Credit Crunchies.

In a few days time it will be June. In Scotland there has been fresh snow on top of the already compacted stuff in the cairngorms meaning that they are having one of their best seasons ever.

At the same time we're being told that this will be a barbecue summer. They've been making that prediction for the last few years but, based on recent events, this time it may be true. For a massive amount of reasons I distinctly remember 2003 as being a barbecue summer and, so far, this year isn't close but it is better than the last few.

Now that the car's fixed and the weather has picked up I should be making a b-line for the caravan and, possibly for the first year in a few, the boat for some fishing. Instead I'm at home for the holiday weekend. Why? Well 2010 is fast turning out to be the toughest time I've had in nearly 20 years. Every time I think that, once that's paid I'll be fine, something else comes up. 2010 is fast becoming reminisce of 1994 when I set up home with the , then to be, wife. Thing is 1994 is a year I look back on as being one of the best years in my life. We really did have nothing and yet we really were happy.

2010 so far involves:

- Being skint (British term that means that you have no money)
- Giving up: Smokes and cutting seriously down on alcohol
- Realising it's not all yours: Lot's of folk on the outside think we've got it all. We have but it takes a hell of a lot of work to keep it.

Something tells me that 2010 is going to be a key year when I look back but it feels pretty tough when I look forward.

Is this common? Who knows? The people that follow this site have gradually disappeared but have told a variety of stories. I'm sure others will do the same. Poet has had a tough time but is getting ready for the future whilst K is preparing for exams. Zoe is also doing the exam route. It's weird but 2010 might end up being the year everyone hated and yet the year that changed everyones life.



On a different theme: The Ipad arrived on these shores today. Fools queued outside overnight to be the first to own. Now I'm not a professional reviewer but I do have an opinion:

Apple are saying 'the price is right'. An 8gb pc is un-sellable under normal circumstances but that's what your £400 gets you. A big Ipod touch and nothing more. The top spec 3g 64 gb macine is nearly £700. For an Iphone with a big screen that loses the camera and phone capabilities and still has additional costs for the net???????

Get a net book. Get a good net book. It won't have apps as such but it will do everything an iPad can do and so much more. Can you watch streaming tv on a netbook? Yes. Can you have a massive music library? Yes. Dictionary, email, encyclopedia etc? Yes.

The ipad looks great and I'm fast becoming an iphone convert but, come on, this is an idea that should have gone so much further. I'm flummoxed why there isn't a use able pc in my car. Why it doesn't connect to a mobile device that I take with me and connect to my pc?

A tablet that, when connected to my PC collects all my music, photos, movie files etc, when docked to the car provides navigation, records the journey via web cam, offers the passengers music and DVD, and, also via web cam, provides reverse parking assistance. When I park the car I lift the 8-10 inch removable screen part and take it with me like an iphone or PDA. Nothing I'm asking for there requires any sort of new tech. You just got to do it guys.... Back in the 90s pc makers made so much of multimedia. My first multimedia PC was 2.3 gb with intel inside. It actually did everything a pc could do back then. Manufactures now need to really work at making multimedia work for us now. The same multimedia in the home, the garden, the car and the workplace. No new inventions, just a better use of the tech we have.

Rave over.

Stay hooked

T

Five years time

Five years ago, in my mid thirties, I finally decided to do something that I should have done years and years ago. I learned to drive. Actually I started learning six years ago but it took the best part of a year to learn. (For those who just tuned in looking for advice on smoking...Don't try to quit when learning to drive). Good news is that I passed my test first time. Bad news is that I passed my test first time. The roads have always been full of idiots but now I got to be one of them.

Let's go back a bit. I did not need to drive. I had managed to keep some pretty good jobs without ever learning to drive. I had public transport sussed. I could walk for miles. I could drink at every occasion because I never had a car sitting and I was never driving tomorrow. Frankly driving looked pretty difficult to me. Also it seemed like you had to know at least something about cars and I didn't. It needed co-ordination and I hadn't. In my mid thirties I had never even filled a car with petrol. What's more, if I did start driving, I'd never be able to afford anything beyond a banger and I kept hearing friends talk about unexpected repairs that all seemed to cost £200+. Nope cars were not for me. When I did pass I actually thought to myself that 'someday soon this will be the very thing that kills me'.

Five years on and how things have changed. I travel between 13-16000 miles per year. That's half way around the equator every year. I love my car. My drivers seat ranks amongst the most comfortable places on the planet. You may not love my car but, to me, it's like having a jet propelled living room that takes me wherever I want to go with controls to hand for every comfort.

EXCEPT.....This week. Those who have followed my heroic efforts to give up smoking will know that, two or three weeks ago, there was an issue with my breaks. After 36000 miles the back ones needed replaced. But the garage couldn't settle for that. Nope. They told me that my discs also needed replaced. (Did I mention that I have no mechanical knowledge whatsoever?) Imagine how good I felt as i told them confidently to just replace the pads and let me worry about the discs. Imagine also, if you will, how stupid I felt last weekend driving my poor car home having turned some three week old breaks to dust and needing yet another repair. Yep. For once it would appear that the garage weren't lying although, in my defence, it was a caliper (only a vague idea how this all works) that had seized that killed my lovely new breaks. For four days I had no car and relied on colleagues for transport.

How the hell did I get to 36 without ever learning to drive? Thing is it's only now that I look back that I realise how much effort I put in to not learning. It's just like smoking. I coped so well as a smoker and put so much effort in to defending smoking that I never considered what it would be like to just, not smoke. So now this blog is going to have to go further than just a 'Not Smoking' blog. As a 'not smoking' or 'Champix' blog I've had readers from all over the world. I'm hoping that if I broaden the horizons of this blog then I can appeal to even more readers. I'm also hoping that those who have followed the non smoking might continue to follow. It's always nice to feel that there are friends around the world. You know what they say...A problem shared is...... keeping lots of people awake at night.

Stay Hooked...

T

Day 107

Hey folks

So I've gone for apple just as Zoe has gone for HTC. Maybe now that we've both stopped smoking we can make a career as phone critics. Now that I'm getting more used to the apple I reckon I could put up a pretty good fight but as an HTC user I know that Zoe would have some pretty good comebacks.

As far as the world of non smoking goes...

Nothing much to report this week folks. The project that was annoying me is officially over. As part of that I had to train a group of folk I know. That's never good as other trainers are the most pig ignorant bunch you'll ever meet. However they are now done and I hopefully wont find myself in that position again anytime soon. The fact that I got through the last eight weeks or so without smoking means that I can confidently predict that I'll never smoke again because, if I can resist against that provocation I can resist against anything.

A few weeks ago I talked about getting ripped off. I mentioned that my car needed breaks and that everyone wanted to charge way over the odds or do work that I didn't need. Well now it's me that has to look stupid as, the garage that did the breaks said the the discs needed done as well, turns out they weren't lying and now I've got to put my car in again. I'll have to pay for yet more breaks and a new set of discs. Bummer. Wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't felt so clever about telling them just to leave the discs.

Well I genuinely haven't much to add tonight so I'll sign off and update during the week. Cheers folks

T

Would you Adam & Eve it-I've taken the Apple

For the international readers, 'Adam and Eve it' is what's known as Cockney rhyming slang for 'Believe it', i.e. 'Would you believe it-I've taken the Apple'. Phew glad that's out of the way. Here in the UK we have some funny customs that seem normal till you try to explain them.

Anyway what the hell am I on about? Well I'm not on about smoking because I don't do that now. What I am on about is mobile phones. Yep some folk are quite happy with phones that can make phone calls and possibly send and receive texts. Add on a camera and it's enough to make some folk faint.

Me!!! Well I always wanted more. I bought a PC when they were expensive and no-one could understand what you would do with it. I had a calculator in Primary school. That was long enough ago that most of the other kids parents didn't have one and hadn't seen one. Lucky this isn't a dating site because I don't think I'm really selling myself here. The point is I always wanted gadgets. I didn't necessarily know what they did or why but I wanted them. When I was watching space 1999 I wasn't enthralled by the whole 'other worldliness of it all'. I wanted to know what the machine with all the lights and dials did. I would have bought a toaster if it had a graphic equaliser or decent digital display. So when it came to phones I always had the cutting edge one.

I fell for the ultra mobiles hook line and sinker. I even stuck with it and learned how to text using a stylus and a version of my own hand writing. Even the true geeks gave up on that but I didn't. BUT, I never got the whole Apple vibe. My samsung MP3 player had a 20gb hard drive before your computer had a 20gb hard drive. What's more I could download what I wanted and not be stuck with Itunes. My computer could sync with anything and if I wanted software (not from shops if you know what I mean) I only had to persevere and I'd get it. I once boasted that 'the only legal piece of software on my pc was the software I used to download illegal software'.

But now I've given in. My HTC was a damned fine phone in millions of ways and I actually wanted it to be better than an I phone. I wanted windows mobile to out do apple. The phone was capable of it. I even think windows might have won but then android and symbian make the non Ipod market to diluted so developers can't concentrate on one thing. So now I have an apple Iphone.

If you get one, be prepared. This doesn't work straight out of the box. You NEED to have Itunes on your PC and an Istore account (with your bank details loaded) or you can't even switch it on (you could but there'd be no point). Remind yourself how to 'Pair' your wifi with your broadband because you'll want to do that. Figure out how to copy all your contacts because you need a new Sim card. Make sure you have a free usb port on your pc because they don't like extension cables or external USB ports. I took a morning off to wait for the delivery. Then I ended up getting it from the depot the night before. It took all that night and my morning off to get the damn thing up to speed.

That said...It's pretty bloody good once you get it figured out. Oh and there are some naughty people who've cracked a way of installing stuff without going through Itunes. I could grow to like this.

I wonder if there's an app that could stop you smoking?

Speak later

T

Day 100

Yep you read it correctly....100 a century. 100 days ago I decided to start a blog about quitting smoking. At the time it was by no means certain that the blog would actually involve my quitting smoking. It was more about what would happen if a committed smoker did an experiment with Champix.

85 days ago I actually went for the first full day in at least ten years without a single cigarette. 9 days later on 24/02/10 I caved and smoked a cig. It's now more than 60 days since I smoked. I did not smoke at all during March or April and am now half way through May. It looks like I'll never smoke again.

So what's it like? Well Champix is supposed to make you not want to smoke and to find it sickening when you do. That didn't work for me. I didn't stop enjoying smoking and I actually found it pretty hard to quit. Anyone that thinks quitting with Champix is easy is kidding themselves in my book although, since starting this site, I have found people who thought it was easy.

Thirty odd years of smoking did not and have not dissapeared over night. In the early days it's actually hard to describe how painful it was to not smoke. Even now it rears it's head when I least expect it. That said I actually quit Champix after just six weeks and just carried on not smoking.

So what's stopping me? Giving up was shit and I really don't want to have to do it again. Not coughing till I get a headache or feel faint of a morning is pretty good too. Loads of folk say their skin gets better but I'm afraid mine looks worse and has done from the minute I stopped. I keep thinking it will get better but so far it hasn't. I also haven't felt the need to join a gym or take up jogging although last week I was out with the dog a couple of times which was quite nice. Will I live forever? Doubt it. Maybe I wont die of smoking though.

So now I'm cutting down on the drink too. Last week and this week I've pretty much cut out drinking on the school nights though I'm as bad as ever at the weekends. If I keep it up I could end up even healthier. To be honest cutting down the drink is more about money than health but it's got to be worthwhile.

The course that pissed me off so much last week is out of the way. Not my finest moment but good enough. I've got the same again with some of my colleagues this week and then that's gone forever. Good riddance.

This week I've also caved in and ordered an iPhone. Being a total geek I had tried to avoid the iPhone thing. Three or four years ago I got a Sony with handwriting recognition and satnav. It was almost a PC. Two years ago I got an HTC with windows mobile and a working version of office. It was a PC. I kept saying to iPhone users how everything they could do I could also do. Thing is it's getting to the stage where I'm trying pretty hard to keep up. That is, to keep up with what the average iPhone user is doing. The clever iPhone users are doing so much more. So now folks....I'm going to be a clever iPhone user and show everyone what can be done.

It's worth mentioning before I finish.... Zoe who I link to is still stopped smoking but, like myself, has stopped taking Champix way before time. Poet who I also link to is also now comfortably in to her second smoke free week and is beginning to find it easier. Stopping smoking is possible folks.

Speak again during the week
T

48 hours

In the next 48 hours the British Public will elect their prime minister. It's very uncertain who will win it this time. Given that we are in a recession that everyone is feeling the pain from a lot of people think that we should keep the established Prime Minister and not risk a new policy whilst others blame precisely that policy for the state that we are in. It is even possible that we could end up with some sort of power sharing agreement. For those who are not in the UK it could mean getting used to a new leader or leaders on the world stage. It's frustrating but it will be over by Friday.

The next 48 hours are also pretty tense for my own little world. The project that I have been on for the last 1.5 months comes to an end. To make a quote in the fashion of one of the more well remembered British Prime Ministers 'Never has any individual wasted so much time on training so few people on such a simple event'. Yet there you have it. Potentially my crowning glory, the project that may define my year has actually, in a lot of ways, seemed completely frustrating and pointless. At another deeper and more political level the project will actually have a major impact and sets up standards for a potentially new way of working on all projects for the foreseeable future. But at the moment the whole thing just frustrates me.

When faced with frustration I'm tempted to think that smoking would somehow make everything better. It wouldn't. It would just give me time to reflect properly on how frustrated I was. It would add further frustrations in to the mix as I would be thinking about smoking and getting frustrated about that when I should be thinking about what I'm going to do. Nope. Since I can't have a smoke I'm going to take a different approach. The next 48 hours are going to be fantastic. I'll be fantastic and hopefully so will the outcome of the election. On a personal level my prospects will improve as a result of my work and on a political level we'll hopefully elect the person who will be the one to lead the country out of recession. It's all good in the hood.

Or is it?......

Stay hooked

Day 92: The dark days are over

At 9pm tonight I was looking out the window and it was still daylight.

Up until 2008 we always lived in flats. Big nice comfortable flats but flats. Places where it's hard to park your car and people argue about whos turn it is to do what. In the winter of 08 we moved to a house. Don't get too excited we didn't win the lottery or anything but with the worlds banks in crisis we did punch a bit above our weight and moved to a semi-detached house with garden space and parking space etc. Last year was all about making said house a home and was a bit like hard work. This year we get to see the fruits of some of that work. Our garden that, as recently as Easter, was covered in snow is now a spring wonderland. Tulips, daffodils and loads of other yellows and reds and blues. Add a bit of sunshine and it's hard not to be happy.

Yep, I'm hell of a glad I stopped smoking when I did. It somehow seemed easier to cope with feeling like shit when the weather and the daylight and everything else were also like shit.

It's the first of May. That means that there have now been two complete months this year where I didn't smoke. Two and half if you count that I started stopping in February. Do I miss it? Well certainly not the way I missed it when I stopped. The way Poet and Kath miss it now. I wouldn't wish that on anyone and guys it will get easier. Nope I miss smoking a bit. Like Zoe said on her blog I sometimes go several hours and then notice that I haven't even had a pang. I think I miss smoking because I really wanted to smoke. Yep, I liked the smelly stuff. So, if no-one was looking and no-one would ever know, would I go back to it? No. I find it hard to believe myself but here's the thing:

I like not coughing
I like that I can get out of the house faster in the morning
I like that I don't need five minutes before I do anything
I like not being short of breath
I like being able to drink a whole pint at the bar (two or three if I want)
I like that no-one can imagine how I managed to quit. They think it's some sort of magic

The office I've been working in is in the middle of bloody no-where. As a result without cigs as an excuse there's very little reason to leave the building. At first that depressed me a bit but now I just go out and walk to end of the car park and back. It's something that all smokers understand. You need to get out every so often.

Now that I think I can pretty safely count myself as a non smoking success I'm beginning to wonder how to develop this blog into something else. I've quite enjoyed blogging.

I plugged in a piece of software called google analytics on 03/04 because I thought it would be interesting. Well I absolutely wasn't wrong. I have always had a counter at the bottom of the page but it only measures each unique IP address that visits and nothing else. Analytics does so much more. Analytics tells me that 456 visitors hit on 1662 pages in a month. Someone from Japan read 19 pages in one visit whilst there is at least one regular visitor from Australia, two from the states and several from Canada. That's in addition to those who have actually set themselves up to follow the site.

With that sort of reach on the world I'd like to carry on blogging. Any ideas for a new blog welcome....

T