Happy Easter to all my reader





(thanks to davebluedevil http://www.flickr.com/photos/davebluedevil/16174922/ )

Firstly a technical point. The comments section of this blog is now open which means you can post comments without having to register. Click on comments beneath the post you want to comment on.

Yesterday I added a few more things to my ‘first time since quitting’ list.

I went down to Kingsmeadow to watch the thoroughly modern AFC Wimbledon take on the might of East Thurrock United.

( I was a bit late for the game. When I arrived at Norbiton I had a strong urge for some decent coffee instead of the dishwater and UHT cocktail served at the ground. I decided to explore the other side of the tracks knowing there was nothing on the way to Kingsmeadow. I found an Italian deli, confusingly named ‘Sud Ouest’. I saw a Gaggia by the counter and that there was only one customer so popped in hoping to get served quickly. Unfortunately the other customer wanted 200g of absolutely everything in the shop, usually tasting samples of each before deciding to buy. I eventually got my, very delicious, cappo and hoiked myself over to Kingston Road. Of all the English football supporters arriving late for their games yesterday how many I wondered had been held up at delicatessens? Guess it’s pretty normal in Italy. “Oy, Lucio, you muppet, leave the dolcelatte we’re going to miss kick-off”?)

Despite it being in the open air I found it the smokiest environment I have been in all week but I managed to out-chew Sir Alex on the terraces without too much trouble. It was a bit of a high blood pressure type of game with us clinching the, very important, three points in the dying moments of the game.

In order to get there I had another rite of passage to complete – getting a train. Trains are pretty much all non-smoking nowadays and are a major challenge for smokers. Large parts of the journey are spent contemplating the moment of arrival at your destination. The biggest frustration is the train encountering a delay between stations. The cigarette you were going to have in forty minutes time has to be postponed and you’re not quite sure how long for.

My train down to Norbiton ground to halt within a minute of leaving Waterloo and I felt the old rage and frustration before remembering that there wasn’t going to be a cigarette at the end of the journey anyway. I had plenty of gum to see me through so no need to get stressed. Great.

Then it was off to Barnes to see BYT’s Easter show.

I have strong associations of both smoking and giving up smoking during my time acting with them back in Eighties. My most successful giving up to date started with my last cigarette in the Bridge Pub in 1981 where we ended up after the show last night.

The show was really entertaining and theatres are all non-smoking so no major problems there. The pub after was fine too. Despite all these positives the day as a whole was pretty hard and I should have reminded myself of HALT: these are the temptations of Hunger, Anger, Loneliness and Tiredness. http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/cravingsandurges/a/halt.htm

I probably took on too much yesterday and found myself flagging if not actually fagging.