I loved "EastEnders" - the endless storylines that interwove so intricately and the sense of community. The team that put it together were so talented and of course the pressure must have been on continuously to keep churning out the content with characters arriving or leaving and yet more topical subjects to add to the mix.
Teaching in Thailand for six months in 2011 meant that I kind of lost my connection with the soap opera. When I came home I decided to stop watching it. It had been taking up too much of my time and too much of my head space. Since 2011 I have not seen a single episode of "EastEnders". I just went cold turkey and broke my addiction.
It was the same with cigarettes. I first took up smoking when I was twenty one and ceased entirely one morning in the summer of 1988 when I was thirty four years old. I went to the dustbin and broke up my last packet of cigarettes and have not smoked another one since. I was stubbornly determined to be a non-smoker and for thirty six years I have not wavered.
Until recently, I was spending about £50 a week on my personal consumption of alcohol - bought in pubs and supermarkets and mostly beer. For different reasons I decided to greatly reduce my alcohol intake and stopped buying beer to drink at home. I also go out to pubs far less than before and on most nights I climb the stairs to bed without having drunk a drop of beer or wine.
I haven't found this change hard but unlike "EastEnders" and cigarettes I have no intention of giving up the demon drink entirely. It's just nice to keep it in check and nowadays I guess that I am only spending £20 a week on beer and wine for my own consumption.
With all these things, what has been important to me is willpower and in that regard I guess I have been blessed. Not everyone has a healthy store of the stuff.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/pN1H4P6