I hope this doesn't turn out to be my football commentary moment, but I think I am getting myself under control and learning to channel my excessive tendencies in positive ways.

Until June, I was going to extremes all the time, drinking heavily, taking many drugs and generally damaging myself and mushing my mind up and taking myself down the wrong road. I needed to change or I would end up not achieving my ambitions and ruining my potential.

In July, I made a decision with my boyfriend to move out of London- and it has had an amazing impact of the quality on my life. For one, there are no drugs or nightclubs here: pubs close at 12am and that is it. I might get a little tipsy now and then, but I can wake up early the next day and still get up and do things and live life. Also, living on the coast just makes me feel like I am in a different world: time slows, and I feel like I have a proper weekend. Fish and chips ain't bad either...

The most important change though is I am not surrounded by the people who had coke and ecstasy dealers on speed dial. In London, if I was at a quiet dinner party or having drink with friends at a pub, before long a man on a moped would turn up, and start dishing out grams and pills wrapped in clingfilm. With two drinks inside me, I would get involved in everything, get absolutely wasted and crawl home at 10am on Saturdays, to then sleep all day, comedowns on Sundays and feel dreadful on Monday-Thursday. The Friday would come and I would do it all again, withthe same friends, in the same clubs, in the same way.

So not only was it important to get out of the city but I also had a to say goodbye to the people with speed dial dealers. I worked with some of them, so I also had to change my job, based in East London. So I changed job as well, getting the people out of my life who contributed to this mess. I now have a great job, without those kind of people around me, and have gone from strength to strength since. I am driven, ambitious and have been given more responsibility. Although it is in London, it is on the fringe, and there are no pubs nearby, which is a blessing and means I just go straight home.

Changing my environment, my friends, my job has really paid off. And whilst I am going out the odd night, it is all under control. I have complete choice and accept that, even though I was in those environments, I am responsible for myself, no one else is. I accept that responsibility and deal with it accordingly.

So whilst I have made all of these changes, the main change has really been within myself- I think I have grown up. I certainly have my life back, and whilst I am grateful for the crazy experiences, I now know that the drinks do not work. For a couple of hours of gettgin high, you have to write 5-15 days off. That is some deficit.

So here is to a truly exciting New Year- I really see it as my year. To that end, I have decided to stop drinking for 11 full months for charity, withthe target of reaching £2,500 by the end of December 2008.

Onwards and upwards!