fuming

The office was repainted over the weekend. This presents me with two problems this morning: rearranging desks and whatnot that we pulled out from the walls on Friday evening, and that exciting "new paint" smell that you just know is going to cause someone a migraine before the day is out.

breathe easy, drink more

I think I may wander to the King's this evening to check out our brand new smoking ban. For those of you only visiting the "IRELAND BANS SMOKING IN PUBS, DEATH OF CULTURE PREDICTED" coverage, the ban actually covers smoking in the workplace. And, as you may have noticed, some people actually work in pubs.

more on smoking ban

Well, that's amusing. On the late evening news just now the only complaining bar customers they could find were a bunch of Whingin' Poms[1] visiting one of the Border counties. Even a 60-a-day smoker said he was happy to see the ban in place, and the barstaff interviewed for the news segment said they'd seen no drop-off in trade and noone attempting to infringe.

No doubt it's biased reporting, of course.

[1] Q. How do you tell if a just-arrived plane in Sydney originated in the UK? A. The whining contines after the engines have stopped.