Our National Health & Smoking

Once again, smoking is in the news and once again it's another attempt by our health gods and our NHS to rid our hospital sites of smoking - specifically ill people smoking. Of course no amount of effort, penalties or wasted signage will stop people from doing it. Most will find a spot away from CCTV cameras and others will simply sit in their cars. It's a battle no one is going to win.
Of course a proactive approach (I know it's novel) could be taken which would certainly provide an incentive for patients to stop smoking, and that's to provide an e-cigarette for the duration of their stay.

I know they work, I use one all the time and having smoked in the past - cigars and cigarettes - I've never looked back. For me it's the ideal solution. I can use it anywhere, it produces no smoke or smell, there's no harmful tar or chemicals, no litter, gives me something to do with my hands (this is why patches don't work), saves me a fortune and it delivers the nicotine I need. That's my solution to this problem.

Stoptober

It is Stoptober and smokers are being urged to give-up for the month of October. Sadly no one I know is taking the challenge. Now if they attached an electronic cigarette to every one of the leaflets, I can guarantee the success rate would go though the roof. I know because I use one. I get my high dose of nicotine without any of the harmful extras. For me it really is better than the real thing...

Recollections 1

I've decided to add periodic recollections from my past for two main reasons - firstly as they may be of interest and secondly to prevent my memory from deteriorating. If I record my memories then when my mind fails, I have something to rely on.
I was born and grew up in Kent in a large town just south of London. I moved up here to Lincolnshire in 2002 but I had been backwards and forwards between my home down south and my place of work in Peterborough for about a year beforehand.
I remember much of my younger life being spent on public transport. My parents didn't drive and had no desire to do so. The buses ran very close to home and there was a stop at both ends of our road. Therefore, most of my memories from that period contain buses for one reason or another. Every day involved normally at least two bus trips. They were all red back then and old - RT's and RM's - but reliable and classically British. It's hard to understand nowadays but they were invariably smoke-filled, especially when it was cold or raining - not from the engine fumes but from smokers. Back then you could smoke on buses. Hard to believe nowadays but true.
We would go shopping, visit family and sometimes I would just ride about visiting different places. It was cheap and as I got older, I was able to have my own bus pass. This was a pass to freedom and I was convinced it could take me anywhere.
I used to love sitting at the front. In those days, I was just behind the driver and I had a clear view so I could see everything - the road ahead and what the driver was doing to make this beautiful machine move. I used to love the smell. You could smell the warm oil, the diesel fumes, the hot engine. It smelled like a bus. Not like nowadays - everything is cleaned-up, they may as well be electric. I love them. If one looked slightly different, I noticed and I remembered, right down to the smallest detail.
In the evening, I used to walk up the road to meet my Dad from work. He would sometimes get off there depending on the bus he had caught and then walk down the road. I would get to the stop early. I used to like doing that as I could see more buses. I would see the bus in the far distance and as it slowly came into view, I could tell if my Dad could be on it by its route number. Sometimes the bus would pull up and he wouldn't get off but I knew he'd be on one of them eventually. I remember carrying his case for him. I loved those times. I remember them well...

Something you don't see very often

Driving to mum's this morning, I passed a man smoking a pipe. Now that wouldn't have been very remarkable years ago but nowadays, it's something you don't often see. It wasn't a 'basic' pipe, you could see that money had been spent and care had been taken to make it look good. It was a rich mahogany in colour and a pipe typical of the fictional Sherlock Holmes - a real classic.
I did admire the fact that this chap, clearly mature in years, was walking with confidence, his pipe boldly displayed from his mouth. In this age, smoking is sneered at and attempts are now being made to hide it in the UK and push it under the counter - out of sight, out of mind...
I'd raise my pipe to him, if I had one. I don't - I used to, at school, many years ago. Not a period I'm proud of. I progressed to cigarettes, then cigars - which I smoked for many years up until about 2 years ago. I never quite kicked the habit. The birth of my son made me think seriously about it and in the end I decided to try one of these 'electronic cigarettes' everyone was raving about. They provide the full experience of smoking but without any of the harmful stuff - essentially it produces water vapour with nicotine. I'm still using it two years on, and I enjoy it. It gives me the freedom of using it anywhere, even indoors as there is no passive smoke and no smell. A wonderful little device and the best thing to come out of China since noodles.
Good luck to him! I expect in 10 years from now, we will be sneering at petrol and diesel cars as we glide past noiseless in our little electric pods...