“It’s Like a Badass Boyfriend She Won’t Leave” – Mairead Farrell on Best Mates and Bad Habits

So the government have finally done what they’ve said they would do for ages - put ugly/scary photos on all packets of cigarettes, and the throat and teeth ones are especially vicious!

As a non-smoker, (and I’ve never smoked), I’ve never really understood why anyone started in the first place, but then my main reason for never trying them as a teenage girl was because I came from a non-smoking home so my mother could smell smoke a mile away!

I never thought, nor did any of the girls I hung around with, of our lungs, throat cancer, circulation problems, heart disease and (shockingly) wrinkles or anything else that smoking can bring in to your life.

Maybe this is why Minister James Reilly has said on radio on Friday morning “Cigarette companies are targeting our children and we need to protect them!”

When I asked a friend why she still smokes she almost bit my head off and said: “You’ll just never understand”.

She never stops giving out about the price of them, and how much she wants to give them up, but she also says she loves them? Her smokes are like this badass boyfriend who she refuses to leave. It’s gonna take him (the smokes) doing something so bad to her that then and only then will she cop on and dig deep for the willpower that I know she has.

She says: “If someone told you you could NEVER eat chocolate again, that’s like me giving up the fags!”

Eh, no pet. Chocolate is something I enjoy, yes, but it’s not something I have over 20 times a day, it’s not something that causes me to have a permanent nasty phlegm cough, and doesn’t cost me over nine euro a day! So it’s not the same. Ok, I understand I would be upset if I couldn’t have that little luxury, but that’s comparing apples and oranges.

I don’t want to sound preachy here but ladies, it’s the first week in February. If you are a smoker and you’ve wanted to give up, give it a go this week. Have a good long look at the photos on the packets and try to kick the scruffy habit. Think of all the money you’ll save not only now, but on health insurance, and trips to the doctor, and of course – the old “anti-wrinkle cream”…

M x