We’re hoping to start our East Anglian adventure in a brand spanking new city-centre designer pad with a high spec and low bills: a six month probation while we try the city on for size.
Ancient Norwic is a young person’s university city with a vibrant crowd and a thriving arts scene; these old nags aren’t quite ready for the knacker’s yard just yet. I’ve chucked my old floppy slippers in the bin. Now they were knackered. Ironically, I bought my first ever pair of slippers in the Bodrum branch of Marks and Sparks, a soft shoe shuffle designed to keep my little tootsies warm during the challenging Bodrum winters.
We’ve been struggling to become a fag-free family, frequently falling off the wagon, usually after a session on the sauce. This time, things will be different. We’re determined to kick the filthy habit (famous last words, I hear you mutter at the back). The £8 a packet price tag would drive us into the greasy hands of Blighty loan sharks. Yes, my friends, times have changed. They’ll be no pipe and slippers for us in our new gaff.
Perking the Pansies 
Good luck. We both stopped our 30 to 40 a day lark back in 2007.
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Well done. Fingers crossed for us!
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You kept those slippers very quiet while you were here.
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Out of embarrassment!
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£8 a packet!! Wow, that is steep. I am always shocked at the price of things in the UK, though I wouldn’t know about cigarettes. Good luck with becoming fag-free! (Norwich sounds nice).
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It’s lovely. Apart from fags, prices in England aren’t that much higher than Turkey. It’s the recessionary effect, I assume.
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Good for you.
I smoked for over 30 years. I quit cold turkey, strangely deciding to do it when the entire city was snowed under during a blizzard. That was 10 years ago, and I never looked back.
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Amazing. We’re using patches. Do you occasionally crave a cancer stick?
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Nope. I never think about it. I personally think cold turkey is the way to go. The first week is killer, but then it gets easy.
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Two dirty habits kicked at once? I fear a reactionary increase in the consumption of the sauce (although I guess that would also require you to sell your soul, after Turkey prices).
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Sauce bottle still in place. Surprisingly, the price of alcohol in Turkey is more or less the same as the UK. Oh, for Spanish prices!
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. . feet up on a pouffe then? 😉
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Absolutely!
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I think you’re going to miss the blue skies of Bodrum ….
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Already am!
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I have stopped the fags as well Jack, although have an occasional one, every blue moon and still enjoy a smoke. last one was about 5 weeks ago, now I am a non-smoker I can occasional indulge and it is very much take it or leave it. my secret was never to say never again, not for everyone but it is the only thing that worked for me.
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I wish I could be just a social smoker. Alas,I think I would fail
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Smoking…blah! What a terrible habit. Yet, I can judge. It’s one I’ve had for years. I wish I knew the secret to quitting. My husband just crumpled up a pack of smokes three months ago, threw them in the trash, and proclaimed he was done. Me….not so much. I can’t seem to stop reaching for them, no matter how filthy and costly they are. If you find a trick that works, I’d sure love to hear it. Good luck, my friend!
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The whole thing’s a pain in the arse. Trouble is I like to smoke but these days it’s expensive and people make you feel like a social pariah. What is a boy to do?
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The truth is, I could probably give up smoking if I could stay away from cocktails. Problem is, Pissy likes her booze and needs a cigarette in her hand to make a statement when she’s liquored up. Greta Garbo has nothing on me, Dahling….
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We have exactly the same problem. If we stayed off the sauce, we’d stay off the fags.
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I went cold turkey here in Turkey when they put that silly tax on in October – so finance was my reason too! I recommend cold turkey because, after all, it’s willpower that will do or die on this subject. I find spending my non-smoking money at the beginning of every month gives me the buzz to get me through. Oh, and I did stay in and off any variation of any tipple for the first 3 weeks … needs must! Good luck x
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They put up duty in Turkey last October and I stopped the same day cold turkey. I agree that cold turkey is the best, because it is at the end of the day your willpower that gets you through – the patches may help, but you too must’ve heard of people smoking whilst wearing them 🙂 But I must say that during my initial 3 weeks of cold turkey, there was no sauce, no tipple and only day-time socialising of the tea-and-coffee variety … good luck!
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