If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
first Scottish folk session under the smoking ban
I've been going to the Sandy Bell's folk session in Edinburgh on Sunday
afternoons (mostly Scottish traditional music) for many years. Today was the first day of the Scottish smoking ban, so that made us the first folk session in Britain to experience it. The musicians round the table included two non-smokers who never have, two ex-smokers, three very occasional smokers, one average-consumption smoker, and a lighting-one- off-the-other chainsmoking fire goddess. All of whom thought the ban was way overdue. Random observations: - average number of people in the pub, more than last week anyway. - a lot of people were talking about the ban but nobody was whining. - the audience was much quieter than usual, we could hear what we were playing far more clearly. We were a tighter act as a result. - we could smell the food from the takeaways next door. They're probably going to get extra custom. - there is a *very* strange smell from the basement that comes up under the musicians' feet. - (from the barman) the smokers were drinking faster because they didn't have anything to do with their hands except lift glasses. - the Fire Goddess was only in the pub half the time, from either being outside smoking or else in the loo (see previous point; she wasn't drinking anything alcoholic). She thought she smoked about half her usual number. - the usual punters taking flash photographs of us playing. Their pictures will come out clearer for not having the smoke haze reflecting the flash. - arriving from Sweden to find you don't have anything to do with your hands and booze is a fraction of the price you're used to is a good way to get much more ****ed than you intended. - there's a surprising amount of extra table space for instruments with no ashtrays getting in the way. - lots of people outside smoking. The enforcers haven't hit the bus shelter yet - smoking in enclosed bus shelters is just as illegal as in pubs. - some smokers (not at Bell's today) welcome the ban because of *what* they're smoking. They had to go outside before anyway. Now, they just blend in unless somebody sniffs closely. The one thing I found most surprising was how much quieter the place was, for the same number of punters sinking more booze than before. Who would have thought tobacco had such an effect on the noise of social interactions? Followups set to rec.music.folk - r.t.e readers, edit headers. ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557 |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Pubs in Scotland for non smokers | Josiah Jenkins | Europe | 269 | March 6th, 2006 03:54 PM |
Complete smoking ban in UK | none | Asia | 41 | February 19th, 2006 09:20 AM |
Smoking: The killer facts | eetinBelgië | Europe | 14 | February 15th, 2006 02:55 PM |
Europe's 'no smoking' zones | eat in Belgium | Europe | 119 | January 17th, 2006 11:25 AM |
Smoking in Europe | Owlman | Europe | 45 | December 21st, 2005 07:52 PM |