2007-07-10

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

England has been a non-smoking country for ten days now. Places you can still do it include the privacy of your own home or car, and in the open air. A trip to Ireland in May prepared me for the change and I'm dealing with it while the weather is fair. I'm only annoyed there's no provision for clearly-labelled smoking dens where black-lunged bastards like myself could go to exercise our free will.

Eleven days ago I was celebrating the engagement of Tom and Johanna in a pub called The Globe. It was hot enough there without everybody lighting up like it was going out of style. Sweaty pictures follow!

A startled Thomas.
Jo dancing Zorba The Greek.
A fiver says Legolas and his friend aren't from round here.
Basquiat uses mind control to keep her portrait off the interweb.
I didn't take this picture and I don't know 75% of these people.
Always dress for the occasion.
Erika and myself doing Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers ('78 version).
Cute bar-person #2679.

While we're making sweeping changes to the country, can we do something about drivers who don't keep left unless overtaking?

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hooray for no smoking! So, you can't smoke in any public place at all? Not even bars where they don't serve food? It's weird to me when I travel to another state, go to a restaurant, and they ask if I want to sit in smoking or non--it feels like I've just stepped into a time warp or something :) Anyway, now smoking will become that cool, rebellious thing (a la James Dean) once again.

13:53  
Blogger Brad said...

This may seem Odd but the town i live in [like many Colorado towns] have banned smoking in public. AND in CO it is illegal to drive in the "fast lane" unless overtaking a car [but I have never seen it enforced].

I do have to tell you that i am still adjusting to the no smoking in bars. it is pretty strange to walk into a bar and it not be all hazy from smoke; to see crowds of smokers outside [most have front patio seating now for smokers]; and to come home and tear my stinking clothes off and throw them across the room because i want to be as far away from the smell as possible.

It's a very different experience for me.

15:43  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

Kat: Not even places that serve food - unless you go to Stoke-On-Trent where the local officials bungled the red tape deadline so you can still legally smoke there.

Brad: I'm glad you're enjoying it and I wonder if more people we knew in VA would have socialized if that was the case.

I'd love a "fast lane" law like that here. Talk about improving the quality of MY life!

12:01  
Blogger C said...

So no smoking establishments whatsoever? Not even privately owned? (unless it's a residence)

Do they have smoking/non-smoking lanes? I suppose the fast lane would be the smoking lane.

20:24  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I meant that in FL (and I think here too), you can smoke in bars that don't serve food. The idea is that if you're consuming mass quantities of alcohol in hopes of having unprotected sex later on, smoking isn't the worst of your problems.

So, are you going to jump on the bandwagon and quit?

18:18  
Blogger Basquiat Scrawls said...

Last week as I was getting a bus to college i was standing in a two sided bus shelter getting blown to pieces by the crazy july weather. I looked up to notice a sticker informing me that it is now illegal to smoke at this bus shelter!!! I am generally pleased about the smoke free bar thing but this is surely taking it to the ridiculous,there was sooo much fresh air i'm sure passive smoking would be almost impossible. Plus what are British teenagers supposed to do without bus shelters to drink and smoke in?

22:08  
Blogger The Paranoid Mod said...

They'll probably still drink and smoke in them...

Thanks for the scary photo - really must sort my posture out one of these days!

22:41  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

Kat: Sorry, I missed out a word. I meant what you said. No smoking anywhere indoors and public any more. No quitting here: outside the front door just became the most sociable part of the bar where it's O.K. to talk to strangers. I smell opportunity!!

Candace: Private members' clubs can probably make their own rules. The fast lane smokes if you do 88mph with 1.21 jigawatts of electricity powering your flux capacitor.

Ric: What's that private club on Middle Street that we went to with Kate Curl? (Perhaps that was with Joeri.) Sorry about the pic! You were upright in another but not covering Basquiat's face and she wouldn't have that! The full set's on Facebook BTW.

Basquiat: That's bleedin' ridiculous.

13:21  
Blogger The Paranoid Mod said...

The Sussex Arts Club. Costs a lot of money for the first year and then about half that for your annual subscription. Back when pubs closed at 11 and the only place to go drinking was techno clubs it seemed like a good idea. Now it just seems expensive...

18:51  

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