When I was 12 years old I helped on a milk round. The milkman paid me with a pack of five Woodbines - remember them? I was hooked!
At sea, played poker, table tennis, darts etc., for smokes. In my prime I could easily puff 40 a day.
Last year, 63 years later, I wondered what the hell was I doing to myself??
I the middle of April 2010 I promised myself that I would not have one smoke on May !st. By that day, I had completely convinced myself that I would not weaken.
I then said no smokes tomorrow and so on, one day at a time. Cold turkey - I have never smoked since and now wonder what the hell I saw in polluting myself.
I wasn't easy. In the first week I thought it would be less painful if I cut my toes off than suffer these withdrawals.
Then surprise, after about 8 or 9 days I would forget to think about a smoke! Gradually I felt better and the addiction faded.
Furtunately, in spite of myself I have never had a day's illness in my life - possibly good genes? However having had x-rays last month showing clear lungs and airways( how the hell was that?), my Doctor has told me that there is still the likelihood that I could get lung cancer in the next few years.
I could kill Ronnie Bristow (the milkman), but he probably died years ago - of lung cancer!!
Taff
"The sea, once it casts it's spell,
holds one in it's net of wonder forever." - Jacques Cousteau