Jtmlk

Well as I seem to sleep at totally the wrong time- got to sleep at 7am yesterday and it's 2am now I thought I would come and bare my soul as to the reason I finally became sober. Firstly thank you to everyone on SR, it is your kindness , help and support that has got me to day 9.
So here goes:
On March 7th I went for lunch with a friend who is currently not drinking and I decided to try to complete my second day sober and drunk lemonade. We ate, had a chat, he kindly paid and he dropped me off near my local pub. This is where it started going wrong. I walked in and the barmaid said " strongbow John" to which I answered yes and that's where it all started. I drunk about 8'pints and this lady who prob had drunk the same amount asked me to sit next to her. We talked, held hands and rubbed each other's legs in drunken affection. I'm rather vulnerable so I rung my wife to explain I was being malled and she offered to pick me up but I refused. My shenanigans with this lady had made a couple of regulars quite hostile towards me due to the fact I have a long suffering wife.
Anyway the landlord came in and I asked him for help as this lady is apparently is known in his other pubs as a man-eater. He just laughed at me but then kindly gave her a lift home. I had drunk about 10 pints by now and the pub was closing- I had a key to my mates flat I had been looking after which was a 3 minute walk away but no clever dick here decided he was going to drive 2 miles home. Now this is a drive I've driven many times before drunk - in fact I'm slagged a lot for driving drunk by a lot of regulars behind my back, some who do it themselves but practically no one challenges me to my face. I suppose I had been doing this drive most nights for a year and I'd never come across a police car. Trust me the more you do it the more arrogant you get and keep doing it.
So I got in the car and started driving down the hill , I remember hitting a car coming up but thought he had prob hit my wing mirror so I carried on driving. I stopped at the lights and all of a sudden had a taxi driver banging on my window asking why I hadn't stopped and saying he can tell I was drunk. I opened my car window and he snatched the key out of the ignition. I got out and tried to get my key back to no avail. He said he was ringing the police and did so. Luckily he didn't use the words drunk or leaving the scene of an accident to the police so they told him he just needed to swap details. Someone I knew got out the taxi and moved my car- we were a spectacle for others by now.
He took my details and the person I knew gave me my car key and I got home safely. The next morning I had a text from the taxi driver asking when I sobered up to contact him. I sorted out the insurance and admitted liability. Checked my car and the wing was completely smashed.
That night is the reason I no longer drink- I should have been arrested for drink driving and put in a cell. I was so scared when he rung the police. That night I used all of my nine lives and will never again get in a car after consuming alcohol. It's the memory of that night and what could/ should have happened that keeps me going one day at a time.