Sniff
Sniff sniff... yeah I thought so.
It's here.. The great smell of .. nicotine...
Other ex smokers have promised me that at some point I will hate the smell of nicotine, that the merest whiff of blue smoke will turn my stomach.
I am a long way from this promised state.
It's been nearly four months, and look I'm still not smoking, but I sure am sniffing. I am inhaling passively every chance I get.
The front of Haymarket station is surprisingly smoke free. Tesco's megastore out on the far edges of Cheesetown is much better. There seems to be a constant stream of traumatised shoppers, needing a calming cigarette whilst they check their receipts. Stopping off at the cashpoint down wind from the front door can be a heady experience. But best of the lot is Morrisons at the Gyle. I don't know if there are more dedicated smokers there, but the front door heating seems to ensure that there is a constant stream of blue smoke through the slide doors and down the concourse.
But now, here inside Ikea, I'm getting great deep whiffs of continental tobacco, whiffs of, is it Gauloise? Djarum? Maybe Marlborough at the outside..
The source is obvious; it's that nice young man. The one with the long dark hair, dark sun tan, and Spanish accent. He's checking out wine glasses. With his girlfriend.
I'm sidling closer to carry on inhaling.
He's moving off to look at storage jars.
I'm moving off after him.
I'm still inhaling,
Does he notice? Or has he come to expect that, since moving to Britain, random strangers will inhale deeply behind his back?
How much longer is this phase going to last? And can I follow him all the way through kitchenware to curtains and soft furnishings....?
Sniff sniff... yeah I thought so.
Other ex smokers have promised me that at some point I will hate the smell of nicotine, that the merest whiff of blue smoke will turn my stomach.
I am a long way from this promised state.
It's been nearly four months, and look I'm still not smoking, but I sure am sniffing. I am inhaling passively every chance I get.
The front of Haymarket station is surprisingly smoke free. Tesco's megastore out on the far edges of Cheesetown is much better. There seems to be a constant stream of traumatised shoppers, needing a calming cigarette whilst they check their receipts. Stopping off at the cashpoint down wind from the front door can be a heady experience. But best of the lot is Morrisons at the Gyle. I don't know if there are more dedicated smokers there, but the front door heating seems to ensure that there is a constant stream of blue smoke through the slide doors and down the concourse.
But now, here inside Ikea, I'm getting great deep whiffs of continental tobacco, whiffs of, is it Gauloise? Djarum? Maybe Marlborough at the outside..
The source is obvious; it's that nice young man. The one with the long dark hair, dark sun tan, and Spanish accent. He's checking out wine glasses. With his girlfriend.
I'm sidling closer to carry on inhaling.
He's moving off to look at storage jars.
I'm moving off after him.
I'm still inhaling,
Does he notice? Or has he come to expect that, since moving to Britain, random strangers will inhale deeply behind his back?
How much longer is this phase going to last? And can I follow him all the way through kitchenware to curtains and soft furnishings....?
28 August 2011 at 21:05
Never smoked or wanted to.
True confession. When in high school, I would tell my friends not to smoke in my car since my parents would think it was me and take the car away. In truth, I didn't want to smell it myself.
28 August 2011 at 21:10
Lx - Oh car smoke is different. Definitely. I hate the smell of smoke in a car I used to get carsick as a kid.
In the olden days, my parents would roll the windows down maybe an inch or two...
Doesn't apply to airplanes though. I miss smoking in airplanes.
28 August 2011 at 21:19
The first time I smoked, I was thirteen. I thought you had to blow rather than suck. I am an addict, no question, but I do seem to be able to stop without too many agonising withdrawal pains. But I agree, just one whiff brings it all back. Thinking about coughing helps I find.
PS What was that guy doing smoking in a shop? Should've been arrested.
28 August 2011 at 21:52
Not getting that horrible whiff of stale smoke and stale beer as you walk past a pub is a pleasure. I like the smell of a newly-lit cigarette, but not otherwise.
29 August 2011 at 02:25
Yes, one day you will abhor the smell of smoke, on your clothes, on your hair, in your house. I never thought I would, but I do, though it took years. I can't believe my wife used to kiss my god-awful mouth! She really must love me! :¬)
xxx
29 August 2011 at 07:14
Tim - Oh they weren't smoking in the shop - he'd just been smoking somewhere. I haven't got round ot hating the smell yet, but when you stop you really really notice the smell clingikng to the clothes of others.
Z - Mmmm but now a lot of old pubs just smell of must and toilet blocks ... maybe the problem is old pubs.....
Maps - Ha! in the good old days I actually believed that if I smoked outside and had a mint afterwards, I could get rid of the smell.
Now I know.
29 August 2011 at 07:32
I looked at the sheet my Doctor gave me last week when he sent me for a chest XRay. "40 pack years" it said. That must have been nearly enough tax to buy Trident.
Keep it up Macy - the light at the end of the tunnel will smell sweeter.
29 August 2011 at 07:49
So proud of you Macy...keep it up...you will get to the 'hating the whiff of smoke' stage.....and feel great that you have kicked the habit.
29 August 2011 at 08:15
A clever excuse for following a gorgeous young man, but we can all see through it. How easy it is to pick up a habit and how hard it can be to break it. Luckily I hated the only cigarette I ever tried. My father smoked but I was never tempted to follow his example.
29 August 2011 at 08:41
Rog - 40? Then I was an amateur - and very poor funder of our national defence - on only 20 a day...
29 August 2011 at 08:43
Libby - I honestly can't wait for the day. Until then I don't trust myself not to relapse...
Nick - Indeed the habit of following young men seems to be hard to break..
29 August 2011 at 09:58
Yes, he seems worthy of following- and I've never smoked.
29 August 2011 at 10:51
Once you get through the "hating smoke" stage you move towards the "tedious ex-smoking evangelist" stage".
Read Allan Carr if you haven't yet.
(My 40 referred to years rather than packs I think - half a Trident)
29 August 2011 at 14:08
I can't comment on here. I lapsed. I will un-lapse shortly.
29 August 2011 at 19:30
Speccy - Indeed. Although I had a vision of the poor bloke with an entoruage of women breathing deeply behind him.
Rog - If I ever do reach that righteous ex-smoker evangelist phase, I hope someone shoots me.
Oh and apologies for implying you stank twice as bad as the twenty a day guys in your smoking hay day.
29 August 2011 at 19:31
Roses - No rush. It's a habit, not a mortal crime.
And I like smokers!
30 August 2011 at 07:27
You obviously haven't spoken to my brother lately. Nor to the people at work. You'd think I'd been eating babies.
I like smokers too...and smoking...it's just the whole 'not very good for you business'.
30 August 2011 at 08:23
Roses - It was the self righteous who put me off giving up for years. I tell myself they haven't won - by giving up I'm depriving them of all the tax I used to pay.
30 August 2011 at 12:41
Car smoke always always makes me feel sick. I think it's a leftover from the days when I used to get car sick and my dad used to smoke as he drove along.
30 August 2011 at 16:34
Speaking as someone who gave up smoking 20 years ago, I am living proof that you never stop sniffing fresh fag smoke ... but it has to be fresh. Mind you, I could no more smoke a cigarette now than fly to the moon!
30 August 2011 at 16:38
Be patient - this too will pass.
30 August 2011 at 17:07
Jenny - I had both parents puffing away as we hurtled down narrow, twisting,lochside roads. Why did my parents never connect their smoking with me, my sister and the dog throwing up in the back??
Curry Queen - Maybe this is the best way to be? A tolerant ex smoker?
Pat - But Curry Queen says it might be twenty years... don't worry, I won't relapse sigh
31 August 2011 at 00:23
*cough*, yeahyeah, willallgoaway ... the smell is bad, creeps into anything from books via clothes to even the wall paint. Lungs recover, taste buds in the mouth recover, the body has an amazing ability to repair. The brain has an amazing ability to remember, bio-chemistry can snap back. What helped me (helps me) is to understand that I am the master of these cells. Sometimes I smoke again, but it is no way comparable to the habit I broke more than 12 years ago. And I will never go back to this. I am simply too proud.
31 August 2011 at 08:16
Mr Mago - Me too, I'm too proud to relapse. But I reserve the right to start smoking again when I retire.
Got to be something to look forward to, and there comes a stage in life when it will be quality not quantity of life left.
31 August 2011 at 13:20
I've tried to cut down a few times but all of my cunning plans seem to stress me out and I smoke more.
Had a guy at work who hadn't smoked for 5 years who loved to stand with me while I smoked.
I am quite happy not to smoke in my own house if I have visitors or not in my car if I have passengers---but that agreement goes out the door when I get the comments of "I can still smell it"---and it is ex smokers who complain more----one of my friends, a nurse who has never smoked, says she loves the smell in my house and likes it when I smoke when she is here
Hey, great going---you will make it
31 August 2011 at 14:48
I don't think I'm going to be much help, having never smoked (parents didn't either) but your post has made me realise it's been ages since I've been to Ikea. Must put that right, especially if dishy Spanish blokes are wandering around the Billy bookcases.
31 August 2011 at 18:11
I love the smell of freshly lit cigarette and I haven't smoked since I was 20 and a slobby student. Also feel like one when I'm skiing. (Maybe I'm still that slobby student...)
1 September 2011 at 07:33
Clyde - keep going - us non-smoking-smell-of-smoke-lovers need people like you!
Trish - It was the glassware he was perusing! In the Edinburgh branch...
Details... devil in...
About Last Weekend - I just got a great picture of you cigarette clamped firmly in mouth as you ski downhill!
We're defintely going to need tobacco room spray when the last of the smokers gives up..
1 September 2011 at 12:52
i hadn't smoked for almost 20 years and then, poof! i started again and smoked almost 2 packs a day for 10 and then, quit, cold turkey because i had developed asthma. i decided i wanted to breath w/o the aid of inhalers, so that was it. but honestly, if i could smoke again without negative effects, i sure the hell would! i'm no help, am i? ;) xoxoxoxo
(pat's right, it does get easier.)
1 September 2011 at 18:11
I will quit again soon.
Only on 13 a day... but I've started to cough.
When are you meeting thingy?
Sx
2 September 2011 at 07:21
Savannah - You know what most health campaigners forget is that smokers enjoy smoking. And as soon as they invent a nicotine free one I'm right back on them again.
Scarlet - I used to cough. Then I got a tight feeling in my chest (quite unrelated to Thingy btw).
Just saying..
We're meeting a week on Tuesday. Does this mean I should listen out for your cough over my shoulder?
2 September 2011 at 07:36
No, don't worry, I am a recluse and very rarely leave my compound.
Sx
2 September 2011 at 08:32
There's the rub, smoking is great. The fact it makes you smell like an ashtray, stains teeth and fingers and will more than likely lead to a painful, untimely death, just doesn't seem to counteract those facts.
*sigh*