Friday, July 24, 2009

A Bucket of Tickles

Every morning on the drive to work, I think about things I'd like to blog about, it might be on the news, recent events in my life or things I see. I do this most mornings, well most mornings when I'm awake enough to process anything other than driving and not killing myself or any one else. And most mornings I get to work, get distracted and then forget all about the funny anecdotes and comments and am left with just drivel.

This morning I remembered most of them, so here they are:
I witnessed bunny genocide this morning. Road kill of animals is inevitable, they've no idea what us big shiny things are or that we can kill them, they've heard the rumours but they forget easily. I remember Watership Down, they just have to risk it. But this morning was horrendous! While driving along the A415 (I looked this up, I'm not that good) I witnessed the first poor dead bunny and thought "oh dear", and then about ten feet further, another one and then another one and another...you can see where I'm going with this, it was as though someone had coaxed them in to the road and then mowed them down or maybe it was a joint bunny suicide to stand against us humans and our killing of the planet, god knows but it was horrid.

I was listening to Fleetwood Mac this morning on the way to work, working on my driving dancing, got the 'one handed jazz hand while changing gears' down! But I did notice that I sing 'Little Lies' as though I'm Eliza Doolittle, I've no idea why but I do! It makes for entertaining listening, no seriously it does!

There are some fantastic traffic lights on Culham Bridge. They have the longest exposure in the world, they are a bitch to sit at, as you know you're there for the long haul if you get caught, I'm not joking or being over dramatic, they are red/green for about two minutes (in traffic world, this is ages) but they also have sensors to check the bridges are clear (personally I remember when it was two way with no footpath, it was dangerous but that was yonks a go). So, if you get caught by them, you're there for eternity, I've sat there for the duration of a song once, as regulars to the bridges all cheat and fly over on red, when you do fly over on red (I may have done it once, or twice, or three times, maybe a few more times but not many more, honest), you always hope the person behind you does too, so you're not cheating alone, stupid I know but solidarity within drivers.
The point of this passage is that on the way to work, if I hit the High St in Culham and the lights are green and most of the drivers have gone through, I like to drive at 30mph to try and get through, on the way home I'll speed but on the way to work, I'll drive at the right speed (it's a personal thing, I've no idea why and it makes no sense). But it's like a personal triumph if I can make the green lights going at the legal speed, I can do anything at a normal speed and should therefore slow down once in a while, I think it's the whole tortoise and the hare complex.

This passage is something that grates me. I'm a keen believer in common courtesy, most of my friends know that I'm obsessive about saying please and thank you and if I don't or forget, I'll wind myself up about it.
I just think that common courtesies are free and can make or break someone's day, I know how I used to feel working at Waitrose and someone being rude could set off a chain of rudeness within myself. I know that the one cardinal rule of life is "do not judge others by your own standards", you'll generally end up depressed, but thank you and please are just so important within life. When I had my party, I thanked everyone who gave me a present or showed some kindness, by sending them a postcard of thanks. They did a little gesture towards me, so I wanted to show that I'd noticed and appreciated it, not much but something.
Recently I did quite a large favour for someone and I've heard no word of thanks from them. I got appreciation from others and acknowledgements from others but no thank you from the person I did it for. Am I'm being out of order to expect one. Maybe they just don't do that sort of thing, I mean, this person is generally within their own world and I can never work out of it's ignorance or oblivion which drives them, they always state that they are oblivious but I'm starting to think it's actually ignorance, which I hate to think but after so many times of doing things and getting nothing, it's hard not to be so rude.
I just don't think saying thank you isn't that hard and is important in life.

Lastly, I watched a charming indie film (is it just me who finds the term "indie film" offensive?), in fact due to my hating of that term, I'm going to call it a charming little independant film, called "In search of a midnight kiss", it's basically about "this dude", who has had a shitty year and is looking for someone to share New Years Eve with, because it's a lonely time for us singles, boo hoo, I may never leave my house again kind of depression, well he meets "some bird", through a Craigslist ad (american website for sad lonely people, where you can list anything! It's like a free eBay of everything including people and items or maybe more like gumtree. Plus there is this other dude in America called The Craiglist Killer, I love how killers in America always have titles but that's for another time). But it's funny, charming, witty, mental and rather adorable. I loved it all.
P.S. "This dude's" (the one in the film, not the serial killer) personal advert is the type of ad I'd love to stumble across

Here is the ending of the film, with the cast singing "Wind of Change", if you want to skip the final monologue, skip 1 minute in:

And yes, it's out of sync!

No comments: