Judge, prosecutor, detective... and a happy e-cig vaper

[Frankie]

This is not an experience, but it might turn into one soon.

I am a translator and interpreter. Next Monday I am starting a week session as an interpreter for a DoJ project completely irrelevant to any form of smoking or tobacco use. BUT:
The group I will work for comprises of several dozen foreign and local judges, prosecutors, police investigators and probation officers. Many of them are smokers. The facility is completely non-smoking by the new stupid laws, so we all have to go to a long balcony adjacent to the conference room to get our fix during breaks.

With any luck I will get my very first set of e-cigs just a day or two before the event. I definitely will not start vaping inside, even though my nasty boyish mind keeps toying with the image of me contentendly vaping while president of the regional court stands outside in the freezing northern wind (the facility is a sort of mountain chalet), or even better, while they suck their pens/fingers/whatever waiting for the next break which will be in mere 80 minutes

On the other hand, I cannot imagine not trying this new bright future of mine, so I definitely will, at least in my room. The question I am still contemplating is whether it is reasonable to vape with such a group thus flaunting the new toy (I cannot imagine them not asking lots of questions, we socialize on the balcony, the time spent inside is mostly work for everybody concerned), or should I just keep to analogs for another week to avoid drawing unwanted attention? What do you think?

[dc2k08]

Go for it frankie, they're gonna find out about it sooner or later. might as well be from you as from the local news channel. they'll think your an innovator. I know most people i told a few months back when i started dropped their socks when i showed them what it was. these days im getting some yawns. especially after gamucci's craptastic launch filled the rags.

[TropicalBob]

Not sure how I'd handle e-smoking today, but a few years ago, when I was a 30-a-day cigarette smoker, I was called for jury duty. No smoking area. The whole courthouse, of course. Lawyers begin questioning me and asked if there was any reason I might not be able to serve as a juror. "I'm a smoker," I said. "I need frequent breaks or my attention will drift." The judge had been flipping through papers, but he looked up. "I'm a smoker," he said, "and we'll take frequent breaks."

I was selected and all went well.

[Soot]

Nice try TB - if I get called I think I'll try that one myself in the hope that some judges don't smoke . BTW - what was the case and did you get your breaks?

[TropicalBob]

It was an auto accident injury case with damages to be determined. Yes, we got breaks about every 30 to 45 minutes. Perfect. We awarded the defendant far more money than his attorney asked for, and flabbergasted the court. The defendant literally faced a life of pain and frequent back surgeries, and his insurance company was offering diddle as compensation. Normally, I'm hardline on whiners looking for an easy accident payout, but this was a real case of an innocent victim whose insurance company was trying to screw him (the driver of the other car was uninsured and broke!). I enjoyed the experience.

[Soot]

Good job TB - it's amazing how insurance companies try to back out of contracts that they were quite happy enter in to when it's you paying them!? I agree with your point about "whiners" ("fraudsters" in my book) but accidents do happen.

The one claim I ever made was for a broken pipe in my house. The insurance company demanded I take a jack hammer to my hall floor so they could inspect the pipe before agreeing to a fix. They were told to bugger off and I put in a new water supply at my own expense.

I changed insurance - but they all seem to be pretty much the same.

[Frankie]

Well, I am finishing my first turn (police this time, judges/prosecutors next week), and I feel sort of... underwhelmed? Not a single question asked. I registered two or three questioning looks, but otherwise - nothing. As if I were not there, vaping inside, because I got quite a bad cold and would not go out.

On the other hand, the truth is I did not use the e-cig as a real cigarette. I had a drag or three and placed it back to my upper jacket pocket (the one that is really only good for old forgotten business cards and an e-cig), sipped coffee, talked to my partner, etc. She just laughed. "Who do you think is interested in just what exactly you suck? They probably think you have an asthma inhaler. As long as they do not smell anything, you are completely uninteresting to them. You seem to forget that interpreters are just a sort of funny furniture anyway." The only questioning look was in the bar area, but stopped when I just laid the cig on the table and continued discussion.

I am using "Regular" cartridges and they really do not have much smell even for me vaping them, so they are probably indiscernible to my surrounding.

I did not resist having a deep drag during the lecture, but for that I did not take the whole cig out of the drawstring baggy thing and held my breath and exhaled through nose, because the sight of our glass booth being filled by "smoke" would probably not be funny at all. Feeling silly afterwards anyway, so i just waited for the next break.

If anybody reacts, I will post the experience. So far it was just like in vaping inside Somebody Else's Problem Field by Douglas Adams.

[SuziQ]

Sorry Frankie, I know you are not from the US or UK, but how much did you pay for cigarettes when you smoked??? What does this equate to in UK/US? (I remember you saying they were from under old Romanian women's skirts or something similar, but even so)

[Frankie]

SuziQ: Actually before stopping I had been buying legal cigarettes for some time, because I could not get any of the Ukrainian brands any more. So I used these:

CIGARETY ROCKETS ORIGINÁL 40 1 krabi?ka | POTRAVINY.eu, s.r.o. - elektronický obchod s potravinami

The listed price is old, though. They are selling off their stock bought some time ago with lower tax. The last packet I bought was SKK 129 (appx. $ 5.16) for 40 cigs. The price is stated on a special official stamp - does not change from vendor to vendor.

Might seem very cheap, but then, salaries in my country (Slovakia) would probably seem funny to you, too. Average salary for 2007 was $ 180 per week .

[Frankie]

Oh, yes, you were right. Should have told me in the first place that I made a mistake in creating the badge. I saved three extra dollars just by correcting it