puffs.

Today, I braved the biting cold, gusty wind and rain to walk to an old gentleman's house to 'interview' or take a history from him. Prior to this, I was feeling abit giddy for some reason yet to be known- it felt frightening to see objects around me spin in circles. I felt like I might lose my balance and fall anytime.

Anyway, I rang the doorbell and opened the door to enter his house. Immediately, the acrid and detestable smell of cigarette smoke infiltrated my nostrils. I hesitantly entered his living room when he had just finished stubbing a cigarettte butt in the overflowing ashtray. I later learnt that he is a heavy smoker, smoking 40 cigarettes a day and he used to smoke 80 a day in the past. He was a nice old man, alright, and I enjoyed talking to him but as I left the house, I took a deep breath of cold air and thought to myself, ' I had risked my own health in there, breathing in all that putrid smoke'.

Every time I walk down a stretch of road with smoking passerbys walking alongside me, I will either hold my breath as I walk past or speed up my walking pace to 'overtake' them. While sitting in the bus, I look out of the window and see smokers lighting cigarettes and puffing away at the bus stops and wonder what in the world had possessed them to take up such a repulsive habit? While waiting for the bus at bus stops, I would walk far away, go up a small hill and rather wait in the rain than stand next to smokers in the sheltered bus stops.

What irks me is the fact that inhaling the unfiltered smoke produced by these smokers puts my lungs and whatnot at a greater risk than if I were to smoke a cigarette myself. As winter begins and the cold weather kicks in, smokers will be lighting up more frequently so it just gets worse from here. What will I do? Keep holding my breath.

This, ladies and gentlemen is my ramble of the week.