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Tee hee - It really has gone beyond the pale if we are to be banned from smoking in virtual pubs to boot ! If....no....when...... I'm successful in giving the weed the heave ho, I shall of course take great delight in being as po faced on the subject as the most adenoidal of anti-ists. In fact I should start practising the frowning, hand flapping and faux coughing now I suppose......Wouldn't want to be taken for an amateur.
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I am a reformed smoker. a 30 a day marlboro man.
I of course had the willpower to give up just like that. You lot are weak lilly livered poor excuses for british manhood who cant be trusted to sit the right way round on a toilet seat.
Of course I am not one of thos po faced superior type reformed smokers.
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As an aside, the smoking ban has already had a positive effect on my bank balance and caused a significant reduction in my alcohol consumption. For me anyway, a pint is far too wet without a cig and short of standing outside with the coughing cripples I just can't raise the enthusiasm to even go to a pub now. Fortunately I visit Italy regularly where although they have the law it is more or less unenforceable. I shall have to remember to get upset about that too now I suppose...
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The "snoutcasts" as ISIHAC had them named in the Uxbridge English Dictionary
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The "snoutcasts" as ISIHAC had them named in the Uxbridge English Dictionary
Dear old Uxbridge eh! The Crown and Treaty Public House 1973 and forward. Oh! how we drank..........and drunk! Yamaha FS1E homeward!!!
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i packed up 20 years ago,i smoked anything and everything including massive cigars that took all day on boxing day to finish
reason i gave up was cigs went to £2 a packet
i was having what i called bored cigs at work
i was coughing when i woke up
i always needed at least 4 cigs in the box before i went to bed
i could have a cig now,the craving never ever leaves you
ive resisted but been toying with the idea of getting a pipe,if i ever go to the doctors (i think i have a doctor) and he says ive x months to live then the pipe is a deffo
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I'd like to bet you could plot a graph charting the demise of the country pub linked to the introduction of the breathalyser, the speed camera and the smoking ban.
Not that I'm arguing any needs or moral rectitudes here just fairly sure there would be coincidental economic troughs at those points.
I mean, you went out for a razz in the car or on the bike to a pub in the country for a pint and a fag. Now you have to drive sedately to have an orange juice and an unfeasably expensive ploughmans ( with jus or something ) and can't smoke, if you can still find one open !
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I used to give a lad a lift to the pub on a bike and he could smoke on the go.
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Biker friend of mine when young and foolish had a small hole drilled in his visor and affected "More" cigarettes which for those who don't know are super long things. He could smoke and ride at the same time without getting ash in his eyes. Think he crashed eventually though.
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DP
Just for us non smokers sake just keep on the weed - I would hate to see my tax rise due to inconsiderate smokers jacking it in. - You know you like it. :-))
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"Think he crashed eventually though"
Bet he immediately lit a fag (if physically able to)
"The "snoutcasts""
Yep, smokers are "snoutcasts" - in the good old days pubs had a "Smoke Room", can't really see why that could not still be the case. I'm sure there are plenty of barmen/publicans who are smokers who would be willing to serve "us".
Yes I know it's a ridiculous, filthy and unhealthy habit - but then so is drinking alcohol. (And so is driving a car!!)
Am now ducking behind the parapet!!
Edited by PhilW on 21/12/2009 at 22:25
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Live and let live I say. If you want to smoke then you should be able to do so, in a defined space/room etc. And if you want to give up then I wish you well in your endeavours.
But when The Powers That Be start enforcing bans and turning the screw all of our liberties are at stake. They WILL subsequently come after alcohol drinkers
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>>But when The Powers That Be start enforcing bans <<
They have and they are! - but whilst you "Sootys" are stood "shiverin" outside, they that made the rule are still sat in thier bar, where it`s warm, and cosy, still enjoying a "pint and a Castella"!
They WILL subsequently come after alcohol drinkers<<
They are! "They" are already trying to crack-down on "binge drinkers", if you only go out to drink at weekends, you ARE NOT a responsible drinker, you are a "binge drinker". As such, they are trying to price you out of the Pubs,Clubs, and supermarkets by upping tax and trying to ban "happy-hours" and other offers like 2 for 1 etc. Meanwhile, "They" sit in thier warm bar supping spirits which hardly ever see a price rise in the budget!.
The last insult to the "common working Man" is that "They" think we cant handle or be trusted with a "pint"................................
>>and turning the screw<<
"They" are! - Two-thirds pint glasses are on thier way!!!
Edited by billy25 on 22/12/2009 at 02:08
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My 'name' perro (Dog) comes from a girlfriend who named me Dog end in the 60's as I used to pick em up and roll a fag ... strange but true!
My Brother started smoking when he was 14, he gave it up just a few years ago when in his early 70's and he is now going Senile.
Although its best not to start smoking, its not really a good idea to deny the body Nico Teen after feeding it for some 58 years.
Nicotine is as difficult to kick as Heroin.
I gave up being Dog end 17 years ago at 40.
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I gave up being Dog end 17 years ago at 40.
Still coolish though eh comrade?
I'm an atheist myself but I can't think of a good reason why there should be euphemisms for Christmas. I wished my French author a happy one - Chretien ou non, I specified - and he sent me his best wishes for the fetes de la fin d'annee...
Merry one, although even that can be a bit controversial in puritan circles.
:o}
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I take your point about yr brother too perro, assuming you aren't exaggerating. Tobacco addiction is supposed to protect against Alzheimer's.
Of course there are other forms of senile dementia that can get even totally kippered chain-smokers like an aunt of mine.
And even if that doesn't get you, the snout has a nasty way of creeping up.
Bookies of the future may take heartless sporting bets from people on what's going to get them first, the heirs to collect if there are any winnings. Of course nothing voluntary will be allowed to sully the sporting turf, knowImean? Careful rules and regulations.
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>>> I take your point about yr brother too perro, assuming you aren't exaggerating <<<
Not exaggerating Sire - Nicotine is a stimulant and to deny the body that chemical which he has taken for sooooooo many years, can't be a good thing IMHO - any damage that has been done because of smoking every single day for 58 years, is done and can't be un-done.
Best not to smoke really, or drink alcohol or caffeine, and to become vegetatarian - like Adolphus.
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I won't go into the details, but after seeing my brother die horribly from smoking i'd tell anyone it's a mugs game.
Ironically his doctor told me it was only the booze keeping him alive towards the end as he couldn't eat food unless liquidized....there's far more to this than i'll go into he wasn't a wino or anything, he was an extremely intelligent RN electrical 'engineer' term used properly with respect to all engineers.
Life can be Hell.
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For years I have yearned for a downshift in Christmas Festivities - I just want to run away this year. (Well walk rather carefully in a middle aged way)
Edited by Pugugly on 22/12/2009 at 22:09
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For years I have yearned for a downshift in Christmas Festivities
Selling our house last week and not having one to move in for a few months... we basically cancelled Christmas ;-) We did the family xmas meal but can't this year. So money in the bank and not responsible for xmas. Bonus.
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For years I have yearned for a downshift
When I felt prosperous and was gung-ho I kept lobbying for Christmas in, say, Cairo or Algiers where it wouldn't impinge too much provided one avoided TV.
Alas, once nippers entered the picture that was out of the question. And they have been in the picture ever since, yea unto, knowImean? No escape.
Anyway, there it is. We must resist the American excesses, without forgetting to enjoy them when they are amusing, and try not to be too curmudgeonly when people get sentimental as they so often do.
And of course even for unbelievers who are nevertheless products of Judaeo-Christian culture in all its glory, there is the central religious narrative which has somehow helped to make us all what we are. Personally I despise vulgar disparagement of that, as do believing Muslims and all decent people really...
'Council bans Christmas'... tee hee.
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For years I have yearned for a downshift in Christmas Festivities
SWMBO doesn't like routine, and is always looking to 'do' Christmas differently. This year my parents came down from the Lakes to watch grandson and me playing in a concert on the 12th, so we decided to make Sunday 13th our Christmas day, with present giving, turkey, getting drunk etc. And very nice it was too.
That means we can now watch the run-up to the 25th with a sort of detached amusement, and it's not unpleasant.
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>>> Merry one, although even that can be a bit controversial in puritan circles. <<<
... Even the Eden project in Cornwall has *A time of gifts* so as not to offend.
feliz Navidad to all and a Año Nuevo sano :)
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Some of us still see it as a vaguely Religious - strangely comforting.
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vaguely Religious
Not vaguely PU. Crucial part of the central Christian narrative.
Very comforting to many. Even un- or non-believers.
Funny creatures, humans...
Edited by Lud on 22/12/2009 at 22:38
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"Personally I despise vulgar disparagement of that, as do believing Muslims and all decent people really... "
Absolutely. Every time some PC idiot tries to downplay Christianity, or bowdlerise the words of hymns (a poet hate of mine, being an organist), a Muslim spokesman, invariably courteous and intelligent, says that Muslims aren't in the last offended.
If you're true to your own religion, you respect other people's. Just as thinking people who don't have a faith respect those who do, and vice versa. I'm glad to be a Christian but I know so many people who aren't religious but give a lot of their lives to helping others.
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I'd also add the 'pub-co' which has had a massive impact on pubs - setting unrealistic rents and charging landlords much more for beer than the landlords can buy it directly from the brewery.
The most successful pubs are Wetherspoons - which have become the Tesco of pubs - and Sam Smiths who control all their pubs and the keep prices of their drinks at a sensible level - last time I was in one of their pubs two pints was about £3.50.
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