robf

I've noticed that if I fart in bed and hold my girlfriends head under the duvet she gets properly motivated to get out of bed, really gives her that morning energy we strive for

And one more thing to add is about relapse I guess... I've been through a load of stressful situations over these years and I have certainly had the thought "Balls to this I'm having a smoke" But I know a smoke won't help, so you need another mechanism to deal with stress / anger / frustration. Throwing things across the room is a bit of a faux pas in an office so I usually find it's best just to go for a walk and mull it over, come up with the solution and then return to what you were doing. Probably easier said than done, I mean, it's a bit weird getting up from your desk and going for a walk... but then is it any more weird than getting up from your desk and going for a smoke? Not really, it's just that it's bizarrely a socially accepted thing to go for a smoke, but to walk away for a think is crazy talk! Anyway, not smoking is far easier than smoking.

I get it all the time, I've got exercises that I do if it flares up, the exercises work (combined with ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation). But mostly it's about pulling your hands upwards (at the wrist) and stretching the inside of your forearms. Giving your fingers a bit of a shove with your other hand really puts the stretch in, don't over do it, just make sure that they keep moving. But I would guess you'd need to have someone who knows what they're doing look at you before self medicating (even if it's just exercise)

So... I quit smoking just over 2 years ago now... I've been trying to work out what's changed in my life, I still have the same girlfriend (who incidentally is still awesome and still has a lovely bottom). I have the same job, same car, different bike (cycle), my boy is 2 years older. In my initial quit the cycling was really good, you could feel and time the improvement as you realised your lungs were working better, my cycles to work got faster, my recovery times got shorter, my recordings (which I do with a helmet cam) were quite telling with the breathing, the wheeze is gone. I'm tempted to upload a new video of me going flat out just so you can hear me heavy breathing in a very sexy way... and by sexy I mean not at all sexy... in fact it's more like I'm about to vomit... which I think could actually be pretty sexy if people like puke... but... I digress... But... The difference aside from all the kind of obvious stuff (breathing better, taste better, smell better etc.) is that I don't worry about it, I don't worry about where the next smoke is coming from, I went to Mexico recently, it was an 11 hour flight, I didn't even consider when and where I could smoke or plan out before I get on the plane, when I get off, and where and what I'm going to do. Everything is easier, no stock piling before Christmas just in case a shop isn't open, no desperately trying to 'borrow' a smoke from someone, no trying to light a cigarette with your last match and if you fail you're going to have to drive 100 metres to the shop because it's too much effort to walk. Huddling in corners or under your coat trying to light a cigarette on a windy day, huddling under a tree with your smoking buddies on a rainy day. So for all those people planning on quitting, do so, it makes your life a truck load easier. Oh and bizarrely when you pass a group of smokers, you just feel pity, not envy.

I started my smoking life in my late teens, on my 39th Birthday I decided I wanted to be a year quit by the time I'm 40, so I stopped smoking. On my 41st Birthday I was 2 years quit. I plan to be 3 years quit on my 42nd.

The upside is with a cough you're going to get the lungs pumping a little extra rubbish out so if all goes well once it's over you'll feel even better. One month in is excellent, if you're not already doing so, exercise, and do something regularly. That way you can measure the difference. Even if it's something like fast walking down a round (although you will look slightly camp doing that). But do something that pushes you a bit, get the heart rate up. You'll notice your recovery times improving. You'll also notice this with recovery from a cold. But you need your lungs working, so work them.

1 Month is good... 2 Months is better! Nice work.

That's actually a bunch of myth and legend surrounding the origins of valentines, Pagans have a good one about sacrificing a goat, soaking it's hide in it's blood and the children would whip it on crops and women for fertility. The Roman preacher marrying the troops is a classic (Roman troops weren't allowed to be married hence the secret ceremonies). There's another one about a someone being in prison too, can't remember that one... The long and short of it though is that it's all bollocks designed to make men feel guilty about not being romantic and therefore forced into buying pointless crap at inflated prices on a specific day. The solution is to pick a day that suits you as a couple, over here, February is cold wet and windy, we have our valentines day in the summer, offload the child with a willing volunteer and go for a picnic.

I married a lesbian... I didn't realise at the time... neither did she... Silver lining was we didn't procreate, got divorced, and I upgraded to a better model.

My girlfriends birthday is 14th Feb, so we originally did valentines day 6 months later on 14th August. Then our boy was born on the 17th August so that kinda scuppered that plan, so we now do valentines day in September, when we can be arsed.

So I met the bloke who invented crosswords today. I can't remember his name, it's P something T something R.

I'm usually elsewhere

Thanks guys, can't really grumble, just got back from Mexico from a 2 week vacation with the family for my Birthday, saw a wonder of the modern world, climbed a pyramid, saw a lot of lizards, held a crocodile and saw a lot of ladies bottoms. My music stuff is going well, and will likely be writing a soundtrack to a short movie, which is pretty exciting, even created a facebook page for my musical nonsense, clicky below! https://www.facebook.com/Angledsocks Aside from the world totally going to sh1te I can't grumble. I'm working on this though, just got to finish building my autonomous robot army and I'll have all that silly killing stuff sorted too.

I hit 2 years at the end of last month... Which was nice.