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