Any of you out there who are on the ball may have noticed that it’s no longer October, and therefore Stoptober has come to an end.

Which means that I can smoke – except that at the moment I’m not.

If I’m being perfectly honest I didn’t really want to give up and I’m more surprised than anyone that I stopped and am borderline stunned I haven’t started again.

I don’t know why exactly, but I do have a couple of theories of why Stoptober worked for me.

Firstly, because I didn’t want the public humiliation of everyone knowing I had failed. Secondly, it’s weird thinking that something which is killing you is nice.

Finally, I had a strange encounter with a hypnotherapist.

I am (as my editor will tell you) a simple girl and am still trying to get my head around the fact that the Earth’s spherical.

If this is difficult for me to believe, witchcraft and jiggery-pokery is near impossible.

So off I went to see the hypnotherapist, who at one point made the national press regarding a fling with a famous woman.

I wrote about my experience in last week’s paper so I won’t bore you here, let’s just say it was like trying to go to sleep with someone talking at you.

Credit where credit’s due though, I haven’t smoked since.

We’re now on day five of the more exciting Movember where men grow moustaches to raise money for charity.

I did Stoptober so my boss has to do Movember.

The tash is starting to form and I can’t help smiling every time I look at his face, which might be a bit disconcerting for him over time.

I guess we all have different reasons for giving up.

• This is the last post in reporter Amanda Nunn’s blog on stopping smoking. If you’re trying to give something up, or are embarking on Movember, drop us an email at newsdesk@ilfordrecorder.co.uk.