Smoking

[Gromit]

I smoked for exactly 4 months whilst serving in the Gulf during Desert Storm '91 and packs of B&H were only 20p each from the B-X.

Thought 'why the hell not' for that sort of money. Things is, after a while they made me feel so crap I didn't have any problem giving up when I came home.

[StreetFlatTwin]

Gromit Thats a weird way of thinking of it but I wouldn't take up smoking even if they paid me!!!

I have been lucky enough (maybe its a generational thing just turned 40!!) that I never started and neither did any of my mates!!

So i must have NOT spent a fortune on smokes but I wasted a fortune in crap cars through my youth!!!!

[ianbcr]

my missus now uses skycig those electronic ones,she hasnt smoked a real cigarette for 12 months now,and its so nice to come home to a house that doesnt smell of stale cigarettes.even she notices the difference when she`s near a smoker.

[GRAgusta]

I started smoking when I was at school. I used to go for a ride on my FS1E, pull up by a scenic spot, smoke a "tab", and scare myself with the speed on the way home. I remember well the sound, smell, and excitement of opening a new packet of cigarettes .... sad.

The first pack of Marlboro (full strength) cost me 49p.

Then the rear wheel of my CB400NB cracked - it had to go.

So I negotiated a trade in deal on a new Z550F.

I did the sums - rent plus food plus beer plus saving to change the bike ...... nothing left for Marlboro's .... easy choice... stopped smoking.

I probably could start again very easily because I liked it, but Jenny would kill me faster than the smoking related cancers etc would so I remain a long term ex smoker.

[HerrFlick]

I'm thinking of taking up smoking, I thought I'd start of with the patches first then work my way up

Steve

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[Grip Fast]

Being a tight bastard, I only ever smoked other people's ciggies. They soon cottoned on and stopped offering. So, a narrow squeak for me that I never got hooked, due to my meanness.

So why don't I have the cash I would have spent on fags? One of life's little mysteries.

Good luck to all, less mean spirited than me, who have or plan to kick the habit.

[Bikerhoss]

I was dating an American Dr. and she got me lots of pills n potions, the one that made "THE" difference was Zyban (Welbutrin).

That's what did it for me, 25 years on unfiltered roll-ups, under two weeks to quit, Never looked back

[el-nicko]

Well, I started smoking ciggies at 11 years old and dope in the 60s. I stopped blowing weed in my late fifties after some really bad experiences with 'skunk'. I packed in 'straights' when I was 63 back in 2005. I just stopped. It was possibly the hardest thing I've ever done. Way harder than giving up the wackybacky. Even, occasionaly, after all this time, I still wake up from dreaming about having a smoke and am immediatly depressed; thinking, 'I wish I had'nt done that.' Then feeling suddenly elated when I realise, with relief, that it was only a dream. In the last couple of years before I quit I would even jump on a 'plane at BHX, fly down to Malaga, drive up to Torrox, stay with a girlfriend (who had a house there) for a month and, just before I flew home, I'd buy 25 cartons of B+H (£425.00). Since, at the time I was getting through a carton a week (30-a-day) and in the UK the price of a carton was £47.00 but in Spain 25 euro (£17.00) I was 'saving' £30.00 on every carton. That added up to £750.00. Out of that take flights and a months holiday but I considered I was still 'in front' cos I was coming back with 6 months supply of smokes. But, in the end, it was all-about-the-money. Once I'd retired I just could not afford to burn £50.00(by then) a week. So; FULL STOP! I've still got the empty packet that I bought my last ciggies in. For the first 'smokeless' year I, religiously, put £50.00 in it every week. Do the maths.
In my opinion, one of the biggest reasons we find it hard to stop smoking is that we don't recognise the true nature of the habit and consequently belittle what can be, in reality, and for a lot of people, a very deep-seated, ingrained adiction. A couple of years ago, Keith, a very old and good friend of mine passed away (Heart Attack) age 64. Keith had been a heroin user for over 40 years and a smoker for even longer. Keith would, without much effort, come off the needle for quite extended periods but could never give up on the smokes. I asked him about this once. He just said that tobaco was easily available everywhere but sometimes the 'horse' just dried up. "But anyway," he said, for him and probably many others, "Tobacco has longer claws than 'smack'. Folk just refuse to recognise that"
When I was a little kid back in the 1940s, I remember, my grandad used to grow his own tobacco. He used to dry these enormous leaves in open-sided tin-roofed sheds. On a hot day the smell was overpowering. He dried his own backy then he would smoke it. He never adulterated it as far as I can remember. He lived well into his 80s. I read somewhere recently that cigerette manufactures can, by law, add any of over 600 chemicals to the weed in their fags. I would have thought knowing that would go a long way towards putting anyone off the dreaded 'Cancer Sticks'.
Nowerdays I tell my daughter to tell my grandchildren, "Grandad has to wear plastic teeth 'cos he smoked a cigerette once and that made all his own teeth fall out." It really freaks 'em when I demonsrate how true it is.

[boxerscott]

It's funny when I was younger I bemoaned the fact I couldn't afford to save for a pension .... while plugging 1000's into buying fags [/quote] Bet you`re glad you did not

[pbikerharry]

My wife jill smoked from being 16 until she started to get very short of breath at 49 by then it was to late she now has the lungs of a 76 year old struggles to get up stairs walk up hills etc she has COPD and it wont get better . If we go to a party bbq etc and someone has a cold /cheast infection we have to leave if she get any infection she's in hopital for at least week to 10 days. Never do much of it myself hate it now even more. But that was her own doing. If any of you want to stop go to your local hospital and go to the respority ward most are smokers and should put off smoking.

Pete

[notoriusb.e.n]

Took me about 3 or 4 times to properly stop. I properly properly stopped about 2 years ago. But I have done it everytime without gum/patches etc. Just went "thats it". I was about ten a day - so not really too heavy - but still enough that it cost a fair bit (about 30 quid a week when I smoked 10's - more when that wasn't enough and went on to 20's) and looking back made all my clothes smell and all that nasty stuff.

Started in the Signals - well actually started at secondary school because it was the "done thing" - then when I joined up it was definitely a real popular option - gave you a few extra breaks during the day when they kicked us out several times a day for a fag break. Then when I went back to civ div I tried to stop, didn't last long - girlfriend smoked so that kicked it off again.
Then got a bike, started to hang around with other bikers and it was again the "in thing" - carried on for another couple years and then 2009-10 Had a bit of a think about where my money was going and decided it made great financial sense as well as the health benefits - my nanna died of lung cancer after a life of smoking like a chimney so kicked it - and this time it stuck.

Nowadays I can take or leave it, sometimes if I've had a beer or two and get offered one I will accept - but if I have one, it will both be a quick diversion and a bad tasting reminder - so it won't get me back on them.

[el-nicko]

Nowadays I can take or leave it, sometimes if I've had a beer or two and get offered one I will accept - but if I have one, it will both be a quick diversion and a bad tasting reminder - so it won't get me back on them.

Well done mate. I'd only have to touch one to be back on 'em again.