The Hit List

I am now on Day 14 of my new non smoking life.  Overall, I think I have been doing ok with the cravings and carrying on with life as normal. 

I purposely did not plan to stop when I had a quiet period with nothing to do and nothing stressful on the horizon.  Most say that you should plan for quiet for a period, until you wean yourself away from cigarettes.  Like with everything though, I like to do things my own way.  My life isn’t naturally quiet or stress free so I see little point in hiding away.  I prefer to deal with every situation as it comes.

My aim is that at the end of the first month, I will be craving free and I can turn my back on that part of my life completely.  The journey is different for everyone but given the progress I’ve made so far, I feel it is achievable.

Feeling strong and excited today, I thought it was time for my hit list of things I want to buy with my regained money.  Being the sensible kind, despite having previously blown £180.00 away in smoke each month, some of it will go on sensible things but the rest, is play time.

Top of the list has to be going to a Formula One race.  I have opened a new bank account, entitled “F1” and money will now be going in there every month to fund a European race next year. 

Next on the list?  A watch.  Why?  I don’t own one and haven’t for years.  Watches are one of the things that I believe you need to invest it.  There is nothing worse than having a tacky piece of plastic hanging on your wrist.  I’ve never owned a watch because I have never had the money to spend on a decent one.

I found this at the back of my wardrobe the other day.  Hideously tacky, but as a savings box it will serve it’s purpose and save my pound coins until I have enough for the watch I want.  I can take my time (haha) with this one, having previously used my mobile as a clock all these years, I am in no rush.

Number three, inevitably is shoes.  Not just a pair of shoes.  “The” shoes.  I’m not talking about buying a pair of Louboutins either.   Although I love them, me being me I would no doubt manage to scuff the heel or scrape the front.  I would be too scared to wear them. 

Instead, I have found a website called Shoes of Prey which let you design your own shoes.  I have done that and after a few months of putting some money aside, I will have the shoes I have always wanted, but have never been able to find.

Lastly, to offset in a small way some of the frivolous and self related spending, I am upping my monthly charity contribution.  If I can  now afford to buy myself all of the above, I can certainly afford to spend more than £2 a month on charity. 

So there we go.  That is my little ex smoker hit list of purchases.  Now time to put action into plan and then reality.

Taking the Leap

If you have read my blog before, you may have seen a couple of posts I did back in the beginning of January this year.  In these posts I was talking about the fact that I had decided to cut down smoking over the Christmas/New Year period and was trying to continue.

Well fast forward three and a half months and the state of play is a little different.  The cut down didn't work.  I did try and kept up with it for a couple of weeks after I had done the posts, but my heart wasn't really in it.  I found that I was getting stressed out by counting the number of cigarettes I was "allowed" each day in which turn just made me want to smoke more.

Back on my 20 a day habit again I soon realised that "cutting down" doesn't achieve anything.  What does achieve something is quitting completely.   I have been smoking since the age 14, nearly 20 years and over that period I have occasionally toyed with the idea of quitting, but have never carried it through.

The cutting down experiment had made me wonder if I could actually quit.  If I had the willpower to do it.  The added price on cigarettes was another factor.  The fact that I was spending around £180.00 a month on cigarettes was something I could no longer ignore.

So last Monday night I decided.  I would have a go and attempt to quit.  I decided "cold turkey" was the best approach for me.  I knew that it would be harder that way but I would rather speed up the process rather than dragging it out. 

Being honest now, if I was a betting person, I wouldn't have bet on myself.  I am not the best at willpower, especially with something I want.  My mum has even confessed that she didn't think I would make it.  Cheers for that!

The first two days were horrible. Climbing the walls, emotional wreck stuff.  Luckily for me, someone I talk to on Twitter told me about a book written by Allen Carr (not the comedian) called "Easy way to Stop Smoking".  I was dubious to say the least but at that point would have given anything a try.

The next day, the book arrived, was quickly read and amazingly, worked!  Now I'm not saying that you immediately stop all cravings and are feeling bright as a daisy, but damn close.  The book deals with the psychological addiction you have to cigarettes and explains everything in such a way that you don't have the need to smoke anymore.

I am now on Day 8.  I haven't smoked and after reading the book, I know I never will again.

So if you are thinking about quitting, buy the book.  He claims to have a 90% success and before reading, I was convinced that I would be in that 10% that it didn't work on.  Let's face it, you can pick up the book for less than the price of a packet of cigarettes these days so you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Safety for Gold

So, the Bahrain Grand Prix. Should F1 have gone this weekend?  No, in my opinion. 

This kind of subject is a dicey one if you don’t wish to become embroiled in a political and moral debate, which I don’t.  Commenting merely from a safety and not moral perspective, I keep seeing people mentioning the gun incident with Jenson Button in Brazil and the situation currently in Bahrain as if they are comparable.

There is no comparison.  Although (we hope and pray) that nothing will happen to any of the teams, drivers and reporters this weekend, there is a possibility that it could happen.  Protests, rioting, petrol bombs and tear gas on the streets does not scream “safe” to me.  What happened with Jenson could have happened at any number of the places on the race calendar.

Safety cannot be guaranteed.  Bernie may well have offered to escort Force India back from the track “without an escort” but anyone can see that this is a merely for publicity.  He has to save face now.

The FIA have made the decision and now the teams have to live with it.  The drivers have been asked to comment with their opinion and the answers vary depending it seems on how well versed at PR they are.

Sebastian Vettel however, just gave me another reason to hate him.

"I heard about the Force India issue," "I think generally being in the paddock it seems to be no problem. Surely outside the paddock there is a risk, but there is a risk everywhere we go.

"You imagine when we go to Brazil it is not the place you want to be, depending on the area you are in. It is not a big problem and I am happy once we start testing tomorrow because then we worry about stuff that really matters - tyre temperatures, and cars."

After two years of having the best car on the track and having the adoration of Red Bull, it seems Mr Vettel truly believes that the world revolves around him.  Yes Sebastian, don’t worry about the people getting hurt outside the track, you just concentrate what really matters……… You.