Lost Track!

I’ve now lost track of my quit smoking blog/ how long it is since I quit smoking. I logged into WordPress to see if I had mentioned what a nightmare the mobile phone company Three is (which I haven’t but it’s late at night so I’ll post it in the next couple of days, along with the reasons not to have an account with XLN Telecom).

Anyway, back on topic……… It’s been a couple of months or so now, I’m not even sure without checking my quit smoking blog dates and as far as I’m concerned, I really am a non-smoker now. No cravings, no desire whatsoever to smoke cigarettes (or any other tobacco product), regardless of whether I am stressed, around other smokers, bored, driving a long distance, or any of the other things that used to trigger the smoker response in me.

I’ve quit, full stop.

Many thanks to my friend who recommended using hypnotherapy to quit smoking, and of course many thanks to Gary Oke of Oke Hypnotherapy in Manchester for helping/making me quit smoking.

24 days but not actually counting!

I actually have to check this blog to see how long it is since I quit smoking!

Probably the two hardest times when you give up smoking are Christmas and New Year. Christmas came and went, no problem at all, not even the traditional cigar and brandy (though I admit to the Brandy!).

It’s New Year’s Eve tonight and, despite spending the evening at a party where approx a third of the people there smoke and one of them has recently come back from abroad with duty free cigarettes, I’m quietly confident. Maybe I should have asked the hypnotherapist who helped me quit smoking for some business cards to take to the party!

Menkind

The name sounds like something dodgy but in fact, it’s a gadget type retailer.

My wife placed an order online for a handful of gift solutions for those we hadn’t got to as we weren’t due to see the people until New Year. Their website happily took the card payment and claimed the goods would arrive last Tuesday. Obviously from the wording so far, they didn’t turn up on Tuesday or Wednesday, I have a day off today (Thursday) and tomorrow is New Year’s day. I have too much to do to wait in so my wife called Menkind to ask where the order was and if it was likely to be delivered today.

What a great service (sarcasm!), their website didn’t mention that half the items are out of stock, they decided to save money on delivery by holding the rest of the items until the new stock arrives. When asked how much longer it would be, the reply was “hard to say, it could be weeks”. Needless to say, she cancelled the order, the refund had better turn up within one working day too or there will be hell to pay. My wife then left work in a shopping panic and went to the Arndale Centre in Manchester where, to add insult to injury, it turns out that Menkind now have a shop! Why the hell didn’t the muppet on the phone mention this????

Guess where I won’t be shopping for gadgets and silly gifts next Christmas?

17 Days now

A bit of a shortage of posts on my quit smoking blog compared to how I thought it would read (I expected lots of bitching, tantrums, and the occassional cigarette!).

Why the lack of posts on this blog? Quite simply, I’ve had little or none of the above. I think I’ve only felt what could be deemed a craving twice now in over two weeks and those disappeared pretty much immediately. I’ve had no slip-ups, not even a drag of a cigarette. I know you can’t really say that you’re a quit smoker until you’ve been smoke free for 12 months but I really feel that I am a non-smoker. Hypnotherapy …………….. who’d of thought it eh?

Vodafone (Retail)

I’ve left this post uncategorized as it was originally going to be a positive post, but then something came to light to wreck my positive experience with Vodafone. One I’ve been back to their store, I’ll decide on which category this best fits!

So, the good bit. I’ve been looking around at mobile broadband deals. The problem is, I have no idea what my usage will be so I started to look at pay as you go. However, as expected, PAYG is a bit expensive compared to being on contract. The most annoying thing though with PAYG is that any bandwidth you haven’t used at the end of the month cancels! Cheeky b*******!

Vodafone, were advertising PAYG mobile broadband that doesn’t expire after 30 days. Therefore, I decided this would be a decent one to go for and use for a few months so that I can then assess exactly how big (or small) a contract I require. I went into the Vodafone store in Market Street, Manchester. Went to the counter, double checked about the expiration of PAYG broadband, asked for the dongle…… all done and out of the store in under 2 minutes! Fantastic I thought, especially as the store was pretty busy at the time, but also the fact that he didn’t try to talk me into a contract or blind me with a million and one options as happened when I asked the same question at Three and T Mobile.

All good?…….. um, no……… maybe the shop assistant should have taken a moment longer to ask me one simple question. A couple of days after buying it, my wife called and said “quick go to this website and enter the competition on there”, so I typed in the URL and……….. couldn’t visit the site. Why? because Vodafone deemed the site to be for over 18’s and the dongle is blocked to such sites. I query this with them and apparently, I have to take it back to the store and have it unblocked, of course with ID to prove I’m over 18. So, why the **** didn’t the guy save me a lot of time and sort it there and then? I’m pretty pissed about this but will add to this post after Christmas when I’ve had a chance to go back to the Vodafone store to sort it.

Quit Smoking Blog Days 4-7

I forgot to post on here for a few days. It’s only because I signed into my WordPress account to do a short review of Gizoo (see in the positive category) that I remembered my smoking blog.

Here’s the weird reason why – I’ve almost completely forgotten about smoking and cigarettes! Even when out drinking with friends last night, some of whom still smoke, I quite simply forgot. I think I really am a non-smoker now, unlike the times when I’ve tried to quit smoking with willpower or patches etc, I don’t really think about it.

The hypnotherapist also recorded the session to CD so that I could “top-up” but I haven’t even used this, in fact I forgot about it until I was typing this post.

OK, it is only a week since I quit smoking so it is still early days yet but I’ve never felt like this before.

Online Gadget Shopping

I forgot about this company until the other day when I decided to buy a digital tyre compressor and checked their price/specs against all the obvious places to buy one.

If you like your gadgets then gizoo rock!. Great prices, great ideas/products and an excellent service! Delivery charges are also reasonable, free if your order is £30 or more.

Day 3/Messed Up!

I actually forgot about smoking until I started my PC up at home and automatically came to the login page for my blog!

Halfords – having a laugh with their prices!

Let me summarise the background to this post. A few months ago, my wife and I decided that we could manage with “normal” cars as opposed to SUVs. We now have a couple of very boring Vauxhall Vectras. Anyway, a few weeks ago, both of them blew a headlight bulb the same day (what are the odds on that?!).

We overslept the next day and the local auto parts shop closed at lunchtime (it was a Sunday). Rather than drive miles, I decided to go to our local Halfords for the bulbs. I was a bit gobsmacked they wanted £12 each for the bulbs, I was expecting them to be about £6-£8 each. The assistant wrote on one of the packages to show which car was which as we have different models and, despite me mentioning the fact the headlights appeared to be identical, the shop assistant was convinced they were 2 different bulbs (forgot to mention, at this point one of them was about £10).

So, I got home to find that indeed I was correct and the headlights were identical. I fitted the bulb in my wifes car and then drove back to Halfords to change the other one. The shop assistant (different one to before), tried to refuse an exchange as, apparently, I had written on the packaging. I explained the other assistant had done this and then I paid the difference and left with the correct bulb. The assistant offered to fit it for me so I said “might as well, it’s cost me £12, to which he replied “it’s not free, it costs £4 to fit it”. You’re having a laugh right? Changing a bulb in a Vectra takes like 45 seconds! I refused, changed the bulb and then drove home.

Typically, and commonly, today my wife’s other headlight bulb blew. So, I went down to the parts shop I would normally go to and bought the same bulb I had recently purchased for £12 at Halfords. The cost…. FIVE POUNDS! and, had I driven there in my wife’s car, thet would have fitted it for free!

I’ve known for a long time that Halfords is very expensive but I had no idea just how expensive until this experience. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t know how to fit a bulb and could end up paying a total of £16 for a bulb/fitting that a decent independent supplier would do for not much over 30% of Halfords price. I know where I won’t be shopping again!

Quit Smoking – Page 2 of the Strange Brainwashing

Another late at night post!

Today (yesterday now), was Day 2 of my life as a non-smoker since quitting smoking with hypnotherapy, which I originally thought was a crock of ****

Up until about 2pm today, smoking had not even crossed my mind apart from the occasional “I would normally be smoking now” thought. At approx 2pm, I had a really weird moment. I thought I felt a nicotene craving but then when I focussed on the feeling thinking “am I having a craving”, it disappeared! I think my hypnotherapist brainwashed me!

Approx an hour later, the proverbial hit the fan at work with a big problem. Sorting out the solution was down to me and a couple of my former “smoking break” friends. They went out for a smoke and asked me to join them to which I replied “no thanks, I don’t smoke” and felt an odd sense of pride in saying this. By the time they returned from their (allegedly) stress relieving cigarette, I had actually solved the problem. This made me feel even more proud.

Based on my past experiences of trying to quit smoking, today has been a very weird day. In the past, the problems at work would have caused me to start again. I also slept better last night and woke up fresher than usual this morning. I think my brain has been completely reprogrammed!.

Well, it’s only 2 days so time will tell but I do feel really positive about being a non-smoker.