Social smoking

It's not always easy to meet new people in pubs, because each small group of drinkers tends to cluster around a table or in a corner, with little interaction between groups except at the bar. However, since the change in laws about public smoking last July, smokers are finding it easier to meet each other. Nipping outside the pub for a crafty fag, yet sheltering from the drizzle pressed against a wall or in a doorway, it's hard not to get drawn into a conversation with the other pariahs in the cold.

As a social smoker, cadging two smokes from friends over the course of an evening in the Hillgrove, it was gratifyingly easy to talk to complete strangers who subsequently would greet me as they picked their way through the crowds to reach either the bar of the toilets. I suppose it would be the easiest way in the world to start a pick-up: but of course they'd be a smoker - ech!


:-)