A large coke - and don't get cheeky!!!

I'm in Lerwick, the big toon as it were here in Shetland, to pick up a couple of messages and I've been left with three and a half hours to waste. Right now I'm in the library, doing what people do in libraries without getting arrested but soon I'm going to go down to Da Wheel Bar and drink large amounts of stiff cokes - don't get wide now, what else does a man like me drink in a bar without getting pissed, eh?

Then I'll get on the bus and go home again after having had a good blether to whoever is standing beside me and willing to talk shite to a sober man. You never know, there might be one or two of them, in for the same reason, that be to get rid of and learn to cope with alcoholism. They're not in every night but usually.

I have fallen off the horse once or twice and I will do it again and again but it gets to be rarer and rarer, less often in a month or a year, whichever, but it gets rarer so it's going the right way and one day soon I'll be able to say that I am a sober man.

I hope that it doesn't take too long to get over the alcohol problem. I hate asking for "A large coke." 

I was in Lerwick, sober

I had to go into town today to bank a cheque. Here in Shetland I caught the 10.00 bus in, which dropped me off at about 11.00 in Lerwick. I banked the cheque and then went for a great big fried breakfast at the Harbour Café, oh, it was magic.

The bus home again was at 15.40 so to waste some time I first went to the library and then to the Co-op. I took the bag of food that I had bought down to the bus station and then - and then I went to the pub where I poured a tin of coke down my throat and finished off with a cup of coffee.

I'm pleased with myself today.

I came home both sober and happy.

The alcohol unit

Was at the alcohol unit in Lerwick, here in Shetland today. It was a good day, I always find it rewarding and helpful to go there because they understand what you're talking about, where you come from and all the rest. They don't pick on you either, they don't blame you because they understand the problem that you've got, therefore the fight that you're in. If you are ever offered help along these lines for anything similar then snap their hands off, jump at it because to be able to talk honestly about a problem like alcoholism is beneficial for you. It is also so rare to sit with someone who will have an intelligent conversation with you on a subject like this.

If you get the chance then take it - you will benefit from it!!!