Day One Hundred and Five

And here then without further ado is that piece I was talking about in the last blog…

Day One Hundred

Whoo, triple figures, and I’ve still not smoked a fag. Well, I gave up 13 days in so that makes my actual abstinence time nearly three months. I’ve given up the Champix several times and started taking it again sporadically when I’ve been eating too much or I’ve had a craving or I’ve been in Paris. These are all psychological I’m certain, and once this protracted course is finished I expect that’ll be it with those pesky little tablets (or I’ll run off to Godbur or whatever he’s called and get some more). The main thing is I’m not smoking and aside from roughly one craving a day I’m coping (and my health has improved a lot).

So I went to Spain and *toured around, mostly the South, and a marvellous time was had by all. I made many new friends including musician and ace driver Sabino. Sabino is an Italian Belgian (his parents are Italian though he’s lived in Liege all his life). He’s a talented and funny man and he smokes 30 a day. That’s right, he’s a lucky guy! Only when he was smoking my jealousy soon turned to sadness – this is what happens when you’re a reformed smoker – you see the other side and say really annoying things like that which I have just said.

Sabino about to smoke a fag

Given that I’m an antisocial git when I’m in London, Sabino is the first smoker I’ve really come into contact with who I’ve had to be regularly around (I’ve made it sound like an imposition – it was far from that – I’m just saying you get to know people on a week’s tour). Only seeing someone spark up at every possible opportunity, punctuating life’s little pauses with nicotine, didn’t seem like much of a life to me, and I’m glad to be free from that (alcoholics call it a daily reprieve and I’m happy to apply that to smoking as well). Sabino gave up for five years before, then he had a little toot on a cigar, and from that moment he knew he was hooked again. I must email him to ask how he’s doing – he was hoping to quit when he got back to Belgium.

So anyway, life is great if you want the truth. I just need a job for a few months to raise some cash as I’m moving to Paris with my girlfriend. A new blog maybe in order…

*A full account of the Benjamin Schoos tour will be available at The Quietus soon. I will post it up here when it’s live.