A Grubby Little Pastime
Looking back on my time as a smoker
When the then chancellor Gordon Brown raised the price of ten cigarettes to £1.30 in his 1998 budget statement, young Joseph drew a line in the sand and said no more. Being an old hand at quitting, I expected this latest attempt to fail like all the others, as cravings would pick at my resolve like vultures pick at carrion until I caved in and grabbed the Zippo.
But I got through that first day, aided by a robust hangover and a packet of Jolly Ranchers hard candy. I kept it up, and smoke-free days turned into weeks, months and then years. Here we are, a quarter of a century later, and I’m still freed from the weed, as they say. Acknowledgment of my efforts came during a medical check-up a few years ago, when, after sounding my chest, the doctor’s proclamation was clear as a bell.
If Rishi Sunak succeeds with his plan to introduce a bill that would see UK residents born after 2009 banned from buying cigarettes, a whole generation of smoke-free children will grow up, and my doctor’s campanology analogy will be the stock response to a going over with the stethoscope.
A born-again-breather
Aside from the substantial health and financial benefits of quitting smoking, when reflecting on my former habit through the eyes and lungs of a…
