Take No Notice

Rant incoming!!

It's Monday the 13th. Uuuurgh. This is even worse than Friday the 13th because at least then you've got the weekend to recover. This morning saw me sleep in (as usual) and then put my finger through a brand new pair of tights when getting dressed. Gah! I put on a second brand new pair of tights and discovered that by the time I'd got to work they had a hole in them. What's worse is that it was one of those holes that just got bigger and bigger and bigger the more you tried to do anything about it. I don't know if the hole was there already or if my boots caused it but whichever this is highly unfair. Is this the universe telling me to just give it up, wear scratchy thick wooly tights and start biting my nails? The defeatist in me that would have stayed in bed today purely because it's Monday the 13th would say yes, the rest of me says NO! I will paint my nails and I will wear sheer tights and I will have nice boots and I won't let the bastards grind me down!

Sigh.

Talking of bastards there's a fair few stupid ones out there, aren't there? My moan about students is not new - for the most part they seem to be utterly feckless and don't understand the concept of reading the instructions or actually looking for information. Not all students are like this, or I hope they aren't, but the ones I come into contact are and that tars all the rest of them with the same brush I'm afraid. It's so disheartening when you've tried to cover all the angles and make information accessible to them and still they come to you with the stupid questions. You want to say "You know why they call it a notice board? You're supposed to notice what's on it, dummy!!" Apparently they are not taught to think for themselves in school any more. Oh dear, just don't get me started or we'll be here all day. Sigh.

Anyway, fecklessness in the 'yound adults' of today I have come to expect. They're inexperienced and apparently barely prepared to go out into the world these days. It's when you see it in those that should know better that it really astounds me. Surely those born before 1980 were taught to look at noticeboards and signs to gather information about their environment? We didn't live in the litigation culture that seems to thrive today so if you fell into a hole that was surrounded by "Watch Out! Big Hole!" signs you had nobody to blame but yourself surely?

Since the new Informatics building has been open on campus I've noticed they use abseiling window-cleaners. Part of me hopes they're also leaving boxes of milk tray for unsuspecting admin assistants but I doubt the uni budget runs to that. They probably just clean windows while dangling from bits of rope. Fair enough. However, they do put out cones on the ground where they are working and signs that say 'Warning - Abseilers Working Above' or words to those effect. Anyway, they draw attention to the fact that there might very well be a bloke on a rope dangling above your head so it's probably not a good idea to walk on the bit of pavement that's been coned off. Entirely sensible in my opinion. What is not entirely sensible is the woman who looked like an academic in her mid-50s (certainly old enough to know better!) walking obliviously past the signs and through the coned off area! What. The. Eff? If people like her have given up on reading signs what hope have we got?

Oh, and talking of feckless - The boy on the till in Sainsbury's. Once I'd realised a second pair of tights had been ruined and I didn't have a spare I had to go and buy some more. Gah! I know Sainsbury's sold tights and I also knew they were behind the counter so I would have to ask for them. Oh how I hoped for a female cashier to be on. They would sympathise with me! Alas no, there was a boy behind the till. I went up and said "Hi, I need a pair of tights and they need to be large size please. What have you got?" Then he got all flustered just because I was asking for tights. He actually said "I'm maybe not the best person to ask about this." What? You're they guy standing behind the counter that has the tights behind it. All I'm asking you to do is read the flipping packets and give me some that are LARGE. Jesus! It seems it's too much to expect shop assistants to read labels these days. Feckless feckless feckless!

And then I got attacked by a wasp outside the shop. What the hell? It's October, why are there still wasps flying around?

I should have stayed in bed...