breaking one of my 4 rules - quitting two things at the same time. But as I technically haven't exactly quit drinking altogether I'm ok...

Its daunting, but I'm looking forward to it at the same time. I don't really want to keep smoking, and hopefully this time there will be no distractions that will make me feel like starting again. If I can stop drinking - then I'm sure I can stop smoking...

Here's hoping anyways...

This weekend is my sister's birthday - well technically its on the 20th (same day as a certain Mr Adolf Hitler); but this weekend will be the celebration... so I will be able to have a couple of drinks, which will be nice - but this could also stick out as a time to smoke - the old habit of having a pint in one hand and a fag in the other... but lets just wait and see.

I "celebrated" my dad's birthday over the weekend with two beers, which weren't very nice - but I definitely felt the effect of the alcohol - which was surprising in some ways as two beers is nothing, but as they were my first beers in a month it didn't really shock me too much.

I am now a light-weight, lucky I don't drink anymore...

anyways, am now battling my nicotine addiction - so concentrating on not drinking should be easier - and they can both help each other. As I won't be getting drunk, I should (hopefully) have more self control and be able to resist smoking. The nicotine patches should do the rest.

Lets just see how things go. I won't be giving up my other vices tho - as I'll hopefully not die so soon after all.

Soon hopefully I will be a non-smoking, non-boozing man.

No-one will recognise me.

The Easter Weekend.

Well its Easter, a lovely 4 day break from work. Where town is full of little kids, and its even worse on a night out in the evening...

As far as my socialising goes I have some plans, but I'm not sure which ones to go for... but whatever happens - i won't drink as i already have my two birthday's planned out and neither of them fall over this weekend.

What i will be doing however is not smoking... or trying not to smoke. I had my first stopping smoking session on Wednesday, and am currently filling out a "smoking diary" for my councillor... which is interesting as it proves that i smoke at work and when out - but not when I'm at home.

I'll just wait until i get my nicotine patches and start going through withdrawal before i start talking about it properly.

If you see me about and I'm smoking - don't tell me off - I'm just adding some research to my smoking diary - its for my own benefit you see...

anyways, looking forward to the weekend and relaxing. Lets just see what happens.

The Grand National Weekend

Well this weekend was an interesting one.

On friday night i met up with a friend as his dad had died the weekend before, this led to a rather understated night where everyone around me drank copiously... I instead was on the water, which was actually a really nice change to all the sugary rubbish i'd been drinking before. It would've been an easy time to fail - but drinking never really crossed my mind - even when i was at the bar buying my brother a pint...

Saturday was interesting, i had forgotten completely about the Grand National and was expecting a nice quiet Saturday after going into town to buy some sunglasses. However, i met up with a couple of deviants and with 5 mins to go managed to put a few bets on. Given that i didn't have enough time to do it properly i put the bets on to win... So naturally i was a little put out when two of my five horses came in second and fourth...

That evening was spent playing poker with the deviants, as they were gradually getting drunk i was enjoying some Irn Bru. We weren't playing for much and i was happy to say that although there were some unfeasable flops, and somehow bullets just couldn't beat anything, I only ended up one pound down.

Sunday was spent mostly in the sun, i did some gardening before I went into town to watch the Mighty Villa against Man U. It was a fantastic game, and even though the last 10 mins were irritating and we lost - it was a great performance from us and inconceivable that we didn't take anything from the game.

After that i went to my friends house and just chilled out for a couple of hours before heading home.

So another weekend where there was a lot going on, and many opportunities to have a drink and yet i stayed strong. Its still early days yet - but its good to know i'm able to face drunken deviants, depressed friends, and poker nights without having a drink.

This wagon is comfortable.

One Month Down - 11 to go...

Well I've lasted a month, and in all honesty it hasn't been too tricky. I've saved money, had more nights out and have enjoyed myself immensely.

Next month could prove to be a little tricky however, as there's the Beer Festival... but with only one birthday booked so far I'm looking forward to the challenge...

1 month down, 11 to go...

A long way but I'm confident

The weekend.

Well, this wasn't the most interesting weekend I've ever had... but still no booze.

Friday night was a quiet one, I met up with a couple of friends for a couple of lemonades and didn't stay out too long as i was heading to London the next day.

Saturday was spent mostly in London doing some shopping, and just enjoying being out of the ding. There were some issues though and some rather interesting events... The weather didn't help as it kept changing between sunshine, rain and towards the end of the day some hail as well.

Shopping wasn't the greatest of successes, even though i finally found some black Jack Purcells which had been eluding me for a few years... I didn't end up buying much else - although I did get a hug from a rather cute carrot outside Westfield. I also ended up destroying my sunglasses which was a shame.

Sunday was another relaxing day of enjoying my weekend, and also searching for some sunglasses that don't make me look retarded. This wasn't a great success - neither was looking for some jeans as not drinking is making me lose weight.

I did however buy a book instead... It is a great book by Haruki Murakami - so it wasn't a waste...

I have come to realise however that being teetotal changes the way you think. When drinking your mind becomes messy so you can concentrate on just enjoying yourself and you stop caring about everything else. When you don't drink you don't have the privilege of a cloudy mind - instead you're able to think and think too much about what's going on in your mind...

I've found that I'm more indecisive now, i keep changing my mind and I'm confusing people left, right and centre. I know I've annoyed and stressed out some of my friends the past week and for that I'm sorry... I'm very impatient at the moment, and waiting around for something to happen gets my goat. My mind is still working its way back to being human again - and hopefully I'll be able to rectify what I've done...

I still don't like waiting around though...

A weekend filled with nothing

Well this weekend shouldn't be such a challenge... I have minimal plans other than going out for a few drinks with some friends tonight, and maybe heading to London on Saturday.

Isn't really anything that can go wrong here - although I do love a sunny day in London... Having a nice cold beer sitting outside watching the world go by is always a very good way to spend an afternoon, especially in London as there are nice views and locations all over but I do have things to do - so this may not even be an option...

Although articles like this won't help. Especially as I was in the 2nd pub on the list last Saturday night...

Should hopefully be a good relaxing weekend where i am not challenged at all...

The Story of my Weekend

This weekend was a pretty good one, there was a lot going on and still no sign of cracking... although its only been 3 weeks I'm pretty proud of myself - even though I can't have another alcoholic beverage until there's a birthday night out in April...

Anyway, my weekend. Friday night was a good and strange one. People just kept popping out of the woodwork, and it seemed that about half the people I go out with somehow managed to turn up in the same pub at the same time, and some of them randomly knew each other...

It started with a few drinks with a work-mate, then gradually started to ramp up with every new arrival. I kept to my strict regime of coke or lemonade - i couldn't really think of a new non-alcoholic drink so just stuck to the usual. It was a pretty good night, with people turning up all over the shop, always someone to talk to and catch up with.

The only downers were that I had to leave fairly early in order to get home as I needed to be up at 8am as we were getting our new front door - which I must say is definitely a step up from the one with the hole in... There was a lot of talk about this challenge, where people were almost mourning the loss of me as a drinking buddy which was a bit of a shame, but on the flip side there was a lot of people telling me I was doing something good, and that they were supporting me which was really good to hear. The other downer was that I missed out on moving onto somewhere there was dancing... For some reason when I go out at the moment because I'm not drunk I have so much more energy and I do like to get my dance on...

Well that was Friday, and Saturday was different but in some ways better. It started early with getting a new front door, and escalated from there. I met up with a few friends in order to organise one of our best friend's stag weekends... which culminated with various thoughts about what we could make him wear in order for him to be humiliated the most - as he really doesn't mind being naked or wearing a dress...

This moved onto playing football for an hour or so where I figured out that I have lost both my first touch and half my lung capacity... but apart from that it was a good laugh and really good to catch up with my friends. That evening we were all planning on heading into London for a friend's birthday - but unfortunately pretty much everyone decided to be weak and bailed... leaving just myself and my mate Keith.

This didn't take anything away from the night out however, we managed to still have a lot of fun - and there was indeed some dancing this night. The highlights of the evening for me had to be the clientele in the main bar we ended up in - and the wonderful Mrs Miller who led a tremendous sing-a-long in a pub we found. Combining the hit music of every era from "What shall we do with the drunken sailor", and "Hey Jude" to the sing-a-long delights of DJ Sammy this truly was a wonderful spectacle and very easy to get involved with.

The night was a success, even though there were the odd obstacle, like the complications of an upset girlfriend (which brought back conflicting good and bad memories for me), the lack of alcohol in my system, the prices of everything, and the fact that we missed our last train home... Although in one respect things were great - I smoked only before the main event, and after - whilst in the actual final bar I only took very expensive lemonade into my system - a fact that I'm proud of.

We came back on Sunday morning, after a couple of hours sleep, just in time for our Mother's Day lunch. Because I was not hungover at all, this was also a success, I even helped to cook... The rest of the day however was spent mostly just resting up as I'd had two late nights and two very early mornings - but in the evening I managed to do quite a lot of reading and writing and so all in all this was definitely a good weekend, apart from the mighty Villa being destroyed...

I have noticed that these days tho that because my body is not filled with alcohol that I have so much more energy and I really need an outlet for this. So I'm looking for activities to do that will help me get rid of this energy and give me even more to do!

This week could be rather interesting as it signifies the return to town of a deviant... which could cause issues - but I'll face those as I've faced every one so far - in a sober state!

The Coming Weekend - and how a Scooter saved my brain...

Well this weekend could cause me some more issues, especially as my "birthday allowance" has been used for this month... So I cannot drink any alcoholic drinks until April.

Tonight I'm doing a few things, I'm meeting an old friend in the pub to catch up over a few drinks, but before that I'm going out with one of the guys from work for a couple of drinks to say goodbye to an absolutely shockingly boring and awful week at work. Then later on I'm meeting a few people for some more drinks as one of my friends is going away tomorrow... so more an enough opportunities just tonight to lose this challenge.

This week has been a tough one - more because work has been so appallingly boring, well the work has been - I found a scooter and I've been tearing up the office ever since - so the end of the week has been pretty good. This week at work has been so busy, and people are irritating me from all over EMEA - that this Scooter, who I have yet to name, has been my saviour. For some reason seeing someone else at work on a scooter makes people smile and laugh, and when you're on the scooter you forget about the irritating and argumentative engineers who are doing your head in...

With the great weather outside its been long long days waiting to get outside and relax on the riverside with a cold drink. All I've had though is just some nasty tasting soft drinks, I've even managed to sort out some issues with a friend in the past couple of days which should now make things much easier.

Saturday could be the most important barrier to overcome. I am meeting some friends to arrange a friend's stag do, so there will be a lot of thinking about drinking and as we've all known each other for years there is a lot of drinking history there. Following from this I'm on the guest list for some party in London, where of course I will not be drinking again - although with London prices I may have the better deal... We'll see however, and I'll do my best to stay strong and not give in - even under a massive amount of peer pressure that I can see coming my way... I'm not sure the friends I'm seeing on Saturday know I'm doing this challenge - so this should be rather interesting...

I have some plans for Sunday - but these shouldn't involve being in a pub - unless on Mother's Day I decide to go and watch the mighty Villa take on Liverpoo... but I doubt that will happen - so Sunday should be all good... Hopefully.

The Gudang Guram arrives on Monday - and hopefully I will have some more information on the smoking cessation sessions I've signed up for - so maybe this weekend will be the last I spend smoking and not drinking and I will instead be clean living... well lets just see what happens...

And if you work in an office, I’d advise you to get a scooter - as it makes moving around a much more appealing option, and is a tremendous moral booster

A good weekend, and no sign of cracking...

Well, its taken me a little while to write this post - internet issues...

But this weekend was a success, Friday night went without a hint of alcohol, and also without a hint of the guy who's birthday I was supposed to be out on... This was down to the fact that he was too drunk to get into anywhere in town and lasted 5 mins before being taken home - the dangers of alcohol in a nutshell there!

Saturday night I had my two allocated drinks on another birthday night out and then was on the coke the rest of the night. A sober night out - which ended after hours of getting my dance on at 2am.

Sober dancing is hard until you realise that everyone else there is drunk and shameless - as soon as you wise up to the fact that you're going to wake up in the morning without a hangover, and all the memories of the night before it becomes easy.

And it was easy, even my friends who i had thought may try to scupper me by adding spirits to my cokes didn't try to force the issue, and instead supported me. Which wasn't really a surprise, but it did mean i could drop my guard a bit - as being sober and on an enforced drinking regime makes you a little suspicious...

I woke up on Sunday refreshed, and except for aching feet I felt great. A nice relaxing Sunday was on the cards. I had made plans to watch the football that afternoon so I went into town to kill some time and get a coffee. I really wish I hadn't bothered with the football, as the mighty Villa were beaten by the Spuds - luckily I had changed my mind from watching it with Spurs fans, and instead watched it on a small screen with a fellow Villa fan. Disappointed and in rather a poor mood I only drank one coke over an hour and a half.

Monday I had an absolutely cracking day. I came into work early, sat down and there was a parade of young attractive women using the meeting room directly across from my desk all day. Even though Mondays are my busiest day, this brought a smile to my face and enabled me to get on with my work in a much better mood.

That evening after leaving work I was in a ridiculous mood, so I needed to relax and chill out. I went for a drink with a friend of mine who needed a break after a long weekend. We went to a pub and sat outside as the day turned to night. We usually do this in the summer when the days are longer as there's much more to see and do - but it seemed as good a night as any. The only downside to this was that my friend was drinking Kronenburg Blanc - while I was struggling to get through the worst lemonade I've ever had the misfortune to drink. It tasted as if someone had added some lemon juice to washing up liquid and added just enough water for the colour to disappear. For a drink that's supposed to be effervescent - there were no bubbles at all.

Mondays seem to bring out the idiot in me, so we spent a lot of time talking about rubbish and I was singing... after a couple of hours of this and some awful jokes I couldn't stand my "lemonade" anymore so we went our separate ways.

So there you have it - a weekend filled with going out, and only the allotted drinks, and yet still dancing...

I am still on the lookout for a new nonalcoholic drink that isn't coke, lemonade or pink - any thoughts would be gratefully received.

I have received some bad news however, work have only had 4 enquiries about the stopping smoking sessions, and as they unfortunately need 6 to run the sessions - these will not be happening. I am cutting back however, and I may see about doing this myself instead. Lets just wait and see...

Sponsorship and an interesting weekend...

This weekend could cause me my first real issues. I have a birthday night out both tonight and tomorrow night - so it will become an interesting choice as to which one I will drink on. I still have time to decide so it'll probably become a spur of the moment decision which I hope I won't regret on Saturday night!

I am however drinking more coke at work, so evenings out drinking more coke will not be pleasant so I am in the market for a new non-alcoholic beverage.

The rest of this week was easy, I didn't succumb to the demon drink. Instead I managed to play pool without the influence of alcohol and although I lost overall I feel I had a moral victory.

On the idea of sponsorship... which someone raised in the comments of the last post - this is something that I will consider. I could call it a "Quitathon" which I’m sure could catch on. If there is more interest in donating or sponsoring me then let me know and I will investigate further.

On a side note - from a discussion I’ve had today I may be including a liverometer to show the good that this is doing to me...

Why I'm Doing This

Some people have been asking why I'm taking this challenge. They're saying that this is something that will never work, that i'm weak, that peer pressure and beer pressure will make me lose.

That is giving me the motivation to continue, and to succeed. On the 2nd of March 2010 you will hear my cries of jubilation as I call to the heavens "Who's the big winner? I'm the big winner!"

I'm going to complete this. I may even make a trophy...

The Gudang Garam Conundrum

As tomorrow is National No Smoking Day i have decided to sign up again for some giving up smoking sessions again. The last time i did this around this time last year i pretty much succeeded - until some personal issues created a weakness and i fell back into being a smoker... But its a new year - so why not try again? That's what I'm telling myself. However i may run into a problem straight away... Not problems of a personal nature but instead 200 problems coming all the way from India...

Gudang Garam the greatest of all the cigarettes i have smoked. A clove cigarette, with a strange and yet alluring smell, and a crackling sound the likes of which have never been heard from a cigarette before... 200 of these bad boys are on their way here with my name on - courtesy of my friend's lovely new wife.

So the conundrum appears - should I give up on these cigarettes even though I've waited a few months for them? Should i give up on the non-smoking? Until Friday, my conscience and feelings are clear. Its non-smoking time again, and this time unless the mystical Gudang Guram has more pull than a set of healthy lungs, its going to stay hopefully.

I may have bitten off more than i can chew here - and may well be heading for a fall - but i will try, and if i fail at this - i will pick myself back up again and try again.

Anyways - back to the point of the blog...

Monday was a quiet day, I had a very long day at work, was in a stupid mood and proceeded to irritate not only myself but many of my friends with my whining... I went to sleep early after Heroes (the 9pm one as i don't even have Freeview - damn burglars) and shut it all off. No hint of booze of any kind here that would have been a mistake - a lot of fruit juice however.

Tuesday, that was easy. I set up this blog. Made sure people were aware of it to give me the pressure and exposure within my social circles so that on nights out I will know that people are there watching me... It seemed to be the best option at the time as its a great incentive to prove everyone wrong. I didn't do much in the evening, no hint or chance of any booze of any kind.

This morning - well i never was one for drinking before work... especially as i work for a rather good company who would frown on that... So its all good so far.

Not a bad start to the week, and some more good decisions made. Here's looking forward to solving the conundrum...

Last week

Seeing as I've started this blog a week after the bet started i should update my last week.

Last week was a tough one. It started well with the bet being made on Monday morning. Luckily for me there weren't friends around to drink with so I made my way home and instead I relaxed at home.

Tuesday I'd made plans to watch the football in the pub with one of my friends, as Villa weren't playing it was fairly easy to just sit back, relax and watch a scrappy Liverpool win with a couple of pints of coke. Although the bar staff were a little wary for some reason when i asked for no ice.

However, at 9.30 the evening changed... I received a phone call saying that my house had been broken into. I rushed home from the pub to find that basically my bedroom was torn apart and my TV, Wii, laptop and other goodies had been taken. This was not the best way to start the week. I was very very angry about this, and this affected my whole week as we now had a lovely hole in the door and some things of a sentimental value had been broken. The police turned up at 11.30pm and stayed for an hour taking statements and logging what had gone.

The rest of the week I took mostly off work to sort out the door, insurance claim and to tidy up after the forensics guy had turned up. The forensics guy was not like on CSI... he was this old fat guy who complained about how I hadn't dusted the cabinet my TV sits on. However he did take some fingerprints so here's hoping.

I was off work on Friday but stayed in town most of the day after talking to the door people, who it will take 2 weeks to get a new front door from, looking for prices, values and details for the insurance claim. I had arranged to meet up with a few friends to vent my frustration over the break in. This could have been the bet over and done with, however I managed to just drink coke all evening - although i did instead smoke like a chimney...

On Saturday was the first of the birthday nights out this month, so I was allowed to have two drinks. I only ended up having one beer which although tasted glorious after all the coke i was drinking, it didn't really help with my annoyance over the break-in and I wasn't the best company at all... I ended up leaving around midnight and was rather annoyed at myself about being in a mood.

Sunday I relaxed with family, my sister was around so we had a good family meal and then I was back into town to find more details for the insurance claim.

This was not a bad week for the bet, however not a good week for everything else...

My first post.

I have started this Blog to help me with this bet. As you may be able to see I'm taking on the task of tempering my alcohol intake to a ridiculously low level. To give you some background on me and my social life here's a typical week for me:

Monday - a couple of beers with some friends after work
Tuesday - nothing
Wednesday - a couple of beers with friends after work - often during the football if its on
Thursday - a few beers with friends after work - sometimes a night out drinking from 5pm
Friday - straight after work I meet friends for beers, this starts at 5pm and usually doesn't end until the early hours of the morning
Saturday - I meet friends for beers in the evening and again this doesn't end until the early hours of the morning
Sunday - I recover.

Now with this bet my habits are changing, although i still meet friends for drinks - i am on the coke or lemonade instead. While everyone else gets drunk, I'm the only sober one. As everyone knows the being sober while everyone around you is drunk is a very lonely place. However, as the year starts to pass by it will become easier and being the only sober one may well become a more appealing prospect.

I have mentioned this bet to many of my friends and they are convinced I will fail. I drink a lot regularly and they believe that this will never last. My nickname at work is Boozehound. I have a lot of work to do, but I'm convinced that I can do it. It'll take a lot of mental strength but I'm sure I will suffer through and be better off financially and with regards my health.

I will keep this updated fairly regularly, and hopefully I will come out of this triumphant.