Friday, June 13, 2008

Cancer Sticks

I think smoking rooms should be established everywhere.

Don't get me wrong. I don't smoke.

Enough terrifying anti-smoking posters ( with blackened bits of lung tissue ) pasted all over the hospital walls as a stern warning after all. Would like to say I'm a cigarette virgin but that would be a lie. Experimented before ( you know I'm a curious sort ) but the one time I tried it on a dare, I probably hacked out half my lung. Never really recovered from that traumatic experience. Obviously that was also the last time I ever did it.

Of course, the very fact that my own father puffed away endlessly like a smoking chimney was certainly a deterrent in itself.

Never could stand the cigarette smell - no matter that dedicated smokers would declare it the divine whiff of approaching nirvana! Burnt ashes I call it! Even had to resist french-kissing a dreamy one-night-stand just because his sexy lips reeked of an overused ashtray.

Smoking
Mind if I light up?

And you can already guess that I'm usually not that discriminatory.

Honestly though I actually respect the right for smokers to light up. After all, the government is still condoning the sale of the cancer sticks ( despite the obvious surgeon general's warning ) so why are we stopping them? Seems to me like a curtailment of their rights to mutilate their lungs. Believe smoking rooms should be set up in certain areas just for them to take their cigarette break.

But please. Not the men's loo. The smell is already redolent enough without adding the exotic tang of tobacco to the heady mix. Sometimes I feel like plastering a radio-active sign to the men's room. It IS that bad.

And in a place like the hospital where smoking's literally banned from everywhere, you can imagine that furtive smokers are forced to gather around in isolated toilets to light up. Hence the endless trail of smoke that comes out from underneath the cubicle doors. Just amazed the fire extinguishers don't get turned on.

Seriously. I wish they'd get a room.

Preferably on the rooftop. Then the smokers can all enjoy their whiff of nirvana and I can go back to breathing exhaust fumes.

BTW my dad finally quit cold turkey ten years back. Not sure if he's feeling fine about that though.

5 comments:

luke! said...

on this issue, oh i so wish that indonesia would have that kind of thing. the smoking room. the law not to smoke in public places. the awareness NOT to smoke in a closed compound/room. the awareness NOT to smoke in an air-conditioned room. oh i want it so bad. almost everyday i come home smelling like i had smoked a pack of cigarette. and i hate it. it's very very very difficult to avoid. what can i say (or do)?! this IS indonesia! and this is the reason why i, the one with asthma, could adapt to smoking. it's a down regulation, i guess.

__S.B__ said...

good to see that you dont smoke

Anonymous said...

smoking sucks la.

Perky said...

Just the mere sight of cigs disgusts me. I don't even kiss my partner immediately after he's taken his puff. Can't stand the smell, can't stand the taste. Weird isn't it, considering i was once a chain-smoker myself? lol!

savante said...

Same here. When you walk out of the loo, you stink of smoke, luke.

Yeah, I don't, sb.

Totally agree, queer asian.

At least he does wash his mouth after the puff, perky :)

Paul