Christians have some great ideas. “Love thy neighbour”. That’s a good idea.

I mean I’ve had neighbours all my life. I’ve moved around a lot, and each time I thought. Those people next door, shall I love them or hate the stupid bastards?

I always ended up loving them, and I might never have thought of that if it wasn’t for the Bible.
 
Lent. That’s another good one.

I’ve never ever done lent. Give things up. What’s the point? I’m in control of my life, I don’t need to give things up. Anyway, I accidently tried lent, only for a week. It was an accident, but I tried it and it works!

1) Being Sober Makes You MISERABLE
OK. I know this is obvious, but it has to be said. I turned from a happy go lucky person, into a miserable cantankerous old bugger, in the space of just three days without a beer. I mean on Wednesday I had a go at people who believe in astrology. Why? They don’t do anyone any harm. I was even having a pop at God and the Catholic Church, I didn’t care, I just had to lash out. I’m sober and it hurts.

In 60 hours the dangerous and foolhardy experiment I am conducting, on behalf of ALL Mankind, will finally come to an end…….

John McNally Researcher in Leamington Spa, England

My name is John McNally and it’s been 74 hours since I last enjoyed a beer. This is easy. I knew I could do it. People say you can get dependent on alcohol, but I’ve proved them wrong. People. What do they know?  I hardly ever think about drinking beer, it’s just not important to me. I’m a fully rounded human being and have lots of interests. They don’t have to involve beer.

I’m NOT going to tell you how to stop drinking beer in this post, because I don’t think you should.

Beer makes the world go around. Beer is good for you. Life without beer would be……..would be…… well, I just can’t imagine it, a nightmare I suppose, but I’m not willing to find out.

The reason beer is on my mind instead of in my stomach, is that I’m trying something new for the Gloucester marathon. I’ve given up beer for a week. It’s day two now and I’m fine, no really I’m fine.

Facebook may be all the rage at the moment, but the ultimate Social Network has been around for far, far longer, and there is one near you – they’re called Pubs.

Inside the relaxed atmosphere of a local pub you can network to your hearts content. If you offer local services, then the pub can be your best source of businesss.

When I first started Internet Marketing I concentrated on creating websites. To sell my pop art paintings, I spent ages creating what I thought was the perfect website. This website has produced ONE sale, whereas I have sold  FIVE paintings down my local pub.

Once upon a time, (the 1960′s actually), there were five Brummie lads who liked beer and music. Sitting in the pub drinking their local ‘Brew X11′ for the “Men of the Midlands”, they decided to form a band.

One of them had heard that the Birmingham brewery Mitchells and Butlers were looking for a band to play at their trade fairs. So they decided to call themselves the M & B Band and tried to get sponsored by the brewery.

Last night I was at St Mary’s church in Warwick for a performance of Handel’s Messiah. I have seen this performed once before, but had forgotten how long and boring it is!

The only bit’s I liked were “Are we like Sheep?” and “The Hallelujah Chorus” – but that was over an hour away.  I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, and my girlfriend was having the same problem, so in the interval we ‘did a runner’.

Once a week I go cycling in the countryside with a friend. We cycle about 30 miles and visit 2 or 3 pubs. It’s my favourite day of the week.

Recently I visited the Friendly Inn, Frankton, Warwickshire, and noticed a plaque on the wall defining the rules of cricket. It was so good, I copied it down for this post.

If you’ve every been slightly confused by the rules of cricket, here they are in simple form:

You have 2 sides out in the field, one in and one out.

Unfortunately if you like alcohol, hangovers are part of the deal. I prefer drinking real ale, especially ‘session’ beers with an alcoholic strength of around 3.7%.  These beers are weak enough to avoid bad hangovers, (unless you consume vast quantities of course)!

Recently my brother arranged a ‘Risk and Rioja’ night at his house; Playing the Waddington’s board game Risk, while drinking Spanish red wine. We had a few pints of Timothy Taylor Landlord bitter first which was really lovely, then we hit the red wine.