Chemical dependency

It's official: I have a coke addiction.

Coke Zero, to be exact.

My stash ran out two days ago, but I didn't bother going to Tesco to replenish until just now. "It's okay," I blithely thought, "no worries, I can just drink tea to fill the gaping hole next to our tainted water in my beverage schedule".

Ha. Haha.

Today, staring down at the last few packets of my Splenda box with a splitting headache and thinking about how now would be a great time to stock up on sweetener, it finally came to me that yes, caffeine is a deeply entrenched part of my life, and that the occasional cup of tea doesn't cut it. As much as I love (and consume) peppermint tea, the caffeine receptors in my brain have wised up to the fact that herbal teas don't have that magic ingredient, and besides, when the heater decides that the perfect time to come on full-blast is the middle of the afternoon, a cup of hot tea's about the last thing I want. (A tall glass of Milo's Famous Sweet Tea would be ideal, but with my luck, someone at Customs would seize it for no good reason.)

It could have been the dissertation I proofread after lunch that started it, or perhaps it was the stress of losing ResNet for the second time in 48 hours, but when even a healthy dose of Bill Bryson and an hour horizontal did little to alleviate the headache, I knew there was only one cure.

As I write this, I'm knocking back a semi-chilled cold one. Cold turkey's for the birds.