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Healthier, happier and more money in my pocket!

I have completely stopped drinking as of Thursday 31st January and I am rather proud of myself for sticking to it. Normally I manage a week then give in to the temptation, but this time I have gone over two weeks despite many people’s best efforts to get me to drink and it’s now getting easier to say NO after not touching a drop for 16 whole days. I feel much healthier within myself and I feel happier as well, and best of all I have more money in my pocket (OK, bank account). It has made me realise just how much money I have been wasting on booze over recent years. I am more focused than ever on getting my act together and getting my arse over to the US to spend a few weeks with Erin for the first time. Now that I have discovered that I can play the lottery online. I am even playing the lottery for the first time ever in an effort to make my visit to the US possible sooner rather than later. I’m not greed; 1,000 pounds will do me, that’ll pay for my airfare and and cover my costs here in the UK for the time I am away. I have a generally more positive outlook on life right now after some serious thinking and discussion with Erin about our future and what we both need to do to make things happen. Our relationship has been a little rocky since the new year which was caused by my excessive drinking and bouts of depression, quitting drinking has helped massively and I am slowly working through my other issues.

Alternation has been going OK, but it seems as soon as we stop flyering, the numbers drop radically. We seem to be finding it hard to build up a regular fan base. I don’t want to have to go out flyering every single week to be able to get numbers in. £50 really isn’t very much when you factor in printing costs and time taken to distribute flyers. I’m starting to wonder the wisdom of keeping the night going. Maybe one last big push, I found a deal to print 10,000 A6 flyers for £75 online, that should be enough to keep us going for some time and hopefully better designed full colour double sided flyers with make a better impression. With a little luck I will be able to get Voodoo to pay half the cost if I have an advert for the Voodoo Lounge itself on the back as I only really need one side printed for Alternation!

There has even been good news from New Zealand. The English cricket team have done what I though was impossible after the first two ODI performances and beaten the Kiwi’s in the third One Day International in Auckland. England really had New Zealand on the ropes in the 30th over with the Kiwi’s 95 – 6 then Jacob Oram made 88 before being caught by the England skipper in the 49th over. The New Zealanders recovered to a respectable 234 – 9 in 50 overs. Then England came out to bat and rather predictably lost an early wicket, Mustard being run out in the third over leaving the tourists on 18 – 1, the Englishmen recovered to 28 – 1 when the rain came down. The 30 minute rain interruption meant England lost three overs and the Englishmen are now chasing a revised target of 228 in 47 overs. Alistair Cook gets out cheaply again walloping the ball straight to Chris Martin at mid-on for an easy catch, England are 31 – 2 and suddenly it’s looking like the delicate pack of cards is ready to collapse. But Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen stabilise the ship adding 100 to the scoreboard before Bell got cause plum LBW for 73 and Pietersen followed suit three overs later for 41. England are now is good shape only needing a further 80 runs from 15 overs as skipper Paul Collingwood comes to the crease. Collingwood along with Owais Shah play some excellent cricket with Shah pushing the ball into the gaps for singles to get Collingwood on strike. And Collingwood made excellent use of strike hitting 3 sixes and 6 fours in his quickfire 70 not out with Shah finishing on 18 not out. So England win the game by six wickets with three overs to spare keeping the series alive. With a little luck England can win the fourth ODI in Napier to set up a decider in Christchurch on the 23rd February.

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