I believe that a pack of 20 cigarettes (in the UK) costs around £10. If you smoke one pack per day, that's £70 per week, and £3,650 per annum. That's a lot of money.
I used to be a smoker myself. I devoted many years to my beloved untipped Gauloises (the blue pack, which you can just see by my side in the above pic), until one morning in around 1998 I decided to quit; and I haven't smoked since.
I really have nothing against people who wish to smoke, but now, finding themselves in such a tiny minority, and with nasty messages written all over the packs, one would have thought that the health message had got through.
Here in France one hardly ever sees people smoking; it is simply unfashionable. The days when Gainsbourg would smoke 24/7 have long gone. It is now regarded as very 'other ranks', and simply 'not done'. Ash trays are hardly ever seen in restaurants; even outdoors.
I'm not really sure if I ever actually 'enjoyed' smoking; it was simply something I did. I still love the smell of Gauloises, but would never take-up smoking again.
I should have mentioned that the person with me in the photo is my late chum Jock Veitch; you can google his obit (if you wish).
ReplyDeleteI quit smoking in 2001. I had just watched my father die of lung cancer. It was a horrible dying, and I made up my mind to never put my children through such an awful experience.
ReplyDeleteI woke one morning and thought how stupid it was to smoke. Not only was it expensive, but it also risked ruining my health. I never made a better decision.
DeleteThat sounds quite cheap - here I think the conversion is 16 pounds for 20.
ReplyDeleteIn which case NZ smokers would be even more daft.
DeleteI gave up around 1986 .... now and again my husband and I say, I really fancy a fag but we wouldn’t have one. I think when we all started smoking, it was thought to relax you and we didn’t know the dangers then.... I think I did quite like it though !!! XXXX
ReplyDeleteI occasionally say to Lady M " Have you got a cigarette I can have?". She always says "No, you're not starting smoking again"; as if I was serious. No sense of humour.
DeleteI quit in 1993 and I still miss cigarettes. The number of people I met when I smoked. I would be in a pub or at a party and someone would ask for a light and the next minute you had made a new friend.
ReplyDeleteI don't miss them one bit, and haven't since the day I quit.
DeleteI suppose the smokers you see outside office bocks now make friends that way.
I have never smoked, not even once, so I can't comment on the enjoyability of it. As a child I was sent to the shop for packs of Players for my father, and remember holding a ten shilling note and thinking that he might just as well set fire to the money, and I decided then that I was never going to waste money in that way.
ReplyDeleteAs I say above, smoking for a year probably costs around £3,600 pa; that would buy a very nice summer holiday for 4.
DeleteI have never smoked but was brought up in a house that was always filled with the fug from my dad's hand rolled cigarettes. Old Holborn if I remember correctly. He smoked continuously and died at the age of 72 from lung cancer.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that's a very common story. We should all have known better, even before the government started their health warnings.
DeleteMuch the same here Cro - one hardly ever sees anyone smoking although there us usually a group of smokers gathered just outside a hospital entrance - they are often in dressing gowns so presumably patients.
ReplyDeleteNot always...we visited Southampton hospital a few years back and it was all nurses and medical staff!
DeleteTruly boggled my mind to show up at the cancer center for chemo and to see patients outside smoking cigarettes. How can you do that to yourself?
DeleteI have never smoked, but back in late 70"s I worked with a lovely guy who smoked a pipe, we worked in an office he sat by a window which was open as often as it could be, and the hint of vanilla drifted through out the day. I love the smell of pipe tobacco, not very often I see a pipesmoker.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what is said, smoking gets you in the end. My Mum and Dad smoked like chimneys. Dad had a heart attack and Mum ended up with lung problems. Thank goodness it has never been attractive to me.
ReplyDeleteBriony
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The power of advertising! I did used feel a bit excluded from the friendly groups standing around the coffee machine or outside the door for their morning and afternoon fags.
ReplyDeleteI quit entirely in 1988 and haven't puffed on a single cigarette since then. Giving up is one of my proudest achievements. Nowadays I detest the stench of the things.
ReplyDeleteI have never smoked but various uncles and aunts did and I remember as a child walking into a room and my eyes stinging with it. As a 3 year old somebody popped a cigarette into my mouth as a joke (it would be considered child abuse these days!) and I remember suffering the most awful headache afterwards so I never had the slightest desire to keep up with the Jones's in later life.
ReplyDeleteOnly ever passive smoked. Visiting my grandmother as a child there would be five adults smoking in her tiny living room. No windows open. We kids would leave with our eyes streaming.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a smoking family and I smoked. My father, my mother and my uncle all smoking in the car. We walked around supermarkets and department stores smoking. Such a different time, but you have inspired a smoking blog post from me.
ReplyDeleteI've never smoked - never even tried it. My grandad had emphysema and had to rely on huge unwieldy oxygen tanks delivered to his house. This was not going to happen to me! I am grateful as I know I wouldn't have the willpower to stop smoking once I had started.
ReplyDeleteHow things have changed. I haven't smoked a cigarette since 1965 but when I used to eat at a particular restaurant in Angoulême I could never get used to people smoking in between courses and even in between mouthfuls.
ReplyDeletee
I can remember doing that, myself. I feel so embarrassed in retrospect.
DeleteAs you will remember, Cro, my husband paid a heavy price for his past smoking. I'm so grateful he's a former smoker, although he didn't have much choice in the matter.
ReplyDeleteCro, glad you gave it up. I've never smoked except for the summer of my junior year when my room-made and I smoked to kill our appetites and save money. We lived on Tareytons and peanut butter that summer... but smoking never 'took' with me. Truth be told, I didn't like how people looked smoking (??).
ReplyDeleteA former smoker here, too. I would not smoke again; I might never quit again. Except for the expense. And they weren't that expensive when I quit.
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