I’m going to Barcelona tomorrow! I have a whole week off work, starting now, and I will be spending five days of it in Spain. I’ve never been to Spain before, and it appeared on this year’s list of places to go, when I realised that I could easily afford it. I don’t want to [...]

Yesterday I spent most of the day with AA friends, and had a lovely day as a result. In Holborn there was the annual gay AA convention. I got there early in the afternoon and was pleased to see that I knew most of the 50 or so people present. During the first hour we [...]

Today I was the recipient of my first ever step 9 amends. It came from my former sponsor, who relapsed earlier this year when I was in the middle of step 4. I didn’t feel that he really owed me an apology, but I went to meet him anyway as I hadn’t seen him since [...]

Last night I was booked in to do the chair at Hop Gardens. It’s the biggest gay AA meeting in London, with at least 70 regular attendees. When I got there I was understandably nervous about speaking in front of such a large crowd. I’d never chaired a meeting of more than about 30 people [...]

Tuesday night I was given cause for concern when Andy called me, sounding desperate. He’s been having a rough time recently, unemployed and searching for that job that will change everything. It’s not just being poor, it’s being trapped at home, having all your choices taken away from you, not having any reason to get [...]

Seems like things have been pretty static the past couple of weeks, which is why I haven’t written much here. I’ve written a lot elsewhere, reaching 180 pages in my latest novel which I am happily enjoying in its creation. I’m almost certainly on track for completing my fourth book in sobriety – the third [...]

Three Years

It’s been exactly three years to the day since I last had an alcoholic drink. Unbelievable? Extremely. Happy? Mostly. I wouldn’t say I was entirely jubilant today, mainly because of the several close shaves that I have gone through in recent weeks. I’m fairly convinced that those close shaves were in anticipation of this anniversary [...]

There was a minor incident, yesterday at work, which may need some thinking on. It had mostly been a great day. We had our quarterly business meeting, where everyone had to gather in the conference room to listen to speeches about the company’s amazing growth during the past three months. After the speeches we were [...]

After avoiding Ethan through Sunday and Monday, I finally spoke to him honestly last night about how bad I had felt on Saturday. I tried not to make it seem as if I blamed him for the social disaster which nearly led me to a drink, though it may have come across that way. I [...]

I’ve done it again. Put myself in a situation where my recovery may have ended up seriously compromised. It all started off innocuously enough, as I was invited by Ethan to a party at the place where he has recently begun to do voluntary work. You’d think: how bad can it be? The moment I [...]