Let me wipe that off for you

Wednesday 9th March, 2011, a date that is etched into my mind, and will remain so forever.
Why?
I'll tell you.
I was in town on the above day, with Sam, just window shopping and looking at stuff we wanted but couldn't afford, when we spotted a friends mum walking towards us. Shes a lovely women, really warm and genuinely friendly, the sort of person you would hate to offend, and boy did I hate offending her, enter me, stage left.
I noticed, as we got closer, that she had a blemish, dirt, filth, stain, a large black mark on her forehead.
How embarrassing I thought, it was a busy day in town and I do try to look out for people I care about.
Hi, I said, with a warm smile, you've got some black stuff on your face, just there, I made a gesture towards the said blemish.
Yes, she said, its Ash Wednesday.
As she said this, the mark seemed to take shape, bloody hell, its a cross I thought. I then remembered that she is a practising catholic, and that this is what some of them do at this time, draw a cross from ash on their foreheads.
I looked again, just to make sure, yep, definitely a cross, how could I be so stupid. I dared not catch her eye again, I just mumbled my goodbyes, head down and away. I looked at Sam when we was a few yards away and that was it, she had tears streaming down her face, and trying to catch her breath through the laughter, I was still absolutely mortified, I couldn't say anything, why didn't I just keep my gob shut?
All I can say is that I am glad I never had a handkerchief with me as I still remember the times my mum would lick hers and wipe dirt from around my face, nasty.
It still gets a mention every now and again, especially a week or so ago, when Ash Wednesday once more came around.
I never went to town then.
I have seen her since, and yes she does still speak, like I said, she is a lovely person.

Theres a cat in the kitchen what am I gonna do!

What is it that makes us have those really stupid thoughts? The sort of thought where you know what your thinking cant possibly have happened, or be happening but doesn't stop you having them.
I had one such moment a few weeks ago now. We had, up until last week, a cat, ginger in colour, which we rather inventively called Ginger, sadly she died last week at the age of 15, she had a good innings.
Anyway, over the last few months of her life she developed a penchant for climbing in the kitchen bin, In the style of many a cartoon cat, Top Cat springs to mind.
This particular moment happened when we still smoked. We always smoked in the area of the house we referred to as the outhouse, an area just off the kitchen with a door to the garden which we opened whilst smoking.
Well as me and Sam walked out for a smoke I noticed an inch of something poking out of the bin lid, which had closed right up. I stopped and bent down to have a look at what i first thought was a small portion of rubber washing up glove, but, upon lifting the lid and peering inside I saw it was Ginger, it was the last couple of inches of her tail. Unfortunately for me 'oh, its Ginger' wasn't the first thought I had oh no, the first thought was 'whos thrown away a perfectly good cat'. I mean, please, what sort of thought is that? Where did that come from, thrown the cat away! Now, if it was in the street, and not our bin or cat it may not seem such a stupid thought, but as she was our cat, in the bin inside our house, well sometimes the mind defies belief. Needless to say Ginger didn't see the funny side, as I pulled her from the bin, but boy Sam did, and still does, along with my daughter, who was informed the very moment she came in from school.

But its not though, is it!

I suppose it's time I gave an update on the non smoking. Well, we are still going strong. Tuesday 6th was 6 weeks.
I still get the odd day where I really could give in, I don't think theres a trigger, it just kind of hits you. Trouble is, when you have a mega craving you only remember how good it was to smoke. The fortunate thing is that it does not hang around to long, maybe a couple of minutes and it's gone.
It is good not being reliant on the cigarettes, knowing that most days we get through without giving them a second thought.
The only time I can foresee a proper craving coming is when I get a car, I did enjoy a smoke whilst in the car, but it made the car stink.