What happened to manners? Where did they go?

When I was younger I was always brought up to be kind and courteous. Not just to my ‘elders’ but to everyone.

I am personally noticing that this is something that is dying out.

Please, can we bring it back!?

I’m not talking about men holding doors open, pulling out chairs or opening car doors – I can do all of those things myself!

I will give you 3 stories to show you the stuff I am talking about.

A story; just the other day I was walking through the wonderful Drake Circus in Plymouth. The doors in this shopping centre can be opened both ways, either push or pull (a relief for someone who never reads and always looks like an idiot…I digress). I was walking behind 2 people both female, probably students like me, the 2 girls proceeded to go through the door and I was maybe 2 feet behind them. Neither of them made the effort to look behind them to see if anyone was there and let the door close. RUDE! And yes I did walk out saying loudly ‘Don’t worry I got the door!’

Another instance – now this one made me really angry!

Last placement (summer 2013) I was lucky enough to be placed in Plymouth, I could get the bus to and from each day – happy days!

I left my house around 7:30am to get the bus at 7:55. I arrived at the bus stop and the usual faces were there waiting for their buses too, of which about 6 stop in the 10 minutes I am waiting for my bus.

Soon after arrives a gentleman, maybe aged around 55-60. He notices all the people waiting and waits too.

I look down the road as my bus is coming along; move out stick my hand out and the bus stops just past me.

THE MAN THEN GOT ON BEFORE ME!

What has happened to this world – we are in England and we like to queue! Wait your turn mister. Needless to say I am English and didn’t make a fuss, just grumbled under my breath.

My last example happened only yesterday.

I was in Primark, buying some clothes, waiting in the looooong queue as always, when a lady and her friend joined the queue behind me. The lady was buying a dressing gown and had a basket full of clothes. Every time I moved up with the queue, there she was, nudging me in the back with her dressing gown…Get back… Why so close? I’m still going to be served before you.

One time I didn’t move fast enough and she accidently, although preventable, kicked my shoe… but still continued to move at the same pace.

 

So here are a few things that I would like people to consider when in public:

1.    Hold doors for people it’s nice.

2.    Wait your turn.

3.    Keep your distance I don’t need you in my pocket.

4.    Be courteous.

That’s all I’m asking, is it really too much?

And it might just make the world a nicer place to be!

Are You Lucky or Unlucky?

Just answer this in your head and remember the answer you thought of answer it as soon as you have read it as quickly as you can:

“You're in a bank, a masked gunman comes in and is demanding cash from the cashier, you haven't gotten to the floor quick enough, so they shoot you – in the leg # Are you lucky or unlucky?”

So the other week I watched the catch up of Derren Brown The Experiments – The Secret of Luck. And well, it got me thinking, am I lucky or unlucky?...

Generally I'd call myself unlucky, if its going to go wrong it'll happen to me, from rubbish jobs to broken cars, even to moving to uni and the house not being ready when I turned up with 2 car loads of stuff...

I'll give you an example. My first car, straight after I passed my test for instance, I had £300 to spend on a car and I bought the first thing I saw – because it was green, a Hyundai Accent Coupe Si.... yes! So called him Jimmy Alan, after Jimmy and Alan Carr. I can hear you 'oh God!' But I wanted it so for £275 I got myself a bargain really....until it broke.

First I needed new brake pads, then a clutch and then the stinker, driving to work one day the exhaust suddenly started making noises like a boy racer car. Yep, the bloody thing had come apart and broke! So we ordered a new exhaust from Hyundai, which had to be shipped in from Korea.

Mean while I borrowed a family friends car, a Vauxhall Nova, from one travesty to another!

While driving this car, which only had 4 gears, I cooked it, the radiator had broken and the thing cooked itself and burnt out. I had to drive it home, indicators broke and rather toasty!

By now we had been on and off the phone to Hyundai about the exhaust, to find out 6 months later the exhaust had been there the whole time but the people who worked there had a different code to what was on the box! So we picked it up and had it fitted!

Also when I bought the car the previous owners had told me that the electric windows were broken but wouldn't be hard to fix – Muppet. 2 mechanics later – windows still didn't work! For the whole 2 years I had Jimmy Alan I had to have a cigarette plug in fan for the summer, when it was hot!

About a month later I realised my feet were getting hot when I drove – the radiator was leaking, yep that's right, needed a new bloody radiator too. So after around £1000 after the £275 I originally paid I decided I needed a new car, sold Jimmy Alan to a dealer and bought a Ford Fiesta.

The Fiesta is another story altogether but in a snap shot – got £1000 from my nan to buy it as a 21^st birthday present – after driving it for about a month or so I realised the heating was constantly on! Then when someone eventually got into the back we realised the door shut oddly and didn't sit normally! But never mind!

So from just the stories above, without going into, being left behind in the airport with my family in Corfu, falling out of a wheel barrow and cutting my head open or being shat on by a bird twice in 1 week. It is plain obvious for everyone to see that I generally don't seem like a lucky person!

However from watching The Secret of Luck – I realised I am very similar to one of the people featured on the show called Wayne a Butcher. And maybe just like him, I'm missing the opportunities.

Derren had placed a scratch card through his shop letter box that if he scratched he would have genuinely won a plasma TV. Derren also put a £50 note in his path as he was walking along, but he walked straight past it. A street canveser was asking people to name 5 cuts of beef to win £20 (she didn't mention the £20 just asked the question), she caught Wayne and he said he would come back...But he didn't So maybe I am just missing opportunities rather than not being lucky.

It wasn't until the end of the show when he bet £1000 (his life savings) on the roll of a dice. Changing his state of mind must have worked because he won!

So since watching I have started to think more positively and take notice more of what's going on around me. And although some unlucky things have still happened in those weeks I have been able to brush them off and get on with it.

So whenever you think that life just isn't going your way just remember that your destiny is in your hands and your hands only, if you want it to change there's only 1 person that can make that happen and that is YOU! So if you feel like you're stuck in a rut and life is getting you down, get up off your arse and do something about it!

Grammar

This blog entry is going to be about my pet hate (well one of them)......Word Misuse.....

So this will act as, well....like a crash course.

Your and You're

Now these would appear to be the same, don't they?

Well they read they same...... but this is all they have in common!

Your, is referring to something that is yours. 'That is your jumper'

You're, is referring to some thing you might do, short for 'you are'. 'You're going to go to the shops later'

Their, There and They're

Again they read the same, but NO cannot be used the same!

Their, something that belongs to someone else 'That's their ball' (usually used to refer to a group of people rather than one person)

There, a direction 'The shop is over there'

They're, something someone is going to do 'They're going on holiday' (again usually a group)

To, Two and Too

Read the same, NOT the same!

To, used mostly in commands, questions or statements 'I have to' 'To be or not to be?' 'Would you like to?'

Two, the number 2 as a word 'There are two chickens'

Too, used in the same way as 'also' and for an excess amount 'I'd like to go too' or 'That's too much'

Of and Have

It is never:

would of

could of

It is only ever:

Would've

Could've

Why? Because you are actually saying the abbreviation of could have or would have.

Are and Our

Yes they sound similar, but not the same!

Are is normally used in questions, or statements 'Are you going?' 'There are 7 horses'

Our is something that is referring to a possession 'That looks like our cat'

You're Never Too Old......

Since moving to uni and meeting a lot of people younger than myself it has made me appreciate all the things in life I think you can never be too old for, I shall try and list a few but I feel this is going to be a work in progress......

1. For glow in the dark stickers (and such like glowing things)
2. To feel scared while you're home alone
3. To enjoy your parents cooking more than anyone elses
4. To feel left out
5. For a good ole kiddy film
6. To be home sick
7. To run to the swings
8. To find compromise hard
9. To get excited and wake up early on Christmas Day
10. To change your mind
11. For colouring in
12. For a game of hide and seek
13. To cry ='[
14. Or for a hug when you cry
15. To still feel like you're 15 and too immature
16. To be scared of responsibility
17. To have a teddy bear =']
18. To feel insecure (no matter the front we put on)
19. To be scared of the dark (or more so, whats in it)
20. To be paranoid for no such reasons....


Lexii xxx