On Tuesday January 31st something close to a miracle happened.
On the scale of things nothing amazing but in my eyes a miracle none the less. I received a package and as a direct result result went from 25 odd cigs a day to 1. The one a day disappeared once I realised I just had to up the nicotine strength from 12mg to 18mg which was 5 days later.
As I type this was 1 month 28 days ago and it has been a merry go round since. The package contained an Ego C that Vicky from cignot had sent to me at faster than light speed. So fast in fact that the juice ordered hadn't made it to the door. A quick Google and I found a store on the way to work that sold juice so left early and headed over there. $25 for 20ml it cost to get the Ego running on day one. But that was fine as the urge to smoke pretty much went with the purchase.
How had I ended up here ? Well my wife had gone out the night with some girlfriends and one of them had a son that had stopped smoking. Initially this interested her more than me and she bought a e cigalike. I looked at it. Tried it. Picked up my cigarettes completely underwhelmed. But it had been enough to interest my wife into asking more questions of her friend and a couple of days later an email appeared advising to forget about devices that looked like cigarettes and that the son in questions success had been down to an Ego T.
At this point the story changes. I looked at the Ego and something sparked an interest in me. Still trying to figure out what but after that initial search my interest increased. Within a couple of days I knew the cost, the place where to find the cheapest, I had found ECBlenders. By the end of two weeks I had started to become obsessed.
I know I had found ECF a day or so before I registered on the 21st of January and made my first post within a few minutes. Literally my head exploded with information. I found that the Ego T had been superseded by the Ego C and what that meant regards reduced cost of atomizers. Struck me as a great idea.
That weekend I discovered there was a local'ish Flea Market that had a stall that sold Ego's. I sat at home on the Saturday trying to ignore the urge to go and look. On Sunday I had to go. I got there at 9am and the stall I had found was closed. Spoke to the guy next door and it seems the lady that owned the stall was out of state so I headed for the car disappointed. Sitting in the car I thought I would look through a pamphlet I picked up and have a cig. Hmmm my eyes gravitated to an advert for another stall that had e-cigs prominently featured.
This Flea Market claims to be the biggest in the States. Not certain to the validity of that statement all I know it is big by any terms and like a rabbit warren. Finding anything there is a task so after 20 minutes of plodding around I was ready to give up when I turned around the corner and saw Gold Alley. That was useful as that was what I was looking for. I walked up the "alley" and saw the e-cig sign.
I soon discovered this stall was owned by a gentlemen called Sergio. There I was looking at an Ego T. Who quickly ascertained my interest and asked if I wanted to try one. Of course I did but I didn't know the proprietaries. In a jiffy he had set up an Ego and handed it over. I took a hit. By this time I wanted a cigarette anyway and this device was supposed to fix that right ?
I took another hit and did something I had never done with a cigarette. I put it down. A quick question gave me the information that the tank had 24mg tobacco juice inside. The nicotine buzz was the first thing to hit me then the flavour. This was not tobacco as I knew it. Not unpleasant but a nearly sickly sweet concoction.
The device had done it's job. I knew I didn't want a cigarette. I knew that while the juice I was smoking, yes in my head I was still smoking, was not for me that there must be other flavours that perhaps I did like. This was hardly an amazing revelation as I had a small stand in front of me featuring a brand called DeKang with names such as Blueberry, American Blend, Strawberry and Menthol.
A wave of nausea from the nic, nicotine for the uninitiated, hit me and the thought that perhaps 24mg was rather too much for me hit. Sergio had a single Ego T and while I had been playing a lady had appeared at the stall vaping on an Ego T. While still getting the shock that this actually works she bought the last Ego. There were 510's available but the Ego C name had become the object of desire.
I thanked Sergio effusively and walked away. I have subsequently gone back to his stall and thanked him again. One day soon I will go to his store and buy one of his more expensive devices as I actually feel guilty that this kind man so far has not seen a penny from me and he gave me so much in that tank.
The Gold Alley did a loop and with the need for a cig sated I thought I may as well follow it around. On the opposite side low and behold I spied a sign saying e-cig. Well I had to look.
I grew up, well most of it, in a market town in England. Every Saturday the town centre became a mass of stalls and carts and a peculiar brand of person called the market stall holder. Now this type of person can be found most places but up till this point in my American journey I hadn't really met any here but the two men running this store were archetypal stall holders. I swear they were close to shouting out "Banana Juice just $10 for $5ml", "get your fresh carto's here". Let me say that I have a soft spot for this type of person on the whole as my uncle is one but he specialised in vegetables rather the PV wares.
In less than a minute I was vaping again, but this time 6mg Menthol in something called a clearomizer. Could never figure what people saw in menthol cigarettes and yep I stood there thinking exactly the same thing about menthol juice....why ? This again was an object lesson. If you could not like a flavour that meant there is the chance there is a flavour you like.
This stall had Ego batteries, atty's, 510's, clearomizers and cartomizers but no Ego C.
I left and headed home. Within 5 minutes of walking through the door cignot.com had order number 102759 waiting to be processed. Soon after the ECBlenders had an order of juices ranging from 6mg up to 18mg in the same state.
This initiated seven weeks of postman stalking, ghosting USPS Track and Trace wearing out the F5 refresh button.
I intonated earlier that the story changed. Up to a point my wife had been driving this forward but now it was me. When we received the Ego she had an interest. So much so that within days I ordered a pair of 18650 Ego Mods so I wouldn't run out of battery charge at work. They kept my interest for a week or so then I saw an Altoids variable voltage device appear on the ECF Classifieds for $40 so I had to have that. Then things really started accelerating.
The Altoids mod was joined by a Vapage VMod XL and within a few days I had ordered a black ProVari then the ProVari Mini on release. The Mini was for my wife. I found myself awake at 3am pressing F5 on the ProVape site gleefully ordering. During the same week I also bought a Phiniac Tank to go on the Mini and a aluminum Liquinator.
Everything came through. I sit here with these toys and gadgets. The Mini sits ever so prettily on the mantlepiece untouched since I set it up with 6mg liquid for the wife. There are no orders pending. There is nothing on the way.
Now comes the acid test after a whirlwind two months of retail therapy.
Can I just vape and not smoke ? Up until now I have had a new juice or atty or mod or something coming to keep me interested and excited by vaping.
I suspect I can but in all honesty I do not know. What I do know is that I won't be buying anything other than juice and atomizers for a few months.
So that is how I got here. I may or may not update this again, I am remarkably bad at blogging. Once I find something to write I am good to go, you may have noticed that, but day to day stuff I tend to use the forums for.
Anyhows if you read this, thank you. It is probably a road you have traveled or about to. If you have hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have so far, if you are about to I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
On the scale of things nothing amazing but in my eyes a miracle none the less. I received a package and as a direct result result went from 25 odd cigs a day to 1. The one a day disappeared once I realised I just had to up the nicotine strength from 12mg to 18mg which was 5 days later.
As I type this was 1 month 28 days ago and it has been a merry go round since. The package contained an Ego C that Vicky from cignot had sent to me at faster than light speed. So fast in fact that the juice ordered hadn't made it to the door. A quick Google and I found a store on the way to work that sold juice so left early and headed over there. $25 for 20ml it cost to get the Ego running on day one. But that was fine as the urge to smoke pretty much went with the purchase.
How had I ended up here ? Well my wife had gone out the night with some girlfriends and one of them had a son that had stopped smoking. Initially this interested her more than me and she bought a e cigalike. I looked at it. Tried it. Picked up my cigarettes completely underwhelmed. But it had been enough to interest my wife into asking more questions of her friend and a couple of days later an email appeared advising to forget about devices that looked like cigarettes and that the son in questions success had been down to an Ego T.
At this point the story changes. I looked at the Ego and something sparked an interest in me. Still trying to figure out what but after that initial search my interest increased. Within a couple of days I knew the cost, the place where to find the cheapest, I had found ECBlenders. By the end of two weeks I had started to become obsessed.
I know I had found ECF a day or so before I registered on the 21st of January and made my first post within a few minutes. Literally my head exploded with information. I found that the Ego T had been superseded by the Ego C and what that meant regards reduced cost of atomizers. Struck me as a great idea.
That weekend I discovered there was a local'ish Flea Market that had a stall that sold Ego's. I sat at home on the Saturday trying to ignore the urge to go and look. On Sunday I had to go. I got there at 9am and the stall I had found was closed. Spoke to the guy next door and it seems the lady that owned the stall was out of state so I headed for the car disappointed. Sitting in the car I thought I would look through a pamphlet I picked up and have a cig. Hmmm my eyes gravitated to an advert for another stall that had e-cigs prominently featured.
This Flea Market claims to be the biggest in the States. Not certain to the validity of that statement all I know it is big by any terms and like a rabbit warren. Finding anything there is a task so after 20 minutes of plodding around I was ready to give up when I turned around the corner and saw Gold Alley. That was useful as that was what I was looking for. I walked up the "alley" and saw the e-cig sign.
I soon discovered this stall was owned by a gentlemen called Sergio. There I was looking at an Ego T. Who quickly ascertained my interest and asked if I wanted to try one. Of course I did but I didn't know the proprietaries. In a jiffy he had set up an Ego and handed it over. I took a hit. By this time I wanted a cigarette anyway and this device was supposed to fix that right ?
I took another hit and did something I had never done with a cigarette. I put it down. A quick question gave me the information that the tank had 24mg tobacco juice inside. The nicotine buzz was the first thing to hit me then the flavour. This was not tobacco as I knew it. Not unpleasant but a nearly sickly sweet concoction.
The device had done it's job. I knew I didn't want a cigarette. I knew that while the juice I was smoking, yes in my head I was still smoking, was not for me that there must be other flavours that perhaps I did like. This was hardly an amazing revelation as I had a small stand in front of me featuring a brand called DeKang with names such as Blueberry, American Blend, Strawberry and Menthol.
A wave of nausea from the nic, nicotine for the uninitiated, hit me and the thought that perhaps 24mg was rather too much for me hit. Sergio had a single Ego T and while I had been playing a lady had appeared at the stall vaping on an Ego T. While still getting the shock that this actually works she bought the last Ego. There were 510's available but the Ego C name had become the object of desire.
I thanked Sergio effusively and walked away. I have subsequently gone back to his stall and thanked him again. One day soon I will go to his store and buy one of his more expensive devices as I actually feel guilty that this kind man so far has not seen a penny from me and he gave me so much in that tank.
The Gold Alley did a loop and with the need for a cig sated I thought I may as well follow it around. On the opposite side low and behold I spied a sign saying e-cig. Well I had to look.
I grew up, well most of it, in a market town in England. Every Saturday the town centre became a mass of stalls and carts and a peculiar brand of person called the market stall holder. Now this type of person can be found most places but up till this point in my American journey I hadn't really met any here but the two men running this store were archetypal stall holders. I swear they were close to shouting out "Banana Juice just $10 for $5ml", "get your fresh carto's here". Let me say that I have a soft spot for this type of person on the whole as my uncle is one but he specialised in vegetables rather the PV wares.
In less than a minute I was vaping again, but this time 6mg Menthol in something called a clearomizer. Could never figure what people saw in menthol cigarettes and yep I stood there thinking exactly the same thing about menthol juice....why ? This again was an object lesson. If you could not like a flavour that meant there is the chance there is a flavour you like.
This stall had Ego batteries, atty's, 510's, clearomizers and cartomizers but no Ego C.
I left and headed home. Within 5 minutes of walking through the door cignot.com had order number 102759 waiting to be processed. Soon after the ECBlenders had an order of juices ranging from 6mg up to 18mg in the same state.
This initiated seven weeks of postman stalking, ghosting USPS Track and Trace wearing out the F5 refresh button.
I intonated earlier that the story changed. Up to a point my wife had been driving this forward but now it was me. When we received the Ego she had an interest. So much so that within days I ordered a pair of 18650 Ego Mods so I wouldn't run out of battery charge at work. They kept my interest for a week or so then I saw an Altoids variable voltage device appear on the ECF Classifieds for $40 so I had to have that. Then things really started accelerating.
The Altoids mod was joined by a Vapage VMod XL and within a few days I had ordered a black ProVari then the ProVari Mini on release. The Mini was for my wife. I found myself awake at 3am pressing F5 on the ProVape site gleefully ordering. During the same week I also bought a Phiniac Tank to go on the Mini and a aluminum Liquinator.
Everything came through. I sit here with these toys and gadgets. The Mini sits ever so prettily on the mantlepiece untouched since I set it up with 6mg liquid for the wife. There are no orders pending. There is nothing on the way.
Now comes the acid test after a whirlwind two months of retail therapy.
Can I just vape and not smoke ? Up until now I have had a new juice or atty or mod or something coming to keep me interested and excited by vaping.
I suspect I can but in all honesty I do not know. What I do know is that I won't be buying anything other than juice and atomizers for a few months.
So that is how I got here. I may or may not update this again, I am remarkably bad at blogging. Once I find something to write I am good to go, you may have noticed that, but day to day stuff I tend to use the forums for.
Anyhows if you read this, thank you. It is probably a road you have traveled or about to. If you have hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have so far, if you are about to I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
