If you stick with me on this blog you’ll soon realise that one of the things I hate more than anything else is stupidity.
Stupid people exist. They are everywhere. And worse… they are allowed to breed – thus populating our planet with even more stupid people.
Two incredibly stupid people made me late for work this morning and I am bloody furious about it. People make mistakes of course, they are, after all, only human. But when people are so bloody stupid that the right answer is staring them in the face and they just don’t get it, then I propose – sterilization. Or at the very least, moving them to a job in which their mindless stupidity wont make me late for work.
First is the case of the bus driver. He works for the company “First” (Slogan: Transforming Travel – they are not wrong!). The buses in Bath are bloody expensive, so generally I cycle around, but it was raining this morning so I decided to get the bus to the station.
“£1.60 to the station please” I said and dropped two pound coins onto his tray.
He took my coins, printed my ticket, and then scratched his head for what seems like an eternity. He then proceeded to fumble around in his change tray for about a minute before finally dropping two 10p coins on to the tray for me.
“I gave you two pounds” I say.
“Ug”
“I gave you two pounds, that should be 40p change, not 20p”
“Ug”
“£2 minus £1.60 is 40p. – You owe me another 20p” I say, thinking this must be some kind of joke.
“Ug” came the standard reply again, only this time more scratching around in the change before producing four 5p coins.
“Thank you” I say
“Ug”
So there you have it. I’m bloody glad there was little traffic on the road. Frankly I doubt he’d have stopped in time if anything had pulled out in front of him.
A bit of luck though, arriving at the station, my normal train was late – Excellent the thicko hasn’t made me late….. oh no, another thicko is gonna do that….
A rushed turn-around at Bristol Temple Meads and the late running 7:15 fast service to Cardiff pulls out of the station two minutes ahead of the slow all-stopping 7:33 to the same destination.
Then thicko number two ruins my morning. The face-less signalman. How I’d love to smash his face in. Mr (or Mrs – to be fair) signalman decides to hold our train outside Bristol while we wait for the slow service to overtake us.
What? This is madness! We could build up some speed, catch up a little time, and make Cardiff maybe just 10 min late. But no. Some moron has decided that we should follow the slow service, extending our delay from 15 to 35 minutes.
Having left the station ahead of the slow service, surely it was a more complicated signalling manoeuvre to put us on the “wrong track” for 5 min while the other train passed? Mindless Stupidity.
And who are the train company that run the railways in this corner of Britain? Yep – you guessed it.
First – No qualifications required!
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5 comments:
Gah. The public transport in Bath was always a bit rubbish.
One time, a driver wouldn't let me on his bus for committing the cardinal sin of tapping on the door - in an effort for him to put down his paper and let me on and out of the rain. Mindless cretins, the lot of them.
Hah, got on a bus in Bath bus staion once, going to the hospital, only one on the bus for the entire journey (thought the bus was supposed to go into the hospital and turn round, silly me). Went sailing by the hospital, still the only person on the bus, shouted to the driver, I wanted to get off and he moaned I didn't ring the bell and it was my fault he had missed the hospital. Do they work on some form of pavlovian response mechanism or are they just idle twats?
First transforming travel........into what ?
Mostly idle and completely thick. What's most galling is I'm pretty sure they earn more than I do.
I don't want to taint all bus drivers with the same stupid brush, so I would like to say that sometimes you meet a nice one. I recently had a driver who saw me running down the road towards the stop and actually stopped to pick me up somewhere other than the actual stop. gasp
I doff my cyber hat to that particular driver - thank you sir.
Stupidity reigns supreme the world over, fortunately in this instance I had no immediate appointment so could relax and really enjoy the spectacle.
Was in Sydney central post office the other day and was at the front of the 'I'd rather be in the line to jump out of an airplane' queue. Cool, should be done in here quite quickly I thought. At the desk were a couple, maybe just shy of their forties, who wanted to send a parcel (I bet you they even struggled to make the connection between 'parcel', 'send' and 'post office'). Firstly, they found it impossible to select an appropriately sized box for their consignment. Now you would have thought that the primitive physical experiment known as a visual comparison would help them to determine the required sized box, but you'd be wrong. This being proved by the woman selecting one of the cd sized boxes, then realising that her 10x10x20cm (ish) item was too big for it.
Anyway, 10 minutes later a box had won the it's a knockout challenge and was further painfully taped but now ready to send. All that was required was, er, an address. Pretty vital stuff when sending something. When asked for the address, the woman looked bemused, with a 'eh?' kind of look stretched across her face. No worries though, her partner will know and the now 10 people in the queue will be free to go and throw themselves off the nearest bridge. Well, he knew the city,'Brisbane' he said, but could offer no further specifics. Having not been to Brisbane I have no personal experience of it's size, but it being one of Oz's biggest cities I guess a street name may make the delivery task a little easier. (Unless there is an equivalent to the "I shot JR' bloke who directs people around Craggy Island).
The post office worker resolved the problem by stating 'don't worry, I'll sort it out' and then mysteriously put the box under her desk (maybe into the 'to Brisbane' hole?).
Anyway, after about 20 minutes from joining the queue I eventually got to post my inflatable kangaroo back to the UK.
The experience drained me but I was offered rehab......in Brisbane.
I am not surprised by this Aussie example of supreme stupidity. They are, after all, a nation decended from Criminals.
I am however impressed by the Post Office counter person who, probably broke with protocol, by just taking the package anywhere. This dedication to the customers standing in line behind should be applauded.
I'm also glad to see that you're not posting home the usual tacky Australian souveneers!
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