I've set Tuesday, 26 August 2008 as the day that I give up smoking once and for all.
This is not a wholly arbitrary date. It's the day that P has her first trimester scan to check-up on the progress of little S. And at week 14, we're as confident as we can be that all is going well in wombland.
P has already paid a visit to a midwife and has been subject to much medical prodding and poking and all is at it should be.
So why set a date? Why not just quit now?
Well a pedantic creature of habit where all things are ideally diarized long in advance, it seems the best way for me to prepare for the loss of an old, if dangerous, odious and undesirable 'friend'.
Not just that, but for the last two months, P -- avec Roo -- has been a paragon of virtue.
No smoking, no drinking, no fun.
Heck, if she can just go 'cold turkey' at the flick of a switch, or rather a pee on a chemical stick, then so can I.
Alex A too has kicked the fags into touch and replaced his addiction to the weed with an obsessive half marathon habit.
..And of course, it's illegal to smoke anywhere nowadays, so why would you?
So here I am a dinosaur. A throwback. A social outcast. Last man, ehem, smoking, if you like.
But my motives are far more fundamentally founded. It's a very very unhealthy thing to do. And becoming a Pa in my (very ;-) early forties, I'm already going to be nearing retirement when junior departs for university or popstardom, or whatever.. So the very least I can / should do, is make every effort to stay alive for as long as possible.
So while I can, I'm caning it for the next week and a half. I'll either keel over with nicotine poisoning (defeating the point of it all), or even better, become thoroughly sick of the evil things. Either way, Tuesday, 26th is D-Day.
While I'm looking forward to a life sans wheezing and with a renewed ability to smell and taste, for now at least, you'll find me behind the proverbial bike shed ..for a few more days yet.
1 comment:
I'm here geezer and utterly rootin' for you, naturally!
I smoked because it's big and clever as you well know. Everyone CRAPS ON about the health, wealth and damned vi-tal-i-teee of packing up, but these are big and clever reasons too:
1. Beer tastes better and you can drink more of it.
2. Time: more of it in the long run and sooooo much more right from the moment you pack up. Viz: 15 x 8 mins = 2 bleedin' hours a day! Makes my 3 or 4 hours each week for running look much less indulgent. Oh, and 2 hours a day equals one televised footie match - how very convenient :-)
3. Screw the cost, let's get political. I still refuse to give Rupert Murdoch any money directly but was funding the likes of BAT, Gallaher, Ligget and Myers, PM et al all those years! That's nuts.
4. That wee 'un will NEVER KNOW you as a smoker....what a waaaaay cool dad.
5. OK, I'll touch on health but fro a different angle: at the turn of the year my resting heart was 65 bpm....not bad, not bad...but It's 51 now. Jeez, wake me up, I'm a lizard.
There's loads more, but it's early (I'm excited about the weekend,forthcoming holiday, maybe breaking 1:39 tomorrow....)and these are the first off-beat benefits of quitting I can think of...next instalment will cover TEETH, GUMS and IMPROVED CIRCULATION BLOODFLOW...
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