Day 1 & Day 2

Day 1 was easy enough once I made the decision. A salad before bed and the excuse of "I felt like something healthy tonight" got me through until the morning.

Day 2 loomed with the prospect of black coffee - yuck!- with too much sugar in it and a banana. Gone was my dripping-butter-toast, and overly-milky coffee, followed by a cigarette to jump-start the day.
The next challenge came less than an hour later when 2 friends invited me to Insomnia for breakfast. Black coffee, please, I'm still not awake. No, thabks, I couldn't possible have pastries this early in the morning. Chocolate this early? No way!

Awkward explanations averted, although possible taking the coward's way out. What made me think that my friends wouldn't understand? Maybe so, but this way, I didn't quite have to get into the whys, the whatfors and whatnots of it quite so soon.

Later on...as I was waiting for the bus into college, the last 2 cigarettes were burning a whole through my coat pocket and mmy throat was aching for a taste. If you've ever been denied a cigarette, then you'll know that's exactly when you want to have it. But no, I kept fiddling my fingers through the pocket, I won't smoke, I won't cave in. Just when my thoughts were turning to why I should give in and have that blooming cigarette, a bus pulled in right in front of me. The first thing I heard was the laughter, young, enthusiastic, and simply delighted to be alive. The face that waqs lit up by that laugh, I didn't register. But the red-painted lips and kohl-lined dark eyes, holly smokes, those were some incredible eyes. Behind her, 1,2,3...7 other girls, not one of them over 25. Their hijabs in swirls of red, gold, purple, black&ivory. The high heels, the swirling skirts, the illusively-applied make-up, the modern leather jacket, or lady gaga's face on a t-shirt...and most of all, the smiles and easy flowing banter, that gave the whole picture a charm that I can't begin to put into words. Behind them, quiet and sobre, dressed in a pair of jeans, runners, t-shirt and jacket, "the chaperone", the male accompaniment out in public. So as I sat there mesmerised by the easy-going, joyful pack of muslim girls - young women - walking past, owning their faith and their beliefs in such a personal, individual way, I lit my cigarette and enjoyed the thought that so will I own and make my own this challenge I decided to undertake the day before.