Dry January now in the rear view

 

January 31st - I've done it, gone the full month without a drink. I've smashed dry January. Do I feel proud of myself? Well, sort of but put it in perspective - it's not as if I've done something that will benefit us all like kicking the fat knight and his hypocritical cod-communists out of Downing Street, nor have I saved the world from totalitarianism by dismantling the insidious wokery machine. What I have done is proven something to myself. I'm not an alcoholic, just someone who drank a little too much. I always suspected that was the case, but there were moments when...well....

Prior to my Dry January challenge I'd drank every night for a decade or so, and what started out as a glass of whisky every night before bed, eventually turned into a couple, a few, a few more and then too fucking many. It got to the point where it was detrimental to my real work, my writing. Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Dylan Thomas, Dorothy Parker, Eugene O'Neill, Hunter S. Thompson, and Raymond Carver may been have been able to create when sloshed but I just ended up slumped over the keyboard.

I plan to have a glass tonight to celebrate and going forward I'm going to reset my drinking - start to once again appreciate the complex, nuanced drink that is the water of life and not submerge myself in its intoxicating depths. I've been there and sometimes it can be hard to surface again.

Anyway my new book - A Dark History of Whisky - is out at the end of this month, so expect daily whiskey/whisky postings as I promote the tome. So anyway, that's it for now from this born again appreciator of fine spirits. Now, where did I leave the that glencairn glass?

BOOK REVIEW - FOLLOW YOU HOME MARK EDWARDS

W H SMITH ON ITS LAST LEGS

 It's sad but not a surprise to hear that W H Smith is in trouble, and will likely vanish from the High Street - My own local store in Pontypridd vanished shortly before Christmas and to be honest has been going down hill for some considerable time. There was a time when I never came out of the store without buying something - a magazine or two, maybe a book or, and it's not that long ago, a discounted DVD box set.

Though over recent years I've boought less and less from the store - some of it is admittedly becuase I could get books cheaper on Amazon, but by far the biggest reason is that Smiths just didn't carry the variety they once did. And as for magazines - well, they were moved about so much that if you were in a rush you didn't have time to find what you wanted. Blame online shopping, blame eBooks, blame what you want but the facts are that Smiths failed to be store worth browsing in. IIt was overly expensive - particularly for stationary and well it wasn't what it once was, but then so few things are.

I can still recall the days when my local town of Pontypridd boasted not only a W H Smith but a John Menzies too -  I think Menzies went in the early 90's or thereabouts and now it looks as if good old W H Smith is going the same way.

Both were great bookshops, newsagents and sellers of all sorts of other entertainment - there was a time when they stocked LP Records, cassettes, video tapes, CD's, DVD's as well as having a varied magazine selection. Of course when Menzies went, W H Smith largely acquired their shops but now a few decades later Smiths is also going the way of Mothercare, Woolworths and the dodo. 

The High Street these days seems to be charity shops, vape stores and Kebab places.

It's sad but proper newsagents seem to have vanished - these day magazines and newspapers are sold in supermarkets, garages and corner shops but there is far less of a selection.

The death of the High Street, scream the newspaper headlines and they're not far from the mark.

RIP W H Smith...you will be missed.

TRYING TO COME UP WITH AN IRRESISTIBLE CLICKBAIT TITLE - NEVER MIND, I'LL LEAVE THIS HERE

 

GENRE APPRECIATION: THE WESTERN

 

Tombstone SHOWDOWN by Mike Stotter

 

THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION BY RAYMOND BENSON