Stoptober

It's the first of October. There are three charity things happening this month which have all appropriated an otherwise innocent chunk of autumn.

The first is Stoptober, an NHS attempt to make us give up smoking.
The second is Go Sober for October, a MacMillan Cancer Nurses initiative which speaks for itself.
The third is Octobeardfest, which comes from the Prostate Project, and is "inspired" by Movember.

All are worthy causes. All can be achieved (for men, anyway) with minimal effort.

As I don't smoke, haven't had a drink since December, and will be filming a TV series throughout this month, I can't take part in any of the above October-related fun.

But that doesn't mean you can't. So join me in feeling better about yourself and raising money for good causes by doing nothing in October.

It's easy.

Right now I am not really thinking about not drinking at all, which is a deliberate ploy. Partly because there's no point and partly because the urge to have a drink simply does not exist any longer, almost to the extent that I am feeling a little daunted about starting again. This will change in December as I start hassling people for sponsorship and planning some exploratory visits to pubs with friends in January.

So making it three-quarters of the way through the year has been unremarkable save for one unexpected exception. The dawning realisation that I am going to watch an entire season of Strictly Come Dancing sober.

After Saturday night, that might be more of a struggle than I anticipated.

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