patience

[bigyetiman]

Whatever happened to being patient ? The water main srung a leak outside our house on Thursday. It is a narrow lane and water board came and on Friday appeared with traffic lights and barriers and proceeded to dig a large hole. Cue people just totally ignoring the lights, including one perma tanned woman who hadn't got time to wait as Persephone and Portia would be late for majoretttes and this would lead to trauma for them (really), as she in vain tried to get the very large tractor with a hay load to back up, as he had a combine behind that lot that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Then as we told her she would have back up it was "why the **** have you decided to dig up the road, you shouldn't be allowed to do it". We have had abuse everytime we try to get in or out of the drive which does need a bit of time and care at the moment. Interestingly enough the majority are women and they are hurling the worst abuse.
Of course nothinhg happened over the weekend work wise, and some bright spark in the night actually moved the cones and barriers leaving an exposed 6ft deep hole full of water

 

[Margaid]

Running a business from home and needing to get to the Post Office before 4pm, I flatly refused to go out at "school run" time, whether on foot or in a vehicle. You took your life in your hands walking down the road which had no pavement for the first 200 yards but trying to get out of our driveway was even worse! A parent on the school run will wait for no-one. My "almost" ex hated queues or traffic jams; like you BYM I encounter a lot of agricultural traffic but being more rural, drivers are more tolerant. I find driving is much more relaxed these days!

What brainless moron would think removing cones and barriers was a fun thing to do? I daren't hope they found the perpetrator in the hole in the morning!

 

[bigyetiman]

Sadly the perpetrator wasn't in the hole.
We get a lot of people use the lane as a short cut to get children to school and get to Upminster station as they can use Oyster cards or get straight on the underground which is cheaper than getting on at the next two stations down the line. You literally take your life in your hands if you walk down the lane as they stop for no one, and the amount of parents on the school run with phones up to their ears is amazing. Postmen, dustmen and the large number of cyclists who use it really get the death stare. As for holding them up so you can turn into your drive.

 

[Hen-Gen]

As someone who’s never owned a car all this is new to me but your accounts are very funny. Though I guess not so funny at the time.
Persephone and Portia late for majorettes. Love it.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I think its something to do with the frenetic pace of life which engenders a lack of patience. I realise to some extent this is all about choice, but I do remember a time when I was working and commuting and there were never enough hours in the day.

I know about country lanes, school runs, danger - in the UK a neighbour of ours had her leg broken, clipped by a harrassed Mum in a 4x4. Our lane had no pavements, and a school at the end of it and was a nightmare. The only safety measure which ever happened was residents holding speed guns, but I can't say it made a difference.

Now I live somewhere where dogs sleep in the middle of the road, the passing traffic equals about 6 vehicles a day and 2 of them will be tractors with a top speed of 10kph or whatever!

I hope your hole gets filled in quickly BYM, and some sort of courtesy returns to the mad world.

 

[bigyetiman]

Now that sounds just the sort of place we should be living.
An elderly farming neighbour was recalling the days when you went up to the town and all the local farmers would all be parked on the high street doing their shopping/banking in their tractors. Wonder what the 4x4 owners would say about the spaces being taken up by tractors.
There was the memorable night along the lane when someone opened a gate and let Kevin's cows out, whilst trying to get them in some semblance of order a car full of young lads pulled up and offered to help, they were very manly until one cow walked towards one of them and sniffed his face, whereupon they went "oh they are big" and ran back down the road. The scene was made slightly more bizarre by someone appearing from a nearby house having heard the commotion, in tartan pyjama's with a shotgun

 

[Margaid]

There was the memorable night along the lane when someone opened a gate and let Kevin's cows out, whilst trying to get them in some semblance of order a car full of young lads pulled up and offered to help, they were very manly until one cow walked towards one of them and sniffed his face, whereupon they went "oh they are big" and ran back down the road. The scene was made slightly more bizarre by someone appearing from a nearby house having heard the commotion, in tartan pyjama's with a shotgun

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


On a different note, taking my three year old nephew to see the cows in the field he was calling out gaily "Hello cows" to those that had come to look at this small human. They then all backed off slowly, staring at him, as thought they were saying "OMG, he's scary! OMG he is SOOO scary"

 

[bigyetiman]

People say animals have no expressions, you can tell when they haven't actually engaged with an animals as they no fund of stories like your tale Margaid. I bet the cows said to each other "well it looks like a human" "no, too small" , " well whatever it is let's back off just in case it's dangerous, it could trip us up
Water board repaired leak yesterday afternoon/ evening until 11pm as the water was off I thought I could be a naughty boy and not brush my teeth for once :lol: :lol:
No luck OH on seeing water board turn up had prudently set water aside for things like that. Just waiting for hole to be filled in now