NORMAL LIFE: Time To Stop Smoking

Finland's 'no smoking in public places' legislation came into force on June 1st (see here) and, today, the law comes into effect across England (see here). It's ironic that England is the last part of the United Kingdom to enforce any such law - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have had smoking bans in place for some time already.

While we're on the subject, a very related incident occurred just last night in my local bar. I waited patiently for a toilet to become available when, suddenly, a guy stumbled out of a cubicle with sunken drunk-as-hell eyes and a half-used cigarette dangling from the side of his mouth. I moved forward, keen to get into the cubicle, but somebody else remained inside. God knows what they had been doing, but the guy who had left the cubicle was now knocking on another of the three cubicles. Unable to decipher his slurred speak, I had no idea what was going on.

Suddenly, the lock unlatched and the door swung open. Inside, were four people, all of whom were smoking; the scene resembled a sauna rather than a place where people peed - smoke billowed out in masses and, as the guy moved forward to join them, I grabbed the open door and screamed at them, "This is a toilet, get the fuck out!" What amazed me most of all is that not one of them surrendered, choosing to abstain from indicating a shred of guilt for their selfishness in hijacking a vital facility for their own disgusting habit. They all yelled something or other at me, so I backed off; you never know what weapons these people are concealing, do you? I reported this incident to one of the bouncers and when they were kicked out of the club at 1am in the morning (they would never get into another club this late at night), I felt quite good about myself.

As summer has gathered pace in Finland, so too has the all-to-disgusting behaviour of the natives when they come within hands-reach of anything containing a sniff of alcohol. On our way home, there were broken bottles scattered here and there on the pavements along with streams of liquid which were the telltale signs that someone had peed here not so long ago. Bree said that Helsinki is not a city of city-folk; in the summer, people come to Helsinki from all over the country and the truth is that people just don't know how to behave. This isn't surprising in a nation where towns are so far apart, whiched makes it hard for common values and behaviours to be instilled. God, I get frustrated by these people sometimes.