I hate it when I’m walking home and someone starts following me around with a weak gamma emitter.
I hate it when I’m sitting in a lecture and someone just decides to force me to consume an entire bottle of vodka.
I hate it when I’m cooking and someone decides to replace my food with a large serving of red meat because they just know that it’ll bring my daily average above the recommended 70g and increase my risk of bowel cancer.
Yeah. None of those things have ever happened to me. Why? Because they’re all really stupid things which no one would ever do. But you know what does happen?
Not so long ago, I was walking to a lecture and walked past a rather slimy looking gentleman. As I passed him he exhaled – filling the air with smoke. I hate smoke.
‘Enjoy that’ his sub-70-IQ-face said to me, as I tried to hold my breath and hurry away from him.
That’s not a one-off thing; that happens several times a day in Bristol. Personally I find being in the presence of a smoker quite uncomfortable. That makes me wonder quite how anyone is able to force themself to smoke for long enough to actually develop an addiction to breathing in smoke – an activity which would usually indicate that you were about to burn to death and should probably run away. To me, it doesn’t seem dissimilar to repeatedly burning your hand for such a long time that you eventually can’t go 15 minutes without causing yourself third degree burns. Only at least that wouldn’t harm passers-by who didn’t want to fill their lungs with pollutant.
If you’re a smoker, please stop exhaling near me. You know who you are.