effective, kind of sort of

greetings

possibly one of those posts that has some practical value to it then. but, well, do please note that i made a conscious decision to use the word possibly, look you see. for those in a rush, or simply wishing to know what and avoid any needless suspense, the use of some of that nicotine gum stuff instead of actual, real, proper cigarettes. cigarettes, of course, picked up by duty free or off of an independent importer and distributor, since our tw@t government has made it clear they don't want us to buy them legally no more. 

as a frame of reference, or to set a scene, it was recently (see most posts of late but particular emphasis on this one) that i was in a position where i could not smoke. yes, smoking is very bad for you, seek help to quit, don't start, and so forth. moving on, it was that i could not smoke for rather prolonged periods, in particular two (2) stints of over 18 hours each. oh dear. if you didn't click on the link (don't blame you) it was due to me being on one of them plane things, the ones that i had vowed not to use again. 

not that many people what know me would bother to comment on me, instead rather (wisely) concentrating on the idea of not knowing me. the select few who would are likely to suggest that a defining characteristic of me is that i smoke, or that every now and then i stop to take in some regular air as a slight break from inhaling cigarette smoke. it would be that they were rather fascinated with how i would cope with not being able to do so for such a long time, and exactly how many of my fellow passengers would survive this. options for the safety of other passengers were considered.

most people suggested nicotine patches. those who had similar experiences had used them and said they were excellent at getting one through. i was assured these were available gratis off of our NHS, and all one had to do was go to a chemist (pharmacy) and request them. as it turned out they actually make it quite the f*** on to get them, so no. with vaping out (i didn't like it when i tried it anyhow) i procured what you can see above, which is no not the newly acquired Bowie coasters but the nicorette nicotine gum. 

i had every intention of giving it a try before i flew. however, this did not happen. sheer laziness perhaps, or maybe something more constructive, like assuming if i tried it and didn't like it this would make the flight (anticipation of and actual) more stressful. leaving it to a situation where it was the only choice and theoretically had to do made sense. not every decision i make which would appear to make sense to me makes actual sense, true. but, still. 

unexpectedly, but partially anticipated, i did not actually feel like smoking on the flights. there's the whole psychology of it, i suppose, of how when you know that you can't your mind is sort of at peace in not doing so, and going without cigarettes for an insane number of hours was, overall, a very small price to pay for such a wonderful trip. also, i did smoke an entire pack before the first flight over the needless distress around that visa which isn't a visa. 

yet still i tried some of this gum. obviously not the packet (or strip) on display above. my thinking was that the closer we got to landing, etc, the more likely it was that i would commence some form of craving for a cigarette (or two), and so decided to try it as a pre-preemptive strike thing. it has been a fair bit of time since i have had any form of gum, but to my mind (or rather taste) this seemed like just a regular, normal gum. as in i wasn't immediately aware of any nicotine being present. certainly no burning or stinging feeling. a difficult one to test, really. there would be no point giving some to a fellow smoker to see what they thought as they'd be like me, and giving it to a non-smoker who happened to like gum anyway would bring the risk of getting them addicted to nicotine. i would suggest, though, that the yellow like mush the gum turns into gives every indication that oh yes, some nicotine was very much present. 

oh, yes, now i remember, i did give some of this gum (an entire strip) to a fellow smoker. whilst sat in the smoking area at Dubai airport i got chatting to a nice bloke off of Austria. or was it the Danish bloke or the German fellow. well, anyway, he asked how i got on with no smoking on the flight, and i told him about the gum. it was not something he had heard of, so i gave him a strip to try and wished him well on his travels. yes he reciprocated with the wishes. 

the provenance of my nicorette gum? it was on sale for £10, which i think is about half of the usual retail price. vaguely seem to recall i got it off of Superdrug, but it might have been one of them supermarket things. each square i chewed (or what you do with gum) lasted well over an hour. 

for what it's worth, if i was ever going to quit (!) or cut down considerably on cigarettes, i really rather suspect this gum stuff would do the job. had i any sense, or will for self preservation, i would probably commence such an experiment now. but, it's me, so no. good luck to all of those who wish to try this approach to achieve that, and maybe this has helped. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!