Smoking, Arabic Coffee and Tanning Myself

I suppose it's a function of the ageing process. One of the delegates to my sessions this week was happily minding his own business: drinking coffee, eating a sandwich or a cake and ...SMOKING. I impudently said, 'Smoking's bad for you, you know'!

This led on to a discussion with the smoker and another smoker: they asked me if I'd ever smoked and when I said I had and said that I stopped 23 years ago they were impressed and asked me how I'd done it.

I told them that I came to hate the process. At times I freely admit that I enjoyed smoking but then got absolutely sick of it and stopped. Just like that. Never smoked again.

I also told them that I felt better within 24 hours of stopping and said, 'Just before you stop smoking, run up a flight of stairs and notice how you feel. After you have stopped smoking for just 24 hours, run up those stairs again and see how you feel now: you will notice a big difference.

I had a meal (huge, too huge) at the hotel's Lebanese restaurant last night and can recommend it. During the meal, the coffee wallah (sorry, I don't know his official title) gave me a tiny cup of Arabic coffee. I have never had Arabic coffee before and can report it is massively different from any other coffee I've ever drunk.

I'm sunning myself: now, I've got fair skin so I know I must never get sun burnt and I'm not. I'm stepping out into the sun at mid afternoon and spend between and 5 and 10 minutes a day wandering around. I am fully clad so just my hands and head are exposed. I am not sleeping on a lounger and will not burn. I'm interested to see if I can safely enbronze myself with such a regime as I am out here for a full three weeks.

DW