The Dangers of Cake

So it is TWO YEARS WITHOUT SMOKING.....HIP HIP HOORAY

What's it been like? Do I still miss it?

Relatively painless thanks to 1)pressure from R 2)inspiring efforts from AB and others 3)I forgot was three was.

I have managed to get through a new job (to be honest the new job helped me adjust - my routine was less set in its ways) and, amazingly, I have got through the stress of buying and moving into a new house. This only leaves divorce as a true testing ground of how successful my change-around has been. R take note ;-)

In a respiratory way I do feel better but my sedantry lifestyle and extensive self-pampering have puffed me up considerably. Its not only my habits that have been transformed.

My quitometer has gone a bit mad as I had been warned it would. It has now started deducting money saved - I have only saved £200 now instead of the £1,000 odd I had reached last year.

Perhaps it is more realistic than I thought. Maybe it will also start stating that my life expectancy is going down rather than up. Even if that is the case I think I still prefer the feeling that I am less chained down to my addictions.

R had an anniversary of a more normal kind - her anniversaire in fact. At one point we found ourselves in the garden (yard more accurately) of the Greenwich Union. It was a bit drizzly but it was a well covered. There had been a couple there but they moved back inside as soon as we turned up. I saw an ashtray and suddenly remembered that gardens are where smokers are supposed to go when visiting pubs. Where were they all? At home I guess or walking around the street swigging cans. Perhaps they've all given up.

Playing with my Asus Eeepc I have looked into the world of ebooks a bit. There is a good reader bundled that handles a few common Ebook formats the sort you can get at the Gutenberg Project and Memoware. I downloaded a copy of Vanishing England written way back ages ago and it was lamenting the passing of the traditional boozer too. The older you get the more lamenting you do. Smoking around the fire was the only tobacco reference he made. Most of the desriptions centred around food. Pubs packed to the seams with everyone caning cigarettes isn't the way it always was anyway.

I am about to walk from the Juice Bar to the Sussex in Baylis Road - it's trying to do food a bit more, "Proper Pie 'n Mash" in fact with tables decked out in the fashion of a pie and mash shop. I hope its successful because I like the landlord. I am surprised they're feeling the pinch as they have a lot of outside seating. So food marches back to it's central position in the life of our taverns and my waistline really doesn't stand a chance.

smoking smoking ban london pubs