Tuesday, March 17

green stuff

In the previous post, I had no intention of maligning smokers. Only smoking.

Last century when I gave up, I did it before nicotine patches and other therapies had been invented, so I had to find my own way. I did it very gradually, and one of the strategies that helped was adulterating my roll-ups with herbal smoking mixture. I began with about one-third herbal, then ramped it up over a long period, until I was on just a wee strand of baccy in amongst the herbs.

I used to smoke this stuff in pubs, but it stank, and people who knew no better would assume it was drugs. Every Saturday morning, Mary Hopkin and I would drink beer and listen to the fantastic jazz quartet upstairs in the White Cockade. The Donald McDonald Band. The guy had an impressive collection of saxes, which he played fantastically. One in particular cost more than a house, and was so big he had to stand on a box to play it.

Anyway, after a few months of Saturday morning ecstasy, drinking Tennents and smoking the horrible herbs, the jazz simply stopped happening. I read a music review in the Scotsman, lamenting the closure and blaming the patrons who used to smoke drugs.

Anyway, the point is I've been trying the same gradual adulteration technique to wean myself off tea. Yesterday I had got to the stage where I could get through a whole day on herb tea mixed with about two twiglets of green tea. Today, St Patrick's day, may be my first day without any green tea at all. So when everybody here is walking around in green clothes or make-up, I'm doing my bit to maintain global balance.

3 comments:

  1. Albert? Cold turkey is the only way to go! Just stop this filthy tea habit and go back to beer! Herbs in boiled water is the only way to drink water where you are since otherwise it will kill you. That's why folk like me used to drink beer and live instead of drinking water and dying of cholera. So what are you going to drink if you don't drink tea? Hotboy p.s. I've never used nicotine patches to give up smoking and I've given up millions of times!pps I'm having a nice up of tea right now! Never did me any harm.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I say!

    Brian Wilson emailed me to say that he'd seen Hotters in the vicinity of this Tea Boutique. I didn't think they were legal in Edinburgh!

    MM III

    ReplyDelete
  3. All - if hotters is a Tea Boutique customer they're presumably selling alco-tea or other herbs.

    ReplyDelete