Cheers for that and Guten Tag all!
Will be happy to give you a hand with any German words or phrases for the upcoming reunion Jim, fantastic that German was offered as a language choice for you, in my school we had Spanish or French, German would have been more helpful given how things worked out for me!
Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement, though I must say I am rather shocked how well things are going at present. I do believe the Spray is doing wonders so my body is certainly not 100% free from nicotine yet (is that cheating to count towards Hell Week?). On the plus side though I have already seen a massive decrease in the dosage needed over the past few days...on Day One I used the spray roughly 20 times (about the equivalent of one pack as far as I can tell). At this rate of usage the spray should have only lasted 7 days or so (150 doses per tube). As I checked it this morning though the fluid level still shows half full, meaning there should be a few more days left before I have to break open pack 2. I have not been keeping count at all on how often I spray, but it is certainly down to less than one per hour. I do believe the majority of this ease though is coming from the motivation...I literally just decided I did not enjoy smoking from one day to the next and that has never happened before, the feeling is still very intense and is doing much of the legwork of this quit I think. I see people on the streets smoking, I smell it and it does not seem to have the same effect as it did before in previous quit attempts. I won't be too prematurely optimistic yet, it is still early days, but this time feels different somehow.
To answer your question Lolly, smoking has been officially banned in most places and where I live in Dresden there is a city ban that has been in place for several years now. Problem goes towards enforcement though, rules are very rarely observed and of course the open beer gardens always provide a place to light up. The area I live in is right in the city center and it is populated primarily with the 20-40 year old demographic, hence everyone seems to love to smoke or hate it (those that hate it being the minority).
I will keep checking in despite the time zone and look forward to keeping you updated on my status and hearing how all of you are doing as well. I am really looking forward to seeing double digits in my quit days and that certain fermented beverage will be enjoyed as a reward most definitely on the weekend (though perhaps will celebrate privately on the terrace as opposed to sit in the beer garden!).
Bis später,
Walt