SadG wants to be happyG

Great work G - well done.

2013 is shaping up well for you and we want to share it with you so please keep us posted,

No doubt the urges will come along and the goal isn't really to stop the urges (although that would be nice) its more about being armed ready to deal with them and slap them down when they occur.

Proud of you.

Dave

Hi sadg

Great post from you again as always, you always seem to inpsire and be so fresh in your writing. By the way, if you need any advise with the guitar lessons let me know 🙂 27 years playing me and wasted all that talent really, stopped playing live when i was about 30 years old but would love to get back to it sometime.

FIRST AND BEST BIT OF ADVICE !!

Learn on an electric guitar, its much easier to finger the chords and learn scales. So many people fail by trying to learm on acoustic and then just give up because there fingers cannot cope. After 6 months year you can move on to acoustic when your confidence is strong.

SECOND BIT OF ADVICE

Learn good techniques, very difficult to get rid of bad habits (like gambling for instance) learn classical position for scales (thumb at the bottom of the fret board so you can strecth properly) you will progres very quickly then. 6 months and you will be better than the big country guitarist 🙂

Take care and good luck Dark Place

Hi Sadg,

Firstly, you need to change your name!!

Secondly...my advice...get a plectrum!

Seriously........You are going great.

I believe humour has a great part to play in recovery......Laughter is good for the soul.

Womble x

Thanks for the advice DarkPlace and Womble. Will take all that on board. Will have to look in to how much a basic beginners electric guitar is as I only have an acoustic.

Day 54 gamble free. Huge congratulations to my Gamcare friend DarkPlace who hit the 50 day mark today. Great achievement. Please find time to drop him a message of support. He's been with me from the start and has been a rock for me through all of this. So glad we're still gamble free and in a better place mentally and emotionally, maybe not financially but that will come with time.

Off to the gym this afternoon for my third session. Very light weights session, some abs work and some time on the bike should do it. Then will skype the kids for a chat then off to work. Just happy to fill my time with more constructive things than the sickness of gambling.

Have a great day everybody. There will be no gambling today.

G

Hello mate

Just checking in to see how you are, you were saying about playing an electric guitar, do you play?? Ive been thinking for a couple of years now to start learning to play an acoustic, definitely gonna do this and use it as my focus point,

Also my beloved qpr are playing the might spurs this weekend too. Please go easy on us lol were I'm desperate need of some points lol, If I'm not working sat then ill go to the match!!

All the best mate

Simmo

I agree, time to change the name!

We see that name each time we click on your diary to read it.

NT

G sounds like you're doing great mate. 54 days is absolutely brilliant. Really nice to see you're using your time constructively mate. That exercise will do you good. Looks like I'll also have to drop by Darkplace's diary too mate. He sounds like a bit of a guitar hero. Just like what we aspire to be 🙂 Hope your Skype sesh with the kids was good mate and don't work too hard. Bilko

Hi sadg just checking in just wanted to say well done mate your doing brilliant a great acheivement 🙂

Happy days. the Bear is back.

Thanks Bilko. Just happy to be back in the gym for now but I will be tapping up DarkPlace for some guitar advice without a doubt.

G

Hi Sadg,

start off learning open chords get your fingering correct !

then start learning jazz blues scale starting from A on the lower E, one down stroke with plectrum then one up stroke per note !

then start learning guitar modes (form of scale) ionian, lydian & mixolydian ! same plectrum technique, I will have you better than jo satriani soon 😉 Dark Place

G

fella from experience I have seen alot of folk come and go from this forum, some stand out, some plod along in there recovery, some go back at it.

a fella once posted upon my diary,

it takes 21 days to break a habit giving you a lifetime to enjoy recovery.

For me your efforts to abstain are unrelenting, you support others with measure and from this I can see you are starting to enjoy recovery.

Life for us the compulsive gambler takes on for me a special presence once we abstain, and see what it can deliver us.

A 100% payrise and a better frame of mind.

Fella keep on keeping on.

Well done.

Duncs stepping forward never back.

Thanks for support, much appreciated on a low day.

Wish I could use the gym, used to go weight training every week and was so fit but don't really fancy the geriatric classes. I have a rowing machine and quite funny when I am using it and the 'real' rowers go racing past my houseboat and wave. Have a dodgy knee replacement at the moment, just a slight hindrance to keeping fit, must try harder.

Never sure whether to tell others about my 'problem' as have had such mixed responses in the past. Very close friend who was a drug and alcohol counsellor who I told a couple of years ago and thought would understand, was clearly disgusted and avoided me for weeks and has not mentioned it since whereas my Mum in her eighties has been brill. My partner left because of it and my daughter practically disowned me so I am more selective now as to who and what I tell. That's why personally I find this site so brill as most understand the rubbish that floats in our heads and the feelings that arrive when like you they are on the right sort of winning streak. Well done and stay strong.

xxx

Day 56

The expenses keep on coming at the moment relentlessly. Another £350 for services charges on my flat here in London and a new cooker set me back £300 this week. It had to be bought. The old one was an antique. Had plenty of money to pay for all these things 6 months ago had I seen the light back then but no I continued to gamble till all the money had gone. To make matters worse my flatmate/lodger has moved out to live with his girlfriend so I'm now even further out of pocket so desperately looking for a new lodger too. Ho hum. Grin and bear it G. Things will get better with time.

Will stumble my way through to the end of January and payday and then hopefully as long as there is no great expense just around the corner I will have the first chance, since I quit gambling, to start saving some money again.

Does life work in mysterious ways?? As I was writing this the postman has just been. One of my letters is a brochure from the Alzheimer's society about all their fundraising events for 2013/14. I looked at their website about 6 months ago. My dad was diagnosed with early Alzheimers this time last year. He seems to be going down hill quicker than we'd want to see. He's 73 now and used to be superfit. He ran marathons, half marathons, 10K races. Was always out running or on his bike. Anyway I've just flicked through the brochure and they have a couple of events that leaped out at me.

Trekking the Morocco Atlas mountains in September or trekking to Everest Base Camp in Nepal in March 2014. I have an old work colleague who did the Everest base camp trek and her pictures she posted online were simply stunning. She highly recommended it. It's really tough but just the motivation I need to stay and work hard in the gym this year. Will discuss it with my wife. If she lets me have 18 days off next year then I will be trekking in Nepal I think, and definitely as an ex gambler. Maybe I could plant a Gamcare flag in the ground and take a picture to show what better things can be achieved in life. Ok calm down G. I will look into it. Anyone care to join me? March 1-19 2014.

Have a great day and weekend everyone. There will be no gambling today!

G

Very inspiring diary. Thanks for sharing your ongoing story.

Sad g, your posts are an inspiration to us all, I too was thinking about fundraising for a charity but haven't quite yet decided what one to choose, I'm gonna pick one that means something to me not just any old one, my friend at work s mother in law has Alzheimer's and is not too good to be honest she's In care home now as her husband can't look after her anymore, she doesn't even know who he is anymore after 55 years of marriage how sad is that!'

Keep up the good work g, from your friend simmo