Well....here we are a month later and Ms Monkey is still smoke free! Believe me when I say that nobody is as shocked as I have been. The last time I gave up I found myself crawling up the walls after a couple of days...and ready to disembowel my children after a week...but this time it has been easy...
My guess is that this is all down to my E-ciggie....my poor, long suffering smoking councillor has admitted defeat...bless his cotton socks. I have cracked it without the help of the NHS....Actually that is probably not a fair assessment...My counsellor's non-failing support and refusal to give me a guilt trip over my frequent lapses over the past year has been invaluable.
I am still puffing away on my e-ciggie and will no doubt continue to do so for a good while, although I shall be cutting down on the nicotine content of my e-liquid from now until chrimbo...but I am happy to do so. My problem with giving up has always been the fact that I enjoy smoking...the addiction to nicotine is more of an afterthought. Reducing my nicotine intake using the e-ciggie means that I can now crack that addiction, whilst still being able to smoke something that isn't filling my lungs with tar....although I really must get out of the habit of absent mindedly puffing away on it while pottering around the Co-op....yes, I did catch myself doing that at the weekend and had to discretely blow out the vapour when nobody was looking....luckily vapour doesn't smell.
I still find the smell of real ciggies disgusting and have to make an effort not to screw up my face when passing the 'stinking hoard' who puff away outside our local merchants...as almost all of my friends smoke, this will cause some amusement when they come to visit. To this end I have purchased a brolly, so that they can go and stand in my garden (I shall wave through the window at them).
The reason that I gave up was to save me money, and I am certainly doing that. The cost of e-liquid is stupidly cheap in comparison to ciggies and I estimate the cost to be about £2-3 per week. I therefore decided that I deserved a treat and so I have added to my collection of kitties...yes, I said kitties.
I am a cat person, although I do have a mutt, and as I have previously stated I am only one more bad relationship away from a dozen cats. However, I have, until recently, limited myself to four. but after a couple of glasses of wine a fortnight ago; a friends plea for help in re-homing some little balls of fluff on Facebook, caught my eye. The following day I was off to Prussia Cove to look at these paragons of cuteness, having already decided in my mind that I would definitely have one. I have always wanted a tabby cat. Many years ago, I had a wonderful tortoiseshell tabby, who was my constant companion. She sadly went missing one day and I never found a trace of her...since then, I have always wanted another tabby but have generally ended up with whatever came my way. Tyson is sort of Tabby, but his coat is a very smokey grey with a white undercoat...and so, I ended up with two of the little darlings! They are twins and extremely difficult to tell apart with a quick glance. Their names are Isabel and Sebastian....about as gothic as I could get away with!
 |
Gratuitous cute kitten shot.
|
They are utterly adorable, friendly and playful...although they are destroying my beloved Queen of the Night plant...and the rest of the living room. They have been spending their days exploring the house and by night curled up on my lap. And if that's not a worthwhile reward for giving up smoking then I don't know what is!!!
 |
| We specialise in adorable... |
