I have had a couple of incidents happen to me in the last few days and I have realised that our capacity as a society to be quick, efficient and helpful has gone right out the window.
Let me explain....
I wanted to cancel an insurance policy yesterday for my Smart car. I thought the premiums were too high and wanted to shop around. All insurance companies now presume that you automatically want to renew and leave the onus on you to cancel or face charges. So, for the first time in my unorganised life, I phoned RAC insurance to simply cancel the renewal. After at least 10 minutes of "security questions", I advised I would like to cancel the policy. Simple, right? Errrr no.
I have to explain WHY I want to cancel the policy. Erm, because I want to. Then I have to go through the existing policy details ( which only has a WEEK left to run) for no apparent reason that I can gather, to ensure that they had all the correct details? I told the advisor, sorry no, you must have misunderstood me, I just want to cancel the renewal. But apparently you can't do this unless you go through the details of the existing policy. What? Why? Jesus. How hard does this have to be? . After a heated debate on the finer points of the shitness that is RAC insurance she agreed to cancel the renewal.
Today I bought a new car. I had signed up for finance and it was accepted but I had to provide some documentation. Fair enough. So, utility bills. Who has utility bills in the 21st century when everything is done online? I took the council tax bill but this is dated March and so is too old. I had nothing else. Seriously nothing. The finance is with Santander. Not a problem, I tell the car salesman. I have 4 accounts, a mini cash ISA, a mortgage and a credit card with Santander. Sorted! My name is the most unusual name in the whole wide world. They will know me and it will all be approved. Errr no. Santander tell me I was taken off the electoral role in 2009 . No, I cry, I vote, that cannot be true. And anyway I have billions of accounts with you and an unusual name. SEARCH ME!!!! Needless to say that tomorrow I have to go to the council and get a revised council tax bill to say that I live where I live with the date Sept 2012 on it. Seriously, I despair.
My favourtie have to be calls from marketing/ selling companies, who phone me at my home, wanting me to buy something but won't proceed with the call until I complete security questions. Jesus Christ Almighty. You phoned me! Why would I even want to prove who I am? Piss off and leave me be...
My son, Roman, is dreadful at writing. Really dreadful. He is left handed and gets his letters backwards and really struggles. I worry myself sick. Does he get extra support from the school? Errr no. Its MY job to teach him to be a genius in the letter writing department. There is a reason I chose not to be a teacher. I have no patience. I am ready to become an axe murderer after the 18th time of asking him with clenched teeth to write a B and he writes a D. God, give me strength. My son, is going to be illiterate and its going to be my fault. I do a ton of homework with Roman, nightly, but would really appreciate the school teaching him to read and write.
Talk Talk are my internet provider. Occasionally I lose internet access for long periods of time. So, I phone them to find out what the problem is. To my disgust they want me to get down on my hands and knees with screwdriver in hand and single handedly take apart my internal wirings and self diagnose the bleeding fault? I have less than no clue about technology and I pay a small fortune for their service. I will rewire the whole bloody street with all the internet technology you want but put me on the bloody pay roll. Don't presume I want to be a volunteer Talk Talk engineer.
So, you get my point.
Everything in today's society is hard work, laborious and tiresome.
I want easy. I want simple. I want quick. I want efficient.
But like my good old nan said "Now you know what it's like to want".....
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Free
With yesterday's neighbour debacle still raw in my mind. it made me think about people's perceptions, in today's society, of what is considered right and wrong.
I was really angry yesterday when my neighbour decided to light a bonfire at 1o'clock in the afternoon. It was beautiful sunshiny day and both me and another neighbour had all our washing out and all our windows open. I wouldn't have been over the moon but if he had asked me if it was ok for him to do this I would have at least been aware and shut my windows and brought my washing in. It amazed me how someone would think that this was acceptable behaviour. How someone could have so little regard of anyone else astounds me but I am finding it more and more frequent.
I had problems with the same neighbour recently continuously parking outside my garage making it impossible for me to drive my car in, let alone out. At the time I wasn't aware who it was that was parking there so had to leave notes on the car asking them, politely, not to block access to my garage. I also put a sign on the garage asking for 24 hour access, all to no avail This car continued to park there. So, in the end I left a slightly more nasty note which she promptly took to the police and I had to explain why I felt the need to behave in this manner. The police could "understand my frustrations"but couldn't quite see what made me so annoyed. When I confronted her about the parking situation she cockily told me she could park where she liked as it was a public highway. I explained that she was making it impossible for me to use my garage with which she shrugged and said she couldn't care less. I was astounded.
I am very conscious of manners and its something that I instill in my children but it concerns me that society as a whole is no longer concerned with basic manners so as time goes on it will become a thing of the past.
On the school run, the access gate to the school does not stay open and needs to be held open for the next person to go through. Many a time, my son has been caught holding the gate open and often its the adults who saunter past without saying "thanks". It makes my blood boil.
I loathe people who don't indicate at mini roundabouts. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who don't say thanks when you hold a door open for them. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who park over two parking spaces at a car park. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who park in front of garages. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who light bonfires on sunny afternoons. Its thoughtless.
There are a lot of people who's expectations of manners are lower than mine. I understand that. I won't give my children food or drink without a "please" and "thank you" and it's very rare that they ask now without saying it. I have taught them to say "sorry" so that if they bump into someone of hurt someone its an automatic reaction to apologise and it works. They say it naturally.
When we travel, I see people physically roll their eyes when they realise they are sitting next to the huge family of young children presuming their journey is going to be a nightmare. But, I usually get thanked at the end of the journey when it turns out my children are quite quiet, polite and well behaved. I'm not bragging but I want my children to treat others the way that I want to be treated and I have massively high expectations.....
I genuinley think the world would be a better place if more people were considerate of others. My job mainly consists of tackling noise nuisance complaints and yet again, I am astounded at how massive this problem is and how insconsiderate people are. It is now necessary to employ people in social housing to deal with this issue alone. Wow, can you believe that?
I think road rage would be a thing of the past if people put their hand up by way of apology when you pull out in front of someone, or similar. We are all guilty of it at times but it's when you do it and you apologise maybe the person won't tailgate you for the next mile, flashing their lights and generally having a coronary and wanting to rip your throat out. Just a thought.....
Like my late dad said. Manners are free. I am always aware of this. It starts with your children. Teach them the art of manners and we are half way there to a nicer society.
I was really angry yesterday when my neighbour decided to light a bonfire at 1o'clock in the afternoon. It was beautiful sunshiny day and both me and another neighbour had all our washing out and all our windows open. I wouldn't have been over the moon but if he had asked me if it was ok for him to do this I would have at least been aware and shut my windows and brought my washing in. It amazed me how someone would think that this was acceptable behaviour. How someone could have so little regard of anyone else astounds me but I am finding it more and more frequent.
I had problems with the same neighbour recently continuously parking outside my garage making it impossible for me to drive my car in, let alone out. At the time I wasn't aware who it was that was parking there so had to leave notes on the car asking them, politely, not to block access to my garage. I also put a sign on the garage asking for 24 hour access, all to no avail This car continued to park there. So, in the end I left a slightly more nasty note which she promptly took to the police and I had to explain why I felt the need to behave in this manner. The police could "understand my frustrations"but couldn't quite see what made me so annoyed. When I confronted her about the parking situation she cockily told me she could park where she liked as it was a public highway. I explained that she was making it impossible for me to use my garage with which she shrugged and said she couldn't care less. I was astounded.
I am very conscious of manners and its something that I instill in my children but it concerns me that society as a whole is no longer concerned with basic manners so as time goes on it will become a thing of the past.
On the school run, the access gate to the school does not stay open and needs to be held open for the next person to go through. Many a time, my son has been caught holding the gate open and often its the adults who saunter past without saying "thanks". It makes my blood boil.
I loathe people who don't indicate at mini roundabouts. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who don't say thanks when you hold a door open for them. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who park over two parking spaces at a car park. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who park in front of garages. Its thoughtless. I loathe people who light bonfires on sunny afternoons. Its thoughtless.
There are a lot of people who's expectations of manners are lower than mine. I understand that. I won't give my children food or drink without a "please" and "thank you" and it's very rare that they ask now without saying it. I have taught them to say "sorry" so that if they bump into someone of hurt someone its an automatic reaction to apologise and it works. They say it naturally.
When we travel, I see people physically roll their eyes when they realise they are sitting next to the huge family of young children presuming their journey is going to be a nightmare. But, I usually get thanked at the end of the journey when it turns out my children are quite quiet, polite and well behaved. I'm not bragging but I want my children to treat others the way that I want to be treated and I have massively high expectations.....
I genuinley think the world would be a better place if more people were considerate of others. My job mainly consists of tackling noise nuisance complaints and yet again, I am astounded at how massive this problem is and how insconsiderate people are. It is now necessary to employ people in social housing to deal with this issue alone. Wow, can you believe that?
I think road rage would be a thing of the past if people put their hand up by way of apology when you pull out in front of someone, or similar. We are all guilty of it at times but it's when you do it and you apologise maybe the person won't tailgate you for the next mile, flashing their lights and generally having a coronary and wanting to rip your throat out. Just a thought.....
Like my late dad said. Manners are free. I am always aware of this. It starts with your children. Teach them the art of manners and we are half way there to a nicer society.
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