21 August 2006

I know I have been moaning a lot recently, so I’ll try to include at least one diary entry without complaining about Jamaica. Easily done; I just won’t mention it.

I am pre-occupied. Today is Day 1 of me no longer smoking. I now fully understand the Tammy Wynette song “One Day at a Time” because Sweet Jesus, the rest of my life is looking like an eternity if I can’t have a cigarette.
I am using nicotine patches and they appear to be working insofar as I have not really craved a cig, but the waves of nausea and flashes of blinding headaches are making me re-consider. After all, the constant breathlessness and the ever-present dull ache in my left arm weren’t so bad! My big problem is boredom. I don’t know what to do with myself when I take a moment away from my work. Inevitably this means drinking yet another cup of coffee and now I find I am totally wired and unable to concentrate for longer than twenty seconds at a stretch. Oh how I long for the carefree immortality of my youth.
The Little Madam took her first tentative steps toward secondary school today. It was fairly anti-climactic though there was much excitement at seeing her name atop her new locker. Two hours in, and she was beginning to bemoan the obnoxious, petty and annoying yanks. It seems she has learnt well at the feet of the master moaner.