Today is National No Smoking Day which means that it is now 17 years and one day since I had a cigarette. I think I've managed to kick the addiction now!One of the best things I ever did. And I have the Offspring and my books to thank for it.
The Offspring because at the age of 11 he told everyone that 'My Mum isn't going to smoke tomorrow' and he made me promise I wouldn't - and I just couldn't have coped with the shame if he'd come home and I'd had to tell him I'd failed him.
And my books? Well, I had just moved into this house. I had an office all to myself instead of working in the spare bedroom. I had bookshelves on which all my books were lined up, together with the growing number of foreign editions and translations I was beginning to acquire - and after four years of being published that number was starting to build up.
And then I went to visit a friend - also a writer - and someone who smoked heavily - far more heavily than me. He showed me his office and I was appalled by the way that the smoke had damaged his books - the covers were darkened and stained, the pages browned. I vowed then and there that I wasn;t going to damage my books in the same way. I'd spent so long getting my writing to this point - I wasn't going to ruin these wonderful books I'd worked so hard on.
So I stopped. Cold turkey - no patches no gum, no aids. Okay, I did chew gum - but not nicotine gum; just ordinary chewing gum - Liquorice and menthol, if I remember rightly. The hardest thing was starting work - I was so used to sitting down, lighting up and starting to write - but the gum helped with that. As did chewing a pencil!! Sometimes it was worse than others - but I got there.
And my son was proud of me
And my books have stayed clean and bright, their pages unstained with brown tar
And I don't get coughs or lay down the risks of other nasties in the future.
A good result all round.
I have a friend who also gave up - and every day on No Smoking day he has one cigarette just to how that he can do that and not get readdicted. I don't think I'll bother. I'm just glad that the thought doesn't even appeal any more.
