Maybe one day I will go to Quito- It's the capital city of Ecuador!

This week someone I have known since the age of 12 has been forced to face a major problem in his life. He is an alcoholic. It has been a problem from sometime now but this week it exploded in his face when because of it he had to leave a formal dinner in which he was to receive an honour.

One night later his drinking pushed him over the edge completely when he threatened to beat up one of a group of friends and had to be sent home because he was embarrasing himself as well the members of an organisation to which he also belonged.
I say belonged you see because today he was forced to face his problem and give up something which is truely important to him.
Something which I was going to give up a few weeks ago. In retrospect I now realise that, that would have been a huge mistake. I will stay and it will continue to enrich my life.

Seeing what drinking has done to his life has given me a bit of a rude awakening. I am not an alcoholic by any means but in the past alcohol has come close to ruining me. I find myself thinking of those days more and more when I lay in bed after a big night out with friends (which to my shame is happening more and more).
This is what I wrote about my experiences :



Six months and......counting?
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08 August 2007 at 16:21 Edit Note Delete
Right it’s official August 9th is d-day for me. Six months ago I sat down and decided I would not drink until that date. There were three reasons that I needed to give up the drink and ended up severing my ties with the only women who ever loved me Miss Windhoek Lager.Firstly emotionally I was fucked and drinking is a depressant – you do the math. OK I’ll do it for you heart broken + LOTS of alcohol = huge psychology bill and hundreds of rand spent on Twinsavers. Secondly I was fat and didn’t want to be anymore and finally I needed to do it to prove that it could be done. Not only to myself but to all those other people who doubted me.And to be honest who could blame them. If you had seen me on the tables at Tobys on a Sunday you would have bet all your money on me fucking up.I was the longshot baby. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t an alcoholic I just liked drinking and the attention getting fucked would get me. If you drink hard enough for a long enough time you end up being almost dependent on it. I didn’t need drink to function just for lubrication.Well here we are six months later and to be honest I am not quite sure what exactly to do.Lu, my housemate, says there are three ways this could end up. I could go back the same old Franki and pick up where I left off but to be honest I don’t like that guy and the new me would fuck him up he ever showed his fat ass around here again. So that leaves two more scenarios.I could have a drink and absolutely hate it and never want to drink again – Whatever.Or I could drink in moderation and alcohol could take its rightful insignificant place in my life. To be honest I don’t really feel like drinking tomorrow or for a while for that matter.I believe that in the end all things come full circle. I have reached my goal weight, I am no longer perpetually sad and I have proven to everybody including myself that it could be done. Yip things definitely do come full circle.Case in point: Yesterday I spoke to Camille for the first time in more than six months and the world didn’t come crumbling down around me. For those of you don’t know who Camille is – she’s the fourth reason I stopped drinking. – Exactly six months later – punctual!"

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As I watched my friend reeling around on the dancefloor indiscriminately groping young girls I realised that a lot of the things that framed my state of mind all those years ago were slowly starting to creep back into my life. I am not as heavy as I was back then but I am by no means happy about my weight. I am not perpetually sad but I am for at least the first two days of the week.
There are other things that I am starting to realise as well. Partying the way I do has stopped me from growing up to some extent. I am so scared that I am going to turn into a boring old person but I have nothing to show for my life either.
In four months time I want to go to Eupen with a bunch of mates - It's in Belgium. I will need to save for that and contribute to fundraising for the flight.
For that I need to get off my fat arse! Here we go again. (By the way I am still vascilating about whether I should give up drinking completely or just take my foot off the gas - for now - no drinking during the week.)

Just so you know - this is where Quito is - it's the home of a very special person.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Quito&rls=com.microsoft:en-za:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GFRC&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&ei=HRTRSbOYGIPF-Abqh83UBw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title