The author of the article has been a life long smoker from Europe. After moving to the US, and being detected with asthma, nearing her middle age, she was trying to quit smoking almost on everyday basis, but all of the efforts sadly failed. Nicotine gum and patches didn't work for her, so she consulted her physician, who enrolled her in a program and recommended tablets, but that didn't her her quit smoking either. What she discovered was that a drastic change of schedule worked good in her case. Somewhat funny approach to a quite serious matter recommends that everyone needs to find what works best for them, as popular "one size fits all" approach never makes everyone contented.

In the first person: I was born 40 something years ago in Europe, with a cigarette in my mouth. My parents smoked, my relatives smoked, my friends smoked. My father is 82 and still a chain smoker. Smoking is an inevitable part of cultural habits, meeting people, and having excitement. For a culture that lives on avenues full of cafes, smoking is not optional, it's almost necessary.

I was 13 when I got hooked on cigarettes, enough to begin budgeting part of my everyday allowance for cigarettes. Mind you, I wasn't an outcast, a straight A student, from a well-to-do academic family, I was really trying to fit in. At that point, and even several years later, trying to quit smoking was not even in the back of my mind. It will take me 30 more years to reach to that point.

Novelist by occupation, smoking was very much a part of my daily routine. It was accurately like it used to be in the old black and white movies - me, the typewriter, and the big ashtray with the cigarette butts piled up high. Soon after I moved to the US, the problems with my smoking resulted. They were not only of social nature any longer; they became a health concern too. Not just did I move to the Bay Area, California, which was the undisputed leader in the witch hunt on smokers, I was analyzed with asthma.

I can say from that moment on, 15 years before, I was trying to quit smoking on a daily basis. There was by now a drastic change in place for me - I couldn't smoke at my office any more and I had to time my smoking habits according to the office agenda. It was difficult at home as my associate, an American, was a smoker as well.

We decided to merely smoke outside the home. That didn't work at all, as, sadly, it's California, the climate is pleasing year around, so we both ended up merely sleeping in the house, while living, eating, having friends over on the back yard terrace. It's astounding with how much yard work you can invent - our postage stamp sized back yard became more similar to jungle with heirloom tomatoes, tea roses, sweet peas, and citrus trees.

I lastly quit smoking cold turkey. Two years later, with a new lease on life, I'm proud to say - I haven't had a cigarette since. I realize it very well: once an addict, always an addict and I had my share of night sweats, nightmares, inevitable shivers, uncontrollable crying. But I can all the time say it was resulted by my divorce drama, not nicotine. Every now and then, during lunch break in the fiscal area, I stop by somebody smoking in front of their office building. Second hand smoke still smells so good.