Four years ago, in 2002, I was coming to the end of my second year at university, living in a small house in Heworth, York, with one guy and two girls. The World Cup was about to start in Japan & South Korea - henceforth known as Japorea - and it was a very exciting time. Several trips were made to ASDA to buy some booze in. I remember by the end of academic year and coincidentally the end of the World Cup, some four weeks later, I had gone through 72 bottles by myself.

Skip forward four years, and the next World Cup has begun in Germany. Excitement was building once again, memories of Japorea resurfacing. Now back home in Huyton, Liverpool, trips to ASDA were once again made to buy in the alcohol. During the first week of matches, many bottles have already been consumed.

I went to the pub on Friday to have a few drinks with my mate, and much fun was had by all. Then on Saturday I got a text from another friend who was back home from university for the weekend and wanted to go the pub. So, Saturday night I ended up at another pub. I decided to take it easy given the week previously, and I didn't drink. At all. Apart from maybe two. And you know what? It was still fun.

So that's when I learnt that you could go out and socialise without alcohol and still enjoy yourself, provided you are doing it with good mates. With this theory in mind I went to watch the England match on Tuesday in the pub, and limited myself to a couple of cokes. Again much fun was had by all, and the best thing is that due to my non alcoholic night I was able to drive there and back, saving £10 on taxi fare.

This has opened up a whole new world to me. I can go to more places now because I don't have to worry about how to get there - driving is possible (parking still tricky)! Where will this amazing epiphany lead to? Only time will tell...

And I'm feeling good.

New, cleaner design. New blog engine. Unleashed upon the world today! I couldn't keep up with all the spam the old site was attracting (mostly via trackbacks) so I have killed it off. It is gone, deleted, it is a dead parrot. Cunningly I have migrated the old entries over to this one so it looks like I have been very busy adding content.

The design isn't 100% finished as yet but it will become the design of the site as a whole to create a coherent, unified approach. I will also be adding new sections shortly, such as a BRAND NEW photoblog.

Watch this space...