MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope you all have a fabulous festive day of consumption and joy-ness-ness.

It's now stopped snowing in Belfast, but the frozen ice and freezing temperatures are still a bit daunting. Hopefully this festive blog update can help cheer you all up before you embark on any treacherous journeys!

Photo taken from the Eiffel Tower, Paris (nabbed from Crap Graffiti)

Missing a ball! (photo by Ryan O'Reilly)

Lovin' the cock! (by Sean Flanigan)

And ...

But ...

So...

Finally.

The icing on the cock (see what I did there?) has got to be this...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL!

^_^

AFTER / NO LONGER Sober For A Year - Day 48

Walking home in the snow last night was really good fun! I love how the snow brings out this excitement and playfulness in people. The sense of camaraderie. We're all in it together! Collectively spurted on from the frothy bosom of Mother Nature.

Watching a serious snowball fight break out among about 20 people in the outside parlour of a crowded pub was exciting. At first it was intimidating, but it was easy enough to find cover.

I guess one of the benefits of sport and games is it can allow people to channel the normal tensions that they walk around with - all that potential for actual harm or violence towards others - into something much less dangerous or hurtful. It gives them an outlet for energy that, when not used, might become negative energy perhaps.

Anyway, the point was, it was a great thing to see, because of the sheer ruthless rebellion and childish carefree joy of it.

Why does that kind of anarchy appeal to me so much?

What is it about breaking the rules and watching people collectively disrespect authority and property that gets me so excited?

AFTER / NO LONGER Sober For A Year - Day 46

As well as being Sober For A Year from 1st January 2011, I will also be doing this:

http://songadayforayear.blogspot.com/

I think this is going to be challenging and difficult at times, but I feel it will be a great way to keep me busy with my musical output and it'll be a great way of building up a collection of work, that while it might not be "the best" music I can make, it'll certainly be a chance to try out new ideas, work through some specific musical techniques or approaches, focus the way I work and focus me to work towards deadlines.

Already I have a few ideas in my head of how I can approach this. I am thinking on certain days I'll want to set aside many hours to one piece, so that I have something quite well established and of a better quality than, say, just banging out a few riffs. However, there will be days when I won't have as much time or access to my equipment and on those days I'll probably focus on creating something short and simple within a shorter time frame.

This will lead to a nice variety of pieces: Some long, some short. Some simple, some complex etc.

I also want to make the most of collaborating with other people. Bringing in friends to bounce ideas of and work towards something would be extremely fun and might lead to some really interesting results.

With 365 songs, there is plenty of scope for there to be themes and genres for specific weeks (or even months). I could say, "March is going to be HEAVY METAL INDUSTRIAL HELL month" or, "January week 2 is going to be all about strings and harmony" or, "This week I'm going to be writing songs with my friend Bob". There is plenty of scope!

More on this soon.

AFTER / NO LONGER Sober For A Year - Day 45

So after last Wednesday's post-QUBe gig session, I was wondering how I would handle the weekend. Well, Friday night I had a few glasses of wine. Nothing too heavy, maybe a bottle of red.

Then home to bed.

Saturday however, I had a lot more wine and then later some whiskey.

Surprisingly for me, I woke up on Sunday with quite a sore head. I hardly ever get physical hangovers! I spent the day feeling kind of drunk: Every time I got up, I felt I was going to bump into things. Be the evening I was OK though. I made a TO DO list for Monday. I set my alarm and then woke up at 8:45am!!

Wow! That's the earliest I've been awake in a long time!

I did my "Morning Pages" for the first time in about a year. I updated the TO DO list with other stuff I would need to do this week. Things were looking good, but then....

Well then, I let myself get sidetracked by pointless internet shite and I stayed in bed where it is nice and warm, because my bedroom is always freezing, no matter how long I leave the heat on! (One of my errands for this week is to go buy a small electric heater for my room, the radiator is just not cutting it).

Today I got up at 11am (not surprising, I was awake until about 4:30) and I've done very little. Had breakfast. Checked emails. Posted more faff and blah online. I'm going to leave the house very soon to pick up my electric heater, then hopefully later head out for more Christmas festivities.

Anyway. In other news-y-news-y-Knee-use-y-Noos....

I have decided, I am giving up booze completely in the New Year. *GASP!*

Moderation isn't going to work with me and it'll only mean I'll be miserable on those times when I do go out with people. Best to cut it out completely and focus on just enjoying other aspects of socialising.

This is the best way forward.

So from 01.01.11 I will begin SOBER FOR A YEAR PART II!

I need a good corny "tagline". Suggestions please.

SOBER FOR A YEAR - PART II - The rounds are on me... (with an image of someone unloading bullets into a bar or something?)

SOBER FOR A YEAR - PART II - The Teetotaller Strikes Back...

SOBER FOR A YEAR - PART II - What most people call Beer, he calls Blackcurrant.

Yea, as you can see, my wit has possibly been blunted a wee bit by my lack of leaving the house to interact with the World properly in the last several weeks. Hmmm

I'm also going to organise myself a bit better in 2011. SOBER FOR A YEAR 1, taught me that I can do a year without drinking or partying. I've proven that to myself now, so PART II it's time to do that, but add some extras: Like managing my time. Making proper plans and sticking to them. All that stuff.

Here's to the future!

AFTER Sober For A Year - Day 40

Maybe instead of "AFTER Sober For A Year" I should label these posts "NO LONGER Sober For A Year".

Hmmm.

I played with the QUBe last night at SARC, Belfast. It was fun times. I think it went pretty well.

After I had, basically, my weekly allowance of alcohol in one night: 5 or 6 (lost count) pints of Guinness. 1 double vodka and coke. 3 or 4 (...err) shots of.... stuff... and then another double of JD back home. The final tipple was a wee splash of the leftover red.

Aye, so that was the kinda session that I think I can probably do the odd time, but not more than once a week. AND I think if I allow myself to have that kind of session, then it means I need to restrain any other drinking. I suppose 1 or 2 bottles of beer in a chilled social situation on top of last night's fun could be OK, but we'll see.

The weekend will be an interesting test.

AFTER Sober For A Year - Day 37

Quitting the fags again. Yep, when I started drinking again, I also started smoking again and I was off them even longer than the drink!! I'm an idiot. But I've just smoked my last one.

I had two left in my pack and didn't smoke all day, but I just couldn't leave them sitting there or rip them up. That's me done with the fags now though.

Talked with a few close friends about my "moderation" approach to drinking too. I'm thinking something between 5 and 8 pints a week is the way to go. It means I can let myself have that odd night out, without going wild. And as discussed before, moderation is going to require way more effort than cutting booze out of my life completely. It'll take much more self control and attention to my behaviour. I think this will be a better lesson in the long run: Learning not to just give in when people offer me the chance to imbibe. Learning to say, "No" based on what I feel is right for me, within reasonable self-assigned limits.

Of course, I can choose to do less than 8 pints a week.

On the other hand, I am very fond of sleeping in and letting myself just drift the day(s) after a session. If I let myself have these random pints during the week, will I still get up early and get on with other important things?

I've got to look into that side of things, you know, having the motivation, the ENERGY, the willpower to push through that laziness.

That's really what needs to change more than anything. Exercise! .... Ugh a terrifying word really, but an active lifestyle seems to make most sense: Making the most of my time, so things get done and don't always feel like such a challenge.

Hmmm...

AFTER Sober For A Year - Day 36

So I was just looking into "Moderation" and got a general bit of information that men can drink around 3 - 4 units of alcohol a day. That amounts to just less than 2 pints of beer or 2 glasses of wine or 2 shots of a spirit.

So 2 pints a day x 7 = 14 pints a week?

That's surprisingly high! Obviously the problem is that I tend to drink around that amount (and sometimes a lot more) over 2 or 3 days, rather than smaller amounts across the week. And then again, looking at my recent intake it's definitely been way over the recommended amount.

The thing is, my problem isn't necessarily the health aspects of drinking, though that is a factor, my problem is how these drinking sessions affect the rest of my life.

So it looks like in the space about 36 days since I quit booze for a year, I've come back around to the same realisations I had back at the end of October 2009:

• Drinking is disrupting many other aspects of my life.
• It's bloody expensive.
• It affects my overall state of mind and attitude to life.

Should I quit again though? That is the question.

Moderation could be interesting: A chance for me to put more control on myself and learn to be mature and discipline myself. To me, that will be a lot more of a challenge than quitting altogether.

However, how do I moderate?

Only allow myself a certain number of drinks a week?

How many? 5 pints a week? 10 units a week? Do I allow "exceptions" for special occasions? Or more to the point, am I going to be able to stop myself from going over on those occasions? Might I just end up hating the fact that I have to hold back and won't it just spoil the evening for me, when parties are in full swing etc?

Of course this all reads like I just don't trust myself to moderate. I've just never done it before.

A few things to consider really. I shall make a decision very soon!