May 22, 2014

The Sometimes Smoker


On route home from a long walk  recently, McScrooge and I decided to have a quick drink in a local pub's beer garden.  Sitting across from us was another couple we hadn't seen for years.  Gathering at a bench table for a quick catch-up,  Ann, shortly after,  took a pack of cigarettes from her bag, and the chat went something like this:
          
                 '' Is it okay to light up? ''
                 '' Sure,'' I replied, '' I never knew you smoked. ''
                 '' Well, I really only smoke when I'm out in company, not at work and never in the house.''
                 '' Oh, so you can go for days without a ciggie? ''
                 '' Sometimes weeks, '' she added.
                 '' Really?,'' I said, still kinda wondering what the point was.
                 '' I like a smoke about as much as I like a sweetie.   Even if it's a sweetie I don't like - I'll hang on to it but eventually smoke it!''

     There's a slight taste of  Nabokov in that statement somewhere only I'm still trying to work it out!

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9 comments:

ariverflowsby said...

What? What? What? Well, when you figure it out, how about letting the rest of us know......

Unknown said...

How nice of her to let you second-hand smoke with her. Now I have to find out why this is so Nabokov (I only know him from Lolita, was she there too?).

Geo. said...

Hmmm. I will hazard a guess: The Russian cigarette brand, Lolita, was named after the Nabokov novel?

anne marie in philly said...

this cancer survivor says HAVE A SWEETIE (preferably chocolate) than a cancer stick; your lings will thank you!

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I must admit that if I were able to have a cigarette and be able to wait weeks without doing it, I would probably still smoke. But alas, I can't :)

stevebethere said...

I think if you have given it up and it doesn't bother you anymore why have one now and again it don't make sense especially considering it can be harmful.

Each to their own i suppose

Have a smokefreetastic weekend ;-)

Helena said...

Richard...LoL....I sure will!

Rob - Nabokov is quite the complex writer and in the past I've had to reread some of his work to get it! There's a bit in Lolita where he mentions paradise with hell-flame skies but still a paradise. The connection comes from there I suppose. A loose connection but a connection nonetheless *cough*

Geo - Such a clever mind! I'm amazed that these ciggies actually exist!

Anne - I didn't know you were a C survivor, I admire you even more now! I've been down the pre-cancerous cells road (had a rushed history at 29) though never smoked. It shames me to say that the majority of my family are puffers. Mostly from their school years. I always gave a teenage adamant 'no'. I even used to crush my twin sister's fags and put the bits back in the pack and into her blazer pocket! Chocolate any day!!

Keith - I guess our strategies differ - even though we follow the same rituals!

Steve - It is a strange way of behaving, I suppose. We accept this sort of pattern with alcohol, so maybe it's not so strange for some.......I'll be non-nicotine-Nell this weekend....♥

musicwithinyou said...

I will shamelessly admit, I've done the same as her. I tried the whole smoking when I was a teen but didn't care for it so I never picked up the habit. So when I became an adult, I found myself wanting to smoke one only when I was out drinking at a bar and others around me are smoking. So why do it? When I'm not even a smoker. There was no reason to smoke except to maybe feel like I needed too??? I'm so glad I no longer have those urges.

Unknown said...

I've never read Nabokov. I've watched the Lolita movie starring Jeremy Irons, but in hineside I should have tried to read the book I guess.