Pink at the Oddessy Belfast

Photos by J Mc Cartney.

Champix My Secret Weapon in Stopping Smoking.

I am using the tablets Champix as an aid to help me stop smoking (I am sure all you smokers have heard of them). They work extremely well in dampening the cravings. They are not nicotine replacement they work by affecting the chemistry in your brain. Some people believe they cause depression. However it is more believable (to me) that if you feel depression or low it is probably the result of not getting your nicotine kick.

I am in the early days of 'giving up' but what about after the course is over? I know people who have used this tablet successfully for three or six months but it seems they are no time off the tablets and they start having the odd cigarette or the odd packet!

Stopping Smoking

I stopped smoking about two weeks ago though I must admit I do not feel great. My back is sore my chest is sore and my side is sore, probably a chest infection and totally unrelated to my new non smoking me but I can't help relating all these aches and pains to my lack of my daily dose of nicotine.

I thought when I stopped smoking I would feel healthy (run up and down streets healthy)! Happy smug and full of self righteousness. Instead I feel unhealthier, uncertain! unhappy (Only because I am not feeling smug or self righteous)!

I don't want to be a smoker but miss those certain routines that spiked through my day....Coffee at the computer....or sitting outside the coffee shop having a cigarette.

Being a smoker is an antisocial behavior in today's health conscious world, and I like most smokers admit to preferring to have to step outside for my smoke(most of the time) restaurants and public places are much more pleasant without stale smoke drifting in the air. However, this does not stop us enjoying our cigs should it be five, ten or forty a day.

As I said I stopped smoking about two weeks ago but I still think of myself as a smoker and feel bereft and in a state of grief at the thought of never having a cigarette. I am not getting many cravings though I think my problems with giving up cigarettes are psychological affecting my moods. Hope that sorts itself out soon.

Shopwiki.com window shopping without sore toes

As some of you know I have a severely disabled child, with any member of your family disabled you have the usual problems, and then some more.

My son is very destructive so furniture does not tend to last very long and sometimes even a few of the more imaginative solutions I come up with end up being off little use. (For example instead of breakable vases we use washed out 2 litre coke bottles cut just as the neck widens for flowers). This idea stops breakage but it does not stop him throwing them if he managed to get near them. His behaviors are the problems that we deal with and try to improve for all our well being but the severity of his disability sometimes leaves us exhausted and thinking we’d be better off living in a padded cell with absolutely no furniture.

I may think that but it does not stop me shopping and I came across shopwiki.com. This is an interesting and absorbing site. It has 225,017,596 products from every store on its directory so there is a good chance that you’ll find what you are looking for here. Or maybe even find stuff that you are not looking for!

I was checking out the tumbledryers (not that I need one) in the housewares, homes and maintenance section of the site and discovered that they include a buyers guide which I think is a good idea. The directory of shopwiki.com lists just about everything that you’d be interested in buying online and gives you links to interesting shops. It also has a best sellers list (if you don’t trust your own judgement).

I went online today to check out the price of dining room tables so far I have checked out humidifiers, organisers, floor cleaners and can crushers, haven’t quite gotten around to tables! There is time enough for that My son has broken three dining tables in the past six months so I am in no rush to replace them. But, I have noticed that shopwiki.com has in its directory a gifts section and an accessories section. I think its time I bought a handbag!