House sale, cigars, Hitchcock, Sony Ericsson and Splenda in the grass

Well the house sale is going through. I'm more surprised than anybody. In fact we are all taken a bit by surprise, and I fully expected it to all fall through... so we are at this stage when we have a completion date of 11th of May and as yet we got nowhere to move to. Gulp. We've seen a few places but because we have pets and kids our choices are narrowed a little. Ah well, I suppose we HAVE to get somewhere so it will get done somehow.

But having said all that I'm still having a nice time, despite all my problems. Having given up smoking in October last year I really enjoy the rare occasions when I do smoke... what? Smoking? Yeah I have a cigar every once in a while. I know that could be construed as smoking. But there's a vast difference between puffing the odd cigar and chugging 20 cheap fags a day. I have found a brand I really like, AGIO Mehari's (sweet orient flavour) and they are wonderful. Smoking is always a law of diminishing returns. You smoke more and enjoy less. This way you smoke less and enjoy more. I LOVE expensive cigars like H. Upman or Montecristos. Maybe when I'm fabulously wealthy I'll buy me a humidor. :)

Plus I bought a pack of Gitanes the other day, purely for nostalgia's sake, and I'm happy to report I can no longer inhale a cigarette without coughing. I smoked a few of them like cigars and they were quite nice. But the difference is I'm no longer an addicted smoker. I'm a recreational smoker. It feels good.

Plus I'm really glad I can't smoke anymore because I'm starting to get my singing voice back, and to honest that was my main reason for giving up, not really the health aspect or the expense, although of course they were issues too.

Also not smoking means I can afford the odd treat. I bought myself a nice watch for £45 the other day, and some wonderful Hitchcock and Truffaut DVD boxed sets on eBay. Well when you are not spending £120 a month on fags you can afford to spend a little money on yourself every once in a while.

And I got a new Sony phone the other day. Sony phones have come on a lot since my old Sony flippy phone. The software is much improved and this one is really cool because it has an actual Cybershot digital camera built in. It's the Sony Ericsson K800i, and in silver rather than the usual black or brown. I got a really good deal from O2, the handset was free and the contract is for just £20 a month, with 75 mins of calls and 300 texts. Not bad. That's like ten texts a day, which is easily what I send in a month. And 75 mins? I only really talk on the phone in emergencies or when people call me, so that's going to be cool. My old Orange contract was like £40 and I always ended up going over my minutes. And may I say despite their really cool caring sharing image I found them to be a really crap carrier. Expensive and not very supportive. My 2p.

And wow those DVD sets are great. £12 each and 34 Hitchcock movies and 12 Truffaut ones. Okay so the transfers are a bit minky in places, but for the price you can't argue. And they come in wooden boxes. God bless the Chinese, their attention to detail, design sense and wonderfully lax copyright laws.

Okay time for more coffee with hazelnut Splenda. Yum. And a ceegar. Ker-puff!