It's official, I'm a smoker
Saturday, November 28, 2015 at 10:45 Nervously awaiting my afternoon flight from Dublin to Stansted. Predicted weather conditions - strong, gusty winds.
Earlier this year, also at Dublin airport, my plane was forced to sit on the runway for 30 minutes while the pilot waited for the wind to drop to a 'safe' level. The flight itself is one I don't want to repeat in a hurry.
On a completely different topic my financial adviser suggested recently I should switch my life insurance policy from one company to another.
No idea why but that's why I have a financial adviser.
He also suggested I should significantly increase my monthly pension payments if I want to have any sort of life after I 'retire', but that's another matter.
"They may want you to have a health check," he warned.
"OK," I sighed, and signed the application form.
So far I haven't been summoned for a check-up but the (new) company has seen my medical records and last week an enthusiastic young man rang to ask a few questions.
The first one, needless to say, was "Do you smoke?"
"No," I said. "Well, maybe the very occasional cigar on special occasions."
On Thursday I received a text from my financial guru.
"Are you a smoker?"
"No," I texted back, "but I told them I smoked one or two cigars a year."
"In their eyes that makes you a smoker," he replied.
So it's official. The director of Forest is a smoker. Hurrah!
Reader Comments (2)
You should have done what every other sensible smoker does when asked that question, Simon.......Lie.
It's what skews all the smoking prevalence figures trotted out by TC. So when they excitedly trumpet how successful their anti-smoking drive has been, they don't actually take into account one the one hand, the misinformation they get from polls, and on the other hand the size of the black market when they calculate sticks / rolling tobacco sold. The reality is that they haven't got a clue how many / what percentage of people smoke.
However, now you're down as a smoker, you can expect all your insurance premiums to be loaded. It's part of the punishment regime.
30 minutes waiting for the wind to drop? I would have been out of there!
When I last spoke with a health insurance company they told me they don't care if people smoke as it has no impact on long term health costs compared with non smokers.