I am not sure if I am going stir crazy because I have reverted to working from home, the medication I am on, or even the medication that everybody else is on but people and things are winding me up so quickly.

Take the news programmes, why does it take 3 days to report a story of an event that lasts a few hours. Obama’s inauguration for instance. They were reporting from Washington expalaining about it all the day before, gave it about 8 hours on the actual day and then telling us that he was now President for hours the day after.

All these award ceremonies are the same, why? All they are are incestuous groups ego crazed self publicists slapping each other on the back in order to get more air time and higher paid contracts next time round. Does anybody really care who won an Oscar/BAFTA for pretending to be someone else, or even pretending to be the sidekick of somebody pretending to be someone else.

And the British weather; did it snow? Seriously did it? I didn’t see any and my world was functioning OK and I didn’t see any snow at all. But according to the BBC the whole of the UK stopped.

A few of the things I hear on the news amaze me, but over the last few days some of the reports have left me totally confused.

The focus of these reports has been on the current financial situation we are being told we are living in. A reporter was giving her take on the post-Christmas sales and though accepting that these sales happen every year, credit crunch or not, she did say something very strange. She reported that shoppers were taking a different attitude to the sales than usual, they were deciding what they were going shopping for and then finding out where it was going to be the best deal before actually buying it. Now I am sorry but what is strange about that, that is the way I always shop; what do other people do? The statement conjures up visions of people walking into shops at random, picking something up and then buying it.

One reported did come out with a good point though, all the crowds for the sales congregated at the expensive stores, such as those in London’s Bond Street, where items are still very expensive at half price whereas as the general high street stores, who were also having sales, were “business as usual”, so there is still money out there. Even the stores that were closing down were not attracting the sales crush.

And have you noticed the number of reports on the current financial situation, forecasting the number of stores that are going to close, the cost of housing, unemployment and so on, that are being published daily. Who are writing them and who are publishing them, here in Britain most institutions that would be involved in these reports have been closed for the last week and will be for the next week.

The number of stores going into administration increases daily, but I heard this morning of one that also went into administration this time last year and another has been in administration three times in the last five years. I suppose they find it easier to get the publicity that way then paying for advertising.

Due to the government wanting Doctor’s and hospitals to reach false targets that show that all patients wishing to be seen, for whatever reason, are seen in a short time. OK, that is great if you are in A&E and want to be seen before you bleed to death but what if you want to make an appointment to have a review of your current medication. Why can’t you ring up a week or ten days in advance and make the appointment, you can then book time off work, arrange transport if necessary and get anything else sorted out you need to, but no, you have to ring in the morning to see if they have a free slot for you. This means that everybody is phoning the surgery as soon as it opens so you can’t get through anyway. When you do manage to speak to the receptionist there might not be any slots left and you have to take another day off work and remake all your arrangements.

 

Five months ago I went to hospital and the consultant told me to make an appointment for six months time, and also gave me a form to have a blood test one month before I came back to see him. I went to the reception and they told me they would send me the appointment. Well they did, two weeks notice so I called to attempt to get it moved as I had to have time to have a blood test done and then get the results back. She could not do it but was going to see the consultant about the blood test.

 

A few years ago you could walk up to a reception desk with a note from the consultant stating that they wanted to see you in six months time and the appointment could be made there and then.

 

The Patients Charter is not for patients or nursing staff it is for governments who want to massage statistics which we all know are untrue and cause inconvenience to all.

The last week has been very cold, particularly early in the morning at the rail station where I start my daily commute. There is a waiting room to sit in whilst waiting for your train and it is quite warm, well it is if you do not sit right next to the door. Well, the same person does every morning, and you hear him have a little grumble to himself every time that somebody walks in.

 

Why does he sit there? If he can make it to the waiting room, a few yards further into the room to where you do not get affected by the door opening all the time would not hurt.

 

Christmas shopping has hit frenzy mode and town centres are full of people buying gifts and cards or unsuspecting recipients. Now I am not a very good “shopper” or so I have been told. I decide what I want before I go shopping and where I plan to get it from. If what I want is not where I expect to find it I sometimes have a reserve spot where to find it or, if not, it just does not get bought.

 

Another thing that can quickly halt any shopping trip I embark on is people standing in shop doorways or in the middle of the pavement having conversations. They are totally oblivious to the fact that others have to treat them as a traffic roundabout. With the outbreak of community policepersons or wardens walking the streets I think they should be allowed to give tickets and fines out to people who are just “in the way”, as they can do it for most other things these days.

I was standing at a bar talking to a local journalist when he was verbally attacked by a fellow “resident” of the bar. It appears, in this man’s small mind, that journalists are all to blame for the credit crunch, if they had not made a big song and dance about it, it would never have happened. Sorry but it would have done, every 10 – 15 years we all become so complacent with our lot and then suddenly it all blows up in our face.

 

I took a step back and listened to my friends attempt to talk his way out of this but I think a more physical approach might have been better.

 

Now, in my opinion, a journalist reports the news to make the general public aware of what is happening in the World, or gives their opinion of what should be done to combat any current problem. What you do with this information is entirely you choice.

 

I have read reports of a downturn in shopping, stores closing, houses being repossessed and jobs being lost because of the credit crunch. But would these jobs have been lost anyway, companies do not make these decisions overnight, house prices were incredibly high and only had one direction to go. As for Woolworths and MFI, you do not suddenly magic 380 million pounds worth of debt and I honestly thought MFI had crashed years ago. Maybe the media are hyping it up or the companies are using it as an excuse to hike prices or fire staff.

 

As far as I can see, the local shops are still full of customers, the trains are still full of commuters and there are still “Sold” boards appearing outside houses. Or do I need to get a new pair of glasses.

 

But the real irony of this story is that we were standing in a bar. The “resident” who was complaining about price rises and how he had to cut back on food and heating was spending all his money on getting himself very drunk.

Shopping habits have changed over the years, and it is not because of this much accused Credit Crunch. It is because of the way society has evolved. Generally we know what we want to, and are going to, buy before we leave home. There is no room for substitute buying because you had rejected the substitute for some reason before you left home.

We don’t have the time to stroll around supermarkets deciding what we want and buying stuff at random. We have a mental or written list and if we cannot find what we want straight away we go to another store.

Will the people who are determined to ruin the “pleasure” of supermarket shopping by regularly reorganizing the layout of their stores please note, your customers don’t like it.

The staff at the local supermarket have told me that they have had nothing apart from complaints about the re-arrangement of the store, well apart from one who thought it was great, but they do think that she was drunk at the time. In-store I have seen people just dump their shopping baskets and trolleys and walk out. An elderly lady, when asked if she needed any help to find anything said quite firmly “No thank you dear, I think I will go somewhere else to do my shopping” and left.

Personally if I cannot find what I want in the first pass through the supermarket, I pay for what I have found and then go somewhere else if necessary. The manager of the discount food store nearby has told me that his turnover has increased by 15% since their rivals disorganized, sorry reorganized, their floor layout.

So please remember all you supermarket bosses, the marketing ploys you used in the nineties to get your customers to buy more no longer work. We have not got the time or the patience for your silly games. If you want to win customers provide a layout that is logical and shelves that are well stocked and well signposted. And a cashier waiting for you when you have finished shopping.

There is a group of people who work in this country who do not get enough recognition. They probably have to put up with the most depressed and maligned group of people, get grunted at or ignored but always grin and bear it. These are the people who have to serve the early morning commuters. And when I say early morning commuters I mean the people who start their daily journey before 6.30 am. I am such a person.

This morning the girl who serves me coffee at 6.15 am told me that today was her last day as she had found a job that matched her university qualifications, good for her and she deserves it. She knew a lot of her early commuters and always had a smile and a joke as she was serving coffee. But there is a problem; we all took it for granted that she knew what kind of drink we wanted and we never asked; now we have to remember what we want. I mentioned this to her and she said she would leave a note to the effect that the grumpy old git who gets off the first airport train wants a black coffee, no sugar and has a discount card. We shall see tomorrow if she did.

But there are staff like her all over the country. They include rail staff, newsagents, bus and taxi drivers and postmen. Usually you get a smile and a good morning from them but if you don’t it is not worth getting upset because you know you have had bad mornings as well. Even the commuters greet each other, usually just with an acknowledgment of your existence.

When I lived on the south coast there was a Big Issue seller who would stand at the entrance to the station every morning, nothing strange about that you say but he would get there before 6 am. He would only ever try to sell you a copy once as he remembered who had bought them and he would always greet you. He was also up for a joke from the commuters if had been late in the morning and was trying to make up sales in an afternoon when we all come home. His enterprise and effort did not go unnoticed and one of the commuters offered him a job, which he took. I hope everything is working out for him.

My point to all this is that there is a kind of community between all groups of people who are thrown together at the break of the day in there effort to get to work. Commuting later in the day always seems like a battle and a chore. Nobody smiles, the coffee girl and the newsagent turn into automatons, nobody has time for anybody else.

The first 20 minutes of my journey home tonight will be pleasant as well I hope. The person with the drinks trolley will come along, serve me and have a quick chat and then the train turns into a cattle truck as it passes through one of England’s major cities.

My commuting days will come to an end in a few weeks time for a while, why I recharge my batteries. I hope no more of my “staff” leave before I do.

The discount card I mentioned can be found at http://www.bitecard.co.uk. It is free and I do not seem to have been added to any mailing list either. Take a look, and if you are a frequent train traveller it is a must have.

There was a time when people thought about the consequences of certain actions before they did them, and prepare for anything that might happen subsequently, if possible. Now a lot of people have reached the stage where they would jump off a cliff first and then decide on the next action. Maybe we were all too considerate to others before and now it is “I am going to do this so tough luck it” attitude. And it does not seem to be a generation or national trait either.

Getting in the way of other people seems to be a common action. If people wanted to converse in the street a few years ago they would step to the side but now there is a tendency to stand in the middle of the pavement so everybody has to walk around them. Or sitting on steps on rail stations or outside shops, why? Don’t they realize that they are in the way? And they look astounded if you ask them to move or if they get hit with luggage.

I have recently seen three people sitting on the bottom step of some stairs that lead onto two of the busiest platforms at a station in Manchester, England totally oblivious to the hundreds of people who were trying to get past them with large cases and shopping bags. There are also the people who get to the top or bottom of steps (or escalators) and then stop dead to look around to see where to go next, why can’t they move an extra few paces to leave room for other people to get of the steps/escalators.

At my local rail station people get to the bottom of the steps to the platform and then stop and put there luggage down and wait for their train. Because of this the next people will have to walk right around them or they just stop and put their luggage down as well causing a real jam. Yet again, why can’t they see that by moving a few more yards they leave access to the stairs and the platform?

And do you feel invisible when you walk through a city centre. Why is it always me that has to get out of the way, OK if it is for people with wheelchairs, pushchairs etc. but it seems to be for everybody. You can always tell other tormented souls who feel like I do and we both get out of the way of each other, it tarts quite a little dance movement. But to finish of this list of irritants, the people who stand in a queue at cash tills in a supermarket and then wait until all their groceries have gone through the till before trying to find their money or piece of plastic. Didn’t they realize they would have to pay?

I realize all these are pretty minor mindless acts compared with some actions such as drink-driving but hopefully they are more common place and at least we can laugh at the perpetrators and the consequences, something which we can’t do with drink-driving.

Everybody has opinions on how things should be done. Sometimes it is very tempting to say, because you believe you are right, to tell people they are doing something wrong when they are not. All they are doing is doing it differently to the way that you would do it.

 

Well Dick Drones appear everywhere, but the workplace is the noticeable haunt for them.  They will criticize everything from the work procedures, the time keeping and how his colleagues spend their breaks. It was never like this at company X. Now we have all worked for different companies and worked in different ways and it does not make them right or wrong, just different. Well that is one thing to say about Dick, he is different.

 

I once worked with a company where they allocated three days to do a certain task manually because that is the only way they new how. I had done a similar project in less than 5 minutes as I had a computer script that did the same thing. I didn’t jump up and down saying they had done it wrong; the next few times this problem came up I ran my computer program on the same set of files, with everybody’s knowledge, then we compared results and my method was adopted. This was not one-upmanship; this is using everybody’s experience to the companies’ advantage.

 

But Dick Drones don’t only appear in the workplace, they are everywhere. Criticizing everything from the tea you buy, the beer you drink, even the way you tie your shoelaces. Recently I was told that I read the wrong newspaper and have the wrong TV supplier because it was owned by somebody this guy did not like. He called him a megalomaniac and I should not be giving him any money or supporting his politics. Well I only buy the newspaper because it has very good sports coverage and the TV service has the sports channels I want to watch. I have never met the owner of the companies, most probably never will and I am not supporting any tyrannical regime so wind your neck in Dick Drones of this World, just think, maybe you’re wrong.

Today I was going to rant on about why on earth do Eurostar think moving their departure place in London is going to help people in the North of England.  But I will leave that for a while, because something that really annoys me happened this morning.  In fact, there was a radio programme about it yesterday.  It’s about being honest, the programme was about situations where you find a wallet or purse in the street with a lot of money in it, what would you do.  Most people do actually look inside the wallet and try to return it to the owner, either via the police or directly.

This morning I was in the local store and went to buy a newspaper and magazine.  And the price totalled £2.03.  I handed over £2.20 and got 97p in change.  I told the shop assistant and offered the money back, and she got quite annoyed and she couldn’t comprehend what was going on, because she’d obviously typed in the amount I had given incorrectly, so as the machine says give him back 97p she give me back 97p.  I only wanted 17p, all I was trying to do was explain she’d given me the wrong change and that she given me too much change.  But she wouldn’t have it.  I was made to look a criminal for being honest.  Maybe the fact that, being honest was such a surprise to her she didn’t know how to cope with it, there wasn’t a thank you were involved, but to be honest I didn’t expect one.  Now, what would you do, if somebody found your wallet or purse and handed it back to you, and in the case of one person I heard yesterday who was standing near an ATM waiting in line.  The person in front, using the machine, suddenly just stormed off and went back to their car and the money was dangling out of the machine.  And when he tried to call him over and hand the money to the person they just snatched it and walked off.  Yet again, the honest person being treated like a thief.

Anyway back to Eurostar.  They have spent, I believe, £800 million, moving the departure place of Eurostar from Waterloo to St Pancras in London.  They have done it for a variety of reasons, but one they kept mentioning this morning was so that it was more accessible to people from the North of England, and therefore they would now use the service to go to Paris and Brussels.  If I wanted to catch Eurostar, it would cost me about four hours in time, and over £200 if I wanted to get to London before 11 o’clock, just to get to the departure station.  While trying to get to this departure station I would pass the three international airports.  All of which could get me to Paris for approximately £50 return.  The programme showed a lady who used Eurostar and lived in the north of England, and the fact that she liked doing it was because you have plenty of time to sit down and to get on with some work in comfort while travelling, which is fair enough, but if it’s going to take you seven hours by train to get to Paris by train or one hour by plane to Paris, then you got six extra hours to sit down and get on with the work.

I admit I do like travelling by train, and I can see the convenience of going directly into the centre of Paris, because trying to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to the centre of Paris is a nightmare.  But the extra time and the extra cost, it would add to my trip it is just not feasible, mood, totally not with the trip to London and from London to Paris taking approximately 7 hours and then with the loss of an hour.  That would be like  a working day to get there.  Getting around France by train is great, and I would always do that, because the scenery is fantastic that trains are brilliant work.  Now, I honestly think, if they hope to get more people from the North of England, they ought to think about it that little bit more like making a better train links and cheaper fares from the North to St Pancras.