Day 52

Hi folks

Felt a wee bit weird not updating the blog every night before bed. Truth is though there's not a lot to blog about.

It genuinely does get easier to not even think about smoking every day now although it does still hang around in the background niggling every so often. Met a guy I've known for years the other day. He offered me a cig within about two seconds of meeting me. He expected me to decline because he knows that I'd rather roll my own but was a bit surprised when my reason for not taking one was that I wasn't smoking. Shame though, turns out he's asked his doc for Champix but the doctor said something stupid like, 'there are other methods of giving up you know'. Personally I'd go to a different doc.

Even if Champix doesn't work for you you should be allowed to try it provided you aren't clinically depressed or suicidal. I think some doctors don't like prescribing it because it costs the health service a lot. Like smoking doesn't!!!! At least now I've given up people will take me seriously if I do get any sort of Chest complaint or cough. For the last 30 years every wheeze has been blamed on smoking. Now it looks like I can actually get ill if I want without having to give anything up. Yippee.

Had a shower earlier on then had a bit of a facial to start the week. As a heavy smoker I always used to try to make sure that I had a pretty thorough facial once a week. Us guys have the additional problem of scraping with a razor every day so it's important to look after our skin. So First I softened with warm soapy water, then exfoliated, then shaved and then used an after shave balm before getting into the shower. After the shower I applied a q10 moisturiser. So am I looking fresh for the start of the week? Nope I look like a spotty teenager going through puberty. I understand that depriving my body of a drug that it's depended on for thirty years was always going to have an effect but I didn't expect this.

Lots of people say the first thing they noticed after giving up was how their skin looked better. If mine gets any worse it will resemble the surface of the moon.

Anyhow, another week looms large. Suppose I better get my beauty sleep. If anything wild happens during the week I'll update you but, if not, I'll definitely update on Sunday. Alison, maybe you can start a blog about what it feels like to go cold turkey on the no-smoking blog. Lol. Hope everybody's managing OK with the no smoking.

Speak soon...