I joined the queue to be served in the coffee bar, noting that there were four people in front of me. In the end, I was the eighth person to be served. Most of those in front of me were together, as far as I could tell, they were IT consultants. It's a grey area, I couldn't reasonably accuse them of queue jumping, but it was annoying as the 'round' got extended by new arrivals.
What was more interesting was the posture of the sad Wannabe Alpha Males (WAM). I like two sorts of men, the real Alpha Males who are so self-confident, relaxed in their identity and sexuality that they don't feel a need to display it. I also like men who are gentle and caring. I like it best when these two are combined in one bloke, the sort who would hug a tree before chopping it down with bare hands. What I don't like is the man who has to pose and behave in a way that he believes makes him Alpha Male but simultaneously betrays his insecurities. Standing with legs splayed, head pecking away like a bird, talking loudly in meaningless fashionable buzzwords, checking that everybody is looking. The woman behind the counter is Lithuanian. To me, this means she speaks English with an accent and occasionally has difficulty understanding poorly-articulated and/or heavily accented requests. It doesn't mean she is stupid, inferior or in need of being patronised. She does her job and is always pleasant.
One of the Wannabe Alpha Males said "And a Bounty"
"Red or blue?" she said.
"A Bounty," he repeated.
"Do you want Red or Blue?"
He was getting exasperated, "A Bounty". She looked him directly in the eye "Red Bounty or Blue Bounty?" Chastened - momentarily - he requested blue.
WAM2 looks at his cup of coffee. Accusatory, he said "It has a message on it."
"Yes," she said. "Extra shot..." Again, he was temporarily chastened. I don't suppose they will ever learn. She does her job, she does it well. They are so full of themselves that they are confounding her efforts at customer service. To their detriment.
There is a road close to me. It's a very minor road. It has another road off it. Both roads are densely populated, many of the residents in conversions, most of them with cars, few of them with off-street parking.
With Thames Water's contractors currently replacing the crumbling Victorian water mains - a Good Thing - parking is even scarcer* . Where the two roads meet, the pavement is high but there is a drop down kerb to enable pedestrians to cross, especially those with buggies, luggage etc. Yet, so often, there are vehicles parked there, making it dangerous to pedestrians, and often blocking the sight lines of any driver wanting to turn out of the subsidiary road. It actually barely affects me personally. It's no big deal to wander out into the road, which I generally want to be crossing at some point - once I have passed the sticky-out building.
I was walking down there the other morning and saw a van parked on the drop-down crossover, and joy of joys, there was a bloke with the van. I commented to him that it wasn't a safe place to park, it was inconsiderate to people with buggies. His response "Don't give me that, I live here too." Oh well, that's okay, if you live 'here' that means you're exempt from common courtesy and safety precautions.
I got on the bus which was full downstairs. Full and standing. There was a bloke stood on the staircase. Someone asked him whether there were seats upstairs. He gave no reply but the person went up anyway. I asked the same question. He said yes. So I said "So it's a bit stupid for you to stand there blocking the stairs and making people think the upstairs is full." He scowled at me. Upstairs was half empty. The bus passed the next stop without stopping.
* I'm not quite sure why so many of them have cars because most of the cars don't seem to move from one week to the next; surely a garden gnome would be cheaper. Plus they demonstrably increase Fear of Crime
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