DAY 14 Perry -- Bermondsey

Listening to: Stone Temple Pilots -- Vasaline

Emotion: Elated

I wake up early and have a cigarette in bed. It’s a pastime that contributes to 120 deaths and nearly 1300 injuries every year in the U.K. (Do you smoke after sex? Only if I’ve been doing it fast enough!)

Today is my last day as a smoker and if I’m totally honest and truthful I can’t wait to see the back of it.

I no longer smell cigarettes as I used to as I’m smoking all the time but every now and again I walk into a room of my flat and the stench hits me. The first thing I’m going to do tomorrow, my first day as an ex-smoker is to clean my home throughout and complete several loads of washing… oh the joy!

I’m sat outside the Tate collecting my thoughts and eating a spot of lunch. Of course I have a cigarette afterwards, my ninth of the day and it’s only 2.10pm.

I feel a bit guilty out here as there are hundreds of children around. I cup the cigarette in my hand. I don’t like smoking in front of children. I don’t want them thinking it’s cool to smoke because it’s not. I don’t need cigarettes to be cool. Cool is a state of mind and I’m ice cold baby!

Mind you, anyone who’s seen me smoking will testify I certainly don’t look cool when I’m indulging.

I meet Kate and head to Zakudia, a beautiful first floor bar on the South Bank. Dr Sunny Kaul and Dr. Ranak arrive shortly afterwards.

I chose this bar for several reasons to meet with the two doctors to discuss our last two weeks of Smoke Swap now it is reaching its’ end.

Firstly, it was one of the first bars I sold in the Marlboro cigarette bar display furniture.

Secondly, the impending smoking ban will be felt in bars more than any other public place -- good or bad.

Thirdly, the manager, a gentleman by the name of Siseho is an ex-smoker

Forth and lastly when the ban comes into effect the manager is taking out the cigarette vending machine so not only will the venue be smoke free, you won’t be able to buy cigarettes in it.

I look at Kate as she tells the doctors her story of the events of the last two week. She has gone from a pro-smoker who didn’t care about the long term effects of her habit to someone who has been on a journey of self discovery, found an inner strength and confidence from breaking the addiction to cigarettes.

She can apply this new found confidence to other areas of her life and go forward a happy, healthy, beautiful and successful human being. In fact she has gone so far in two week she has started to sound like a anti-smoker telling us stories of other people she knows who smoke and she has been trying to tell them to give up.

I on the other hand have only had nine cigarettes today so I take a pack from my pocket and offer Kate one. She rightly refuses. I’m very proud of her. I apologise to Kate and the doctors present and light up. The smoke seems to gravitate cruelly towards Kate. I smoke my last cigarette. I don’t enjoy it. I know it’s my last. I will never smoke again.

Five minutes later and I’m once again a non-smoker. In fact now I’m an ex-smoker. I never thought I’d hear myself saying that. How am I going to explain this the next time I apply for insurance.

SMOKES TODAY – 10 out of 10

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxHIYSxC4Ks

Old School Public Health Warning -- Smoking in Bed (1978)

The dangers of Smoking in Bed

Smoking in Bed Deaths

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DAY 12 Perry – Barcelona to Bermondsey

Listening to: Amaury Perez -- Andes Lo Que Andes

Emotion: Excited

I’m heading back to Barcelona airport, a fifteen Km drive from my hotel. I open a pack of Consulate Menthol cigarettes and my colleague riding shotgun beside me tells me that these are really bad for me. Mind you, it doesn’t stop her from smoking one of mine though.

Last night or should I say the early hours of the morning, while returning to our hotel she confided to me she was quitting smoking as she had developed a bad cough and smoked too many cigarettes that night. But that’s what I found with a lot of smokers, they are always just about to quit. As the Spanish say ‘manana, manana, manana’. That or they’ve quit many times before. As Mark Twain once quipped ‘It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it dozens of times before’.

I don’t want to sound pious but where is their back bone, the will power or the strength of character in these people? Are there that many people so insecure and weak who can’t stand by their own convictions?

Reading that back now, I that it sounds harsh but really the easy option is just to carry on and blame everyone and everything around them for their problems. If change is going to come it has to come from within. That can be a scary place to look for some people. It’s easier to loose yourself in drugs, shopping and celebrity bullshit than start a journey of the self. But I believe the journey is worth starting. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your self to stop smoking! Not your kids, not your partner or your boss. You owe it to yourself to stop smoking. You are a beautiful person.

Rant over -- The menthol cigarettes taste minty fresh, like toothpaste and are more pleasant than the other brands I’ve been smoking. The mint flavour comes from an application of menthol essence in the form of a spray to the silver foil in the pack of cigarettes not buy adding sprigs of mint leaf to the tobacco as many people believe. This odour seeps into the cigarette, adding a few more chemicals to the already heady mix.

I know of people who started smoking menthol cigarettes when they were children because firstly they are very smooth to smoke and secondly they thought their breaths would smell of Polos. Of course their breath didn’t smell of Polos and their parents busted them for smoking. The truth is because they are easier to take the smoke down, they are more harmful than ‘normal’ cigarettes.

I remember being told at Philip Morris that sales of Marlboro Menthol would rise during the winter months as some people were under the illusion these cigarettes were healthy cigarettes! Hello -- there is No such thing as a healthy cigarette!

I’m sure many children start smoking Menthol, the alcho-pop of cigarettes as their first cigarettes. Perhaps the tobacco companies could also manufacture chocolate, strawberry, vanilla or even Mc.Chicken Nugget flavoured cigarettes to get the kids hooked early. Sounds far fetched? I wish it was as this has already been done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHvXjgk8PSk

Now I’m really finding it easy to smoke ten cigarettes a day. It’s quite frightening how easy it is in from my first experiences to twelve days down the line.

I’ve got two days left now in this experiment and it would be easy to carry on smoking as the worst of the side effects are over but I know this would lead me down the road to addiction and I don’t won’t to be dependent on these little things that kill. I could even smoke more than ten a day now, I’ve hit the groove, I’m thinking like a smoker. But ten is more than enough for me, thank you very much.

I must admit, I like the social aspect of this anti-social action. Hanging about, having a chat, a cup of tea and a cigarette is fun but the reality is I can do all that without cigarettes in my life.

SMOKES TODAY – 10 out of 10

One Thousand Americans Stop Smoking every Day -- By Dying!

Read more here…

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Technorati Tags: children, cigarettes, consulate, flavoured cigarettes, manthol, Marlboro, Philip Morris, quitting, smoke, smoking, stop, swap

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Smoke Swap DAY 1 – Perry – Shoreditch

Listening to: – Hella Dare you to Smoke – Gorillaz v No Doubt – Party Ben

Emotion – Drained

‘Ciao bella’ I kiss Katie goodbye and wonder off in the direction of the station to catch my train home.

‘Take care of yourself. I’m worried about you’ she says. I walk off into the crowds of obscurity. You’re worried about me! I’m worried about me!

Rewind the clock five hours earlier and I meet Katie in a coffee shop in Old Street and head off for a spot of lunch. Thai if you want to know.

After lunch I give Katie a crash course in camera operation and we talk about starting and stopping smoking. Today the mad idea turns to reality.

We meet the crew and head in the direction of a newsagent to buy cigarettes. As this is Smoke Swap and I don’t want to burn my own money I suggest to Kate that she has to hand over her money that she would spend on cigarettes over the next two weeks. We calculate it’s going to cost about forty UK Pounds Sterling and as we don’t carry that kind of cash on us we have to leg it to a cash machine.

We head back to the newsagents and like two kids in a sweet shop we purchase 14 packs of ten cigarettes, one for each day. This is like some perverse pick ‘n’ mix.

This little symbolic act costs Katie £43.00. As she usually buys a pack as she needs them she realises how much she wastes on this habit of hers.

Armed with a couple of handfuls of cigarettes we head towards the studio were we are going to start/stop Smoke Swap for real – not long now.

I’m feeling higher levels of anxiety, knowing soon I’ll have to light up. My bravado is slowly ebbing away.

The cameras are rolling. I look across at Katie and she looks relaxed and at home where I feel like a complete fraud. I’m not comfortable in front of the cameras and feel naked and exposed. There is no-where to run and no-where to hide. Soon I’ll disappear into a puff of smoke. Oh shit, what have I gone and got myself into…

We exchange stories about cigarettes in our lives up to this point.

I can’t put it off any longer. I hear myself using a thousand words were one would suffice but it’s no good, I can’t put it off anymore. It’s time to loose my Virginia tobacco.

Katie and I choose our branded drug of choice. It is easy really. Kate used to smoke them and I used to market them… Marlboro Lights (No mention of ‘Light’ on the pack since 2002, Kate notices this for the first time. In the industry we renamed them Marlboro Gold). She takes her last cigarette and places it between her lips. She presents the flame from the newly filled Zippo lighter to the cigarette and slowly inhales the smoke for the last time. She then reluctantly hands it over to me.

I’m such a dork, I’m not even sure how to hold it but suck on it all the same. The smoke gets in my eye. I inhale and exhale. To my surprise it goes down relatively well but it’s not natural to me to take the smoke down and I really have to concentrate during the whole process.

Katie Piper – Perry Stevens

I repeat the action again but this time I start to cough and my heart starts to race. On the third pull now and I’m feeling light headed and now my legs feel as though they could buckle. Thank f**k I’m sitting down.

I’m talking bollocks, ten to the dozen with a heady mix of adrenalin, nicotine and fear.

There it is, I’ve done it. I’ve smoked my first cigarette. It wasn’t behind the bike sheds. I didn’t have to buy a packet of mints to disguise my odious breath from my parents and I don’t have to do this again.

Fifteen minutes later we are posing for still photographs so I light my second cigarette. I sit by the window nonchalantly flicking my ash out of the window.

The reality of it all is I’m holding on for dear life as I don’t want to faint and fall out the third floor window to the ground below. We all know smoking kills but today isn’t a good day to die. This isn’t good. It isn’t good at all.

I’m burning up. My face drains of colour then I break out into a sweat. I dare not move, my legs have turned to jelly and I’ve shut up talking. The dialogue now is all in my head. ‘Don’t be sick, don’t be sick’ I repeat over and over again internally. You don’t have to be in the medical profession to see I look what is commonly described as ‘F**ked!’

What is this? I’m supposed to be free, a rebel without a cause, a real man. That’s what seventy years of marketing has sold me but here I am, sick and quite on a sofa feeling like a weak and worthless individual. I’m embarrassed and distressed. I sit quite still but for the party in my guts. This is one party I don’t want spilling out onto the streets of East London. I remain in the same position for over an hour occasionally taking small tastes of cold water.

Smoke Swap is going to be tough. I’ve really underestimated what I was taking on. I know the body is very adaptable but I question myself why would I want to subject it to this misery every day. I must be f**king mad.

So I find my way back home and to bed. I can’t face another cigarette today. I’m up at 3:30am to catch a plane to Italy. Hopefully the Tuscanny sun will shine on me and tomorrow will be a better day.

>> Get Help and Advice to Quit Smoking Now! <<

Technorati Tags: katie piper, Marlboro, Perry Stevens, smoke, start smoking, stop smoking, swap

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29/5/07 Katie Piper- 1 Day to Give Up Smoking

Well I never thought I’d see this day. The day when me and you are finally thru!

We’ve been through a lot, you’ve been there to calm me down when I’m stressed, put me at ease when I’m nervous and you defiantly are the perfect company when having a glass of wine.

But sadly my friend our time is up, now ever the optimist, I am looking forward to:

* Fresher breath (and hopefully an improved love life)

* Nails that aren’t always sporting that yellow ‘Nan’ manicure effect.

* Climbing the stairs without feeling suffocated!

Hey I’m nearly convincing myself this is a good thing! So Mr. Marlboro Light it is with haste I say goodbye to you. Now I’ve got to admit this whole experiment is giving me the jitters, for years I’ve been boasting, telling friends I’m not addicted, I’m a social smoker, can quit whenever I want, then the bombshell dropped, my dear friend Perry Stevens asks me to quit! I get that feeling of dread from top to toe, smile sweetly and say ‘sure no probs’, but racing thru my mind is ‘oh my god, I can’t do this’, does this mean I really am an addict? My worst fears confirmed!

Katie Piper

The word addicted makes my mind work over time conjuring up all sorts of imagery, will I be sniffing people out in the street offering 50 pence for a drag on their cigarette, will I suffer withdrawal, good god even the shakes! How un-desirable!

I’m hoping I will come out of this unscathed and be able to join that elite set of folk that is the ‘non smokers’, fellow smokers we all know who those elites are, the ones who look down their nose at you in a restaurant as they sip on their anti- chemical/anti-death green tea, the sparkly pleasant scented sort who shun you in bars as you spark up with the complimentary matches (you know the ones that always snap!)

So look out for me in a bar near you soon, ill be the one sat in the corner chewing my nails and gum whilst peeling the label off my beer bottle! Wish me luck my friends!

Do you need help to stop smoking? Click here for more information about quit smoking today!

Technorati Tags: katie piper, light, Marlboro, quit smoking, smokers, stop smoking

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Monday 14^th May Perry

Listening to: Portishead – Humming

Emotion – relaxed

Days until smoke down – 7

Wow, what a day and I’m not referring to the bloody weather. But Barh! The bloody weather. It feels like I’ve called or wrote to every doctor, professor, hospital or medical agency in the book today after finding out the doctor I thought was on board is no longer on board. But good news came my way by way of a phone call during a meeting with my editor. Fingers crossed but we could be back on track. Oh sunny days!

Prior to that, I met up with Neil Boorman to discuss producing a short retrospective documentary about The Bonfire of the Brands www.bonfireofthebrands.com. We first met when I was marketing Marlboro cigarettes. Today we met in Soho in a non-branded tea and patisserie shop for afternoon tea and patisseries and discussed his fascinating project and how since the burning he has lived a no brand existence.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt289JNcvsY

His book is out in September and will make essential reading. I think a copy should be given away to every reader of Heat magazine!

He’s been burning one brand for years – Marlboro Lights, but not any more!

Technorati Tags: cigarettes, fire, lights, Marlboro, smoking

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