Dear All

 

Some news since taking a stand a few months back.

 

I secured a new position in China and moved there in early October. It's everything I could have wanted for meeting the various demands on me and I am 100 % legal with an official work and resident permit. I am hoping that my wife and kids will follow me to China in 2017 so it will be marvellous to be able to live together as a family again. It's amazing living in China, in real China too, about 2.5 hours north of Shanghai where it is freezing cold right now and the air quality is pretty awful. 

 

I'm back in LOS for a Christmas break and should be back again for the Chinese New Year end of January. What a joy to be with my wife and kids again.

 

Yesterday I met up with a guy who I got to know through this forum a few years ago. He has struggled to string a few days together and has found the whole business of trying to quit very challenging. Yesterday he was celebrating a first ever 90 days of continuous sobriety. In a short period of time he is a different person. He typifies the reality of trying to get off the booze - easy it isn't. But he has stuck with it and he is now on the trudge. He's found a meeting in AA in Bangkok that works for him.

 

I owe everything in my life to quitting drinking, drugging, gambling, ......!  What undoubtedly has worked for me is Alcoholics Anonymous. Many people were highly surprised when I told them I had started going to AA a few years back, many would have recommended other routes, but I don't think any of them would suggest today that I made a mistake quitting drinking. Whatever works for you, my friends, and the final analysis is in two parts: firstly can you stay stopped an secondly if you have stopped how would you describe the quality of your life?

 

To all, may you have a merry and joyful Christmas and I hope you and yours enjoy a happy and prosperous New Year in 2017.

 

Gerry B

An alcoholic

All good (well, except missing the family for a bit).

 

When you come back together the little things will likely mean a LOT. That's my experience anyway.

 

Hope you have meetings you can get to and understand. That has always been my prerequisite #1 with respect to location - anything else good follows from staying sober.

 

I followed my dream once and lived in the forest. The nearby meetings were weak and I turned into an asshat.

Merry Christmas, and very best wishes for a sober New Year