To celebrate the advent of smoke free pubs

[rhythmaning]

To celebrate the advent of smoke free pubs – and did I tell you it was my birthday this weekend? – we went for a long walk around the Botanics (where I tried to photograph croci), and then headed to the Cumberland Bar.

We then sat, drinking beer and whisky for a couple of hours in a smoke-free atmosphere. Actually, it wasn’t that smoke free; there weren’t wafts of smoke, sure, but the walls were suppurating decades engrained of tobacco fumes.

It wasn’t very busy, but then I rarely go to a pub on a Sunday afternoon; indeed, I rarely go to pubs much. The landlord was kind of lamenting the changes, in a resigned fashion – he could not comprehend why there Executive had gone for an outright ban, rather than letting people choose between smoke and smoke-free pubs for themselves (which would have been a sensible decision, perhaps; but what if no pubs had chosen to go smoke-free?).

But it was great for us; and we had a lovely, alcoholic afternoon. We drank Flying Scotsman, Timothy Taylors, Guinness, Longmorn, Strathisla, and Balvenie. (Smoke – nil; alcohol – lots [og]…)