14 th March.

14/03/2007
Day Eight.
9:00 AM
Went to bed last night around midnight, so have had a good session of sleep.
Have noticed since I started taking the Zyban I’ve been restricted to a “normal” amount of sleep, have been rising earlier, feeling satisfied and refreshed.
As forecast, today is sunny and pleasant.
I’ve taken the tablet with my first cuppa.
I sit now, two rollies down and only two cigarette papers left so have decided that after I smoke them I’ll quit.
I’m definitely not “enjoying” what I’m smoking, they taste awful and each draw upsets my stomach.
I emptied the tab ends from yesterday and noticed they were all of a length not previously seen in the ashtray; I usually smoke down to the filter but these had been stubbed out well before that.
I feel different today, am in a “buoyant” mood, am feeling ready to quit and ready to get stuck into household chores.
Smokes are causing stomach upset and acid, enough to be unpleasant.
My doctor, who I will be seeing late afternoon said he hoped I would be stopped by today so it is as good a day as any to quit.
I will take care later to remove all debris, i.e. pouches of tab ends and also remove same from ashtray in car; all temptation to be assigned to dustbin.
I roll what should be the penultimate smoke up.

Been a funny old week! I perhaps should have stopped smoking when I felt so bad on Sunday morning, surely that was the tablets kicking in.
I am loath to read the mail I’ve just collected, lest I waste the rollie smoking away in my left hand!
I am only taking small draws and hardly inhaling at all.
I take a draw and acid stings my throat, another draw and I have to simply blow it out, am unable to take it back.
I stub it out.
One left to go.
I pause to read the relevant part of my mail; the majority being promotional material.

I sit and think about smoking, I like a smoke with first cuppa, with a pint, after a meal, after sex, after completing a task and one while taking a dump.
I decided the last rollie should be smoked while I sit on the porcelain and prepare it for same.
I only hope the curry concoction is ready to make an exit without too much fuss!
I pack as much baccy as is possible into the paper and place the finished article behind my ear in readiness.
I think back to the weeks of me making large, fat rollies in an attempt to finish off the half ounce pack as soon as humanly possible.
I do have a small amount of tobacco left in the pouch, perhaps enough for six cigarettes, I don’t know what will happen to that yet.
I light up, draw deeply, my mind accepting the fact that this should be the last smoke, possibly for ever.
I wish that to become true, I really do!
This last week’s work uploading the months of pages onto the website has allowed me to go over the successes and failures of the last 8 months.
Eight months I’ve been trying to stop,
This time will have to be a concerted effort to succeed.
The radio station is playing an old favourite of mine,” happy days” sung by a Negro choir,
I sincerely hope happier days are to come!
Time for a shit, fresh cuppa and fresh start.
Bloody painful experience! If it hadn’t been for the smoke making me retch I’d never have managed,
Took that long the steam from the kettle set the fire alarm off, the thermostat on the kettle is faulty and a couple of times a day refuses to cut out when it should.
I sit now, sphincter slowly relaxing after passing what felt like a roll of barbed wire.
God it was painful. I’ll remember this day that’s for sure.
Stomach relaxes and I begin to feel better.
This should be the beginning of the rest of my life, hopefully a more healthy and enjoyable period of time.

14/03/2007 10:00 a.m.
I become an ex-smoker. (hopefully).

I am now relying upon the power of the tablets to keep me off cigs for long enough to allow the body to come to terms with doing without nicotine, will be a shock after 35 years।
HD TV not for the masses warn broadcasters.
Britain's television viewers could be forced to pay for satellite or cable services if they want to watch high-definition television.
The warning from broadcasting industry leaders comes as the Government announced plans to sell off part of the broadcast spectrum that is currently used for analogue TV programmes when these transmissions end in 2012 .
Broadcasters are concerned that if this spectrum is be auctioned off, terrestrial public service broadcasters – including the BBC and Channel 4 – would not be able to afford to bid for it. This would leave them without the capacity to transmit programmes in high definition (HD).
Good job I bought my HD Plasma to be used primarily as a monitor.
Very few programmes would be made available in HD free of charge and viewers who get digital TV via Freeview set-top boxes would have to subscribe to satellite or cable services, which are not bound by terrestrial spectrum constraints.
At a digital TV conference in London this month, senior figures from Channel 4, Sony, Dixons and the BBC attacked the Government's plans.
“People need to know what is going to happen to them when it comes to the switchover so they can begin to prepare in advance.”
Ofcom is warning viewers could suffer temporary degradation or even total loss of TV services during the national switchover to digital broadcast.
As analogue signals are turned off and people around the UK switch to digital, the regulatory body said some antennas will need to be removed while new digital replacements are built. This, it said, “may affect the coverage of existing digital terrestrial television (DTT) and analogue services”.
In a further twist, people have also been warned they may have to shell out to ensure they have digital coverage in cases of such disruption।
Went to doctors to get new Zyban prescription. We chatted about how I’d been the last week, he again voiced his fears at giving me the drug.
He is still worried it may bring on depression. I told him I was still smoking but had reached the bottom of the pouch and was therforeready to stop.
He agreed and told me the rest of the tablets would be double the dose of the first week: I was to take two per day.
I left, collected the tablets from the chemist and went in search of instant food.
Being tea time most of the shops were closed but I managed to get a slice and a sausage roll from Gregg’s and bought a fish cake from the chippy as I passed.
I returned to the car and ate the fish cake, aware of the cars cruising behind me trying to find a parking space.
There is a rumour that outsiders bring their cars to the village and then travel in a single car to the town, returning to their individual cars some time later.
I saved the purchases from Greg’s to eat later when I arrived at the club.
Four customers in the club so sat on table with majority of three.
Must have been hungry because eats went down with first glass of lager, had another lager and a couple of smokes; in the back of my head was thvoice saying
“You aren’t supposed to drink with these tablets!”,
I was still listening to the voice later as I ulled up outside the flat, raced cross the grass, door open, up the stairs and just made it to the bathroom before I threw up.
Obviously tablets and alcohol don’t mix.
But I felt better for it, I sat and watched TV for a while, took the second Zyban of the day at eight,( I decided not to wait for tomorrow to begin the double dose).
By nine I was bored with the entertainment on offer but couldn’t be bothered to search the Net for an alternative so had an earlly night. 9 P.M!