Christmas in London

Things that have happened in London over the Christmas period:

1) While on my way to the movies I had the misfortune of walking behind a typical ignorant mother. Her poor innocent 3(ish) year old was practically running behind trying to catch up as she walked increasing faster towards the main entrance. The little girl was crying about something and her mother ignored her completely. The mother then disappeared into the entrance which was not very visible with the amount of people around and so the little girl tried to run faster to catch up and tripped over a metal carpet border and fell right onto the foot of a woman going in.

The mother then turns around to the woman and says 'Just walk away then after kicking my child!' What an idiotic mother! I really did have to stop myself from causing a scene and ofcourse the poor kid didn't get any attention at all!

2)At the local supermarket. Two cockney-accented women, both in 4-by-4's stop alongside each other on one of the narrow parking lanes and are having a private conversation. No one else can pass and the traffic is starting to build up. I hoot and the one woman sticks her head out and yells, 'ok, can you just wait we are having a conversation!'

3)At the local supermarket inside. This is the usual scene, just a million times worse at Christmas.

These shoppers were just not raised to understand the very efficient concept of not blocking pathways, especially at supermarkets. They do not stop their trolleys at the sides of lanes but anywhere they please and usually without any indication. They will veer in front of you at any time and walk without looking in front of them and ofcourse bump into you, after which they will give you a dirty look as if it's your fault.

They arrive in families of 10-12, especially with young children that feel that they have the right to run around the supermarket and woe betide if any run into your trolley, you will be received with much worse than in 1) above. They do also have conversations in the middle of pathways and bang into you without any conscience or apology. They walk slowly in front of you. They reach across your trolley to get items they can reach from any other angle.

But most of all the checkout queue is the greatest frustration. The staff have conversations with shoppers instead of hurrying up the job. Most people feel no need whatsoever to be as quick as possible because of the queue waiting behind them. They will very carefully search all four bags for the right card, when all is packed, after they have been standing there doing nothing for the last 5 minutes. They will insist on inquiring about the discounts on the 2 coupons amounting to £1 that has to be dealt with by the senior supervisor who takes about 20 minutes to check that they are not allowed the discount after all, and this happens about 1/2 an hour before the store closes and the queue is growing behind.

And then you will be faced with the rich-husband wife who cannot park her husband's large car in the normal-size parking bay and must attempt to do this about 16 times before she realises that there are plenty of parking bays in the row behind..

4) Conversation with my flatmate/ex-boyfriend who will henceforth be known as the FW (I'm sure you will eventually see why)

FW: (after taking out the garbage which was way overdue) The bag split on me
J: Did it mess your trousers?
FW: No I didn't mess my trousers, I said the bag split on me!
J: Yes and did IT MESS UP YOUR TROUSERS?
FW: How can a bag splitting mess up your trousers?
J: Nevermind

Sadly, this is not all part of the silly season, it's consistent.