New life and old friends!

Well its been a long time fellow smokers and even fellow non-smokers. I hope you are all well and enjoying the atmosphere, be it smoggy or clear!
My life has changed quite alot I am still a disgruntled ex nhs worker and guess I always will be but I have moved on from that being in the forefront of my everyday life.
I moved back down to Somerset and am sharing a flat with a friend and working as a home care assistant out in the community so am pretty much my own boss out on my own driving around and for those that know me you will realise I am happy doing this as I am still getting to care for people that need help and support with a wide range of aspects of their lives, I could tell you many stories about it but obviously I cant on hear-client confidentiality-but they are all brilliant people and they have made me realise their is alot more to life than worrying and fighting all the time.....I definately did alot of that!
I am still puffing away although if any of my supervisors read this I dont of course smoke while I am driving around to clients houses :) lol.
I am heavily involved with the local cricket club that I have been a member of for 16 years now and do alot of work up there often followed by a few drinks in the local pub....best pub ever....if you are ever down this way try it ou 'The Manor Arms, North Perrott, Somerset. The food is to die for and the drink is good too.
I have made some good friends bacck down here and I would definately say I am a happy person again, puffing away, outside the pub and club of course.#
I do miss some of my friends from Basingstoke, one in particular, I think he will know who he is though, mentioning no names. I hope he is well and happy, I have no doubt that the staff he works with will still be fighting over who gets to work with him ;)
I have to go for now but I will be back, msn is calling me :) take care everyone!

A Long Time Puffing

Its been a long time since I posted on here but I am still supporting the battle of the ban! Unfortunately I had to move out of the hospital that shall remain nameless and have not had the free time and the access to the internet as I did before :(
I still visit the hospital when it is safe to do so to catch up with people and it is good to see the ban has not stopped people enjoying their nicotine and it is even more noticeable than it was before the ban when the smokers were all happily tucked away from the public eye-WELL DONE THE NHS!!!!
At this moment in time I am visiting someone in Bognor and I am pleased to say he is a smoker so I can happily enjoy the nicotine rush til my hearts content :)
As for my life at the moment-I could write a best seller based on the last 5 months (another reason why I have not been able to post) and maybe when the fight with the hospital is finished I will disclose the crazy world I have lived in which as my mate describes it is more colourful than Alice in wonderland on LSD!
I have to go now-grubs up and company is very good so I will try and blog very soon for those that may or may not be interested, enjoy the nicotine rushes and beat the ban
Bye 4 now

Take the bull by the horns or become lost sheep!

I have just been reading the recent posting the gasdoc has made on his site and I am in agreeance, alright my blogspot is pretty s**t but I am not going to deny that and I certainly dont profess to know all the facts-far from it! I have spent alot of my time on the computer at the hospital looking at different sites and god knows how many different forums and we do all want the same thing but we dont seem to be heading let alone facing in the right direction to actually get something done about it that will make a difference. I think that everyone is aware that we (smokers-against the ban) are out here but until we actually set upon wrestling them to the ground over it we are not going to get anywhere. We do need a leader to be defined and we need to set a proper structure in order to fulfill our quest. For example having seen a suggestion on one of the many websites that maybe we should have a smoke-a-thon i mentioned it to a few of my smoking friends who thought it was a brilliant idea and would be up for participating and asked about advertising it etc, I am sure I am not the only one who received the same response but is anything actually going to happen whether it is a smoke-a-thon or some other idea.
I emailed someone at forest about it saying I would be willing to help in any way I could but have never heard anything back. I have a lot of freetime on my hands at the moment and I feel like I should be doing something but I dont know what. We need someone to take the bull by the horns and organise something official because we will end up looking like lost sheep.
I too have struggled to find somewhere to eat or drink or both where I am allowed to smoke, and its becoming near enough impossible already-we do need a leader a set structure and we need to at the very least attempt to beat the anti-smokers!

Smoking Ban Heating Up

I have just read the newsletter from the smoking club and I cant believe that MPs are now saying that patio heaters should be banned as they pollute the air as well! I think they are getting too petty against us smokers. I think that Simon Clark from Forest is right and they cant atand the thought that we may actually survive in having to smoke outside and that the idea of a smoking ban is not going to stop us.
What is going to happen in the summer months when non-smokers decide they want to sit outside and eat their food and enjoy a drink? Are we going to be sent further afield to enjoy our nicotine? We cant smoke inside pubs or restaurants and I can see us struggling to smoke outside?
When I go out in town at night with friends I have yet to find a pub in the town centre that will allow you to take your drink outside with you, (not all pubs have a garden area especially in town centres) what do we do if we all smoke are our drinks going to be looked after by someone responsible we can trust, I will not feel happy leaving my drink on a table for someone to spike my dink-potantially.
Also there is enough trouble in town at nights (especially weekends) with fights etc when people are going from one pub to the next without increasing the amount of alcohol filled people outside pubs and clubs...the police struggle to deal with the trouble now let alone when the smoking ban comes into force!
I feel our government have not thought about the logistics of their ludicrous actions but I dont suppose many (if not any) of them are likely to actually go out on the town, let their hair down and have fun, afterall they will all be using their private clubs where they can smoke til the cows come home if thats their CHOICE. We need to find a way of making them see it is not just them who have the freedom of CHOICE and that we should all be allowed freedom of CHOICE rather than being dictated to all the time, if we dont win this then we are looking at being forced further and further away from a country where we should be able to socialise when, where and with who we want to and we will end up in the dark alleys smoking....so long as a non-smoker doesnt want to use that alley!

Encouragement to 'Pollute' the air of the NHS

I cant believe that it has been decided that there is to be a total ban on smoking in public places! I had a reasonable day yesterday doing alot of smoking and chatting to ex colleagues (who also smoke). To be honest I was procrastinating when I should have been facing up to my war against the hospital, this only lasted until 4pm when I received some paperwork I had been waiting for and it wasn't worth the wait, by this point I am on my second packet of cigarettes and very wound up (nothing new there)! Then I hear about the smoking ban and I felt my blood pressure rising some more so I went and walked around the hospital smoking one cigarette after another I even sat at the front entrance to the hospital for abit and received several disapproving looks which just made me more determined. I nearly went and sat in the smoking room, by then its early evening and the 'powers that be' would be long gone, but after assessing the luck I had had already yesterday I had to decide against it. If I was still allowed in there I would have liked to wedge the door open and puff away!
I am going to continue to smoke around the hospital-what can they do to me, they've already sacked me and eviction is on the cards-bring it on!
I think we should be making a stand against the bastards who need to learn to live in the real world!
Im going for some more nicotine now and I know I wont be the only one!

Disgruntled EX NHS worker

I'm back again, more wound up than before! The only thing that is keeping me relatively sane and a little bit calm is NICOTINE! I am no longer employed by the NHS but i wont go into that at the moment...however i am still getting the satisfaction of 'polluting the air' in the hospital grounds, i have been barred from our smoking room as i am told that it is only for staff at the hospital. I have never known anyone being turfed out before if they are not wearing a namebadge! So i am sitting in a relatively safe area to smoke just waiting to be asked to move along. Only trouble is it is bl***y freezing. roll on the summer :)
This is the first time i have realised that smoking can be anti-social but not for the well known reasons! Having worked in a theatre environment alot of my friends are not allowed outside because they wear scrubs-there is one exception to the rule, the rebellious Gasdoc! I cant see anyone ever stopping him from lighting up where and when he wants to (other than in the middle of a list with a patient on the table! although the way our hospital is going i wouldnt blame him if he did.
I am still new to this and very wound up at the moment so i havent got round to working out how to add links to my blog but anyone who reads this and hasnt already visited the gasdoc...DO IT!
His site is: www.pro-choicesmokingdoctor.blogspot.com
It is very interesting (100 times better than the load of crap i am writing) and when you look at it make sure you are smoking a cigarette and have more handy there is lots to read on there!!
ENJOY

New Blogger Post Nicotine

Hi everyone
I am new to this as you can tell! I discovered this site through a colleague of mine and thoght it would be a good way to share my stories and views of life.
I work for the NHS and I am a smoker (not the only one I know) but I feel that we are having to fight for our rights to partake in an activity which we probably enjoy and want to do...and if you work or have ever worked for the NHS you will probably understand the need to smoke!
I am blogging from a hospital computer at the moment and have just come in from enjoying my boost of nicotine and i was not the only one. At a non peak time for breaks there were eleven members of staff all puffing away-what does that say?
It is almost freezing outside yet we are willing and wanting to enjoy the minimal breaks we have.
If the government get their way and believe they are going to be able to stop us the little enjoyment some staff may have in their day will be gone and the NHS could become a more stressful place to work. Emphasis on the MORE. Don't think I really need to explain myself there.
I was recently a patient here myself and it wasn't looking good for a while. I was not aware of what was going on at the time asi was sedated and ventilated but I no it was a stressful time for my family (half are smokers) colleagues (alot are smokers) and friends (most are smokers).
I am not going to go on about my situation because I am far from the only one who has been in that position but how would the smokers amongst that group have coped if they had been frog marched off hospital site to get the needed relief from nicotine? When I was finally allowed to go for a nicotine fix it was heaven but it wouldnt have been if id had to get my hiking boots on!
What happened to individual rights for each person? Why are we being discriminated against?
If you talk to the more 'down to earth, realistic' doctors (yes there are a small handful of them about) they will agree with what i and others are saying so it is not just an unimportant ODP (Operating Department Practitioner) who has these views and that needs to be recognised!
I am going for some more nicotine now.
Bye