By Mahendra (Speedy) Gonsalkorale
Hello! It is me, Max Koral. Here I am
again! As I said, I am not unique. I am not perfect, but I am
entertaining. When you get to know me
better after reading my regular posts in this column, you might even like me!
Today I like to share my thoughts on
things that annoy me. Don't get me wrong, I love human beings, and I am
decidedly not intolerant. However, the
situations that I am about to describe does give me the goat.
Take traffic lights, for example. I note
there are two lanes as I come up to the lights. The left is long, but the right
has a shorter queue and allows cars to turn right or go 'straight' (even if you
are dishonest). That is the beauty of it. You can be the biggest gangster in
the World, but you can go straight. Where was I? Oh yes, I decided to draw
behind the car on the right as to all intents and purposes, it was going
straight as the indicator light was not on. The lights change to orange and
soon to green, and I get ready for taking off and lo and behold, the car in
front now shows indicator light turning right! He or she had all this time and
waits till the last moment to indicate, and I have a nasty suspicion that this
person is a sadist and derives great pleasure from the suffering of others,
most probably a politician or a lawyer.
One more pet hate if you don't mind.
Even if you do mind, here it is. I know, I know, you had enough, but please do
bear with me. It is about walking in long corridors, such as hospital
corridors. Here I am trying to get to the clinic on time and can I go past
these three rather large people who extend more from East to West than from
North to South, chatting to each other? No is the answer as they occupy much
precious space and have the habit of just ambling along slowly like snails in
distress and intermittently stop without much warning to enjoy a joke with loud
guffaws. Just as you see a chance to squeeze past on the right flank, the
person on the right extreme decides to wander off to the right and block my
passage. I try a few 'excuse me's, but they fall on deaf ears. They could be
deaf, of course.
There are more, such as those who never
use indicator lights on their cars, the ladies who have long chats with the
supermarket checkout girl holding up all behind them. Then there is the lady
who loads her supermarket trolley and when payment is requested starts
rummaging through a rather large handbag desperately looking for her credit
card and after what seems like hours declares triumphantly that she had it in
her pocket all the time and grins inanely at you.
Why not share your pet hates with me.
Bye for now.
I read the email version of this and felt I must comment, but look! Nearly three weeks have passed. Excuse: I was away on a trip. I had quite a lot of pet hates to face but just one to mention in these days of 'waste not'. There was food a plenty on this cruise, and people were piling up mountains of food, much more than they could eat. The excuse? It's there in plenty. And then you find plates with more than half not eaten. It's just greed and lack of concern for unnecessary waste. There are more pet hates. I'll be back with them. I would really like to hear yours and yours and yours friends! Zita
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of Lead balloons! My latest idea went down like a lead balloon! Imagine if a balloon were actually made of lead. It wouldn’t be able to fly at all. This imagery is what people imagine when using this expression.
ReplyDeleteThis idiom first appeared in an American cartoon strip in 1924. It took several years to the phrase to catch on, as it wasn’t seen again in print until after World War II. The version I gave is the British one. The American version is - go over like a lead balloon
Over the years, the expression has become quite popular, helped out, of course, by the popular rock back Led Zeppelin.
Never mind! When we come up with resuscitation ideas, we know that not all of them work. But the rebirth of Blog correspondence after the sad loss of our lovely and amiable friend Razaque, shows that the Blog is substantially alive and serves a definite purpose. This makes me happy!