G'day Friends,
Well, it's been 16 weeks and 2 days. Of note I celebrated 16 weeks of sweet sweet quitness the same day I celebrated 17 years in the navy, so Monday was a great day for me...........and I picked up two books that I wanted to read in a secondhand bookshop for $25. A present to myself for each of my celebrations.
I was just reading a few of the quit websites and noticed on one of the sites that they had started a "quite parade" where people were saying how long they had quit, how many cigarettes they had not smoked in that time, and how much it had saved them, and I thought I'd do the same to give you guys an idea of how I'm going (and how much health/cash I've "saved")
Well, it's been 114 days since I quit, and given that I averaged around 20 cigarettes per day, that's about 3280 cigarettes that I haven't smoked. With my particular brand of smokes costing around $17/packet here in Sydney, I've saved myself around $2230.40 (if we ignore that I could get the smokes cheaper in Singapore and on the ship).....I think it would be fairer to average out the cost of a packet of cigarettes to around $10/packet for me, which means that in reality I've probably "saved" myself $1312, which is still a pretty impressive saving.
If only I'd actually saved that cash.........but most of you know me and know that when it comes to cash, it appears to be made of molten lava and burns a whole in my hand, so it passes from my possession rather quickly haha. On the up side, there were a lot of shops on Orchard Road in Singapore that helped me be rid of that loathsome cash, and at least I've got things to show for it that don't involve an incessant cough!
Well, what has been going on in my world I hear you asking, and this fine question I shall answer now:
We, (being the mighty warship HMAS Success and her crew) finally returned to Sydney on Friday, which was fantastic. It's interesting to me how much I was ready to come home after only 4 months away, but I need to mention in the same breath that I am so glad that I had occasion to live in Singapore for those months, and wouldn't trade it off for the world.
Moving along, after we came alongside, I had the dubious pleasure of getting home to drop off some of my things, only to find that in my absence, the water system above my apartment had made a path through my apartment (and my neighbours tell me into the apartment below mine also), staining my walls and ceilings, and warping my wooden floors, in addition to leaving a lot of warped/cracked etc skirting boards and parts of my walls/ceilings.
This through a spanner into my works and meant that I didn't end up catching up with some friends at the pub (obviously I was going to drink lemonade), instead I had the joys of contacting my building manager, making a list of the defects that I could see in the apartment, and sweeping up all the plaster dust from where "they" had come in while I was away and done some of the major repairs to my walls/ceilings etc.
(I'm still trying to work out where abouts we stand regarding what will happen with my floors and re-painting my walls/ceilings......while paint is my responsibility as the owner of the apartment, I assume that being that it was the buildings fault that the painting is required, the responsibility should lie with them. As for the floors I'll attempt to post pictures of the obvious problems with that later, though I also need to bring the building managers attention to the fact that much of the boards are warped.....so that you can step on some parts of the floor, and things that are on other parts of the floor move!)
Anyway, I then had my friend Sarah S's birthday to go to on Friday night which was nice, and I got to catch up with a lot of friends that I hadn't seen since leaving Australia. After Sarah's dinner there was some confusion as to what was happening, and Casey and I ended up back and my house waiting for Nic and Jean to come by before we headed to Benny and Karlee's house.
God bless my friends in that some things never change.......we didn't make it anywhere apart from my living room. A couple of hours after we got home, Turbo and Garth came up, then Nic and Jean arrived, and we sat around chatting (and they drank) until about 2:30am when I did a bit of a Gandpa and went to bed.
I know I'm home and comfortably so because I lasted til my body gave up on me with my drunk friends, instead of getting annoyed/bored with the drunkenness as I was while I was away. Happy Days :)
At any rate, then Saturday I caught up with Kira, Sons and Kaz for a bite in Circular Quay, before heading home for a little relax. Saturday night was my friend Sean's birthday, so we headed to dinner in the city for him. There were further celebrations at a club, but my little old body told me to have a quiet night at home, and I abided by the laws it lay down, resting up before catching up with Kira, Sons and Casey and going for a walk down Crown street for some lunch, then coming home for a quiet Sunday night in.
Monday saw me in Newtown looking around King street with Kira, before grabbing some lunch, seeing Kira on her way and stopping by KC's house for a cup of tea, which was great. It was great to see KC again, though poor Kira must just about be sick of the sight of me after 3 days in a row :)
Tuesday saw me catching up with my friend Helen, who never ceases to amaze me with her amazing brain and relaxed social aura. She studys physics, is doing her PhD, yet still manages to be able to appear to be one of those super-cool relaxed people!....Jealous much Howie!!!??? haha
After enjoying some tea and churras (which, as I found out yesterday is a type of doughnut sweet bread with sweet choc etc dipping sauces) with Helen, I had a really enjoyable walk down Chalmers road into Surry Hills, before walking home via Crown Street.
Today I managed to have a fairly quiet day, reading a bit, then finding another second hand bookstore on Pitt St where I got another two books for under $30.....I love you second hand book industry :)
Then Casey and I went for a wander around Circular Quay and the Rocks looking at the Vivid Festival of lights, which was awesome. I can't believe how great the lighting for the opera house was!
Ok, I should think that I"ve bored the world enough with this diary entry. I hope that you're all having a great week, and that life is treating you all well.
Bye Friends..
Well, it's been 16 weeks and 2 days. Of note I celebrated 16 weeks of sweet sweet quitness the same day I celebrated 17 years in the navy, so Monday was a great day for me...........and I picked up two books that I wanted to read in a secondhand bookshop for $25. A present to myself for each of my celebrations.
I was just reading a few of the quit websites and noticed on one of the sites that they had started a "quite parade" where people were saying how long they had quit, how many cigarettes they had not smoked in that time, and how much it had saved them, and I thought I'd do the same to give you guys an idea of how I'm going (and how much health/cash I've "saved")
Well, it's been 114 days since I quit, and given that I averaged around 20 cigarettes per day, that's about 3280 cigarettes that I haven't smoked. With my particular brand of smokes costing around $17/packet here in Sydney, I've saved myself around $2230.40 (if we ignore that I could get the smokes cheaper in Singapore and on the ship).....I think it would be fairer to average out the cost of a packet of cigarettes to around $10/packet for me, which means that in reality I've probably "saved" myself $1312, which is still a pretty impressive saving.
If only I'd actually saved that cash.........but most of you know me and know that when it comes to cash, it appears to be made of molten lava and burns a whole in my hand, so it passes from my possession rather quickly haha. On the up side, there were a lot of shops on Orchard Road in Singapore that helped me be rid of that loathsome cash, and at least I've got things to show for it that don't involve an incessant cough!
Well, what has been going on in my world I hear you asking, and this fine question I shall answer now:
We, (being the mighty warship HMAS Success and her crew) finally returned to Sydney on Friday, which was fantastic. It's interesting to me how much I was ready to come home after only 4 months away, but I need to mention in the same breath that I am so glad that I had occasion to live in Singapore for those months, and wouldn't trade it off for the world.
Moving along, after we came alongside, I had the dubious pleasure of getting home to drop off some of my things, only to find that in my absence, the water system above my apartment had made a path through my apartment (and my neighbours tell me into the apartment below mine also), staining my walls and ceilings, and warping my wooden floors, in addition to leaving a lot of warped/cracked etc skirting boards and parts of my walls/ceilings.
This through a spanner into my works and meant that I didn't end up catching up with some friends at the pub (obviously I was going to drink lemonade), instead I had the joys of contacting my building manager, making a list of the defects that I could see in the apartment, and sweeping up all the plaster dust from where "they" had come in while I was away and done some of the major repairs to my walls/ceilings etc.
(I'm still trying to work out where abouts we stand regarding what will happen with my floors and re-painting my walls/ceilings......while paint is my responsibility as the owner of the apartment, I assume that being that it was the buildings fault that the painting is required, the responsibility should lie with them. As for the floors I'll attempt to post pictures of the obvious problems with that later, though I also need to bring the building managers attention to the fact that much of the boards are warped.....so that you can step on some parts of the floor, and things that are on other parts of the floor move!)
Anyway, I then had my friend Sarah S's birthday to go to on Friday night which was nice, and I got to catch up with a lot of friends that I hadn't seen since leaving Australia. After Sarah's dinner there was some confusion as to what was happening, and Casey and I ended up back and my house waiting for Nic and Jean to come by before we headed to Benny and Karlee's house.
God bless my friends in that some things never change.......we didn't make it anywhere apart from my living room. A couple of hours after we got home, Turbo and Garth came up, then Nic and Jean arrived, and we sat around chatting (and they drank) until about 2:30am when I did a bit of a Gandpa and went to bed.
I know I'm home and comfortably so because I lasted til my body gave up on me with my drunk friends, instead of getting annoyed/bored with the drunkenness as I was while I was away. Happy Days :)
At any rate, then Saturday I caught up with Kira, Sons and Kaz for a bite in Circular Quay, before heading home for a little relax. Saturday night was my friend Sean's birthday, so we headed to dinner in the city for him. There were further celebrations at a club, but my little old body told me to have a quiet night at home, and I abided by the laws it lay down, resting up before catching up with Kira, Sons and Casey and going for a walk down Crown street for some lunch, then coming home for a quiet Sunday night in.
Monday saw me in Newtown looking around King street with Kira, before grabbing some lunch, seeing Kira on her way and stopping by KC's house for a cup of tea, which was great. It was great to see KC again, though poor Kira must just about be sick of the sight of me after 3 days in a row :)
Tuesday saw me catching up with my friend Helen, who never ceases to amaze me with her amazing brain and relaxed social aura. She studys physics, is doing her PhD, yet still manages to be able to appear to be one of those super-cool relaxed people!....Jealous much Howie!!!??? haha
After enjoying some tea and churras (which, as I found out yesterday is a type of doughnut sweet bread with sweet choc etc dipping sauces) with Helen, I had a really enjoyable walk down Chalmers road into Surry Hills, before walking home via Crown Street.
Today I managed to have a fairly quiet day, reading a bit, then finding another second hand bookstore on Pitt St where I got another two books for under $30.....I love you second hand book industry :)
Then Casey and I went for a wander around Circular Quay and the Rocks looking at the Vivid Festival of lights, which was awesome. I can't believe how great the lighting for the opera house was!
Ok, I should think that I"ve bored the world enough with this diary entry. I hope that you're all having a great week, and that life is treating you all well.
Bye Friends..
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