Well, what a nice few days....

Hi all,
So, a fair bit to report on. I had a fantastic birthday. Thank you Helen for organising and for all those who held a mic at Lucky Voice http://www.luckyvoice.co.uk/ I hope you had as much fun as me! Who would have thought I could have got whip-lash from Wuthering Heights - but I did! We then ambled back to the pad for a bop, for some a sleep and for all pizza! A great night and brilliant way to mark my quarter-centurion!

My big news, for me, is that I am day two in to my non-smoking regime. I have signed up to Hounslows Occupational Health Smoking Cessasion course which started with a session on whether I was ready to quit and preparation and my most recent session was on Monday also known as Quit Day. I am using the 15mg Nicorette patches which I appear to be having a wee allergic reaction to and may need to change my prescription and also I meet with the OH Nurse each week for a support session and Carbon Monoxide reading. As a smoker, I had 11-20 ppm of CO in my blood and on quit day when I did my reading (basically 12 hours since my last/final cigarette) I was already down to 0-6 which is a 'non-smokers' reading. I dare say I am feeling great, immediately less breathless and more energised. Its tough though - I don't feel tempted to smoke and am happy to walk pass my usual smoking haunts but the body is still withdrawing and as a concequence my concerntration levels are way-off, and generally I feel weird. Its like the brain says "you don't want to smoke" and the body says "SMOKE SMOKE!!" Tomorrow is day three and apparently my body will be nicotine free - not sure how as the patch is giving me a lovely pure supply for 16 hours a day! My best coping strategy is 'power walking' and I have been routinely storming off round Lampton Park or down to the Town Centre at touch times - obviously not the most workable solution when in a meeting or indeed driving home.

Other news: Helen and I have seen (yet another) place we like - maybe this time the vendor might want to sell it. Anyway, I shall leave it at that as the house we were going to buy I had already (mentally) moved in re-decorated, had a house-warming, a lovely Christmas, a few children and sold for a bomb!

Percy is a survivor of MOT so I shall Tax the little skoda love beast when I find the paperwork, and hopefully before its clamped and crashed.

Allie, Jebus love her, is fine, no news really with her.

I shall sign off then and get on with some work.

Hope everyone is well, Love
Kat xxx
PS 7th of November is buy your first Kate Bush album day - make it Ariel I say!