Am becoming the village crazee

Five years ago I quit smoking. I did not use any fancy technique from some book or other or anything of the sort. I stopped cold turkey and I started running. This was horrible for me (running i mean) because I was unfit and I was a smoker and i was running in singapore, where at first it feels like running in a sauna. But anytime I wanted to light up I would remind myself about the first running experience and I would ask myself if I wanted to go back to that. And I didn't so I would not light up. Why am I telling you this story?

Well ... this is the corridor where business and computing students come to smoke. NUS is a non-smoking campus and as such smart students find sekret smoking areas.


The problem with this corridor is that the window with the little piece of paper on it is the window to my lab. The window is right behind my desk and the windows are not properly sealed. Which means that whenever students come to smoke here (despite the 5 no-smoking signs, one announcement that clearly describes the fines if anybody would catch them smoking), the smoke comes into my lab. And it first hits me and my unsuspecting lungs.


Do we foresee a problem here? Oh yeah! Let's have a closer look at the piece of paper on my window:



Yup. For the past month or so I have consistently shooed smokers from there. At first I was polite and nice, but depending on my mood and the lack of coffee (coffee makes me nice) my shooing has ranged from "please don't smoke here, the smoke comes inside and I have quit" to "please don't smoke here despite all 5 signs. Please go. Like NOW!" And today I am happy to announce that I think word got out.

Yesterday I was sitting at our dinning table (don't ask) and reading somebody's master thesis*. I glanced up and saw a couple (him and her) going straight for the smoking place (they can also sit down, so it's mighty comfy too!) Then he stops short, points towards my window and probably tells her: "We must go away from here, the smoke will go there and the she-devil will come and kill us all!" She looks towards my window and at the same time catches on to the fact that I am looking at them and smiling - or grinning, or smirking. I could clearly see her tell him "Oh My god!" as they rushed away from my window. Mission accomplished.

*Master thesis about social networks. Second line of the introduction writes "Fackbook".