I used to have a bad lad for a mate each evening, he was a bottle of wine and sometimes I’d meet him at lunch. Sometimes I’d spend the afternoon with him and too often he’d remind me of our spells the following morning when I didn’t feel too good.

In his company I put on weight and became grumpy. It wasn’t quite like Gabriel Marquez’ hundred years of the same but I found that me and alcohol had become unnecessary friends.

Then I had a cycle accident and lost consciousness for 7 days. Then I had 28 days in a neurological ward (many people came to see me and my partner helped me – alongside the NHS staff I became friends to). I did not need the company of alcohol and it is now 100 days since I touched the stuff.

I don’t want it. I don’t want this Plenum stuff I’ve been drinking so that my body empties of food and anything else left in me (it seems). I am on some pathway that will take me back to healthiness or at least tell me the worst, if worst is a shortened life. But I will go to hospital this morning confident that I have no friends I’d rather not have – cigarettes and alcohol are not friends to have if you are sick.

It seems to me that the bottles of spirits and wine and beer that surround me in our flat are for someone else – not me. So if you are in the Blackfriars area of the City and fancy saying hi and walking away with some of my booze, please be ingenious and contact me.

There is a chance that I might go back on booze, but I said the same about the fags and I haven’t. I suspect that it is a kind of retirement, to retire from a relationship which became a dependency.

Being in hospital for five weeks woke me up to a new kind of friendship and that was with the people who I want to stay close to – alcohol is not on that list!

I have friends who do “alcoholics anonymous”  (AA). I am amazed by them but I don’t find I want to do that myself. I suspect that I am too open, too extravert to funnel my rejection of my former friend but you may feel different. AA may be right for you if you feel that alcohol is not a good friend.

But for the vast majority of people, alcohol is a good mate. I am not worried about going to events where all around are drinking, in fact I’m going to a couple soon. In Scotland everyone seems to be offering whisky tastings – not for me this year thanks!

I hope that you enjoyed this celebration of 100 days of sobriety. Give me a shout if it mattered to you.