h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Skankyrich

I think most of them round here have a back, two sides and a roof, so that's good news! Now can we have fag ploice like they've got in Edinburgh to stop people throwing butts on the floor please? I'm sure that will get worse once everyone is standing around pub doorways.

For a moment, I was imagining flatfish wandering the gutters of Edinburgh...

Here's a question.

Tonight, I had a stressful night. Due to staff shortages, I had to work a frantic shift in the restaurant. Normally there is one person doing the seating of the 140-odd new arrivals, but I had to do that and 'float' (picking up odd tables for busy staff) as well as keep an eye on and train two new girls that started tonight.

When it's that busy, I go outside at the end and have a quiet few minutes with a cigarette to get my head together. It gets rid of the stress and gives me time to think about the next bit of the job.

What does everyone else do at times like this?

I go outside and have a quiet few minutes with a cigarette to get my head together... but actually I have realised (in my head, not my lungs) that it is the 'going outside' and perhaps the deep inhalations that do the trick, not the cigarette, per se.

Maybe.

That's one 'have a smoke' then

If it helps any, when my Auntie was trying to give up,she took some Yoga lessons and the deep breathing exercises simulated the sensation of smoking - she managed to stop, anyhow.

I tend to get myself to a window, open it and take deep breaths of air.

Or if it's very bad, have a few extra mins locked in the loo where no-one can get to me while I calm down (but the first way is nicer)

Jules

Thrive. Because I prefer to work in a busy environment. When I've had nothing to do - I was starved of work in my last office job - my head explodes and I behave badly.

I do sometimes do something that looks like this , no really, it does look like that, when I've had to deal with J in one of his moods.

A dram
Or I find my comfiest chair and curl up in it with a large cushion.
Or I go for a walk.

It rather depends on the circumstances. However, I'd say that the is probably #1

I go get a from the canteen, or a from the machine, or a from machine, depending on the office that I'm working in.

It's the getting away from the desk that does the trick though, not the , or .

Paff

A walk around the building, if it really gets that bad.

Usually I just reason it out, and realise it resolves itself.

That's why I get clobbered by depression.

Not letting anything out or showing emotion.

Maybe I should smoke again

yep, me too - a walk around the building

two if it's a particularly stressful day

I love it being busy too, Mina - it's when the franticness stops that I feel the need to smoke. If I could stay busy ad infinitum, I probably wouldn't feel the need to smoke.

Reading your replies, I probably do all of them (except the yoga and hiding in the loo). It's just that I smoke while I'm doing them. So it's just another habit cigarette, really - it doesn't do anything for me that I wouldn't be getting anyway.

I have been lapsing a bit, though. I'm back in the teens again every day, when my target is single figures. Still, this afternoon I did hate myself quite a lot for starting to smoke more again, so I must be fairly serious about cutting down.

Well I think even if you are creeping up into the teens that you've demonstrated a desire to give up-ish, and that it will be alright in the end. For sure what you're smoking now seems to be a great reduction on what you said you were smoking in the past - 60 a day? How did you fit them all in?

Rich, you smoke roll-ups don't you? So, unless I'm mistaken about the health 'benefits', ciggies in the teens is probably worth single figures if you were smoking them out of a packet?

Paff

That was on the worst days, GD; I think 40-45 was probably closer to the average day. I didn't realise I smoked quite that much, until I found I was having one before doing anything - I couldn't even phone my Mum without sparking up first. Being here at the PC is the work, I pretty much chain-smoked here until last week.

I'm not sure about the relative benefits of rollies, Paff. There's a shorter filter and you smoke every bit of tobacco, whereas with a 'normal' one much of it drifts away. There are less added chemicals, and I do feel a lot worse after a normal ciggie, but I don't think there's a lot in it.

You need something else to do with your hands. I recommend knitting a scarf, or cross-stitching all the name places for the wedding reception, or even all the invitations! Start now, because it does take a long time, and before long you won't want to smoke because it'll make the aida grubby and you can never get it washed properly.

I thought about everyone's post stress calming down techniques, and this morning after service I sat by the pond in the wildlife garden with a glass of milk and some chewing gum. So that's another habit cigarette gone, and it's all thanks to you guys

In fact, I've just finished a seven hour shift and I haven't had a single cigarette all day. Not one. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to have one very soon, as not smoking is giving me an odd headache. I'll just catch up with the threads first. Then a little subbing. If I keep busy, I might go another hour yet...

Good going, Rich!

You know that devil voice in the head you hear when you start remember how long it's been since you last drew deep on a butt? Yeah, that one. I swear I got so freaked out by it the first time I tried to quit. I thought I was losing my mind. Hearing voices? I mean, that's serious sick people stuff, right? Little did I know

Now I treat it like a nagging voice and when it starts off on me, I roll my eyes and go all teenagey at it. That mostly works. I still smoke but much less than I have done in the distant past.

Imposing rules on the smoking has helped me keep in a box, too. No smoking where it can even be smelled indoors. No smoking around kids or young people. Now that Trog has quit, I don't smoke around him and I do a total oral springclean after each cig... Makes it a complete pain to smoke. I still just want to quit. Like Trog dos. Makes meso angry that he can do that and I can't. Grounds for divorce, I reckon

Good luck with it, Rich. Be well.

W