Ready to stop the smelly smoke

Old oak furniture, check, dim lighting, check, absurd amount of Guinness being drunk by slightly ill looking tourists, check.

Then I realised there wasn't that familiar smell of stale ash and smoke, it was all a bit... clean.

A smoking ban has been in place in Ireland for two years, a measure soon coming to Worthing, and the rest of England.

After my initial disorientation in Dublin, I started to appreciate how nice it was not to have smoke blown in my face as I waited at the bar, and not to smell rather like an ashtray as soon as I stepped out of the pub.

My friend Chris, a smoker, decided after about 20 minutes that he wanted a cigarette, so we went outside to a courtyard garden at the centre of the pub.

The garden had a canopy at one end, in case it rained, outside heaters, seats, tables and more fairy lights than Santa's grotto.

"I could get used to this," said Chris.

It was really cosy, even in Dublin, in January.

The problem is not many pubs in Worthing have beautiful courtyard gardens. So where are all the smokers going to go?

Many pubs have applied for planning permission to build outside seating areas, but with just two months to go, it seems unlikely they'll be built in time.

Even if these are ready, certain licensing regulations mean in some pubs, if people do go out for a cigarette, they won't be allowed back in.

Either way, we're going to have a lot of stressed out smokers on our hands, either because they're standing outside in the cold smoking, or because they're inside fantasising about standing out in the cold smoking.

Then there's the problem of rubbish '“ cigarette butts strewn over the streets, outside pubs and restaurants, is not going to be popular with anyone.

Some bars plan to fit bins on the outside walls to address this problem, but I wonder how effective these will be on a busy Saturday night.

My dad, who is a heavy smoker, thinks the ban is an abuse of his rights.

I'm quite looking forward to it, but I'm just not sure if Worthing's ready.