Time to stub out this bad habit!

And before all you tobacco lovers start complaining that it’s your health you are choosing to damage and I’m not affected, just stop right there.

Passive smoking may have decreased dramatically since the ban was introduced in pubs and other public places, but you often still have to run the gauntlet of all those people frantically puffing away before they step inside a bar or restaurant – or, even worse, a hospital.

I recently visited an old neighbour who was a patient at Forth Valley Royal and I couldn’t believe the number of people who were parked up outside the main entrance, some of theme even patients in their pjs and dressing gowns!

They had obviously never heard that smoking is bad for your health message or decided it already had and what the heck.

Yes, I remember once, and only once, trying a cigarette but that horrible experience has stayed with me forever and is something I never want to repeat – far less pay all that money for the privilege!

I really don’t know how people afford it nowadays.

It’s not like me, but I often have to bite my tongue when work colleagues moan about it being too long till pay day as they head out the door for yet another fag break. Perhaps if they didn’t chose to spend their cash on cigarettes then their wages might go a bit further.

I may sound like an old moan (yes, I can say old, no-one else can), but I can’t believe with all the warnings out there people still choose to smoke.

Yes, things have certainly got a lot better with the ban - you no longer have to put all your clothes in the wash and head for the shower to get rid of the stale tobacco smell the minute you get back from a night out.

I always worried that my two would take up smoking, but thankfully they’ve reached an age when (hopefully) they are unlikely to take it up now.

So now I worry about my grandkids! Well, that’s what grannies do.

However, the good news revealed this week is that smoking numbers are going down in Scotland – apparently people are choosing to ‘vape’ with e-cigarettes instead.

It may not be good for the Treasury coffers with a drop in taxes from tobacco but if it’s good for people’s health that’s fine by me.

As long as they don’t decide to tax my chocolate instead!