Seven years..

[CanucksTraveller]

Nice one @tyred !
I smoked for about 20 years or so. I gave up about the time my daughter came along, so nearly 10 years now... I didn't want to be a smoker whilst being the parent of a baby, and I still can't stand seeing young parents smoking over the pram or pushchair.

I did find it hard to stop, I had a few small relapses, usually when at the pub. In the first year of being "smoke free" I was working in Kenya, drunk most nights, and Embassy No.1 were about 80p a pack, seemed remiss not to have a tab or two.
I think it took me about a year to stop those occasional relapses but thankfully it got easier and they did peter out with a bit more willpower.

 

[PaulB]

True story: I once met an old chap who was a very heavy smoker, but when he'd smoked a cig down to the butt, he'd stuff the butt into his cheek and leave it there until he lit up a new one

A nurse I worked in an operating theatre with was a heavy smoker. She'd buy Capstan full strength and if she couldn't get the unfiltered ones, she'd rip off the filter so she could get the full, undiluted power of the nicotine in her body as quickly as possible. She was a very good scrub nurse for the surgeons but the minute she got her break, she'd light up, smoke the fag right down till she could get no more and light another one from the remnants of the one she had on the go! There was a consultant surgeon who worked there and he encouraged her to smoke and was always bandying about articles he'd found championing the benefits of smoking!

This nurse smoked throughout her two pregnancies and both her children were born perfectly healthy and good weights! She's about 63 now and still alive with no apparent ill-effects from her smoking although she gave up cold turkey about ten years ago.

 

[Drago]

There must be something lacking in their lives.

One could say the same about anything unnecessary that you do purely for the pleasure.

 

[Cycleops]

As a non smoker I can never see smoking as a pleasure.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Well done anybody who quits, it's not easy!
16 years for me, like @tyred I was a heavy user...even rolled as I drove :-/ As soon as off a flight, smoking room/area. Working in factories was a pain, all that undressing to get outside for a smoke, then back through all the hygiene procedures, but did it anyway.
A smoke was the first and last priority of the day. I loved it, you're never alone with a Cigarette, it's your best friend.

Mrs. FF recalls the happiest she ever saw me.... We were out for a country walk with friends, I had a brand-new large pack of baccy with me. When we got back to the car-park I searched frantically for my baccy to no avail! Panic set-in. It had fallen out of my back pocket
I was distraught!
Then Mrs. FF produced the pack - she'd been behind me when I dropped it, she said at that point I was the happiest she had ever seen me!!! A sad indictment of the power of nicotine....

Like @slowmotion I can't get sanctimonious about it. When the day comes and I have some incurable ailment, I shall probably start smoking again....

 

[Teamfixed]

I started and stopped in 1976 when I got caught behind the Metal workshop at school. I only escaped the cane due to my previous exemplary record

 

[fossyant]

Well done all. My mum gave up a few years ago in her early 70's having smoked all her life. She wasn't a big smoker but still had five or so a day. BIL also packed up a few years ago, and now vapes. He keeps the habit to popping out into the garden for a puff, or popping out of the pub (when we could go to pubs).

All good, as it's a very damaging habit. FIL got away with being a very heavy smoker until he was 79, then the big C arrived in Stage 4 with a big growth pressing on his main wind pipe. Didn't last very long from discovery.

Well done all

 

[Smokin Joe]

Bloody hell, I just looked it up and a pack of fags is twelve quid now. Tobacco's fifteen quid an ounce. How is anybody still smoking?

Nine and a half for 20 B&H.

I smoke ten a day tops, but then I don't drink. How much does a regular pub goer spend per week?

 

[HarryTheDog]

I gave up 10 years ago after many many attempts over several years. I am however addicted to nicotine and use a e-cig.
On another tack a old friend of mine who has had money difficulties most of his adult life finally became solvent this year mainly due to the death of his parents and could look forward to a comfortable retirement only to be given his own long term death sentance from COPD, 3 months after his parents funeral, a adult life spent smoking.

 

[Adam4868]

I can't remember when I stopped over 10 years go though....still miss it ! I look at someone smoking and think...wish it was good for you

 

[Drago]

How much does a regular pub goer spend per week?

Zero at the moment due to Covid.

Can't wait for the pub to reopen (if indeed it ever does) so i can have my lunchtime Guinness with my dawg.

 

[dickyknees]

A massive hangover after the 5th Test, Old Trafford 1981 I gave up 25 to 30 a day habit.
Don’t miss it at all, smell is revolting.

 

[Moodyman]

That first cig in the morning, the one after a nice meal, the one to go with an espresso, the one at work that cleared the brain fog, the last one before bedtime, the one before getting into the car for a long drive.

Gosh, I miss them all. It's been 17.5 years.

 

[byegad]

Both my parents smoked, at least 30/ day each, often many more. All my childhood photos which have my parents in them show a cigarette in their hands.
The smell, I nearly said stink, and mess always put me off, and neither I nor my sister have ever smoked.
I have asthma and blame my constant, for 18 childhood years, exposure for causing it.
Even going out meant returning with hair and clothes impregnated with that stink, until the ban on smoking in pubs, shops and restaurants came into force.
We'd stopped going anywhere where we'd get exposed to smoke, but after the ban we returned to theatres, cinemas and restaurants, and it's so nice to go home not stinking of someone else's 'pleasure'.
I like a drink but don't litter the countryside with empties, nor do I piss on other people.

 

[raleighnut]

There are a lot of blackmarket cigarettes out there.

A lot less in England these days.