Annie Rhiannon

Monday, April 16, 2007

The Smoking Ban

The good thing about Wales bringing in the smoking ban is that nobody is allowed to smoke in the pub anymore. The bad thing about Wales bringing in the smoking ban is that now we all have to have exactly the same conversations that we had in Ireland three years ago — how many walls make a "room" and the definition of "smirting" etc. Imagine the fun when the English finally "invent" it this summer...

So, I won't bang on about it. Oh, alright then, I will. I was a smoker for ten years. I started when I was 15 because it was cool (it was!). I remember my mother pleading with me to give up before I got "addicted", which I sneered at. As if! I could give up any time I liked — so I carried on.

At the height of my addiction I was getting through 40 roll-ups a day. I smoked so much it was like a part of my personality. I let smoking define me: the colour of my Rizla packets, or the way I roached each fag; they'd become indelible characteristics. But by November '05 I'd smoked 54,750 cigarettes and enough was enough. Don't believe the hype surrounding quitting; if you want to stop you'll stop. Really, if I can do it then anyone can.

I don't get why England dragged its feet on the ban for so long. The sooner they do it the sooner they can have incredulous conversations about the old days when everybody smoked in the pub, only Richard Gere in Pretty Woman had a mobile phone, and the internet was something you only used for "looking things up".

18 comments:

  1. I too quit in November 05 .... hooray for us!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tis Me16.4.07

    I think the worst of all when it came in in Ireland was the lack of a "masking" of smoke smell for the issues of b.o. and guinness drinkers need to "let one rip"!

    I'm still not quite over this! And as a smoker (nearly off them!), prefer the pubs now!

    ReplyDelete

  3. "Don't believe the hype surrounding quitting; if you want to stop you'll stop."

    Yep, I smoked on and off for years, and quit within one day back in 2000. I guess I just don't have that addiction gene, at least for cigarettes. I still miss cloves, though.

    ReplyDelete

  4. Tis Me... I've got a feeling I know who you are? Or do I? Anyway, I can live with the smell of BO and Guinness farts (and funnily enough I do) but some pubs smell so horribly of bleach and disinfectant I think that's worse.

    I should admit I've had my moments of weakness and smoked the odd fag here and there since quitting, but they've been few and far between and only when hyperventilating or similar. But even so, it's all much easier than everybody makes it out to be.

    ReplyDelete

  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

  6. They have barely gotten round to just talking about a possible ban here in Holland. I think they're concerend about the rights of the smokers of 'happy cigarettes'. It is an all encompassing society after all. This all means I still stink after a night out - and not just from my usual gin soaked rags.

    ReplyDelete

  7. Most of the "Wow, isn't it great that there's no smoke in pubs" conversations stopped after the first two days of the smoking ban here in Cardiff. People have just got on with it.

    English mates who visited since think that I'm pulling their legs when I tell them they can't smoke.

    I've never got it, cigarettes taste rank.

    ReplyDelete

  8. Well done on giving up - I've just gone six months without a fag after smoking for 16 years, and I think that's probably me finished for good. 54,750 eh? It's horrible to think of it that way. I daren't even count.

    ReplyDelete

  9. I can't wait for the ban to come into effect here.

    When my mom quit, she thought of it in total dollars spent on fags, rather than total fags smoked. When she added it up and adjusted it for inflation, well, it was more than a bit scary. So after that each week she took the money she would have spent on cigarettes and put it into a special savings account she set up for purpose. After 2 year she and my dad remodelled their bedroom, bought an oriental rug, and took a European vacation!

    ReplyDelete

  10. I've smoked on and off over the years, and usually picked it up whenver I'd be traveling solo. It's an easy habit to have when you're sitting in a pub by yourself--having a fag doesn't make you seem quite so lonely--there's always the cig to attend to. Plus it's an easy way to talk to people, as they always wanted to bum my American Marlboro's.

    Got to spend the last night of Irish smoking in an old man's pub in Galway, about three years ago at this time, if I'm not mistaken. The Old Forge, just up from the Dubh. Know it?

    ReplyDelete

  11. Oh my god, the Old Forge. Yes I know it, I used to work in the equally horrid pub next door (that has since been turned into a trendy wine bar). Whenever I got into any trouble Paula the Dwarf from the Old Forge used to come and help me out. She knew karate. Kind of.

    There's definitely an air of nonchalance to be had by smoking on your own at the bar. A kind of "I don't care if I get both my legs chopped off", I suppose, but even so.

    I can't figure out what smoking cost me financially because I either smoked rolling tobacco or taxed them off other people. Let's just say £10,000 to make me feel good about quitting.

    Well done everybody in here who has quit.

    ReplyDelete

  12. I quit too, yay me!

    You know, we're due for one of those bans here in Niceland as well ... when? June? May? I can't remember. Personally I can't wait - at last I can go get drunk in bars again.

    ReplyDelete

  13. If you're going to do something, I believe you should do it properly, and that includes smoking.

    You seem to have been a pretty good smoker, but did you have three cigarettes before getting up, like I used to? Or getting the urge for a cigarette while you're already smoking? That's serious dedication.

    But then I figured out a foolproof way to be a non-smoker: don't smoke.

    Suddenly, you're a non-smoker. Isn't that incredible?

    ReplyDelete

  14. Yes, I was brilliant at smoking. And I always said I was no quitter, but apparently I am.

    Alda, I can't wait to see Kaffibarinn without the smoke. I'll actually be able to see it.

    ReplyDelete

  15. I used to smoke at college and managed to quit but was forced to take it up again to meet cute guys smirting.

    Total kudos to you for giving up. Love all the little blonk pics, only just noticed.

    ReplyDelete

  16. I've been reading Alan Carr's Easyway [to quit] for a while now and keep putting off the last chapter, which involves smoking the last cigarette.

    I'm kind of curious to experience the effects of the ban as a smoker e.g. making new friends out of fellow folks lighting up outside the pub.

    ReplyDelete

  17. It's so easy to make friends with other smokers outside the pubs. It's like you're all in a secret gang.

    ReplyDelete

  18. As someone who tries from time to time to give up the coffin nails and never quite manages it, I can say that I have green pupils of jealousy for you Miss Annie.
    As for smoking bans, I think they're a load of crap. Let the bars decide for themselves. There's a couple non-smoking bars in Rvk now, and they seems to be drawing in crowds of smug healthy people, all shiny teeth and freshly scrubbed genitals.
    Me, I think a bar out to be smokey, and frankly, standing outside in an Icelandic gale to have a chat with Nic O'Tine rates right up there with quick kick to the boy bits.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)