Addiction? What Addiction?...

10 hours in an airtight aluminium tube with wings, without a cigarette.... forcibly denied the two packets I would usually smoke during that period... It's not easy this long-haul malarky when you're a heavy smoker. The electronic cigarette that I purchased for such occasions will keep the nicotine levels up until we get there. But even the electronic cigarette is no safeguard against prejudice. Last year an Emirates stewardess told me I couldn't "smoke" the electronic cigarette on board. After a reasonable argument we agreed that it would be okay if I "smoked" it in the lavatory! What nonsense!

As a couple of heavy cigarette smokers who personally contribute a significant portion of £11 Billion worth of tax revenue to the UK, we are now in a panic about how many cigarettes we can take into the Maldives. I understand that the Maldivian customs only allow one to import 200 per person. That's about 25% of what I'll need for two weeks. I will end up, by day 6, spearfishing guests in the hotel pool with a restaurant fork.

So we'll take our chances... 800 Lambert & Butler and 400 Marlboro Reds. They may get confiscated. They may not. The big question is "... does the inevitably overpriced souvenir shop on Meedhupparu have, amongst its stockpile of suntan lotions, back copies of "Hello" magazine, Chinese manufactured sunglasses and coconut shell bric-a-brac, a couple of cartons of fags?" The answer, at this stage, is "... who knows?". Time will tell.

But, as a fallback plan, I've learned this evening that for $250 I'll be able to hire an air taxi to Malé and back to Meedhupparu...  Phew! Problem sorted...