Sober Paddy

What about the pub?

Now, if you have come to this website and are trying to give up drinking, one of the first pieces of advice I would have for you is DON’T GO TO THE PUB.

If you have decided that you want to cut down, reduce or eliminate your alcohol intake, then the simple first step is this – NO PUB

It seems simple. I know lots of people like me who think they need to change their alcohol habits, but who don’t believe they are alcoholics. My life gets messy with drinking, mistakes are made and I always regret things afterwards. I also get unfit and lazy. But, I don’t believe I am an alcoholic. Not in the terms the AA would have you believe.

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Jimmy Bradshaw

Jimmy Bradshaw gets up at seven every morning. He has done for the last fifty eight years, ever since he was fifteen. He was told that only the sick and the dying stay in bed after seven. He takes his time in the bathroom, carefully cleaning his dentures, tooth by tooth, then deck by deck, using an old toothbrush to grind the yellow crusty gunk that has collected from his previous days eatings. He is in no rush. No rush for young Jimmy.

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St. Patricks Day

 

The more I write these blogs, the more I sound like a kill joy dry shite. The more I think about it the more I feel I am a sad boring old git, who just can’t cut it with the young kids anymore. It’s coming up in just over a week is Paddy’s day, and I just don’t feel like celebrating. What is wrong with me? How has everything changed so much? Who has given the fun a cull and put in the dull? All I want is a nice cup of coffee, some grub and maybe a shag wearing a leprechaun suit.

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Why do we love so much the drink?

I’m sitting here in Sydney domestic airport waiting for a cheapo flight to Melbourne courtesy of Tiger, and I’m pondering the nature of the Irish mentality towards drinking. We love to drink. We love to go and get sozzled and sizzled and have a good messy time. In our teens and twenties the average Irish person binge drinks at least twice a week. I know that having over six standard drinks a night is considered binge drinking, but we should be cognisant of the fact that it is only certain cultures that really drink hard.

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