Smoke Stop

Day 26 - 10am

Although I was very busy on Friday, it was one of those days when I got little done. Hence, I'm in the office on a Sunday! This is not a regular happening.

My daughter and I had a fantastic day yesterday (Saturday). We went to Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. We walked for, what must have been, miles. Mostly, we were window shopping. But we did invest in yet more toothpaste, some make-up and a flea collar for our cat. We enjoyed lunch at KFC, did plenty more walking and then headed off to a supermarket opposite the mall.

The first thing I clapped eyes on was a middle-aged woman, stood outside the store's main entrance - SMOKING! She cut a lonely figure and looked ever so slightly embarrassed as shoppers filed past her, flashing condescending glances in acknowledgement of her addiction. I couldn't help but think that I was her just a few weeks ago.

Remember my pulsating new toothbrush? What a bargain that turned out to be! My teeth are the cleanest - and whitest - they've ever been. I bought it, on offer, at Tesco in Dorchester for just under £3. That was a week ago. At another supermarket, in Bristol, the same toothbrush was just under £6.

I'm not the most confident driver when it comes to big cities and those countless, multi-lane roundabouts. In my previous life, I would have stopped short of each junction and smoked two or three cigarettes before even attempting to negotiate them. Yesterday, I had no such prop. I'd even left my inhalator at home. Hence, on the way out of Bristol, I drove into the wrong lane and ended up being sidelined to a rural part of the city.

Rather than turn around and re-attempt the roundabouts, I just kept going. To my daughter's great excitement, we ended up near the Severn Bridge - right next to the three, strangley beautiful wind turbines we'd admired on our way into the city. Modern landmarks, they stand in the heart of an industrial area - an area my daughter and I both remarked resembled a potential crime scene. With its eerie expanses of wasteground, empty lorry parks and quiet roads, it's the kind of place a murderer might choose to dump a body. We kept our eyes peeled - just in case!

Soon, it was back to reality. Before we knew it, the road rejoined the M5 and we were on our way home. The sun was shining and I seriously doubted snow forecast for today (Sunday) would come to anything. I was wrong, of course! But, bathed in the dying rays of the afternoon sun, I felt as though I was driving at the end of a summer's day. "Let's walk along the seafront at Burnham-on-Sea," I said to my daughter as we approached the junction. She wasn't interested.

In a Superdrug bag on her lap was a pair of tweezers. Her first. She said she wanted to go home and practise plucking her eyebrows. The result is another story!

Wear your patch with pride!