The power of the weed!

[PeteC]

Not easy questions. Like Dawn, I'll have a beer or two everyday except when friends are in town or some event going on then I may do 12-16 at a sitting. However, I feel so badly the next day I don't go near any of it for a week. No cravings at all so I guess I'm lucky that my system makes me feel so bad I listen to it.

Food is food. I don't get too excited about it unless some craving for some western thing I haven't had for awhile. Most days are Thai food, noodles, rice, etc., and some days I'll go out and buy a big beef roast and try to recreate some craving with all the fixings, much to the dismay of my partner and little girl who evacuate the entire house until I'm done. Then they look at what I cooked, look at each other, sigh and go out and buy some Thai food... I arrived back here this time 3 years ago from the USA and my fast food and heavy food diet at about 80 kilos. I'm not at 92 kilos eating mainly Thai food. Another

Cigarettes are my downfall, and probably my death. I've quit many times only to return 1-2-3-4-5-6 months later. A smoker really has to get in the frame of mind of I WANT TO QUIT...or it's hopeless. You can't just do it because you know it's bad for you, you need a more scary or solid reason. It's the most addictive thing I've ever known. My system does not rebel on me like it does with booze, I wish it did. I also still gain weight??

With all three of the above, you need a strong substitute to counter. Exercise is probably the best. If you're out playing golf, swimming laps, walking, biking, you don't think about getting drunk or smoking a cigarette and, your appetite remains good but I've found after a hard day physical work or exercise, you eat rationally and not gorge yourself.

As usual, I seldom take my own advice. Pete

[STEVE G]

I’m a non-smoker so it doesn’t matter to me, but here in Luxembourg they brought in a half-assed smoking ban that depends on whether food is being served and what type of license the bar has and the time of day. This sounds reasonable enough except that no one can remember the details and the times involved so when my friends need a smoke they have ask the staff every time, usually to find out that the barmaid is from Poland or the Ukraine and hasn’t got a clue either.

[lomuamart]

I was told by my parents over 9 years ago that if I ever came back to visit their house, I couldn't smoke indoors.
Good friends in London, who I have always stayed with when down there, told me about 7 years ago that they had two children and smoking indoors (and drunken behavior and swearing) wern't allowed. I smoked outside.
My brother and his wife were fairly reasonable, suggesting that I could light up in their house. I didn't though. Smoked outside.
I probably get through 30 odd ciggies a day. In England, it was down to 6-7 (unless in the pub). Saved me a fortune.
Thank you family and friends. I'm a social pariah.

[PJG]

Roll on July the 1st. Smoke free Pubs will be great. My local has implemented the ban already and now the atmosphere is really pleasant. In fact their turnover has increases 20% since banning smoking.

Wish some of the restaurants in HH would do the same.

[DawnHRD]

First I'd heard of this British ban & I think it's a really bad move. I don't smoke, as I said, but virtually every BF I've ever had has been a smoker; many of my friends are too, as well as my Mum's BF. What am I supposed to do? Endure broken conversations or keep going outside with them? Restaurants, OK, I don't particularly like people smoking while I'm eating, but pubs? If there must be non-smoking pubs, there should be smoking ones, too.

[Jim]

It will be pan-european soon.

If the Irish experience is anything to go by, it will make a small difference to wet sales and some die hard smokers have to hang round outside, but it makes the insides of the pubs and restaurants so much nicer for everyone else. There will be initial indignation from a few smokers who insist on their right to force others to reinhale their exhalations, but experience is that this pretty short-lived. I know I cant say this as I havent asked everyone in the country, but the vast majority of puffers appear to be accepting that they have to cut down when they go to the pub/out to eat. 100% a good thing.

OK - I'm here to shot down by the dissenters now, I can take it...it's only cyberspace

[richard]

Smoked and drank now for 50 years and still puffing on

Gave up the smokes for 12 years to play competitive squash then when that finished back on the weed

The thought of going into a pub and not being able to light up is akin to taking your boots off at the door (Thai style)

Progress I suppose

[lomuamart]

As a smoker, I'd agree to a large extent with Jim.
All those years ago when I was entertaining at "twee" bars, winebars and restaurants in London I was asked not to smoke by the table next to me.
That was always fair enough - as long as they asked politely. If they demanded, I just carried on for a while.
I despised people who "demanded" that I refrain from doing what was totally legal. However, if others suggested politely that my smoke was interferring with their meal, then I put my cigarette out. There was never any question about that and the "two tribes" could get on well.
However, now still as a smoker, I'm all for a ban in restaurants. It dosn't mean that much to me to go out into the street and have one there. However, the old bill around the Soho area may fine me for stubbing my cigarette out. And heaven forbid that they tell me I can't smoke one on Oxford Street.
I still havn't been fined on Sukhumvit yet. One day?

[redzonerocker]

its a big thumbs down for the ban. most local pubs are frantically trying to set up smoking areas because they know the majority of their customers are smokers.
it may work in the summer months but who will go the pub in subzero temperatures for a pint & then have to stand outside to smoke? thats where the yearly profits will nosedive.
its a bad move politically considering the vast amount of tax revenue made through tobacco & alcohol.
totally agree with restaurants etc being smokefree.

[caller]

The Brits replying here must live in different places to those I know!

I've never smoked but have willingly entered pubs, knowing that others smoke. Most friends that smoked have given up, but of course, cigarettes here are incredibly expensive, both as a deterrant and tax revenue.

A lot of pubs have had non-smoking areas for a long time - some a gesture, but more latterly serious efforts with air extractors, different levels in bars etc. One I use is equally busy in both areas.

I know several that have had smoking bans for some time, some I use. It doesn't seem to have affected custom much.

But as less than 25% of the UK now smoke, and as the numbers of women smokers outnumber men, its becoming less of an issue in anycase.

Most restaurants have been non-smoking for a long time. Most other areas are non smoking as well, even most football stadiums - Stamford Bridge being one. Lots of work places have banned smoking anywhere on the work site, not just inside buildings. That includes hospitals and schools (apart from behind the bike sheds ) and that has to be right?

Apart from your own home and the street, there aren't many places left to smoke. And even with the former, a smoking couple have been reported to their local authority by their neighbours as a nuisance, as they claim the smell permeates their home!!!!

Its almost a surprise to me now to smell smoke (unless in a pub). So I notice it more now than I ever did.

So finally, in answer to RC's question (you're not, are you?), food and then booze, just.

[JimboPSM]

Unfortunately once the smoking ban comes into effect I will stop visiting pubs in the UK as I do not enjoy a pint (or two) without a cigarette. It will save me money as beer is much cheaper at home, but I will miss the company.

I have no objection to non-smoking pubs, but as I enjoy a cigarette with my beer they will not get any of my business, I do not regard standing or sitting in the cold outside as any kind of an option for me (I have arthritis in my neck and spine).

IMHO, if there was a real economic demand for non-smoking pubs they would be everywhere already, but they are not – remember, the main business of a pub, like any business, is to make a profit.

There was an experiment in the Isle of Man a few years ago when a pub went totally non-smoking, it was widely advertised and heralded as the future by all the non-smokers but within four weeks it had to allow smoking again as it had lost all its customers to competitors and none of the non-smokers who were so vocal about non-smoking pubs actually went there for a drink.

For me, it is sad that in a so-called free and democratic society that the market place cannot determine whether an establishment is smoking or non-smoking; the dictatorial nanny state is once again legislating away freedom of choice and taking us yet another step closer to 1984

[caller]

Actually, its to help protect peoples health, including employees, from the effects of long term exposure to passive smoking in enclosed environments.

It will save me a few bob in dry cleaning as well!

It already happens in Oz - or at least the parts I go to, but then the weathers usually a bit warmer outside than what it is here.

Give it a go - you might enjoy it, you won't know until you've tried!

[Randy Cornhole]

I have before given up smoking for nearly 14 years in one stretch and it was pure hell. When I started again it was like being released from a lifetime prison setence. Over here in the UK I smoke moody imported Old Holborn, which is 22 pounds for 5 x 50g pouches. I smoke just less than 1 pouch a week so its about 1 pound a day, actually less than smoking in Thailand which costs me about 1 pound 60 a day (40 fags)
I enjoy smoking particulary with a pint and a good crossword to mull over.

[redzonerocker]

most pubs i go to have a pretty even split with smokers non/smokers.
i see as many if not more young people smoking now than when i was a youngster, including the kids on the way out of the school gates.how they afford it i don't know!
most football stadiums & places of work are non smoking, agreed, but there are always designated areas for smoking even in hospitals, airports etc. the one at gatwick in the middle of the concourse!! does that one make a smoker feel like a leper or what!?! :
i intend to quit (again) so its a further incentive for me but i'm sure the pubs will not have the same atmosphere with the ban in place.

[JimboPSM]

I wonder if all the non-smokers, having driven smoking out of pubs, will actually now bother to frequent them.

The increased level of anti-smoking legislation that has already been implemented here has seen a marked reduction in “pub regularsâ€