GIMME: Ciggies, snouts, rollies, straights, baccy, the EVIL weed, tabs, cancer sticks, gaspers - even a prison fag will do - Gimme.

Ironically, the better I feel each day, the more I say to myself ...

"Fuck me, I could do with a snout!"

Breathe, one two three
Exhale, one two three
Inhale, one two three ...

Ah, ciggies. That ol' chestnut ...

As Prof Mark Williams in his guided 10 minute sitting meditation might say, The mind will wander, because that's what minds do ...Observe the mind, and where it has gone ... Words to that effect.

So Jon Kabatt-Zinn and Mark Williams encourage me to breathe and observe where my mind has gone?

Beats me. My mind goes seriously AWOL half the time ...



p.s. NHS SmokeFree tracker informs me it has been 26 days and nearly 12 hours of no smoking. Money saved = £97.44. I think this app is very out of date. I think it is quoting cigarette prices from the last millennium. If I had an app that calculated Indian cigarette prices, I would've saved myself about 675 rupees. That's £8.44.

p.p.s. Do you honestly think I'm going to put a cigarette in my gob? Don't be silly. I'd love to  of course, but I think this bout of viral infections since around 10 February, 10 days before I left for India ... um, I have a funny suspicion that my body may be trying to tell me sumfink.

p.p.p.s. My theory is. If you don't learn a lesson the first time round, Life will throw it in your face again and again until you decide to take on board the message. It may start with a gentle slapping of the wrist. Then it will get louder and harder until the blow feels like Amir Khan punching you in the left tit, then a knock-out blow to the right temple. So quick you have no flippin' idea where it came from. Hence the pneumonia in India. Am I being too hard on myself? WTH, who knows? Sounds good to me for now ...

p.p.p.s. The same is true of relationships, matters of the heart.