Stanfords Finest

Continuing my tributes to dead people I thought I would say a few words about Alan Carr. In the UK, Alan is credited with helping millions of people to stop smoking with his small book ‘Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking’. I borrowed it once and it made for a good read over a pint and a Marlborough Light. I gave up the evil weed a few years later but some of Allen’s words stuck in my mind. His mantra was a simple but effective one; it’s a mind game and you can just stop as soon as you want. Simple. Just stop. And I did. The physical addiction of nicotine leaves the body after 3 days it’s only then that the mental game comes into play. That’s the hard part and that’s the part where Allen grabs you by the scruff of the neck, slaps you around a bit and screams “get a grip” in your face

My love for Allen doesn’t come form his smoking books however but rather his Fear Of Flying book. A few years ago I developed a post-9/11 fear of flying. I know its lame but if you fall victim to the press hype in the UK then you’ll begin to become irrational about something. If it isn’t flying then it could be bird flu, aids, rap, computer games, paedophiles or something else you didn’t know was bad until it was rammed down you throat 24 hours a day. Mine manifested itself in A Fear Of Flying. In fact, there’s nothing worse as you make excusses not to travel – the rare occasions that you do manage to get on board a plane the flight is a living hell…what was that? Was that a bang? Hang on, that guy looks like he’s a bomber etc repeated every ten minutes in your mind. It’s impossible to enjoy the movie and eat your meal under such duress. So in desperation I purchased Allen’s book and his message was again very simple GET A GRIP YOU SCUMBAG. He started by eliminating all the technical issues before launching into his ‘see it’s all in your mind’ routine. And my how it worked. He closed the book with “if you are still scared of flying then you need help” or words to the effect. He was right and now I’m not scared. In fact I like flying now but that may have something to do with Hong Kong Airport being one of the world’s best as opposed to Heathrow looking like Dafur or the fall of Saigon depending on which day you go.

So I would like to say a big up to Allen who died this year because he has helped me with his words of wisdom and his books made him seem like a nice guy of which there are few.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 2:55 pm and is filed under blah blah blah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.