Thursday 28 January 2010

More Snow and Quitting Smoking Again

This week has been much busier for me at work and I have not made it out before 6pm all week. I have still been having problems getting out of bed in the morning but this is more due to the fact that I am still struggling to sleep at night more than anything. Things are getting better, slowly, but it might be a while yet before I am into a really good routine. I actually managed to get up fairly early this morning and was in work for 8am but then I had a conference call with my boss and some other people so it was pretty important I was here for that! It just goes to show though that I can do it when I put my mind to it!

Having said that, I went to bed much earlier than normal last night and I was in bed shortly after 10pm. I felt tired before I went to bed but then felt awake again within five minutes! Luckily it didn’t take me too long to get to sleep and I think I must have been asleep by about 11pm. I have decided that I am not going out on the lash this weekend so I will be trying my best to be consistent in the times I am going to bed and getting up over the weekend. Hopefully by doing this it will make it easier for me next week and will help to establish a proper routine.

When I woke up this morning I was greeted by quite a lot of snow outside – it had snowed at the start of the week but it snowed again quite a bit overnight. As I was up so early when I took Roman for his morning walk most people had not been out to clear the paths so it was all snow where we were walking. It was nice to not have to worry about whether I would slip over or not and there is nothing quite so satisfying as the crunching of fresh snow underfoot! Roman seemed to enjoy it too and it seems to be so much better for his paw than normal.

I have not managed to get to football training this week as I have had to work late and I have a feeling that I am not going to make it tonight either. It’s a little frustrating to be honest but this is the nature of the work I do. One week I will have pretty much nothing to do yet the following week it will seem to be never ending! I think there is a training session or a match on Sunday morning though so I will definitely be there. I think I will walk Roman up to Kirschhausen for that so that he gets plenty of exercise over the weekend. He really gets spoilt for exercise on the weekends with our visits to the pub!

One of my work colleagues is trying to help me out at the moment in finding a way to pay less fees for Roman to be here. Apparently the colleague who originally called to enquire had spoken to someone in office here and they were given all of the official fees. I sit next to someone in work who has a Rhodesian ridgeback and her parents owned Rottweilers in the past so she has been trying to get some information for me. It turns out that there is a clause in the law about the permits that discounts dogs born before the legislation came in (January 2008) and Roman was born before this. Hopefully this will mean that I don’t have to have a permit, which would save me €275, but because he has been imported I might not be able to get around it.

Also, the character test might not be needed if I sign up for a dog club. At the dog clubs they meet weekly for dog training sessions and, after a period of time, the dogs are entered into an obedience contest. After this contest you are awarded a certificate depending on the number of points you score. As a part of the dog club membership (which I think is as little as €40 per year) I think you get the character test built in as such so that might also save me a lot of money. Fingers crossed on that one too but I guess I will find out for definite on these things once I find a dog club.

I stopped smoking again on Monday (my last cigarette was at about midday) and I have just passed the 72 hour mark. I am feeling a little more confident about it this time for a number of reasons. Having discovered I may have to pay extortionate amounts to keep Roman here I am aware that I might not have much disposable income so have a financial incentive. Also, I can’t afford to go and get wasted every weekend so I have decided to stick to coffee or cola when I go to the pub. Hopefully by not drinking alcohol I will not drop my guard as it is so easy to do after a few pints.

I have not really noticed any massive cravings so far but I have noticed from time to time that my jaw is extremely tightly shut – feel the tension!
I have also been thinking about coming back to England sometime in April and have managed to find flights from as little as €40 each way from Frankfurt to Manchester. As I will also need money to pay for that I have even more incentive not to smoke.

I would also like to go back to Rome either in July or August, more likely July though, so I will also need to be saving for that. I think if I can have enough incentives then maybe quitting smoking will be easier. When I have tried in the past I have not been able to see anything at the end of the tunnel, these things give me a tangible reason to quit

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