Tuesday April 24 - New Job

My name's Will and I'm a social alcoholic. It's been three months, 23 days and 18 hours since my last drink.

Fairly momentous news. I handed in my notice today and will leave the Press Association at the end of May, to be the news editor of the Daily Post Wales.

This has nothing to do with my booze-free project, so I won't bang on about it for too long here.

I will, however, offer the following alcohol-related analogy to explain why I'm leaving a job I love in order to take on a post that will doubtless offer more stress, harder work, longer hours and a 140-mile daily commute from Liverpool to Llandudno Junction.

My current job feels like being in my local pub. It is safe, comfortable, and a very pleasant place to while away the time. I know everyone, and they know me. I am familiar with every square inch of it, from which areas get too smokey to which hand dryer in the toilets works best. When I go there, I am guaranteed a nice time. But not a classic night which will live in the memory forever.

Leaving the safety of one's local pub during a night out can be dangerous. You may end up in a Riley's pool hall, for example, or an Australian themed bar. On the other hand, you could also find yourself in a fantastic new place with better music, beer and atmosphere than your local could ever hope to offer. But you've got to venture out of your safety zone to find out.

I don't want my career to be "a decent night down the local, not much happened but we had a good laugh". I want it to be a classic night out, which I'll remember forever.

I believe my best chance of that classic night out is to head for Llandudno Junction.

Now there's a sentence I never expected to write.