Smoking ex-pats

Medical issues, doctors, dentists, opticians and hospitals in Hua Hin and Thailand.
Post Reply
User avatar
migrant
Addict
Addict
Posts: 5856
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:15 am
Location: California is now in the past hello Thailand!!

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by migrant »

Since this has evolved to a little different than OP started.

I never smoked cgs, but started cigars a few years ago. Always aware and work not to bother anyone except in a situation I had in Las Vegas a few years back. I was gambling at a table, smoking my cigar. When I started all at the table said no problem. As usual people come and go, and after about 45 minutes a new lady asked me to stop, that it was bothering her. I told her I was there first and she saw me smoking before she sat down, but I left anyway. I saw the dealer later, she mentioned when I was at the table I got everyone laughing, and most everyone was winning, after I left all started losing and the mood was bad, payback I guess!!
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
User avatar
404cameljockey
Ace
Ace
Posts: 1780
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:14 am

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by 404cameljockey »

MDMK wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 6:21 pm
404cameljockey wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:37 pm
Hold on. So if a smoker comes to a table near a non-smoker and the smoke is clearly blowing in the wrong direction (when I smoke I'm very aware of who is getting the secondary 'benefit' of my sh*tstick), the one who should demur is the non-smoker, by getting up and going somewhere else? It's not reasonable for them to ask that the smoke not blow in their or their young children's faces? Just wanting to clarify what we're talking about here.
I see your point, I also see RCers point about the constant complaining smokers get. I consider (or should that be past tense now? considered?) myself a very polite and considerate smoker. But I still got complainers. So many of them. And so very very unreasonable and lacking in tolerance.

It was increasingly becoming a case of no matter how considerate and polite I am, the very fact that I am smoking within a kilometer of a living being I am the target for some complaining anti-smoker. And I do call that brigade ANTI-smokers and not non-smokers.
I definitely see your and RCer's point also concerning the abuse that smokers get. It's a terrible shame that there are so many obviously true stories about non-smokers verbally attacking smokers who are in no way affecting others at the time. Tolerance is a commodity in short supply almost everywhere these days.
I had a colleague once ask me if I would mind hanging my coat in a whole other room to where her coat hanged (it was a communal cloak room). I asked why, she said she didn't like the smell of cigarette smoke that hung on my coat. I just told her I didn't like the smell of cheap perfume and stale sweat that hung on her coat, so unless the company were going to provide every employee with individual sealed coat lockers she could go **** herself.
I think I'm in love....
Homer
Rock Star
Rock Star
Posts: 3336
Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2010 3:11 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by Homer »

europtimiste wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:25 pmI don't find the right words to qualify such a comment .The author must have a brain problem.
In addiction recovery terms, addicts have 'a hole in their soul'. The only way they can live with that hole is by using a substance to alter themselves. One of the sayings in Alcoholics Anonymous goes something like 'when you stop drinking, you meet the a**hole that drove you to drink'. For those who missed the point because they're in denial, the a**hole is yourself.
europtimiste
Banned
Banned
Posts: 1395
Joined: Thu May 08, 2014 12:19 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by europtimiste »

Homer wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:58 am
europtimiste wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:25 pmI don't find the right words to qualify such a comment .The author must have a brain problem.
In addiction recovery terms, addicts have 'a hole in their soul'. The only way they can live with that hole is by using a substance to alter themselves. One of the sayings in Alcoholics Anonymous goes something like 'when you stop drinking, you meet the a**hole that drove you to drink'. For those who missed the point because they're in denial, the a**hole is yourself.
First of all I don't know the secret agenda of the member who started this topic on this forum.
Tomorrow somebody else will start a new topic: Golf playing expats etc...etc.
FYI as I said I am a smoker but since I live in Thailand I smoke less than before but I will not give up.
Homer
Rock Star
Rock Star
Posts: 3336
Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2010 3:11 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by Homer »

In the mid 90s cigar smoking was a fad in segments of the US population. My employer hired a new software developer. Everyone could see how short Tony was and that he was now the oldest of the developers. We'd worked together before. I knew Tony had been a Marine in Vietnam. I knew since he was in high school his preferred workout was sparring and training for boxing.

Shortly after being hired, we're outside discussing a software problem. Doughboy (as in bread dough) and friend come out to light up. They do so upwind of us. We move. Doughboy begins sauntering past to once again place himself upwind. Tony was at least a foot shorter and 50+ lbs lighter than Doughboy. Using technique and timing, Tony landed 2 palms on doughboy's chest, popping him back a bit. Doughboy glowered, then started forward. Tony popped him back hard - the first time was just to get his attention. After that whenever I saw Doughboy smoking, he was at the downwind end of the area.
RCer
Ace
Ace
Posts: 1294
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:48 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by RCer »

Homer wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:13 am In the mid 90s cigar smoking was a fad in segments of the US population. My employer hired a new software developer. Everyone could see how short Tony was and that he was now the oldest of the developers. We'd worked together before. I knew Tony had been a Marine in Vietnam. I knew since he was in high school his preferred workout was sparring and training for boxing.

Shortly after being hired, we're outside discussing a software problem. Doughboy (as in bread dough) and friend come out to light up. They do so upwind of us. We move. Doughboy begins sauntering past to once again place himself upwind. Tony was at least a foot shorter and 50+ lbs lighter than Doughboy. Using technique and timing, Tony landed 2 palms on doughboy's chest, popping him back a bit. Doughboy glowered, then started forward. Tony popped him back hard - the first time was just to get his attention. After that whenever I saw Doughboy smoking, he was at the downwind end of the area.
Did you or your friend ask Doughboy to move where the wind would not blow the smoke at you, before striking him?
oakdale160
Rock Star
Rock Star
Posts: 4657
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:51 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by oakdale160 »

I started this thread, no secret agenda--I just asked the simple question--Why is the % of British ex-pats who smoke so much higher than British people in Britain. A simple public health and sociological enquiry. There has been a very interesting discussion on the smoker/ non-smoker divide and the difficulties of quitting but no real attempt to answer the question that I asked.
HHTel
Hero
Hero
Posts: 10807
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:44 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by HHTel »

Why is the % of British ex-pats who smoke so much higher than British people in Britain.
I would guess:
1: It's a whole lot cheaper.
2. It's more socially acceptable.
3. The age of smokers here is much higher and a number are past caring.
4. Apart from health (see 3.) there is no real incentive.

N.B. My mother (93 years old) fills her suitcase with cigarettes before returning to the UK.
RCer
Ace
Ace
Posts: 1294
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:48 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by RCer »

I really do believe age group is a big factor.

I have tried countless times to quit over the past 50 years.
User avatar
malcolminthemiddle
Guru
Guru
Posts: 591
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2005 1:56 pm
Location: Here,there and everywhere

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by malcolminthemiddle »

RCer wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:14 pm I have tried countless times to quit over the past 50 years.
The desire of many smokers to quit over a prolonged period is evidenced by their numerous failed attempts.

I can only speak from personal experience but this is the step by step procedure that I used to succesfully quit the habit permanently about 15 years ago after many failed attempts.

Step 1 – Decide you want to quit. It is never too late.
Step 2 – Accept you are a nicotine addict and this is the reason you smoke.
Step 3 – Educate yourself by understanding your addition and its affects. I used this web site in particular this page http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_NicodemonsLies.html which I posted previously.
Step 4 – Set the date as your first day to be a non smoker.
Step 5 – On the set date stop smoking and never take another puff.

For those smokers who have not completed Step 1 please ignore this post.

I hope this message helps someone quit.
europtimiste
Banned
Banned
Posts: 1395
Joined: Thu May 08, 2014 12:19 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by europtimiste »

oakdale160 wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:58 am I started this thread, no secret agenda--I just asked the simple question--Why is the % of British ex-pats who smoke so much higher than British people in Britain. A simple public health and sociological enquiry. There has been a very interesting discussion on the smoker/ non-smoker divide and the difficulties of quitting but no real attempt to answer the question that I asked.
If you enjoy to make statistics, study why those are smoking and others not, for me it's OK. But I dislike those who are blaming and even hating smokers.
dundrillin
Guru
Guru
Posts: 818
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:06 am
Location: Buriram/HuaHin

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by dundrillin »

To answer the original question. An older population with a social scene that makes it difficult to stop smoking (and drinking).
User avatar
J.J.B.
Guru
Guru
Posts: 974
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:03 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by J.J.B. »

There is no group more anti-smoking than the ex-smokers. Probably because there is no such thing as an ex-smoker, only a smoker who doesn’t smoke. Tobacco smoking is far more complex than physiological addiction to nicotine, there is a powerful psychological component as well that is linked with the rituals around smoking. It’s why many people trying to quit cave-in at the first opportunity or exposure to their ritual trigger (drinking, eating, socialising, anxiety etc).

To answer the OP’s initial question, it’s likely that UK ex-pats are older, on average over 55, and started smoking before the health effects were fully appreciated or the stigma of being a smoker truly developed. Statistically, smoking is harmful to your health but it’s not absolute, which is why there are a number of relatively fit, elderly smokers. My father smoked his whole adult life and died aged 63 of the smoker’s disease, COPD. He also had a fairly unhealthy lifestyle so suffered other, non-smoking related comorbidities. I have smoked in the past and occasionally still do - most notably when I’m visiting Hua Hin and out drinking with my (older) UK ex-pat friends.

However, by far the biggest health pollutant and scourge on society are the ‘modern parents’. The ‘Philippa and Tarquin’ brigade who selfishly wait until well into their 40s to have children - and can’t resist telling you how difficult all the (NHS-funded) IVF and other treatments they had to ‘endure’ were to “finally fulfil their purpose on this earth”. They come along in their Crocs and beaded, Yak-wool cardigans with their precious darlings in papooses around their necks, invariably screaming their entitled little heads off or running amok and shrieking in restaurants, train carriages or airplane cabins. Not only do these holier-than-though paragons make no attemtp to curb their little ones’ artistic temperaments, they are totally oblivious to the misery they cause to everyone around them.

That’s when I want to light-up. That’s when I want to blow big smoke rings in the air and savour the split second of peace. Of course, the modern parents would go absolutely ballistic and, probably, rightly so. But it would give me enormous pleasure to have a blazing row with them, to point out that their preventable noise pollution is just as irksome to me. To complain about their self-righteous, pompous ignorance of how to be responsible parents and berate them for being oblivious to the horrific impact that their mewling, unruly little brats have on those around them.

Ah, maybe one day.

(Cue ‘Air on a G-Sting’ a.k.a. the ‘Hamlet Cigar’ advert tune... :rasta:)
"A man who does not think for himself, does not think at all."
Wilde
User avatar
buksida
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22477
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:25 pm
Location: south of sanity

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by buksida »

:lach: Superb.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
RCer
Ace
Ace
Posts: 1294
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:48 pm

Re: Smoking ex-pats

Post by RCer »

J.J.B., that was perfect.
Post Reply