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