Holy Smokes.
Smoking ban is officially in effect in Jeddah. Sheesha and cigarette-smoking are no longer allowed in any indoors cafe or restaurant.
Of COURSE I'm gonna blog about this. I'm not exactly an advocate of smoking (or wait, does the fact that I'm a smoker automatically make me an advocate?) but I'm pissed off. Naturally. I did realize a few things, though.
* I do stand by my non-smoker friends, especially the ones who are actively against smoking. It's a filthy habit, and there can be no arguing that it affects them both directly and indirectly when someone is smoking around them.
You know who pisses me off, though? The ones who lecture me about the health aspect when they have zero health habits. I'm not saying smoking is right, but when you are obese or malnourished and have all kinds of health problems from eating all kinds of shit, and you come at me with the "health argument" to make me stop smoking, I want to punch you. In the eye. Then kill a cigarette on your face.
* I smoke when I'm bored. I smoke almost no cigarettes when I'm playing an interesting game, for instance, or when I'm working on something interesting, and I have gone days without a cigarette when I'm engrossed in something, or when I'm in the company of interesting people.
When someone says "Why don't you just quit smoking?" to me, in my head I am replying with "Why don't you just quit being boring, then? NOT SO EASY, IS IT?" but thanks to an Endlessly Considerate Nature, I don't say this out loud.
* The smoking ban in Jeddah hasn't pushed me to quit smoking so much as it has encouraged me to stop spending money in cafes and just stay home. This is a good thing.
Most importantly,
* I don't communicate well with restaurant managers (remember the Bert's Cafe incident? And the Paul incident before that?). It's me, I'm the problem, not them. For instance, here's a conversation I had with the manager of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Shatea, currently the only cafe in Jeddah I know of that has an enclosed indoor smoking section in addition to an outdoors sheesha area.
As I was asking for an ashtray,
It was... weird. I apparently inspire weirdness in people. I like that.
Of COURSE I'm gonna blog about this. I'm not exactly an advocate of smoking (or wait, does the fact that I'm a smoker automatically make me an advocate?) but I'm pissed off. Naturally. I did realize a few things, though.
* I do stand by my non-smoker friends, especially the ones who are actively against smoking. It's a filthy habit, and there can be no arguing that it affects them both directly and indirectly when someone is smoking around them.
You know who pisses me off, though? The ones who lecture me about the health aspect when they have zero health habits. I'm not saying smoking is right, but when you are obese or malnourished and have all kinds of health problems from eating all kinds of shit, and you come at me with the "health argument" to make me stop smoking, I want to punch you. In the eye. Then kill a cigarette on your face.
* I smoke when I'm bored. I smoke almost no cigarettes when I'm playing an interesting game, for instance, or when I'm working on something interesting, and I have gone days without a cigarette when I'm engrossed in something, or when I'm in the company of interesting people.
When someone says "Why don't you just quit smoking?" to me, in my head I am replying with "Why don't you just quit being boring, then? NOT SO EASY, IS IT?" but thanks to an Endlessly Considerate Nature, I don't say this out loud.
* The smoking ban in Jeddah hasn't pushed me to quit smoking so much as it has encouraged me to stop spending money in cafes and just stay home. This is a good thing.
Most importantly,
* I don't communicate well with restaurant managers (remember the Bert's Cafe incident? And the Paul incident before that?). It's me, I'm the problem, not them. For instance, here's a conversation I had with the manager of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Shatea, currently the only cafe in Jeddah I know of that has an enclosed indoor smoking section in addition to an outdoors sheesha area.
As I was asking for an ashtray,
Me, in my friendliest voice: I thought there was a smoking ban for all indoors cafes in Jeddah! Won't we get in trouble for this? [I gesture towards the air-conditioned smoking room.]
Manager Man, bored, unsmiling facial expression: Yes. But not for Coffee Bean. If not Coffee Bean, no smoking. If Coffee Bean, smoking. Owner for Coffee Bean powerful.
Me: Haha ..... Really?
Manager Man: Really.
It was... weird. I apparently inspire weirdness in people. I like that.
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