On Saturday I engaged in that great British institution known as "the 'baccy run".

What this involves is a quick trip across the Channel to France to take advantage of their sensible tax levels on alcohol and tobacco. Anyway, Having been out late (very late) on Friday night, and as we left early (very early) on Saturday morning I ended up getting about 1 hour's sleep, me and my parents drove about 40 miles to Dover. My brother and his wife were also meant to be joining us, but illness prevented them.

We got a catarmaran thingy across the channel, which took about 40 minutes, or half as long as a normal ferry, and then there we were in Calais.

We got some breakfast, and for some reason bacon and fried eggs was listed as a continental breakfast which confused me.

Then off the the supermarket for the majority of the day. My parents bought a little over 60 bottles of wine, and I bought 1,200 cigarettes. The difference in tax levels between Britain and France is large enough that I could easily afford buy a DVD player, or a PS2, or a palmtop computer on the money I saved.

We had a bite of lunch, which was quite nice. Then, seeing as the weather was so good, we spent a couple of hours on the beach. My mother collected some pebbles for use at work (she a marriage guidance counsellor, so I have no idea how that works), and then we went home again.

By HM Treasury's own figures, if Britain lowered taxes to something near European standard levels, the country would earn an extra £5bn ($7bn USD) in taxes, as people wouldn't go abroad to buy cigarettes. In addition we currently spend over £3bn ($4.5bn USD) on countering tobacco smuggling.

The official position is that high taxation encorages people go give up smoking and drinking, but as this effect has not been seen in the last 70 years implies that it's probably a false belief.

And besides, I don't want to have to go to France just to pay a reasonable amount for my ciggies.

winter"OK, more of a rant than an Adventures With..."mute