......Smoke on the water......

might soon be a thing of the past!

I've decided that I'm going to try and give up the evil weed..............not for any health reason (though I am developing a bit of a smoker's cough)...... not because I think I should so as to set a good example for Charlie........not even because my sister's cancer has frightened me...........purely because I'm sick and tired of the Government of this country milking me like a cash cow.

They banned smoking in public places, which in my experience actually made people smoke more and harder, but it did undoubtedly make some people quit and many others resorted to smuggling. A few years back a survey of cigarette packs in the litter at football grounds around the country found that more than 50% were from France, Spain etc etc. This led to a reduction in tax for the Govt....so what did they do? Put the price up, by increasing the tax....so the tobacco companies also put the price up....and a viscious spiral started.

Up to a few months ago I was paying less than £6 a packet....yes, yes I know that's outrageous but I could live with it.....then the Budget whacked 10p on the price.................but the price in the shops shot up by more than 50p....so I changed brands and manged to get them for £6.40 a pack, instead of £6.60.....and then a few weeks ago the price rose to £6.61 a pack (and my original brand now cost £6.96!!!!!!)...............and two other sneaky things happened, the price of a pack of 10 (which should be half the price of a pack of 20) rose to 66% of the price of 20....and many shops stopped stocking popular brands and only keep the more expensive brands.

Even Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that's it, I'm giving it a real go, starting this Sunday...don't buy any on the way to fishing and that'll be almost a whole day without a fag! Shaun and Sam are also quitting....they've been to see the smoking cessation service.....there's a stupid title if ever I heard one, if they're succesful and every one quits they put themselves out of a job, if people don't quit, they fail to meet their target! Shaun has got so much stuff to help him quit....apparently he has the lungs of a 99 year old (more BS to try and scare people into stopping, who knows what the lungs of a 99 year old are like?)....that he has given me an inhalator and 18 days worth of nicotine capsules..........but I'm going cold turkey......I'm not giviong up smoking....I'm stopping buying them.

I quit once before for 18 months, just by not going to the newsagents for the paper every day............so I can do it again.

Might still have the odd cigar at Christmas mind!

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