Dangerous

A couple of days ago I saw that consideration is being given to banning people from smoking whilst they are driving. I haven’t got strong feelings about smoking one way or the other but there is something that makes me think the world is starting to go mad if we ban smoking. They reason they want to ban it is because it’s dangerous – meaning unsafe rather than that it is bad for your health. I guess if you light the cigarette by taking both hands off the steering wheel whilst doing 80mph on the motorway it could be seen as somewhat dangerous. But is smoking really all that dangerous (apart from the obvious health reasons)? Is it really any more dangerous than talking to a passenger or changing the radio station?

As I’ve said before, I think it is good to ban people from using their mobile phone when driving. That has an impact on people’s ability to focus on where they are and reduces their reaction times etc but I don’t really think smoking falls into the same category. If people have an accident whilst driving, then there’s always the option of prosecuting someone for driving with undue care and attention if smoking whilst driving is a contributing factor. I don’t know why they allow people to drive any more, it is obviously far too much of a risk for everyone. I will be purchasing a donkey and cart as my next vehicle and will of course avoid smoking whilst driving it in case I set the donkey’s straw on fire.

In other news, I had to get my appraisal signed off yesterday and generally it was a good appraisal but there were a couple of comments that I wasn’t very happy about which were connected to the job I had last year. It was odd because it brought back all the horrible memories of how miserable I was in that job and although I didn’t agree with the comments I just wanted to get the form signed and forget about it. Probably not the right approach but I didn’t want to talk to my old boss about it. I did mention it in passing to someone I used to work with and I showed her the form and she said I should ask for it to be changed and should redraft it and ask for a couple of comments to be deleted. So that’s what I did and my old boss just backed down and made all the changes exactly as I had asked! I felt so much better after that and as though that time in my career (if that’s the right word) might not actually haunt me for the rest of my life!

On a good note though, the person I helped prepare for an interview came and told me she got the job. I was so pleased for her and gave her a big hug (I’m not generally known for hugging colleagues, I’m just generally in a good mood at the moment) and she said that the help I’d given her had made such a difference. It’s really sad that she will be leaving but I’m really pleased for her.

I spent a bit of time last night preparing a nice meal for this evening, as I have company tonight… *grins*