What makes it worse is that the detox I’m on is quite strict, possibly overly strict: No meat, egg white wheat products, oranges (wrong PH), you get the idea. I can have fish every so often though. Mix that in with the variety of herbal pills you take with it – yes, the effects are true – and you get an interesting diet.

But I’ve made it, and I’m feeling better for it, I think. That might just be the removal of beer and coffee, but I’m sleeping better and I do feel a little better than I did – not that I ever felt bad.

So what do I miss? Well, I really do miss my morning cup of coffee, but I think after this, I’ll limit myself to just that morning coffee. And obviously beer, but again, that will be down to once or twice a week. And meat and eggs. That’s been the toughest as you can imagine, especially when you make scrambled eggs as good as mine!

The one downside is going to the pub with your friends and watching them getting drunk is no fun… hmm… Beer. Not helped when friends go “I admire your will power. Want a beer?” Thanks for that Dave. So cruel.

I will make it though. Only another week to go… No problem!

So here goes… The usual rules for round the clock is pot the balls in order, striking the balls in order. Our drinking variation is this:

• Miss the ball your meant to hit, 1 finger of beer
• Foul – e.g. sink the wrong ball or the white – drink two fingers
• Pot the ball you’re going for, everyone else drinks a finger
• Do something stupid – this is discretionary one, but you’ll work out how to use it – drink one or two fingers

And that’s it. Simple eh? And it does the trick. One word of warning though, you’ll be refilling your glasses frequently! It was a tough afternoon in the bar.

For the record, we were trying out our new local, the Bat And Ball in Redfern.