I can fully understand why previous generations, before the
advent of real science (as opposed to the mumbo jumbo that POTUS 45 believes in),
thought that it was the rotting meat that gave birth to the carrion flies
feeding on it. It made sense: there were
no flies; meat rots; covered in flies – QED.
This thought came to me as I was driving Toni to his
hospital appointment for another test.
In Barcelona. During the rush
hour.
It is easy to forget just how awful driving in a large city
is when you are surrounded by sullen drivers, hating your very existence and
hoping that the earth would open and devour you whole. At least that is what I was thinking.
The traffic jams I can take.
I have learned to count the minutes that each stoppage lasts and I have
also learned that, in spite of the fury that I feel when I am delayed, the
actual, real time that I am hindered is actually quite derisory. It is a truth universally acknowledged etc
etc that time is relative, and time is never so relative as when you are
spending it looking at the backside of the car in front and wishing death on
the driver in front and the driver in front of that driver and so on until the
way is clear for you to progress.
Though the this-too-will-pass philosophy lets me cope with
car-forced delays, it does not seem to have such a mitigating effect on my
attitude towards motor cycle or motor scooter drivers.
I scowl (inwardly at least, and usually outwardly as well)
at all youngsters (i.e. anyone under the age of 35) on two wheels. If those wheels are motorized then the inward
smile often becomes articulate as they seemingly swarm from nowhere (hence the
image of the carrion flies and the rotting meat) and encircle your motorcar. They come at you from all directions because,
as far a motorcyclist is concerned, any three-lane motorway into a major city
actually has at least seven (7) lanes for motorcycles. They regard the three lanes for cars as
merely the starting point for their depredations, as they see cycle lanes on
each side of the conventional car lanes.
All that would not, in itself, necessarily be a bad thing,
but the real problem comes when you consider the physiological make up of the drivers
themselves. Like flies they consider
themselves faster with their reflexes than mere car chained humans and so they
flit from ‘lane’ to ‘lane’ through a real lane (without the quotation marks)
space as if these lanes were entirely empty rather than filled with large, four
wheeled, heavy, dangerous vehicles. No,
these buzzing insects swerve, cut, under-take, over-take and ignore all the
rules of the road right up until the realities of the legitimate road come into
play and smash them from their fragile, relatively unstable two-wheeled
mortality machines.
They (that amorphous crux of undifferentiated otherness)
sometimes say that your ethical standard may be judged by how well your treat
those who you think are beneath your regard e.g. Conservatives.
Well, though Conservatives are “lower than vermin” (Nye
Bevan) they are not as challenging to me as motor scooter riders. As someone who has actively, persistently and
vocally bewailed the lack of a directional flame thrower operated from the
driver’s steering wheel column to deal with the infestation of these two
wheeled insects and who has (shame be told) urged that any scooter driver
involved in a RTA be swept to the side of the road and left, I feel that my
left wing, humanitarian and human decency level are clearly pretty low.
In my defence, in the comfort of my home and well away from
a rush hour road, I look askance at the outrageous things mentioned in the
paragraph above (apart, of course, from the comment about the Conservatives)
and tell myself that my hot thoughts fail to take in social, historical,
political, economic and indeed every other -ical and –ic that comes to mind and
that I should be ashamed of myself! And
of course I am. I do not, in my saner
moments, wish harm on anyone – misery though recognition of their own evil,
yes, but not physical harm. What I do
wish for is simple consideration.
The equality of suffering is something that unites us all
which is why we all hate those people who push in or take a space or display
their selfishness for all to see – like motor scooter drivers who use bus lanes
and cycle lanes and pavements to STOP!
You are not in a traffic jam in the centre of a large city; you have a
cup of tea at your side and a good book to read. Relax.
Let it go!
If I am like this after one short exposure to rush hour
traffic, imagine what I would be like if I was still working in Barcelona! Thank god for retirement!
I have a further admission to make: this is not being typed
on my new Lenovo Yoga 910, top of the range, 2-in-1, touch screen and back lit,
no, I have reverted to my MacBook Air.
Part of the reason for my backsliding is that the Air is smaller and
more portable, but the major reason is the keyboard layout. My Lenovo has an odd, and entirely
unsatisfactory arrangement of the shift
and return keys on the right hand
side of the keyboard and I simply cannot get used to them. What the arrangement means in reality is that
my wayward little finger finds a page up key and before I know where I am I am
typing in the middle of another paragraph rather than simply capitalizing a
proper noun!
Since I am a touch typist, anything which actually makes me
think about the mechanics of what I am typing simply gets in the way of the
thought processes and makes writing a chore rather than a joy.
The whole point about buying the Lenovo was to get me free
of the stranglehold of Apple products that has defined much of my computer
buying over the years. As an earlyish
adopter of an Apple computer I found myself with a computer system that was
user friendly, but as a teacher I also discovered that most of the computer
programs used in schools were designed for PC and not Mac and I ploughed a
lonely furrow in the educational world!
It was the pricing of the iPhone before last that was the
tipping point for me as I felt that Apple was simply taking financial advantage
of a loyal customer base and doing so with total cynicism. Enough of my money for them I thought. Enough was enough!
I mean, I am not a fanatic, I’ve thrown nothing away and my
major computer is still a Mac, but I am on a path to find another way. And if that means buying new gadgets up to
and including a new laptop, then so be it!
I will have to draw up a list of my requirements and then,
with Toni’s help, start the hunt.
Though the more I use my MacBook Air the more I remember how
much I enjoy using it, so it may be that I am actually looking for the MacBook
Air that I already possess!
