Time to stop!

Hi Steve,

Your diary caught my eye as i also get so far and then think i've done with gambling and go back to it thinking i can spend just a tenner, but obviously this is just my compulsive mind getting me to gamble. Hope everything went ok at the hospital mate, can't be easy at all.

Keep it up mate, stay strong

Jimmy

Sorry to read about your mate Steve....i hope he gets better.well done on walking past all those bookies,they are everywhere nowadays,it always amazes me,none of them ever seem what you might call crowded,yet more keep opening!!!,stay strong.

Seano

Hi Steve,

Cheers for the post mate. I will be starting a new diary soon i think. Just trying to get my head right so that i can make a serious concerted effort to quit.

Great to see you doing so well mate. Walking past 6 bookies in a row is great!

I'm very jealous of these snooker tickets you have nabbed. I love a bit of snooker. Never been to watch it live but have spent many an evening watching it on the box. Strangely it is not a sport i have ever really got involved in from a betting point of view. Perhaps that is why i enjoy watching so much!

Another cracking episode of LOST tonight. Mr not John Locke seems to be losing control. It's a bit weird how all the lives are interchanging in the flash sideways. I'm not having it that Sawyer would ever have been a cop! Only a few episodes to go. I'll probably go back to season 1 and watch it all again i think!!

Keep up the good work Steve.

Hi Steve,

Yes thats fine. I have No problem at all with you recommending my diary to others here.

If it or any part of it, can help anyone with their own recoveries then it makes writing it worthwhile.

Our lives are so very different now compared with 'those' days within the pages. I will have to update it sometime.

It is possible to create a good life for yourselves after the devastation that a gambling life has caused.

Totally agree with Curly about Sawyer! Definitely better as a cheeky rogue, not to mention his amazing dimples 🙂 lol

Cant wait for the end now though, its been a long, long slog & much hurting of brain cells at times.

Stay strong Steve

Jackie

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your supportive posts. Had a good week so far. Resisted all urges to gamble. When your busy at work it's so much easier isn't it?!

I'm with ya on the Sawyer thing Jackie n Curly, really doesn't suit the cop thing. Getting really interesting now, and hopefully will end with a lot of answers before my head finally explodes.

Off to the snooker with my mate tomorrow so should be a good day.

Stay Strong

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the post mate.

How was the snooker? Which match did you watch?

You are going to have to wait until next Friday for LOST mate as it is not on this week. BOOOOO!

I'm building up to the new diary mate. I don't want to start one until i am absolutely clear in my own head that i am in it for keeps.

Keep up the good work mate.

Hi all,

Thanks for your posts.

Had a long, but really good day today. Watched the Dott vs Allen match this morning which was a cracker. It's amazing how close you get to the action, it seems like your right on top of them. There is a bookies right outside the auditorium and at the last break my mate who went over to see the odds while I convieniently got the beers in, and he said someone had just put £500 on Allen to win (he only needed 1 more frame at that point), but of course it came back to bite him as Dott made a terrific comeback to take the match 13-12. Just goes to show there is nothing called a certainty when having a bet!! I personally am really glad I avoided it as the rounds I got in probably saved me money in a strange sort of way. Comedy moment of the day was when my mate decided that the 'stage entrance' must be the way in, only to be told very politely by a Shaun Murphy (World Champ 2005) to move so he could go and play his match. Don't think my mate even realised who he was until a bit later on. Very funny. To say it was the q-finals there were plenty of empty seats, maybe there isn't enough personalities in the game to put bums on seats anymore??

Anyway, another gamble free day under the belt and one to tick off the bucket list as well.

Stay Strong

Steve

Hi All,

Time for a rant I feel. These bloody politicians are liars, why can't any of them admit that we are deep in the s**t and tell us exactly how much we will have to cut back. I've watched all the debates and I think that it has exposed the fact that people aren't interested in politics and voting because there are no inspiring politicians who tell things as they are. They all have underhand agendas and i'm not convinced that any of them have what it takes to get us out of this mess. And at this point I want to offer NO apology to the bloody moron who came to my doorstep today from the 'Zombie rights party' , yes you read it correct, 'Zombies'. There manifesto includes having equal rights for the dead and undead and allowing marriage between the dead and undead!! What the f**k!!! This t*t wasted 5 minutes of my life, and unlike Gordon 'smile to your face, S*** you off behind your back' Brown, I told him to his face to get a life(irony, which was lost on him, considering his party), and get lost!! What the hell is this world coming to.

Stumper, count me in for your cabinet, this country needs a change, I think we should start with banning all gambling advertising and move on from there!!

Stay Strong All

Steve(actual living human being!!)

Goods t see u doin well yorkie mate..interest ing point aboot snooker I thought it would been sell oot...is that murphy not from your way too...has barry hearn not tried t spice it up similar to the darts/boxing...the zombie party made me laugh mate,bit like 2 faced pm today who was in standard class on my train when normally they 1st class waited on spongers...they all same mate best wishes we can do this...Ps am shoutin for dott for obvious reasons lol

Hi All,

Thanks for the post wp.

Bit of an indifferent week this week. Seem to be visiting the solicitors a lot at the moment, trying to sort out the last bits of the financial side of my divorce. Costing a bloody fortune. When I started the proceedings last year I would escape (or so I thought) the worries of it by hitting the bookies or the online sites. I can't say that I haven't had those thought processes recently, but I haven't acted on them and for that i'm glad, as the added pressure it puts on you is massive. I'm starting to eat into my debt a bit now, so I can see the progress, which in turn gives me loads of motivation to continue. I need to keep this frame of mind though, complatency is my biggest threat to being in abstinence. My birthday is on the 19th so am gonna go out with a few mates from work to celebrate and treat myself.

Stay Strong

Steve

Steve, it looks like you are having a mixed time at the minute mate with a lot of stress related things going on but the main thing is you are resisting all the urges and that has to be a good thing for any of us.

Like you I am sick of all the rubbish that the politicians spew out--they are all clones of each other these days when it comes to the main parties and the media ensure that no other party can break into the mainstream party monopoly. Unfortunately I think we are getting a glimpse of what s to come in our country from Athens at the moment. If we have a good summer I can see there being a lot of demonstrations against cut backs, pensions, lack of job opportunities and the rising cost of fuel. The country is now run by large institutions such as banks and the arms industry and we are having to fight wars to keep an economy turning-that is how desperate it is getting.

Thankfully all of these things still do not make me want to turn back to my previous existence where gambling came first-now as far as I am concerned in a political sense, gambling has lost its deposit.

Stay strong mate and keep smiling--they have not put a tax on that yet!!!

Stumper

Hey Steve,

Good to see you're keeping strong against the urge despite the pressure at the moment. Giving in just adds to the pain.

You're bang on with the politicians, a lot of us have had to make similar cuts in our own lives after gambling debts, and they DO hurt, and a lot of things that aren't entirely necessary or can be shed have to be.

Personally, I think we've got to realise we're no longer an empire and can't maintain a military as big as we do. Either way, hopefully it won't get as bad as Greece.

All the best mate, and see off those zombies.

Ryan

Hi Steve,

You are right about them solicitors mate. They do not come cheap. The only poor ones are those that gamble!

LOST is back tomorrow. I've heard a whisper it might be quite a dramatic episode. It's all building toward a two and a half hour finale on the 28th May!

Thank God the World Cup is starting soon after as otherwise it would be a long summer!

Take it easy pal.

Steve,thanks as usual for the post on my diary.Glad that you are staying strong in spite of having a fair bit of stress with your divorce....,totally agree re the politicians...,none of them are coming clean about the s**t that's in store for us.Keep up the good work.

Seano.

Y aye steve mate,your right about solicitors I looked into them for child access and the fees charged were worth a week in Spain, totally out of my budgets.....your right in that am tryin to maybes start again with the ex...its a long way off just now considering what weve done to esch other verbally but hopefully by abstsining I may have a wee chance but like I say is a long shot....the way I see it is if I did move back there would need t be massive changes and if it wasn't to be the house would have to go on market as for sure am sick of earning a good wage to be living in a flat like faulty towers whilst paying a large mortgage though I will point out She's spent a small fortune herself making it very nice indeed.....confusing or what....what gets me is people with or expecting families on these diaries still unfortunately gamble and can't see it for what it can do to you..my story confirms this...sorry for the rant its good to see you doing well under your own stresses...we can do this mate...