Seven Months & 27 Days Smoke Free

I missed my seven month anniversary post and I know that in four days it will be time to post my eighth month non - smoking anniversary post, but today is a milestone to be marked. Who would have thought a year ago today that I would have given up smoking almost 8 months ago. That was a mouthful that I am not sure made grammatical sense, but you get what I am trying to say - I hope. I honestly had no intention of giving up smoking. I know I toyed with the idea over here and over here and probably in 20 other posts, but I had no intention of actually giving up and I have - WOW is all I can say. I miss it like crazy, almost 8 months later and still go to get a smoke from time to time then remember that I don't smoke and get kinda disappointed. My new "calm me down" is Freshpak Rooibos and Chamomile Tea. It is amazing stuff and really calms me down - not all in the mind or imagination and I am not being paid to say this either

Freshpak Rooibos & Chamomile Herbal Tea

I woke up on the 12 December, a Thursday, 7 months; 1 week and 1 day after giving up smoking. A normal day of still being angry with Mark for a whole lot of reasons. I had a fitful night of dreaming of smoking and joke of jokes giving lessons to people on how to give up smoking. We have the strangest of dreams don't we. Chad was on school holidays, so I was getting to work just after 8 and what transpired that day, I never envisaged in my wildest dreams, not when I woke up or at any other time. Someone very dear to me was arrested by the local police. It involved false charges of grievous bodily harm, by a vindictive and vicious staff member whom I hate, I always have and the amount of hatred I have for him now is on a level that is almost as close to the hatred I have for those responsible for Clint's death.

It involved a fight in the workshop, stopping the fight; charges laid both false and genuine; a disciplinary, putting it in the past and dropping the charges, but the charges were not dropped. That was the day that the silver lining that I always try and see in our country was snatched away for good and I saw the corruption of our local police force first hand. Yes, Mark was the person who was arrested for stopping a fight between Sipho the most vicious person we have to work with every day and Gift who works for Gavin. The fight happened on the Monday, the disciplinary on Tuesday. All Mark did was try and stop Sipho from hitting Gift with a hammer, this after Gift's head had already been split open from being thrown onto the concrete floor. I was not there and the reason why I know Mark was innocent, was because James the upholsterer who also sublets from us, told me what happened and he had no reason to take Mark's side. They are always arguing about rent, that James never pays, so they are not the best of friends, but James restrained Gift and Mark Sipho. Sipho took this as an opportunity to get at Mark - for what I don't know. Phineas even said to me "You know Dianne, Mark does so much for Sipho how can he do this" We all know why he does it, he wants some sort of payout so he does not have to work. Well all three were arrested. Gift laid a charge against Sipho and Sipho laid a charge against Mark and Gift and they both lied about dropping the charges. The only genuine charge was Sipho assaulting Gift. That was not the first fight he has instigated at work and has hit Brilliant a few times, but because of African Tradition and Culture of respecting your elders, nothing was said, because Brilliant is a kid. There were other fights that Phineas broke up before we saw.

I was so close to a) smoking and b) having a stroke or heart attack when they took Mark away with the other two. I was in a state, not because Mark was guilty, but because of what happens in holding cells in South Africa. Whilst trying to get my wits about me, cancelling a meeting with our Accountant, dealing with customers phoning, all whilst getting into more of a state, eventually I could not talk, I screamed at someone on the phone and before going to get a smoke, I made myself some Rooibos and Chamomile Tea. I phoned Phineas who had gone out to get spares, told him what happened and asked him to come back and drive me to the police station. I could not drive, I was too upset.Slowly the tea started to take affect and I started to calm down when we arrived at the Police Station.

Temporary Holding Cells

Well as you can see from the photo above, they all had their phones with them, after the farce of "taking them away" they gave them back. Mark took the photo. I was openly offered a deal from the investigating officer to make the charges go away, by paying a "lawyer".  That is why Mark was given his phone, so we could make the deal. Gift told Mark that the only reason they were still there is because Mark was there, otherwise him and Sipho would have been released. Gift understood what they were saying. They were not interested in witness statements, witness names. James came to the police station - he could not understand why Mark was being arrested, just for stopping a fight. Later on I fetched Chad and I had more tea at home, there was nothing more to do at the Police Station. Mark then phoned to say he was on his way to the holding cells at the courts. We raced there - totally against all my beliefs of road safety, we had to get Mark's phone, meet our lawyer and wait. We sat there forever and I kept saying to Chad, maybe I should have just one smoke and he said no no no. If I had one, it would have been one packet; one carton and I would have been smoking again.


If I could get through that day, then I should be able to get through any day. We did get through that day, although the charges had been dropped, it still had to go through the Prosecutor and right through to the very end, even in front of our lawyer the arresting officer was still trying to get money out of me to make it go away. He even told Mark he made it go away. He never made anything go away. It would have been over by 10 in the morning and cheaper than paying our lawyer for the whole day, but I was not going to cross that line. I even told the arresting officer, that I just cannot do it. It is disgusting that from the highest to the lowest rank, they are open about it.

I still miss smoking like crazy, but probably won't start smoking because then I am going to look like a weak spineless failure. I am still a non-smoker and very disillusioned about our Country and during the same week that our Iconic Leader died