I to like a slow smoke either a nice bowl of bacci or on a different scale of things a good cuban cigar [is there a bad one I here you ask? - hardly] both of these past times disliked by many give a wonderful experience of serenity with a small drahm of course. Unfortunately the oz govt has seen fit to slap extreme import duties on these items - in an attempt to reduce all smoking - they impose it on the elderly too - BUT they are unable to differentiate between inhaled cigarette smoke that damages the lungs significantly and the other smoke that is much pleasanter and is very very slightly inhaled as secondary smoke. NO slap the taxes on all. So to import reasonably priced tobacco say from the USA who are much more sensible about it you pay the same price again in import duties - sacrilege mon dieu! - splice the yardarm and man the sails - where are we heading captain ? - anywhere we can get a cheap cigar!!
Bloody anti smokers, one got copped urinating on Puffing Billy!!
well lads we must gad our loins together ? - the planet is in chaos but we are not - follow the science and we will scientifically survive! - god i do wish your other members were here - I have heard about them and they were such cheary ones and divisive too? but survive we will this merry band of vagabonds - and we will meet one day in the best pub in Dublin which is ??? …Jem to insert the name!
Yes I feel confidence and renewed and refreshed - we will survive - give us a high five!! we will come out of this in Donegall ! bring as many cigars as ya can lads! we’ll be havin some craic!!
It’s a damp and dismal day by here today on the Riviera; a complete change from yesterdegg’s glory-ass sunshine.
My dad was a smoker. He gave up cigarettes when I was about ten and only smoked cigars or a pipe after that. I remember R Mar having to repair a jack, twice, a-cause dad put a pipe in his pocket without checking it was completely extinguished.
He gave up completely when our kids were still small. I only saw R Mar try a fag once. She didn’t like it so never took it up.
I can remember the precise moment when I was tempted, then decided not to. I was twelve and on school camp in Guernsey. Several boys were lighting up and I nearly asked to try one but then didn’t, and I’ve never been tempted since.
We’ve visited Niagara Falls on several occasions. You could buy Cuban cigars on the Canadian side, but woe betide if you tried to take them into the USA.
Perhaps now things between the US and Cuba have improved, Cuban cigars are now allowed in to the States.
Well, the hordes are descending on the seaside towns near our village. Places are starting to open up again. We passed two independent breweries on our afternoon out around the county yesterday, and they were both producing. Long may they do so.
We are not out of the midden yet, especially as the Indian variant has got in. I still don’t understand how this can be allowed to happen. We live on an island, so something’s not working properly.
I’ve had both my jabs now, and my Lovely Cousin had hers last week. Let’s hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not the headlamp of the Eurostar hurtling towards us.
I have never been in a Dublin pub. The only place I had a drink there in that fine city was in the hallowed halls of the Guinness manufactory.
There is, or at least there was, a very fine pub in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow I can recommend that I’ve had a drink in on a couple of occasions. The village has been used for scenes in at least two films we have watched.
can you just imagine - the reconstituted leisurely scribbles gang - with enlarged pictures of the rest of the gang - who were they ? - you’ll have to remind me - but you know you guys you have such a reputation on this site - goes all the way to Alabama fgs. Yes even Roy Rogers great great great grandson has heard of ya! and he wants to meet all of yas - spittoon spitty ; nutty the fruitcake; jem well he’s jest Jem and was there an ugly pug somewhere too? and a couple of dames or two you sly old foxes you!! and of course not forgettin RJ rest his soul! read all the threads from 1 to 5 and you certainly covered some tracks!
have I left anyone out you fellas?? OK cigars all around then - there’ll be a blue fog in town tonight!! reckon that’ll kill any corona borona heh?
Quote Bret:“Yes I feel confidence and renewed and refreshed”
I’m so glad you’re happy Bret, I’m happy too, your happy I’m happy, and I’m happy that you are happy, we’re all happy, happy talkin’, talkin’, happy talk, talk about things you’d like to do, you’ve got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream how you gonna have a dream come true?
Oh gosh it’s so good to be happy, I’m jolly jolly hockey sticks happy, I’m so happy I could kiss a covid infested gorilla right now, everything looks so beautiful when your happy, I could go on and on and…;-)
You was lucky you didn’t take up the smoking habit Fruity, it’s a very hard addiction to break, I admire those who managed to pack it in for good.
Yes things are looking up over here too, folks are beginning to smile again, all of the over 60’s have had the vaccine now (those who wanted it) and most of them don’t wear their masks on the street, people are just dying to talk to you on the street, but we still keep a safe distance from each other.
The bookies are open again and I’ve had me first bet in six months, I only ‘invest’ a few euros so I can have an interest when I watch the horses run on TV, my dear old grannie always warned us of the perils of heavy gambling, she used to say
“The only thing you get when you follow horses is horseshit”
We got plenty of that too for her garden, the brother and me used to collect it in a box cart off the streets when there were horse pulled milk, bread, and coal carts still about.
Pubs won’t be open until late July I’m told, I’m so looking forward to a real pint that I swear I will even hug Big Maggie Mulligan on the first day of opening, Big Maggie is the woman who makes the sandwiches in the local, she does the shouting at closing time to clear the premises, she can reach 100 decibels without effort, she also haunts houses as a sideline.;-)
Hopefully we’ll all come out of this having learned never to take anything for granted again, and realise how precious all lives are, maybe we might even get a more caring world from all the misery we’ve been through, alas somehow I doubt it. 
Enniskerry is a nice place, I think they filmed that series “Ballykissangel” there and Richard Green as Robin Hood way back in the 60’s.
Powerscourt Enniskerry, County Wicklow.
God Almighty Jem who’s been feeding you “happy pills” I think you may have overdone it a bit - or are you trying to share it around - now there is some scientifical news abute using LSD again - yes I know ya tried it in the 60’s we all did - or was that dried peat? anyway it’s seems good for PSTD and you definitely sound like ya got a bit of that - it removes all those ‘parental and adult’ guards from ya mind - gives ya freedom to appreciate the world as it really is without you havin judgemental views about it first - like when yuz was 4 yrs old - once ya got to five and school then the problems set in - judgements in all directions - think about it think about it?
back in the '60’s I was doin a bit of moonlightin in a tricycalist establishment and one of the trickcycalists was using the stuff to try on certain clients - one tab dropped in water - wait for it to dissolve and off ya go - he reckoned it gave them ‘blind faith’ wasn’t there a band called that - anyway released the mind and that is ferzackly what this new research is sayin - bit late to save us now though aint it so?
I’m H-A-P-P-Y
I’m H-A-P-P-Y
I know I am, I’m sure I am
I’m H-A P-P-Y
I’ve been happy in here (in this thread) for a while because I DON’T think I was conscripted here or prescribed here.
Everybody’s free to feel good.
Brother and sister
Together we’ll make it through
Some day a spirit will lift you and take you there
I know you’ve been hurting but I’ve been waiting to be there for you
And I’ll be there just helping you out
Whenever I can, ooh
Has anyone noticed the jump in property price, on “Memory Lane”.:-)
heh Primož Roglič go and play with ya bikes and here’s a fiva to get a icypol
Just give me your Mens True Rally Cycle.
Spitucious he say “Man Who Dips Willy in Treacle, will come to Sticky End”.
and he who play with too many bikes gets willie caught in spokes!
Just call me Walter.
I can hear ya Ma callin - must be ya high tea time? and take that bike with ya!
We went round the most excellent grounds of Powerscourt. Most impressive, with a nice piece of cake and a cuppa in a nice tea room.
We also viewed the nearby Powerscourt Falls.
We flew over from our local airport by a budget carrier of Irish ownership, and were treated so badly at the Bristol end that we vowed never to fly with them again.
Upon arrival, we were treated much better. Unfortunately the type of hire car we booked wasn’t available, so we were given a 13 seat minibus. Oh what fun I had driving that. Unfortunately there was no step, and my Auntie MiL had trouble getting in and out.
Here she is being assisted by our son, her grandson.
https://i.postimg.cc/FRjDrHxb/DSCN7707.jpg
As for smokers and trying to kick the habit, a member of the Police drugs squad gave us a chat as a guest speaker during the adoption process of our youngest.
He had fake samples of various drugs, and told us nicotine was more addictive than cocaine. Five fags and you are hooked apparently.
Its gone very quiet at the LHC again, does Dark Matter Matter?
DLM.
I think it’s broke again Spitty. ;-)
Lovely photo Fruity, a very happy looking group.
Bret mentioned John Wayne’s walk on another thread.
I’m following Spitty’s bike thread with great interest, but I don’t want to barge into it with something that is far from bikes or the assembly of same, so I’ll stick this important message here instead.
I would just like to make a quick announcement concerning a forthcoming treat for any pint guzzlin’ Dubliners who may peep in here.
After watching all of the westerns that John Wayne ever made during lockdown I can now proudly announce that I have truly mastered the real John Wayne walk, albeit I was good at it as a young man but now I am an expert.
Over many years I have watched dozens of feeble imitators perform on stage and in pubs, but they could never really get it right, I discovered that it’s all in the hips and the feet.
Norra lorra people know that the John Wayne walk is an art form in itself, he developed it himself and it’s taken very seriously by the members of JWWPS (John Wayne Walk Protection Society) of Winterset Iowa, the town where Wayne was born, I joined in 1985 and I’m member number 3856 therefore I am officially entitled to perform the walk privately, publicly, and in all public open spaces, believe me it’s tougher to do a good John Wayne walk than a space walk as my old friend Neil Armstrong used to say.;-)
As soon as the Dublin wet pubs open I intend to feature the walk on Saturday nights up in the local, I’ll include it in my John Wayne impersonation sketch entitled “Teh Hell Ya Will”.
I’ve already spoken to the gaffer and he’s having posters printed as soon as he’s given a firm date to reopen.
I appear on the small 18”+12” posters dressed as a cowboy sitting on a horse whirling a lasso above me head while rolling a smoke in the other hand, no mean feat that, actually none of my feet are mean, they are both a generous size nine. (note: one whirls a lasso, one does not swing, sway, twist, wriggle. or roll a lasso.)
I’ll keep ya’ll posted on this thread.
Sorry but my contract with the pub management forbids using any photographs without their written permission.
Oh excuse me, the wife just walked in.
“Phyllis, are you sure you gave me the right tablets after me tea?, the green ones?, not the little red lads, you know how they effect me, I’m starting to get a bit dizzy now, think I’ll have a little lie down.”
Attention will be the last thing being seeked, when out on the Bomber.