Hello fellow sufferers! Just found this site so thought I'd chuck in my few penn'orth. Retired, male, married, not rich, not skint, live in the S.East. Being of a certain age, strangely, everything I write is actually true! No need to brag or boast at my age, and I forget lies anyway. It's the age, you see! 
Why have I quit? All the wrong reasons, I'm afraid. Now retired, I can only make one (cheap) holiday abroad a year. What can you buy abroad? Cheeeep fags! Only now you cant. They've gone up. A lot. And being retired and on a pension, I cannot afford to buy tabs at the shop at £6.50+ a packet. So...I have to quit. Oh the 'health professional' was very nice, wittering on about health benefits. I told her that at my age, it really doesn't matter any more, and, having seen friends and neighbours over the years, all leading exemplary lives and not touching the evil weed or a drop or two of vino, who have all gone into their eighties, physically healthy as Larry but suffering dementia, or worse. No thanks, pet! Still, good girl, she dished out the Champix and away I went. Over a lifetime, this is try FOUR, I think. My previous 'record' was 13 days, so nearly doubled that one.
I suspect most of us cannot smoke indoors, so I used to go to the door and stand outside, with an ashtray on the window sill. Once on the tablets, I started smoking half a ciggy at a time, and found that I went down to 12 or so whole fags a day. With a bit of effort - I had to REALLY want one - it came down to 7 or 8. By my quit day, my birthday as it happened, it was 6. I didn't quit! I had 9. I'd had a drink. Booze 'n' fags...go together. The only 'success' I'd really had was to cut out the early ones and the very late ones each day.
The following Wednesday I went to the 'Stop Gasping' Clinic at 3.0pm. I told her my tale and I blew into the machine and came up at 9 - less than half what it was when I signed up. I told her that I still had a couple of 200 cartons in the house and she insisted I chuck them, as I "could not stand the temptation". As it happens, my last ciggy (half) was at 10.30 the previous evening, as I felt it stupid to smoke earlier on, and then blow into the machine in the afternoon. I thought "Right gal, we'll see who cannot stand the temptation"!
That was 3 weeks, 4 days and 23 hours ago! Not a puff! Honest!! I had my first cigarette in 1956. I (think) I've had my last, 55 years later. 20/22/25 a day, depending on the day. £180,000 in today's money! Food (or is that fags?) for thought! Actually, I'm dead chuffed with myself! I always thought my last smoke would be within the hour of my last breath!
It wasn't easy. Day one was OK - determination not to have a chit of a girl proved right. Day two ... not good...at all! Day three and four...I could have killed...and I'm NOT joking! Five ..almost as bad. Six I tried a shot of Ouzo (bad habit from Greece) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, I wanna faaaaag! I still held on, but only just. The champix were helping, the only thing is they made me dream AND if I had one before my breakfast (empty stomach) I felt a little nauseous. And so it's gone on. Today, day 25, is the first real day when I have not craved a cigarette. I'd have one, for sure, but.....! I do not think of myself as an ex-smoker - far too early. I do think of myself as a smoker who does not smoke. And my special reward? The inside of the car is as clean as it was three weeks ago, when I cleaned it AND the ashtrays went through the dishwasher!
Better add, for the curious, Iggle Piggle? From 'In the Night Garden" BBCTV. Well, I'm blue (Tory) with the odd Red streak! I spent a lot of time at sea, I'll 'squeak' to all and sundry and always carry a security blanket - a packet of fags and a lighter. Wait a minute...no fags 'n' lighter... I'll have to change my name! Oh, and yes I use the same name on a newspaper site, where I'm 'Last to bed, as usual' for 'where I'm from'. Thanks for reading.
My first day (so far)
Hello! Day 12- so far so good.
