Now I know that one of my New Year’s resolutions was to stop smoking, but I’ve already been aggravated into questioning that decision, writes Shropshire Star blogger Emma Suddaby.

I was lucky enough to be draped over a sunlounger on a remote Egyptian beach earlier this month. Miles of sandy shoreline, hardly a soul around, stiff sea breeze, and me . . . blissful and relaxed.

The icing on my cake was a cigarette so I lit up, confident that the vastness of my location meant I’d be offending no-one.

There’s always one, or in this case two. Two whingeing women. Commenting in stage whispers on the terrible pollution my lonely cigarette was causing.

They quickly (and loudly) reached a crescendo of complaint, and then there was a theatrical decision to up-bikinis and move – a good five feet further to the left of the poisonous trail of smoke, with much horrified hullabaloo.

I ask you . . . other people often act in an annoying, even offensive way, but I don’t start whingeing at them because we make our own choices in life. So why do a certain militant minority of non-smokers feel they can publicly berate the choices made by another?

I think they feel that having right on their side allows them to discard the normal rules of social etiquette, and be as rude and judgmental as they like.

I do understand the unpleasant ordeal endured by a non-smoker, when cocooned in someone else’s cloud of smoke, and I hope I’m particularly considerate about not inflicting this discomfort on anyone. But a huge, empty beach on the Red Sea? With a wind sharp enough to blow the insides out of the beach umbrellas? That’s just being difficult.

Actually, I was quite offended by having to watch their clearly overwhelmed bikinis struggling, against all odds, to contain their outraged behinds, as they dragged their loungers up the beach by a few pointless feet, to underline their disapproval.

But I didn’t start sobbing about my injured sensibilities or drag my lounger around to face the other way in order to protect my love of all things beautiful!

When will it end, this persecution of smokers? Yes, non-smokers, you are right and we smokers are wrong, of course. There’s no disputing the negative impact smoking has on our lives. But smokers tend, by virtue of our addictive natures, to be stubborn, and hounding us only makes us more determined not to be bullied by other people into making decisions.

If only they knew, those strident ladies, that ultimately they just made me want to reverse my “stop smoking” resolution and light three cigarettes up at once!

Never fear . . . I expect I’ll have calmed down again by next week. Common sense will have prevailed, health benefits will be back in the forefront of my mind and I’ll be back on the road to redemption, Nicorettes in hand, inhalator in pocket.

Just woe betide the next person to start ‘tutting’ at me!

Inspirational Emma Suddaby shares her ” highs, lows – and various murky places inbetween” – with her weekly blog. Emma, a finalist in the 2007 Shropshire Star Woman of the Year competition, was diagnosed with aggressive, destructive rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 22. She has since won a dream flying scholarship with the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled and is now training for a National Private Pilot’s Licence.