Wednesday 5 August 2009

Rude Woman - Nice Man!

Oh she was – very. We took the kids to the zoo – I dislike zoos. So why go? I don't know what possessed me to be honest!

The railway last week was so much nicer.

Today there were too many people, too many children smelling of sick, too many people, too many wasps, too many people . . .

I don’t do crowds at the best of times.


The rude woman? Ah, well we queued up to go on a little train ride. It was running continuously and only took about 5 minutes for the ride. Anyway, this grandmother tried to push in between me and my husband – unsuccessfully I might add. Sometimes it is advantageous to have a bum the size of a small car.

I counted the seats on the train and there was plenty of room for the grandmother to get on as well as us and the kids in front of us. But when the little gate was opened – my god, talk about a one woman stampede! She shoved her grandchildren through the gate having elbowed us out of the way and yelled at us over her shoulder “It’s all right I’m with them!”

I’m still trying to figure that one out. It’s all right to push in if you’re shoving kids in front of you?

I soon realised why she pushed in front. She wanted seats at the front end of the little train. We had to go in seats in the last carriage which was stopped next to a small fence. There was about two inches between the train and the little fence. Okay, more than two inches, but not a lot of room even if you didn’t have a bum the size of a small car.

My backpack chose the moment that I was climbing on to self destruct, but we made it.

When we got off, I noticed that Rude Woman had an even bigger behind than mine. I can only assume that was why she had such an urgent need to push in.

Now I’ll tell you something nice that happened. You can buy food for the part of the zoo where there are ponies and goats and so on – not that I could find where to buy it! It was probably cunningly disguised behind two thousand people heavily engaged in the popular pastime of wasp swatting.

Two year old Imogen adores horses. I held her up so she could stroke a pony. A man in a Guinness polo shirt came and stood beside us and fed the pony, then he offered some of the food to Imogen. She held out her little hand and the pony was so gentle. He then gave me the rest of the food in his cup for her. Wasn’t that nice? Lovely man, lovely pony!

I can’t help wishing we’d gone to the beach though!

10 comments:

  1. Oooh! I can't stand rude women like that. I'd have been tempted to stick my foot out and trip her up 'accidently' of course! I'm a bit more vocal than you when people push in. I'd have said (theatrically for all to hear) to my grandchildren 'look at that rude woman, children - we should never push in should we,childen? It's very bad manners isn't it!'

    Maybe you should go to the beach next time!

    I hate wasps too. I was at Chester zoo once and I swatted a wasp away from me with my hand but it landed down my top in my bra between the girls and I was frantically trying to get it out without exposing myself or being stung! I managed to get it between my thumb and forefinger and lob it - it was a miracle I wasn't stung. I am terrified of wasps but my sense of dignity and keeping myself decent over rode my fear of wasps that day. Had I been in a less public place the top would have been off!

    Julie xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Urgh. I don't know how you kept your calm!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very rude woman! That's a lovely story about the man and the pony though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blimey Julie! The wasp down your bra!!! THat could have been sooo nasty.

    I wish I hadn't kept my calm, Tam! I always regret not saying anything after the event. The trouble is it takes me so long to think of what to say that by the time I do, its all over!

    It is, Helen. I will never forget that nice man!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, God, zoos. I'd forgotten about zoos. Do you mean to say I'll have to take my soon-to-be grandchild to zoos, when it's old enough?? I hate them, and had enough of them when my 3 kids were little. Oh well, I suppose it'll all seem different when the time comes! Rude Woman needs to be portrayed in a story at some point, I think - serve her right! And wasps ... why ARE there wasps? What's the point of them? Horrible vindictive little b*****s, they sting just for the hell of it. Glad you weren't stung, Julie!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It will seem different, Olivia (but don't go in the school summer holidays!) My grandson asked me today if we could go to the zoo again tomorrow as he wants to go to the shop to buy a crocodile!
    As for wasps, I have never been able to figure out what they're for. Hateful things!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The good news Teresa is that when you write the story of this, you can have the woman trip and fall under the train ... Oops, did I just say that out loud? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Don't worry, Sally, I don't think anyone heard!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I admire your restraint. I've now reached the age where I complain very loudly about how rude people are. Sometimes I'm so loud I even give myself a headache. Suppose that makes me just as rude as the ones who have offended me.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You're not rude, Suzanne! Ten years ago I definitely would have said something.
    I seem to have lost confidence lately!

    ReplyDelete