Cigarettes Are bad.
I am sure we all know this. Dammit, I know it too.
Tabs. Snouts. Cigs.
They have a million names. One amusingly that is quite popular in Britain is even fags.
I know. Lord knows where that expression comes from but it is quite a common one. No doubt it can cause some confusion in America when a Brit says they are going out to smoke a fag.
It doesn't really mean they have became a bloodthirsty maniac trotting off to commit murder.
I used to be quite the smoker. When I became a father I stopped.
Sometimes when I got a little drunk I would give in and get some and smoke. Not good but I couldn't help myself and always promised myself that I would quit again and largely stuck to it.
Gradually though, over time I smoked less and less. It's quite easy to quit in Britain I think, given that they cost an arm and a leg to buy.
When you go on holiday and overseas the price is less than half they are at home and it's easy to slip into the habit. And slip I did recently.
I pledged to quit to quit on my return. So ladies and gentlemen of the blockchain. I present to you in the cover picture, my last cigarette.
I find it easy enough to quit. Sadly I slide back now and then. Sometimes so much so that I coined the phrase.
Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it hundreds of times.
It is an insidious thing though. Easy to fall back into. A combination of addiction and marketing.
When I smoked regularly. I would find myself outside in conversation with other smokers who obviously saw me as a kindred spirit. I usually kaiboshed this by proclaiming.
Smoking really is a dying art, isn't it?
And it is. Less and less people are doing it. Although many are quitting it by vaping.
For me the art of vaping has never really appealed. You see them everywhere, every one sucking on what looks to be a gun barrel and blowing out gigantic puffs of vapour for all the world like Puff the Magic Dragon.
Well no more of you, you stinky dragon nemesis. I am done with you.
Have you given up? Found it hard or easy? Please let me know in the comments. I always like to hear other dark mother rejecters points of view!!