Why are you Puffin?

Because I've just run here... *b'dum tish*

Is it just me, or does the woman fetching a fag out for a smoke look like she's giving me the finger? She's not of course. At least. I hope not.

Random link of the day first, though not that random given it's photography. Colour photography (ooh, fancy). From 100 years ago (say what?). In Russia and its environs (show me more!). Oh alright then, clickety click.

Back to cigarettes. It's a habit that has always eluded me. I tried them once when a girl I fancied at school offered me one. My dad smoked as I was growing up, and coughing fits, plus the trouble he went through trying to give up (succeeding about 15 years ago I think), were enough to put me off. So I hadn't really paid much attention to new laws being brought in by the Scottish government regarding the sales of cigarettes.

I'd heard about it, of course, but it barely registered as something important. Tobacco products will no longer be allowed to be 'seen' in shops selling them. Oooooh. Er. Um. Yeah, that's about it, except it seems that people are now suggesting this change will see people driven to the black market to get their nicotine fixes.

Again. Er. Um. With the addition of a 'why'?

It's not as if cigarettes have been banned. People who buy them will still be able to buy them from the same places they've bought them up till now. They'll just have to ask for them. Except, well, they already had to ask for them because they had to be kept behind the counter. So no change there. They just can't see the packets. All those pretty colours. Newsagents will be dull places without them. Aw.

Seriously, can anyone tell me why cigarettes not being on view, but still on sale, legally purchasable, from the same places, will lead to people finding others selling cigarettes illegally to get their fix? The reason eludes me with as wide a berth as the addiction itself.

And if anyone reading this smokes and believes it to be a 'war' on the smoker... Good. You smell.

(can you believe I've got to the end of this random mind dump - as ever not planned at all till I started typing... - without realising that there's a link between 'puffin' and smoking. Sheesh, I'm losing my touch).

p.s. pic was taken on a 'proper' camera, but the colour thingy was done... on my iPhone - Coloursplash app, dead easy to use, check it out!