The 85th Day

The flat smells nice. Almost 3 months done.

He has been confirmed by NHS as "officially a non-smoker". We went to our GP and a carbon monoxide breath test was done. Quick test with a quick result.

It was great to hear. Of course this was nothing new, but still it was amazing to hear from an NHS employee. It just was.

HURRAY!!!

Am so proud of S.

The 70th Day

There are good days and there are bad. Yesterday was a very good day. We went to the butterfly exhibition at the Natural History Museum.

If you have time, go, visit!!! It's great for kids and adults. Some are very friendly and will peacefully settle down on your shoulder or hand. Some will watch you from a distance.

I am talking about the butterflies.

And you can see them come to life! Amazing.

The 56. Day

After a few gloomy weeks something good had to happen. Some good moments were needed. This was helped by having D., B. and B. stay over our place for the Easter holidays.

And...

This was a day of celebration. 8 weeks done. That is two months or 56 days. Actually, that is exactly 80640 minutes. That, my friends, is quite an achievement.

To celebrate I had a surprise for S. He didn!t know where he was going, what he was doing that afternoon. I bought the tickets in October, but could only reserve actual places a few weeks before, as this place just opened in February.

Where were we? Do you want to know?

It was this place.

Fresh, new, touristic landmark, London, UK. At our very own London Bridge.

It was fun. Going up 33 floors with one elevator, then up to the 69th with another. Then stairs to the 72. floor. Amazing view. We spent a few hours there, looking down, talking about trains and stations, where our flat could be located, what we could see and couldn't, where this building or that is. It was fun.

And a great way to celebrate those 80640 minutes. Well done, sir. I am very proud of you.

The 40th Day

Was a really awful day. My Mom was staying with us. S. and her had a very bad quarrel. Not the first, most probably not the last either.

This post is not about who was right or who was wrong. I am not even sure it is about smoking or not smoking. It is just about the bluntness I felt when it was all over. Or sadness. Both. That some things will not change. That some things are bigger than I am. That I don't want any negatives in my life. I want the positives, please. I want to work on the positives and keep as much of the negatives out as possible.

I am not even sure this is a complete blog post. It's just a few thoughts, dropped onto virtual paper.

I wasn't sure whether I should publish this or not. Without details of the argument it isn't very interesting, but some of those details are truly unimportant. It helps to talk to people, to people who are close to us, to think about what is going on. About what happened, about how we are.

I am feeling a lot of things. Emotions, all over the place. Thoughts, ideas, plans.

I need to get myself together and continue. S. has come a long way. He needs to continue on his road. And so do I.

I finally decided to publish this on the day that it happened. In order to remember. To not forget. It might sound unimportant to remember a particular date. But the truth is, I won't be able to forget it anyways.

The 39. Day

Yesterday we went to Sainsbury's briefly to buy a new box of lozenges. S. decided to go for the same type, but with less nicotine in it. Goodbye 4 mgs, hello 2 mgs!

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My Mom is in town, when she arrived straight away she said a bit congratulations to S. for quitting smoking.

She was a bit shy it at first and asked me if it's okay to talk to S. about quitting. She wasn't sure how he would react about her raising the topic. She said she is very proud of him because of this, that it is a great achievement. I said yes, please, good questions and comments are very welcome please do tell him what you think. So she did. I think it made him feel good.

Praise is very important.

It is always very important for everyone. But when you are quitting smoking, it is increasingly so.

The 38. Day

S. told me a few days ago that when he goes out to have a break at work or anywhere else to have a chat with people who smoke, he takes lozenges with him and has one or two. He tends to have the lozenges outside, so that he can still have the "I am going out to have a smoke" feeling in a way. And sometimes he has lozenges inside. Depends on his mood.

S. thinks the amount of lozenges he needs will gradually decrease. He thinks he will just naturally need less and less.

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Last night S. watched a movie on his laptop in the bedroom. He hadn't ever smoked in the bedroom, that was a rule he had established himself. I was doing a bit of cleaning in the evening and told him he could watch his movie in the bedroom. Now that he doesn't smoke, he can just go ahead and watch it in the bedroom, no problemo. That must have been a first in a long time, if not the very first time since he moved into this flat about eight years ago.

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By the way, the several helicopter crashes our living room has been experiencing these past few weeks have left a few scars... It's actually been much more funny than sad.

The 37. Day

Woops, I just realized that I forgot to say that S. solved the metal puzzle 1.5 days after receiving it...

See proof below.

My sister, I.'s reply was:

"Damn! That was fast. Well done! But we expected nothing less. Next time it will be more difficult ;)"

It's because of e-mails like this that I love I. so much.