I am always disappointed when No Smoking Day comes along. Each year I realize it's upon us, feeling guilty having just bought a pack earlier in the morning. This year was no exception. Unlike most years though I have been trying to give up, consistently failing to do so since February.

The difference this year is that I heard about the event from Twitter. It's a weird shift that I have noticed this year in particular, which started when I was following the coverage of the Egypt protests. One of the users I was following tweeted that Mubarak had fled the country, so I then tuned into the BBC's live coverage on my phone. I would probably have only heard about it in passing the following day whilst I caught up on the news. Obviously, this was a major international event, and generally you only find out about things which matter to whom you follow. I don't think I would ever rely on Twitter alone for news alerts, but it's good that we don't have to rely on an editorial process before we learn about events unfolding as they happen.

On the smoking bit, I hope that others have been more inspired by today than myself. I will prevail eventually; a spot of willpower, and maybe slap a patch on tomorrow.