Celebrate PoTVs 1st Birthday with the first competition courtesy of FLAVOURVAPOUR :)

[AndyC1971]

Prize : 2 x £50 shopping vouchers for Flavourvapour kindly donated by @hyperheavenly




http://www.flavourvapour.co.uk/





Fellow Apes,


In order to kick off the fabulous Birthday celebrations, this is the first competition of many over the next few days, with all the prizes generously donated by the marvellous vendors that we have on this wonderful forum.


As you can see, this (as well as all the other) prize is certainly worth winning, so lets make you all work for this one


One of the things, that has bought joy to all of us over the last 12 months is members personal reasons for switching to vaping, and their journey.


Now it doesnt matter wether you switched a day ago, or 5 years ago, so get your creative hats on, and tell us all the reasons for switching and the journey that you have encountered until now. It can be funny, sad, serious or simple


Closing date for this is competition is Sunday 11:59PM, where 2 lucky winners will be announced, yes thats right TWO!




Terms and conditions (The important, but boring bits!)


The forum moderators will judge the competition unless otherwise stated. The judges word is FINAL!
We have the right to close down a competition at any time without written notice.
To enter a competition you must be a UK resident and over 18 at the time of entry.
Competitions are not open to admins, moderators or their family members.
No prize is exchangeable for any other prize or for cash.
If an advertised prize is not available, we reserve the right to offer an alternative prize of equal or greater value.
Vendors will endeavor to send prizes within a month of the competition end date but cannot guarantee this delivery time.
Competition is available to Members of the POTV forum with 25 or more posts.

 

[Raguri]

Wooo! Competitions! I like those!
Well. Why did I start vaping?

I've been a smoker since 14 (I know, too young)! And had a heart op last year when I was 17 just before Christmas. I must admit, I was a bit scared of telling them I smoked, mainly as my mum didn't know when I had the first consultation, so as a result I waiting until I was on my own with the doctor to tell them. The doctor then sneakily gave me some patches etc as a "Use these before the op so the complications will be lower"
I must admit, they were terrible. They just dumped all of the NIC into my body in one HUGE lump whenever I was hot, and as a result, I would feel woozy and throw up. Not good when you're on the train eh?
So, I had the op, and turned 18... And I was STILL smoking.
Then one day, my brother bought a TW 510 Tank, and it looked great! By this time, my family knew I smoked, and apart from being a tad annoyed they supported me as they knew the full reason (Which I will not delve into this time, as it may be a bit too emotional for myself and others)...

(After reading Numpties post, I think I will actually. Basically, I starting having massive mood swings, and all I wanted to do was hurt myself. I'd lock myself in my room, and not come out for days JUST so I could be alone and not have any contact with anyone. I didn't leave the house, I didn't do anything for the fear of "Outside, I can do anything... At least I'm safe here".
If any of you know anything about Lucid dreaming, then it may be handy for this bit. I started to have phases of this, which ended up being uncontrolable. I've never 'forced' myself to do it, it just happens in massive chunks and still does. But, shit happens. If I don't sleep for a few days, I can get over that. But, it was the constant fear of hurting myself that did me in. I ended up getting so stressed at school, that I got a stinkie from one of the older ones and suddenly everything felt better. I don't know if this was the effect of the nicotine, or just the light headiness. But, that's when things started.)

So, I thought to myself "I have to get one of those... I'm sick of smelling, I'm sick of the cost, and I'm slowly killing myself". So, I bought a Cig-a-like. This worked, but wasn't exactly great in the rain... As I found out when my jacket got soaked and the Microswitch inside died a death (It was an auto).
Then, I got the Vamo. This was a step in the right direction! I could finally taste juices, and also have the suit MY tastebuds, and not some guy in a warehouse going "It's alright!".
So, I then managed to bag a Mechanical gripper off of here (I believe it was actually from Andy himself!), which again was a step in the right direction. Mainly as the vamo was just about to die.
I must admit, I haven't had the best luck with ecigs... But, thanks to yet ANOTHER member of this forum saving me... I now have two mods which I know will last.
To be honest, if it wasn't for this place, I would still be on the stinkies, I would still be unfit as anything and unable to cycle the 30 miles I now do every weekend. Vaping is the way forward. Viva la POTV!

 

[Vapeoholic]

I started smoking at school all my friends did so I did not want to be left out – little did I realize that I would soon be addicted to a Horrid white stick That would have a hold on me .I continued to smoke for the next 12 years getting up to 40 a day ~ I did not worry at first about the dangers of smoking and never thought that I would Get cancer myself you never think it will happen to you But towards the last few years I have seen family members be diagnosed with cancer and that has hit me really hard.I had My Last Cigarette on the Day That My dad was diagnosed (Not smoking Related)
Its now 1 Year and 2 Months since I had my last cigarette and my confidence has hit the roof And I have money to spend on nice things and holidays giving up could not of come at a better time in my life and I’m so thrilled that I gave vaping a try because for me it has worked in making me a lot more confident and I’m able to enjoy life without been tied down to a cigarette that would of killed me ~I now have my life back! I never thought for one min that I would stop smoking ~ Have tried many times to quit but nothing worked until my brother introduced me to vaping ...now it feels like i never smoked never going back on them when i can vape custard !!!
And even better my dad has been given the all clear

 

[Numpty]

My story could go on for pages so I'll only bore you all with the rough outline...

I'm 52 and started smoking in my early teens, I have always been fit and into various types of training so never really worried or noticed any breathing issues.
When I was 28 I had quite a bad problem with my heart and spent a week in cardiac care, since then I've been on different types of medication to keep things in check but always suffered rhythm problems and pacing issues, at 30 I refused a pacemaker as that's a one way deal and there was a mention of an op that might help bla bla bla, turned out keeping me on pills was cheaper even though I sometimes had a pulse rate of 200 bpm at rest and required cardiac inversion to straighten things out. (That's the electric shock thingy where they shout 'clear' and zap the crap out of you).... Main aggravation to the condition was smoking...

January 1991 I woke up one Saturday morning and went face down into the carpet, didn't know which way was up, could hardly speak and was a total mess, turns out I'd had a brain haemorrhage and it was a biggy, the prognosis was if I made it through the night I'd be needing pampers, a wheelchair and full time care, Monday morning I had brain surgery, a few nuts and bolts later things were patched up best they could and it was time to play the waiting game...

I basically took 3 years to get everything back together, I learnt to read and write again, the difficulty being a short term memory of under a minute, but constant attempts at reading and a good bit of hard work plus plenty of physio to straighten out the walking I've made a full recovery, apart from a scar in my hairline there's no evidence I'd had such a big problem...

Here's the stupid bit, I never managed to stop smoking for more than 3 months in a year even though both problem were directly attributed to smoking, I've had every known NRT product on the planet and went threw the itchy ass and arm patches, the moronic plastic pea shooter, the dog breath gum, sprays and worst of all.... Champix the mind bending sleep inducing pill that did work but damn it's almost as hard to keep taking the pills as going cold turkey..

I tried e-cigs about 2 years ago and had some success but being early versions I found the battery life pathetic, the pratting about with wading and the constantly leaking attempts of the early tanks a total pain in the butt and gave up after a few months...

Fast forward to December 9th 2012, a friend of mine bought me a Vamo and a Vivi Nova to try, it arrived 10 am and it took a couple of hours for the battery to charge but since then I have not had a single analogue, I have not wanted one, not the slightest temptation which, for someone like me that lacks even the most basic of self preservation instincts is amazing, I fully understand people that say they gave up by accident, it's how it was for me, I wanted to and sure as hell needed to but I didn't hold out much hope and only really gave it a go because of a friends generosity and belief in the newer kit.

I still have an addiction, it's nicotine, but I'm off the other 1000 plus chemicals, no carbon monoxide, tar or carcinogenic horrors that live in the analogues, I've already cut my nic levels down to the lowest I can buy and have started cutting that down with 0 nic...

I have spent quite a bit along the way collecting a few shiny shiny items but I'm over £100 a month better off, I'm not killing myself, the people I love or my pets, I no longer stink like an ashtray and my home is no longer sepia tone. It really p's me off when these brain dead know nothing twats in power start making judgements about e-cigs without talking to real users and listen to out dated bull crap produced by tobacco companies and large pharma companies..

Yes e-cigs are a gateway product, but to freedom and health for those that want to try.

I just wish POTV had been out there when I first tried to get off the analogues as the help and guidance available here without a doubt would have helped me buy the kit I needed and avoided the costly mistakes I made first time around, I think it's amazing that some vapors have formed a community to help and support new and fellow users as what we have here at POTV without a doubt increases the success rate which in turn saves lives.

I promise that is the short version !!

 

[Raguri]

/\
No word of a lie, that actually brought a tear to my eye... Seriously... Well done man. So glad to hear things are better now.

 

[Numpty]

/\
No word of a lie, that actually brought a tear to my eye... Seriously... Well done man. So glad to hear things are better now.

Thank you I do appreciate your comment, I don't want to pile it on but one of the things that got me fighting back was the fact I had married my childhood sweetheart 7 month earlier and she was 6 months pregnant with our first child, if that doesn't get you fighting back nothing will...
The sad bit is after her caring for me for all those years while I got my shit together she was taken ill and diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, enough said as I think you know how that one goes...

 

[Raguri]

Thank you I do appreciate your comment, I don't want to pile it on but one of the things that got me fighting back was the fact I had married my childhood sweetheart 7 month earlier and she was 6 months pregnant with our first child, if that doesn't get you fighting back nothing will...
The sad bit is after her caring for me for all those years while I got my shit together she was taken ill and diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, enough said as I think you know how that one goes...

It's okay, I think after reading that I may go back and edit mine to show the real reason I started smoking D:

To be honest, from what I've seen of you on the forum, you seem like a great guy!

 

[gary68]

awesome sharing guys

 

[Raguri]

awesome sharing guys

Your turn Gary!

 

[Numpty]

It's okay, I think after reading that I may go back and edit mine to show the real reason I started smoking D:

To be honest, from what I've seen of you on the forum, you seem like a great guy!

I think some may disagree, I have some strong opinions and I have a warped sense of humour, I guess they are just by-products of a time when the world took the piss because I couldn't remember what happened 2 minutes ago or turn right when walking, you look a right spaz turning around so you can turn left into a doorway or corridor, if you don't learn to laugh and mock shit like that you'd cry yourself to death....

So having a brief insight into my luck over the years I think it's clear I'm not the guy to go buy your lottery ticket.