Sideways

In this second festive episode (because we got confused about the dates) Martin tells us a Christmas story he's never told before. We discuss more terrible Christmas songs and share memories of wholly inappropriate gifts given to us as children. Wishing you all a good Christmas. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellb...

In this festive episode, we're discussing the various ways in which we try and combat hangovers, including spiritual guidance from Martin's gran choosing a few words from the Bible. Martin puts us off our tea with some graphic descriptions of the result of too much drink and we select our least favourite Christmas songs. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substac...

This week we're discussing disconnection, Pink Floyd, guitar solos, and soft furnishings.  We also find a little space for personal growth and a mutual appreciation of US pop-country. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk Thanks again for listening, we really appreciate it.

This week Martin is having a rant about the lip service paid to problem drinking and gambling by drinks and gambling companies. We both express frustration with the corporate machine and Ray Winstone. I surprise Martin by actually being prepared for once and he expresses a view about Supertramp which doesn't really stand up to the scrutiny of their back catalogue. https://www.grahamlandiwellb...

This week we're talking OCD and exploring the notion that alcohol "cooks out" when you add it to a recipe. I experience some food-related euphoric recall and we blame the Law Of Attraction for one of the worse decisions we ever made. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk Thanks again for listenin...

This week we're talking about the regret that comes from not having made changes sooner. We discuss whether it might be possible to look at a different part of our story in a way that helps us to move past regret and towards gratitude. Martin mispronounces things that I leave in the edit because it's quite funny, and we discuss the merits of 90s avant-garde rock music. https://www.graham...

This week we're celebrating Martin's ninth anniversary of sobriety and I take the opportunity to ask him about what he's learned and what advice and wisdom he would pass on to those that are either beginning their journey or haven't yet taken the first step. I also ask him to make a tricky decision involving a duck. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.su...

This week we are discussing why people find it so hard to use the word "alcoholic" in reference to their own destructive relationship with drink, and we talk about how other people's ignorance and intolerance of the misery that addiction brings serves only to further undermine our attempts to come to terms with the problem. In a surprising twist, Martin and I find some common ground...

In this week's episode, we are talking about what it means to belong and why it is so important to our mental health. Martin tells us a story that is his own personal version of the film "Brief Encounter", less brief but with a similarly bittersweet ending, and we discuss the habit of refusing to smile in photos. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.c...

This week we're talking about the elaborate excuses we come up with to justify our drinking and the ones we have to think up after we've been out and left ourselves in a bit of a state. We're talking about the role shame plays in our behaviour, and the point at which we realise that even we don't believe what we're saying anymore. We also find time to talk about facial hai...

This week we're discussing a campaign from the 1980s which had the backing of the First Lady in the US but that took a rather hopelessly simplistic approach to deal with the problem of addiction. We reminisce about Grange Hill and Martin displays an uncanny knowledge of cast members which suggests he'd not been spending his time wisely in the past few days. We also learn the phrase used...

This week we're talking about the dependency we have on our tech devices, why we find them so hard to put down, and the impact that it has on our lives. Martin read a book about it all and has a plentiful supply of facts and quotes. We also talk about games and our fondness for riding horses through the wild west looking for wild herbs. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamla...

This week we're talking about the difference between loneliness and being alone, and we examine why it's so important to be OK in our own company, and why it's sometimes so hard to do. Martin is disparaging of watching people make cakes but does come up with what he considers to be some useful insight about tongues. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substac...

This week we're talking about the routes to recovery and why there aren't any shortcuts. I make a mistake with the recording, we discuss the merits of Lucozade and the best cheese to select if you're a shoplifter. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk Thanks again for listening, we really appreci...

This week we're talking about why alcohol-free beer isn't a good option for everyone. We're discussing what it actually is, what it has to do with a 1970's football manager from the North East, and how the supermarkets were already encouraging us to get drunk by the time we were eleven years old. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can...

This week we're talking about how our memories are good at forgetting unpleasant aspects of the past but that this is not always as helpful as it sounds. We take a nostalgic trip through the 1970's ice cream cabinet at the corner shop and learn some interesting things about Thunderbirds. I wear a hat throughout the episode and Martin reveals a shocking fondness for easy listening music....

This week we're talking about why it's important to face all of our emotions, especially the ones we don't want to face. We explore why we lose faith in our emotions in the first place and the destructive ways in which we keep them away from us. Also, Martin feels pleased with himself because he came up with a title for this week's episode, and we reveal more musical guilty ple...

This week we're talking about why on earth people around you might try and convince you that you don't have an addiction problem when you have finally come to the realisation that you definitely have. Martin gets passive-aggressive about my administrative ineptitude, and we select a couple of songs that we regard as guilty pleasures. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://graham...

This week we're talking about an emotion that gets most of us into bother at one time or another. We're trying to work out why anger gets such a bad press and whether it might be more useful than we think it is. Martin also tries to convince me that The Sex Pistols were tuneful which, frankly, made me angry. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You ca...

This week we're talking about how Martin's recent visit to hospital resulted in him being followed around by ghosts from the past. There's also a timely reminder to be careful when warming your feet in front of a wood-burning stove. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk Thanks again for listening...

This week, as Martin recovers from a medical procedure, I kindly set him some homework he could do from his sickbed. I asked him to watch a documentary about cricket so that we could discuss the ways in which we respond to high pressure. Martin mostly remembered times that he was in the world's cricketing hotspots looking for cheap rum and anxious about how far he was from the nearest bar. Wh...

This week we're talking about the difficulties faced by the recovering alcoholic when invited to a wedding.  We also hear a story which usurps the one Martin told us in the "Uncle Geoff" episode about missing your own wedding because you've drunk too much. If that weren't enough there's a rendition of a Taylor Swift classic which, although not strictly about a wedding...

This week we're discussing a film in which Denzil Washington plays an addict and a pilot, two things which don't go together well. There are predictably catastrophic consequences. We'll also hear about a mishap Martin had at work which is still making me laugh whenever I think about it. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at inf...

In this week's episode, we're talking about TV, celebrity crushes, binge alcoholism, haircuts, and how we think we would have fared in the 1980s if we'd been deprived of visiting the pub. https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk Thanks again for listening, we really appreciate it.

This week, we're talking about a subject most of us don't want to think about, even though facing it is the only way to get through it. One of the ways we try to block it out is with drink or drugs, but that just makes everything worse. Perhaps there's a better way.  https://www.grahamlandiwellbeing.co.uk/ https://grahamlandi.substack.com/ You can email us at info@grahamlandiwellbei...