I hate

Yep, I remember people smoking in cinemas (although I was too young to be smoking myself then) but I did smoke on a JAT flight to Belgrade in the mid/late 90s - that was utterly bonkers to think about now.

Just about remember people smoking on the back of the top deck.

TBH, other than working in a kitchen, I've never had a job where you wouldn't have been able to take a quick break as you pleased so I never got why non-smokers always got their knickers in a twist about it. Now I'm an ex-smoker I still don't get it. It's like the kids at school who got worked up by you doing something against the rules that they could have just as easily done had they stopped wetting themselves about the whole thing.

Idk what it's like now but when I was young absolutely everyone in the restaurant trade smoked, so a fag break was simply a recognised sub 10min break in a known location. That way whoever was in charge could always call you back in easily, or at least easily see how much longer you'd be.

When I still worked in an office my smoking colleagues had all moved on to vaping so, cigarette breaks just became exhaling fat clouds while reading reddit and the virgin-vaping memes I sent them. I really used to enjoy going out to our balcony and smoking while either discussing work or just chatting shit.

I’m assuming the knicker twist happened when the smokers got unofficial breaks in addition to the licit ones.

Why waste so much energy getting so worked up about what other people do (unless it affects you, of course. The bringing back the smell thing is a suitable thing to be vexxed about). This all smacks of "it's not fair, sir" from school days as @hugo7 says. So what if someone else is on the skive? Do you really give a fuck unless it means you have more work to do as a direct result? And I don't mean you doing more work than them, I mean you actively getting shafted. It all sounds very petty.

I've worked in offices as a smoker and non-smoker, and I couldn't give a fuck either way. Apart from the smell, which as a hypocritical smoker at the time, I could never stand the smell of stale smoke. When I worked in a pub, emptying the ash trays was a worse job to me than mopping the bogs.

Used to be quite a heavy smoker, but the 10 minutes on the hour used to seem like a piss take. I remember of of the smokers ranting about paternity/maternity leave saying there shouldn’t have been any while sparking up a fag and adding another 10 minutes from the cumulative months he had given to smoking.

Cars with manual gearboxes. Just had to hire a car - first time in a while I’ve driven a manual and it’s made me realise what a colossally pointless and in some cases dangerous pile of shit they are.

colossally pointless and in some cases dangerous pile of shit they are

Applies to all cars, no matter their gearbox.

Someone once told me that manual was safer because engine braking or something. - I'm not a driverist

Fair

preach

Most automatics have brakes fitted, though 🤷‍♂️

And I bet most cars don't have both the wheel and hand brakes fail at the same time. So a very rare occurrence. I guess it shows how little I know about cars 🤷🏽‍♂️
🤔And the driver who told me come to think of it

Apparently, and I am also not a drivererist expert, is that engine braking doesn't suffer from brake fade and is safer when slowing down in wet or icy conditions.

At least that is what I was told by my driving instructor who could well have been talking bollocks.

Although, that said, the first time I drove a car in the mountains the hire car company also told me to try to engine brake as much as possible so who knows.

Oh, oh, actually, they must know what they're talking about as we got caught on black ice once and almost died before they got control of the car. Win

According to Wikipedia (and we all know wiki is infallible):

Engine braking avoids wear on brakes, and can help a driver maintain control of the vehicle. Active use of engine braking by shifting into a lower gear can help control speed while driving down very steep and long slopes, saving the brakes from overheating or excessive wear. If it is applied before the brakes have been used, it can leave the brakes available to make emergency stops.

Possibly if you spend your time driving in the alps. Probably not for driving through London. (Although I think my automatic may have some kind of engine braking knob, I am a driverist but don't pay a huge amount of attention to that kind of stuff.)

When I was working my weekend job and living at my parent's in the countryside as a wee lad, I used to try and do the half hour drive to and from work without touching the brake pedal.
Can't believe y'all aren't engine braking

Most automatic transmissions will allow selection of a low gear for steep hills, AFIAA.

The only reasonable argument for manual is repair costs.

I don’t live in the Alps and I don’t know about anyone else but I’d rather wear out the brake pads (relatively cheap) than the clutch or gearbox (relative not cheap). Also my automatic has a low gear mode.

Whenever anyone tells me about engine braking, having more control over the car or being able to accelerate better, I can’t help hearing it said in Jeremy Clarksons voice.

And if you wanna pull a sick heel toe drift on the touge of course

but I’d rather wear out the brake pads (relatively cheap) than the clutch or gearbox (relative not cheap)

Engine braking doesn't use friction. It uses air pressure to resist the cylinders.

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My automatic has flappy paddles which allows manual gear selection and as a result, engine braking. It also detects when it has gone from braking to acceleration and returns to full auto.

Yeah, I’m unsurprised to be incorrect on that but my main beef is that it’s adding another thing for the driver to think about when in many cases their attention is already spread way too thin.

Yeah, but no one in the UK is driving down 20k mountain passes. Engine braking can place more strain on your engine, gearbox, clutch whereas brakes are essentially a replacement part so most engine braking is pretty pointless for normal conditions here.

But engine braking sounds better (says every hoon around)