The Spanish Cucumbers are Innocent (Probably)

Organic grown veg tends to be grown in soil that's been fertilised using real manure (cattle, sheep, human etc.) Certainly in the pre-Victorian eras (and possibly in the Victorian era too - but I'd have to check that), "night soil" would be collected from houses and open sewers in London and the suburbs and taken down the Thames in barges, then the barge would sail out of the estuary and round to the south-easterly part of the coast of Britain, ultimately ending up being spread on the vegetable and fruit growing fields of Kent - the Garden of England.

E coli lives within us all - in a benign way generally. It is commonly spread by people not washing their hands thoroughly after wiping their bum after doing a "number two" in the bathroom rather than a "number one". ;) Because of that method of transmission, it also tends to occur because people don't wash salad stuff carefully and thoroughly as part of the food preparation process (I have an intermediate level Food Hygiene certificate by the way, so I'm qualified to pontificate on these things :) )

I did a lot of extremely careful research during the writing of my killer cucumber article (including spending hours using different translators to ensure I had the right gist from foreign websites) and deliberately included the fact that a Dutch cucumber had also been tested positive for E coli - the Dutch influence seems to have been surpressed, ignored or not even looked at, by most of the international press. Given that it appears that only people visiting the Hamburg and Bremen areas of northern Germany that have fallen sick, methinks the cucumbers are innocent and the contamination is due to Something Else.

Perhaps they were sprayed with water to keep them fresher on their journey which happened to be contaminated. Perhaps they were moved about in trucks and trains that had previously carried carcasses or live cattle and which hadn't been cleaned thoroughly. Perhaps a bio-terrorist attack has taken place and the water supply is contaminated. Who knows?

But I'll lay a safe (but prudently small!) bet that the contamination did NOT originate in the fields of Spain and I really feel for the Spanish farmers and their financial plight right now. Particularly as the Dutch seem to have escaped censure.

OK, Sod the No-smoking Stuff, Let's Focus on E coli and Killer Cucumbers....

No, I won't light them up as a substitute to the tobacco based fags I've just given up, but I will highlight the seeming bias by the international press over the outbreak of a deadly form of E coli strain O104 in the northern area of Germany - particularly in the Hamburg and Bremen areas.

I wrote this article on Suite101 over the weekend:

Fatal E coli Outbreak in Germany Linked to Imported Cucumbers

Never once did I point the finger at Spain unlike other press outlets. This statement which I posted on a (relatively) private forum elsewhere sums up exactly what I feel about the Curious Case of the Killer Cucumbers:

A Dozen Days of Not Smoking Achieved

I am pleased with myself. So are my lungs.... and my bank account...

Tools I Chose to Help Give Up Smoking

OK, so I procured a two week supply of NRT which was composed of:

• 14 x 25mg 16 hour nicotine replacement patches
• 1 x inhalator along with 42 little nicotine plugs to put in it

I also took on board the advise of a colleague who had managed to kick  a 40 per day habit by adopting a tapping system known as the Emotional Freedom Technique demonstrated very capably in this video by a lady name Alia:

I find the technique very soothing - whilst I don't do a gooey sort "oh I love me so much" type mantra, I do mentally focus on the issue.

So, armed and probably dangerous, all that remained was to set the date and stick to it.

Using Pre-Payment Certificates for NRT Prescriptions

Not being poor enough, old enough or ill enough to be exempt from prescription charges, and knowing that, as I left the Smoke Stop office with two items on the piece of paper each prescription for the duration would cost me £14.80, I decided to buy a 3 month pre-paid prescription thing. At a cost of £29.10, the pre-payment certificate (PPC) would have paid for itself after just two visits to the Smoke Stop counsellor.

A PPC is a bit like a season ticket for the chemist. It can be purchased in one of two durations - three months or twelve months.It means that no further prescription charges need to be handed over, however many items there may be on a prescription, whilst the PPC is still in date.

Hopefully by the time my PPC expires, I will no longer be addicted to nicotine.

Why I Lied to the Smoke Stop Counsellor..

My local Smoke Stop service is organised by Bournemouth and Poole NHS but I'm sure there are similar services in other NHS areas.

The idea is that you make an appointment to speak to a trained counsellor who advises you on the various options available to help you give up smoking. The initial consultation generally lasts half an hour, further appointments after that come in blocks of 15 minutes.

My initial half hour consultation was at 4.15pm on Friday 13th May (I'm not superstitious about that combination of day and date!). But, because I'd done all my homework, it only lasted 15 minutes. Rather than the guy go through the options,  I him exactly what I wanted - which was nicotine replacement therapy (patches and an inhalator) rather than the pills (Champix or Zyban) that screw about with your head.

But, before he would give me a prescription, I had to set a Quit Date and tell him what it was. I  hadn't actually thought about that - all I wanted was the script so I lied and gave him a  quit date of Friday 27th May, because that is a long Bank Holiday weekend. I fully intended to start the process of giving up smoking before then!

So Why Did I Decide to Give Up Smoking?

Good question.....

For non-smokers, it's a no-brainer.

For nicotine addicts like myself it's far more complicated.

There are two main reasons why I have decided to take the plunge now.

1. I can't afford it anymore. The Credit Crunch has reduced my income by some 66% and if I'm to survive financially, all non-essentials have to go.
2. I had a nasty flu thing back at the end of February which developed into an evil chest infection. Which, I of course, ignored until the day came when I couldn't walk across the quad at work and talk at the same time without being breathless.

Number 2 shook me. I went to the emergency medical centre and they had to put me on a nebuliser before my bronchial tubes were wheeze-free enough to hear what was actually going on in the rest of my lungs. I was given a course of strong penicillin but it actually took ages for the cough to go away. Even now, I still get the odd paroxysm.

So, Enough, I decided, was definitely Enough and, on that auspicious date of Friday 13th May, 2011, I visited the Smoke Stop Clinic which is held here:

and is located on Shelley Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset

Black Superkings - My Last Brand of Cigarettes

This photo is a picture of my last cigarette - a Black Superkings... Smoked about 22:15 on May 20th 2011. I took it to remind myself..... It also reminds me that, back in the day when I first bought Player's No. 6, I don't recall the packets carrying health warnings.

Players No 6 - My First Brand of Cigarettes

I have smoked cigarettes for more of my life than I have not. I have spent thousands of pounds on those little white paper wrapped nicotine dispensers with the little brown filter at the end.

The first brand of cigarettes I used to buy regularly, if my memory serves me correctly,  was Players No. 6 - they came in a blue and white packet and I bought them in packs of 10 from the little newsagent's kiosk at Harrow on the Hill Tube Station on my way home from school.

No-one would question age, or the fact someone in school uniform was buying them - they were just sold. In fact, there were no areas off limits for smoking them. You could smoke on the tube, on the train, on the bus (though top deck only came in at one stage), in shops, in the cinema, in restaurants, in the Church hall. Just about everywhere.

Except of course, the school grounds, or if a teacher happened to pass by on and you were in uniform then you'd hastily drop it out of sight. Ironically, we could even smoke in the school hall, out of school hours, when rehearsing for the latest production of the drama society.

I Give Myself 100 Lines...

For having let this blog fall by the wayside. I shall correct that right now.

It seems to be the right place to write about my battle to give up cigarettes. That way, I can link to it from my Facebook and Twitter pages but not bore the pants off everyone by writing there where they CAN'T get away from my addiction busting - they can pro-actively choose to visit or not....

So Exactly WHAT Cases will Appear in Mrs Findlay's Book?

The answer is ....

.... it really depends ....

.... on just what case takes my fancy on a given day at an ungiven time. There may be references to murder cases like this one I wrote for Suite101:


Heather Barnett and Elisa Clapps: Prime Suspect Arrested

There might be cases of press release debunking like the one what I wrote (thanks Eric and Ern!) here:

Thorpe Park Storm Surge Ghost Exposed as Publicity Stunt

There might just be a little pastry involved. What there won't be, I promise*, is anything to do with medicine or Louis Vuitton.

* I had my fingers crossed behind my back when I typed that - just in case the muse takes me that way in the future.

Why Mrs Findlay's Casebook?

Well, I couldn't use Dr because I'm not one, though I suppose I could do a PhD at some point and become one... and I would have to change my name by deed poll or something because of the "d".

Also, I suspect the BBC might have got just a little bit hacked off if I'd plagiarised the name of that wonderful 1960s black and white television programme based in Tannochbrae, Scotland called Dr Finlay's Casebook.

Ahh, nostalgia, it's not what it used to be....