Courtesy & Etiquette

These two words have taken a severe beating over the past decade as the human race becomes more and more selfish. Don’t get me wrong there are people out there who believe in good manners and common courtesy and act on it, myself included, which is why I guess I get quite annoyed when others don’t show the same courtesy or etiquette. Is it the way they have been raised? Or have they just become complacent and decided that the world and everyone and everything on it can just get out of their way?

This morning I was driving into my work’s car park, there was a work colleague driving behind me, I know her to see, but it’s a big building and you can’t know everyone by name. Now our car park has a sort of one way system, where you have a no entry on the left, drive straight up - there are parking spaces to the left and right of that straight - and at the end you can choose to go left in a circle to the no entry or right towards the dead end where there are more parking spaces. Granted it would be better if you could turn immediate left as you come through the gate then do a right and right circle with the option to continue right and exit or go straight ahead, this would also make sense for exiting the car park as you would not be exiting on to on coming traffic in to the car park,

Now, this morning, as I past the gate I clocked a space on the left, but as that is a no entry and there was a car behind me I did what any driver should do, common courtesy, driver’s etiquette, I drove straight up and turned left at the top of the car park to head to that no entry, but the car behind me cut in to the no entry and took the space. I was fuming, the bloody cheek of her! There was a space right across from where she parked, so I took the second space, but I still can’t help but be annoyed at the sheer lack of social courteousness in this person.

Similar situations happen in car parks all over the world and it shouldn’t; giving way for someone, helping them etc. should be first, if you want someone to go in front of you in a queue you offer them your place, if they want it for whatever reason then they should ask. In some situations it’s a first come first served, you see a car in front then they get first pick on an available space, if they drive past and another car is coming out then fair pickings but come on people show some good manners and remember you’ll get an equal measure of courtesy in return.

::Append::

Well I nipped out at lunch time to do a message. As I returned to the car park, following the same route as before I parked my car in a different spot, just as I was switching off the engine, the woman from this morning’s fury drove in, and guess what? She did the same thing, cut across the no entry and took the space next to me. On well I guess some people never learn.

Poignant

When I got in my car this morning, the sun is shining, birds singing & I was feeling happy. I switch on the car & the music comes on & plays Louis Armstrong's It's a Wonderful World. I mean how perfect is that? I headed off to work thinking life's great and smiling from ear to ear. I drove round the corner on to the main road & was greeted by this...

This doesn't look good, the car wasn't there when I pulled up, but once the police moved it closer to the recovery truck you could see that the back wheel is right off and there's white sheeting inside the car, that  makes me really worried. I suddenly realise that it's not a wonderful world for the people involved in that accident. I'm a little bit saddened now. I hope they are alright. My thoughts go out to them. x

Pot luck

Aberdeen's roads have never been the best and at the moment they are uneven, patchy, pot-holed, cannoned, fissured and just plain dangerous, and the problem is getting worse and there's not a road unaffected. Some of Aberdeen's roads are so bad it's like driving on the main roads of Egypt, and that's one hellava bumpy ride. And I'm sure I saw a tarmac mole the other day. The local council say they have no money to repair these damaged roads, but some how they managed to find £80M to rebuild, repair, and revamp a building that they are only leasing as their new headquarters.

Granted, the current HQ (shown above (28-03-10)) is a visual eye sore, and I can understand the need to have new premises, and I welcome the use of such a beautiful and historical building like the Marischal College - which is the 2nd largest granite fronted building in the world (shown below in renovation & reconstruction (28-03-10)), - but don't tell Aberdeen's citizens’ that there's no money to repair our roads.

Our Council tax already incorporates a portion of the money paid to maintain our roads, so what are they doing with it? Our city should be a shining light,- the gate way to the Highlands, Royal Deeside, some new beautiful modern shopping centres, which bring needed revenue and the Oil Capital of Europe. So why are we still bumping along our roads like we're driving dodgy shopping trolleys?

Come on Aberdeen Council, get your fingers out and sort the roads before the next onslaught of bad weather makes it even worse.

Dumping not Providing

Wednesday just past I was clearing out some cupboards and as I normally do I had a few bags to go to charity. Now as a rule I'll take the bags to the Charity shops - I do a circle donation that way all charities and not just one get something - however this time is was for the Salvation Army. I remembered that they had collection bins in Tesco car park, so i thought that I'd drop the stuff there as it was on the way to my Mother-in-laws and i could then pick up my son. The bins are very big and the SA have signs to tell you how they would like the stuff sorted. That's a sensible thing to do. I tried putting several carrier bags in, two would not fit so that stuff will be going in to a store. I was surprise, on the day, to see that there were a few black bags of items sitting at one of the bins and someone had left a single mattress and a suitcase. What is rather ridiculous and obvious is that the person or persons responsible are just dumping. Baring in mind that the local dump is not that far from Asda and Asda's not far from Tesco. I do have a criticism about the bins, the chutes do not allow for a bulging carrier bag and you would have to use several bags if you have a lot on things, so you can see why people would leave black bags if they didn't known and just couldn't be bothered to take the stuff home again, but this is dumping not providing.

I was at Tesco shopping today and couldn't believe my eyes. The Salvation Army bins were nothing short of disgusting, and the people who left the items behind should be ashamed of themselves. Clothing out of bags lying on the wet ground, now no use to anyone. Why did they waste petrol traveling to Tesco just to dump when they could have just used their wheelie bin and let the council refuge collection dump them instead?