That can’t be real?
What’s it like?
‘A debut novel by besting author’ … hmmm.
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It is real and no i’ve not read it.
I found out about it when watching a Dave Gorman stand up where he had a copy and was taking the piss.
It’s his first novel, his best selling books were not novels.
I’ll take your word for it.
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Flicking aimlessly through channels tonight and Fred Dibnahs made in Britain was on, it was an episode filmed in Cumbria at a steelworks, a lot of the footage was interspersed with workers handling molten steel, pretty much all of them had a fag hanging out if their gob.
Seemed like an age a way when this was the norm, checked when it was made and it was 2005, two years before the ban.
I remember going out the night before the ban kicked in to a smoking themed night at a dive bar with some mates and then going to the same spot the next day and being horrified at what the billows of smoke had been hiding all those years.
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As an enthusiastic smoker I thought the ban was brilliant. It was an endless excuse to leave the people you were with and talk to somebody else or just be elsewhere for a bit. And yeah, it made you realise how much your clothes stank and suddenly nightclubs stank of BO and fart.
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Around the time I’d been working in Ireland where the ban was already in place and for a long time it seemed there was a better crack outside the pub than in.
My youngest brother couldn’t get his head round the fact that bitd the non-smoking section in any restaurant was limited to two seats nearest the door. Or that a liquid lunch was a thing, try having a half on your lunch break these days…
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Been meaning to post this in the Stoked thread but feels more relevant here now.
I used to go through two packs a week, sometimes three. But I’ve still not finished the pack of cigarettes I opened on Christmas Eve - and I’ve smoked two cigarettes this year so far.
The only conscious thing I did was stop taking them out skating with me, about two months ago when it got colder, and that was because I couldn’t be bothered stopping skating and having to warm up again.
I haven’t even necessarily been trying to quit, I just haven’t been arsed.
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Phffffff.
You make it sound so easy. Packing in smoking is proper hard, and anyone who gets through it deserves mad respect.
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Depends if you really want to or not. I smoked twenty a day for years and when I met my now-wife I said I’d stop, to impress her, threw my fags out the window and didn’t smoke a fag again.
Having a bird move in was probably a better distraction than going for a walk or whatever it is you’re supposed to do though.
Also I put on three stone pretty much immediately.
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Also I’m smoking right now.
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I had a long stint in hospital 10 years ago and when I got out I never smoked or drank again (20 a day like you, and basically a piss head). I had cravings for both for a good two years.
Hard to believe it was so normal to smoke everywhere though. Imagine if someone was smoking at the next table in a restaurant now, or even sitting next to you on a plane!
I can vividly remember my junior school teacher chain smoking while keeping an eye on us at break time.
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I secretly smoked for the first 6 months of my relationship. God knows how I didn’t get caught and god knows why I didn’t tell her. Got engaged after 6 months and decided to quit as she hated fags and I didn’t wanna keep it from (still not told her what I’d been doing mind). Still have the odd one on the sly when pissed, and did have a couple of random lapses over the last 18 months. One for 4 days while in Portugal on trip to see wolves play in Europa league. Smoked like a trooper then. And also had a little random lapse about 6 months ago. No reason why. Maybe boredom with lockdown. Somehow kept it secret from my now wife then too…
Anyway - smoking is expensive now and that puts me off enough.
Is it still lovely if you go back to smoking after a long stint off, or does it just make you want to vom and you have to fight through it? Lol
It’s weird. If I smoke a normal tab I don’t like it and feel like that, but a roll up I can’t get enough of.
Quitting the first time was hard but now I seem to be able to turn it on and off at will and as a rule keep it off as the mrs hates it. If I wasn’t with her though I’d probably still smoke as I can’t pretend I do enjoy it. As dumb as it is.
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I’ve been off them about a year now, the odd time that I’ve tried it in that time I found it gross. But also lovely. The first hit is like when you spark up after a long haul flight or something. Instant headrush. But the taste is so gross that I can’t even finish one.
Also another pretty cool thing, my Mrs quit at the same time I did, and she looked at her resting heart rate over the year on her fitbit app and it’s steadily dropped about 10 BPM over the year. Can’t remember the exact number but it’s cool to see the proof that it makes you healthier!
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