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Author Topic: Former smokers experience  (Read 16136 times)

mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #40 on: January 21, 2012, 07:46:30 am »

I still drink Coke though, but only because rum isn't drinkable with anything else. Thank heavens I don't drink coffee, it's an addiction all by itself.

I drink Mt Gay with water, raw or brown sugar, and a squeeze of lime (no, lemon does not work); you can even stick in a sprig of mint if you are trying to impress somebody! Buy one or two bottles a year. Don’t try this with low-grade rum. $2.50 Orstralian chardonnay is however my particular bête noir!
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Rob C

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #41 on: January 21, 2012, 04:43:08 pm »

I still drink Coke though, but only because rum isn't drinkable with anything else. Thank heavens I don't drink coffee, it's an addiction all by itself.



Hmmm... according to the guy in the bar at the Bacardi factory some years ago (unless I remember wrongly), cola is an insult to Bacardi; at the very most (he said), use tonic. (I had better write cola for obvious marketing reasons and just in case my memory of the incident was indeed flawed.)

I learned from experiment that a BeeGee is very nice, too, especially with Bacardi Gold. That's a Bacardi-and-ginger. Damn, wish I hadn't found Medium's post - reminds me of what I miss! I also learned from experience that if Gold is unobtainable at a handy supplier near you, you can manufacture it yourself in the average man's kitchen: simply mix in some brown sugar or treacle. I suppose that the brown sugar will be the more readily available option for that average man.

Rob C (in forced abstinence)

mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #42 on: January 21, 2012, 05:07:02 pm »

You could add point no.7: bad breath. It repels people.

Rob C

I was on a bus last week when a chap in his 20s got on and sat behind me. The tobacco reek was enough for me to change my seat.
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Rob C

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #43 on: January 21, 2012, 06:11:41 pm »

I was on a bus last week when a chap in his 20s got on and sat behind me. The tobacco reek was enough for me to change my seat.


I believe you. I almost gave up my favourite bar where I dined most lunchtimes because of that. Trouble was, before they banned it in bars totally, there was no practical choice: it was the same everywhere. I even began to sit by open windows where the draught was chilling the food. Now, that bar has changed hands and the new broom has swept not so much clean as poor, I never go there now. Amazing how someone can take over a popular place and, because they want to up their market a bit, they lose the clients that already existed. In this particular case, the problem was that the new owner was a younger, business girl and not a real cook. The prices remained much the same, but the quality dived even though everything looks prettier. You can`t eat through your eyes alone...

On the bright side, such experiences have made me learn to cook a lot better than I could before.

No, I don't want to run a bar! I promise!

Rob C

grhazelton

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #44 on: January 21, 2012, 06:28:18 pm »


(snip)

The prices remained much the same, but the quality dived even though everything looks prettier. You can`t eat through your eyes alone...

On the bright side, such experiences have made me learn to cook a lot better than I could before.

No, I don't want to run a bar! I promise!

Rob C

I remember a restaurant in the small West Virginia town where my father was professor of chemical engineering.  The place had been in operation for many years and had a good clientele.  The food was uniformly good; the pies were phenomonal, the best I've ever had in any restaurant.  The proprietor decided to sell.  The new owners closed the restaurant for "remodelling."   When it reopened in three months the cook and most of the other staff had either left or been "let go." 

The result was yet another "chi-chi" place with ferns everwhere, and barely adequate food.  Former clientele gave it a try, but...there were other choices.  The "new look" lasted maybe six months.
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mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #45 on: January 21, 2012, 09:13:48 pm »

On the bright side, such experiences have made me learn to cook a lot better than I could before.

I learned to cook early, as Ms Right never appeared. There were a few Ms Near Enough/Perhaps Nots.

No, I don't want to run a bar! I promise!

Let me know if you change your mind, and I’ll be over there in a flash to have a couple with you! Costa Del Plenty?  ;D
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Rob C

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #46 on: January 22, 2012, 04:41:11 am »

I learned to cook early, as Ms Right never appeared. There were a few Ms Near Enough/Perhaps Nots.

Let me know if you change your mind, and I’ll be over there in a flash to have a couple with you! Costa Del Plenty?  ;D


Running bars in Spain has been a short, sharp, expensive lesson for many expats here; it takes a hell of a lot of determination, capital, charm and willingness to work into the wee wee hours for it to succeed. Many thought it a quick route to becoming millionaires: to them, I recommend Euromilliones, which I still try...

Transfer of ownership is an ongoing business here: one guy takes on the lease and when he fails he tries to pass it on to the next chap in the queue; sometimes, they just do an undignified runner, hours before the heavy squad calls to say hello...

It seem to me to be a paradox: folks (foreigners) come here to enjoy the difference; why would they want to feel 'at home' when they go out for a drink? Rather negates all that travel, I'd have thought. Yet, scores of them do: always at least one bar where all the voices are a variation on English; how effing sad is that?

Rob C

 
« Last Edit: January 22, 2012, 04:43:08 am by Rob C »
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mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #47 on: January 22, 2012, 05:32:31 am »

It seem to me to be a paradox: folks (foreigners) come here to enjoy the difference; why would they want to feel 'at home' when they go out for a drink? Rather negates all that travel, I'd have thought. Yet, scores of them do: always at least one bar where all the voices are a variation on English; how effing sad is that?

Rob C

So long as it’s not full of Ocker expats drinking VB (yuck). Apparently parts of Asia (particularly Philippines) are full of Aussies gone native, enjoying both the exchange rate and local ladies. A new colonialism.

Give me a Singha over almost any Australian lager. James Squire is good though, and a few boutique breweries.

But the *home away from home* syndrome is an ancient one: imagine a Roman lady wanting to check out quaint local handicrafts in Britannia, while her husband tries to find somewhere to have a decent red wine or three, and not have to deal with primitives! Of course, this was never possible in Caledonia!  :D
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fredjeang

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #48 on: January 22, 2012, 06:59:36 am »

I think that all the discussions about the most/least effective means to quit often is a nicotine-brain excuse to put off the actual quitting. Remember, the brain is addicted to the stimulation nicotine delivers and will do nearly anything to defeat your efforts. Just don't put it off. Quit now for two hours. Then quit again for three hours. Then for a day. Two days. Etc. Learn to laugh at what your brain concocts as excuses to go back. It can be amazingly creative. Once you know its tricks for what they actually are you won't be as easily fooled.

A few tips to help you quit:
1. Quit drinking. Brains love quitters to drink. So much easier for it to get its way.
2. Replace the 1st cig of the day with a decent breakfast. That's to replace the stimulation of nicotine your brain craves with a slower, but effective supply of energy.
3. Don't socialize with smokers for awhile. Their brains also have a vested interest in seeing you fail.
4. Replace "I'm trying to quit" with "I don't smoke" or "I don't smoke anymore". See #3 above.
5. Realize that virtually no tobacco executives smoke and their marketing efforts are the best ever devised.
6. Calculate the actual yearly (non-health) costs to you of smoking. Cost of tobacco plus additional health/life insurance premiums. Then pick out a nice gift to yourself or your family you can now afford after six months or a year.

Thanks for the usefull tips.

But, hey, Here, and it was the same in France too, many doctors used to smoke, and not just a few/day but a lot. I knew many doctors who where-are heavy smokers. Why is so?
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mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #49 on: January 22, 2012, 08:33:57 am »

Doctors can be just as stupid as the rest of us.

“Do as I say, not as I do” has been around for a very long time.
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Rob C

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #50 on: January 22, 2012, 09:26:50 am »

“Do as I say, not as I do” has been around for a very long time.



I believe it was first coined by a Jesuit, many many moons ago.

During my two heart-attack sojourns in hospital, I used to lie in my room trying to cope with the stink of smoke coming into it from the room across the passage that was used by the nursing staff as a recreation centre... Almost all of them, mainly female, smoked. Today, many males have abandoned the habit here, but the incidence of young girls taking it up seems very high. Who'd have thought they would be so daft - I always credited girls with more advanced brains than males have. For a start, they are less obsessed with balls, a useful early indicator. But obviously not an infallible one.

Rob C

Rob C

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #51 on: January 22, 2012, 04:48:17 pm »

Who needed nicotine to have a 'problem'? When the hell's my PS computer coming home!

Rob C

Riaan van Wyk

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #52 on: January 24, 2012, 03:50:25 am »

I drink Mt Gay with water, raw or brown sugar, and a squeeze of lime (no, lemon does not work); you can even stick in a sprig of mint if you are trying to impress somebody! Buy one or two bottles a year. Don’t try this with low-grade rum. $2.50 Orstralian chardonnay is however my particular bête noir!

Reminds me of the low grade rum found in Mozambique, mixed with raspberry cooldrink and plenty ice. Vile and cheap stuff (it's sold in plastic bottles with a dodgy label) but damn it tastes good.

mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #53 on: January 24, 2012, 04:04:12 am »

Reminds me of the low grade rum found in Mozambique, mixed with raspberry cooldrink and plenty ice. Vile and cheap stuff (it's sold in plastic bottles with a dodgy label) but damn it tastes good.

Sounds like Australia’s Bundaberg Rum (sugar cane country in Queensland).

All you have to do is love the one one you’re with!
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Riaan van Wyk

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #54 on: January 24, 2012, 04:06:51 am »

Hmmm... according to the guy in the bar at the Bacardi factory some years ago (unless I remember wrongly), cola is an insult to Bacardi; at the very most (he said), use tonic. Rob C (in forced abstinence)

You often hear that said about whiskey too Rob. I attended an interesting whiskey tasting evening once ( actually three times for work) where the presenters noted the popularity in Europe of a cooldrink called "Iron Brew" as a mix for whiskey.

mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #55 on: January 24, 2012, 04:43:04 am »

You often hear that said about whiskey too Rob. I attended an interesting whiskey tasting evening once ( actually three times for work) where the presenters noted the popularity in Europe of a cooldrink called "Iron Brew" as a mix for whiskey.

Aye, it’s Scottish, so that’s OK.

An old friend, who I haven’t had a drink with for years, used to drink Scotch with lemonade (and he was born a Scot). I shuddered, and offered ice, water or even dry ginger, but he was adamant. Irn-Bru seems to be an orange-coloured bevvie, containing industrial colours that would keep wee kiddies up for weeks! But it ain’t Sassenach!
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Bryan Conner

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #56 on: January 24, 2012, 11:00:09 am »

I quit smoking 16 years ago.  I had smoked for 10 years prior to this.  I had "quit" smoking to previous times, each time lasted a couple of months or so.  What made me successful the third time?  Well, I technically did not quit smoking, I simply stopped buying cigarettes.  I would smoke one only when I could bum one.  All of my smoker friends started avoiding me like the plague.  A lot of the time, the smoker who would give me a cigarette would smoke something vile, such as a Picayune, a Camel No Filter etc.  Or, it would be a menthol, and I was a non-menthol smoker.  This, combined with the embarrassment of begging, eventually weaned me from "needing" a smoke.  But, 16 years later, when someone lights a cigarette and I smell it, my mouth almost waters.  I can remember how wonderful that first drag of a fresh cigarette was.  I know that I will never smoke again.  I know that if I smoke one, I will have to fight that battle again to keep a plant product from reigning over my life.  I am too smart for that.
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mediumcool

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #57 on: January 24, 2012, 04:56:14 pm »

I quit smoking 16 years ago.  I had smoked for 10 years prior to this.  I had "quit" smoking to previous times, each time lasted a couple of months or so.  What made me successful the third time?  Well, I technically did not quit smoking, I simply stopped buying cigarettes.  I would smoke one only when I could bum one.  All of my smoker friends started avoiding me like the plague.  A lot of the time, the smoker who would give me a cigarette would smoke something vile, such as a Picayune, a Camel No Filter etc.  Or, it would be a menthol, and I was a non-menthol smoker.  This, combined with the embarrassment of begging, eventually weaned me from "needing" a smoke.  But, 16 years later, when someone lights a cigarette and I smell it, my mouth almost waters.  I can remember how wonderful that first drag of a fresh cigarette was.  I know that I will never smoke again.  I know that if I smoke one, I will have to fight that battle again to keep a plant product from reigning over my life.  I am too smart for that.

I used to be so superior to smokers—I had taken up and abandoned the habit on the same day, when I was about 5! But as I watched a TV documentary about addiction on Australia’s ABC network (similar to the BBC) c20 years ago, I realised how tough it could be to try to stop. Understanding further enhanced by talking to a woman who had given up up 20 years earlier: “Do you miss them?” “Every day” was the reply.
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Rob C

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Re: Former smokers experience
« Reply #58 on: January 25, 2012, 04:36:05 am »

How odd to miss tobacco!

I have no desire to start smoking ever again; I detest being in the same room as anyone smoking, and lighting up in a non-smoker's home or car must rank amongst the worst insults one can offer.

The idea struck me that one could carry a small bunch of dry leaves in a side-pocket, along with a box of matches or a Zippo, and return the compliment in the offender's home by taking out the aforementioned props and setting ablaze the one with the other, preferrably upon the host's best table. I doubt they'd see the joke.

My PS computer is still AWOL, but a man came yesterday and fitted wifi and additional tv channels. I can now watch tv with the added distraction of flickering lights on yet another piece of technical equipment I don't really want to look at at all. Meanwhile, back in the office, my monitor boasts a modified row of flickering "ADSL" and "Modify message -..." boxes at the bottom, where once they remained steady and non-distracting. Why?  Because during a conversation with the girl in the telephone shop (Telefonica) I mentioned my angst at paying an unlimited use rate for ADSL at home, and also seperately for its use on the cellphone, and tried to explain that I was unlikely to be using them both at the same time... she looked at my bills and then told me that she could send a chap around to give me more for less. So, here I am: more flickers and, possibly, lower telephone bills in the future. As I have noted in the past, things often improve without getting any better.

Oh well, time to exit the house and face the world.

Ciao

Rob C
« Last Edit: January 25, 2012, 04:52:41 am by Rob C »
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