RANTS 

This is the page where I will rant on....so if you want to have your say in response please do so, anytime.  There are 24 rants on the page at the moment.     

FIRST RANT.

As some of you will have read on my blog, I am of the opinion that kids today are having their imagining done for them, to the point that their ability to create will be impared for their whole lives. How many times will they say as they grow older that they cannot write, draw etc. Everyone can write. Again those of you who have visited my blog will already that know I write poetry (some of it published over the years). Anyone can write poetry, which doesn't have to rhyme, or anything contrived like that.

The cat

sat

on the mat

Now is that a poem or what. You might not think so, but does that give you the right to demoralise the author (were there one)?

Kids need to be encouraged to use their own imaginations, as we did in the 1950s when we had radio for our entainment. We didn't have t.v at my house until 1960. Radio made you use your imagination. We all imagined that a man with a puppet called Lenny The Lion was realy talking without moving his lips!

OK, sad or what? But that makes my point, that the human being is capable of imagination that transends all that is logical. But if they are not encouraged to use it at a young age does it ever develop properly? Think about that, use your imagination!

 

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 SECOND RANT

 Why is it that as soon as someone reaches a certain age, usualy 60 years it is assumed that they are old, and should be living in an old people's part of town.  I say this as I was at a meeting at which it was stated that it was hoped that a proposed development would be family housing, and not the one bedroomed appartments that have been mentioned so far. It was said that if they are one bedroom we will see old people moving in, and we need young families to regenerate the area.

So that's it then. If you are old you should not live where the families are, even if you want to. You should be shuffled off to the old people's end of town, there to keep yourself to yourself. You would have moved away from family and friends, as they might still be in their 'family houses', but then they do give you a bus pass, don't they.

With an ageing demographic what is needed is smaller more managable housing for those older people who want to sell up their 'family size' homes and not move miles away for all they know to buy, and are not ready for the care home just because they have their bus pass.

 

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 Third Rant

 It is raining a lot today, and there is lot of standing water even where I live, so there is bound to have been localised flooding somewhere in the area.I was watching out of my window earlier, and my neighbour's garden, which is paved, and has very little in the way of exposed earth was awash with water that had nowhere to go. My garden on the other hand, which has minimum concrete, was in nothing like the same state, as the rainwater was for the most part managing to soak away into the ground.

There is much talk of the flooding problem in some areas of the country being made worse by all the houses being built of the 'flood planes'. But there is also an effect caused by the fashion for the concreating/paving of every possible area by people who want 'low maintance' gardens, parking spaces, ect. This means the water has even more difficulty in draining away, and this must add to the problem.

 

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 Fourth Rant

I have just travelled on a bus from Brighton to Southwick. There are several road works in the area, plus the hold ups caused by volumn of traffic. The bus was twenty minutes late by the time it reached central Brighton where I boarded.

Throughout the journey passangers who embarked on the bus passed comments to the driver.  These ranged from 'do you know you are twenty minutes late?' to ' been having a break have you?'. At least these were said direct to the driver, there were many other moans and rants that  were said loudly from the seats, once the passangers had sat down.

So, what do they expect the driver to do about this. Perhaps as this is the day the new Harry Potter book is published they think the driver can transform the bus into some version of the Hogwarts Express.

In reality the driver can in no way influence the delays, and is as frustrated as anyone else. How many of any of our journeys are so important, except to us, that there is a problem with a short delay. It's not as if it's raining hard.

 

 

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Fifth Rant

Why is it that people think that because they are in a motorised wheelchair type vechiles they have the right of way on the pavements. They would be the first to complain if kids on skate boards were to skid along taking no notice of the other people on the pavements.

Is it not time that people who use motorised wheelchair type vechiles were made to take some sort of test to make sure they know how to control their pontentialy dangerous machines, or do we have to wait for a young child to be crushed to death?

 

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Sixth Rant

Lets have a happy rant. This morning there was a touch of autumn in the air. The trees are already losing some leaves, and there are ripe berries on some trees and bushes. The squirrels are looking plump. There were many birds as I walked through the park on my way to the library. The sun shone on the section of the South Downs that I could see. It was in short a glorious morning! 30/07/07.

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Seventh Rant

Why is it that the politicaly correct amongst us (the minority) are allowed to trample all over ours lives unchallanged?

Who gave these busy bodies the right to look down their noses at everyone else, and act as if they are so much better than the rest of you. When will the silent majority stop being silent and tell the PC brigade to clear off and let normal human beings get on with their lives.

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Eighth Rant

Do the minority of dog walkers who fail to clear up after their charges think of the pile they leave behind as 'pooh' or 'mess'.

It's neither;- dog feces, just like human feces, is raw untreated sewage.

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Ninth Rant

Call me awkward (go on,dare you), but why is it not possible to buy a soft drink with real sugar in it anymore? It's all artificial sweetners these days. There is now a distinct lack of choice for those of us who are not fizzy drink addicts, and only imbibe occasionaly. When will maufacturers learn that they need to strike a happy medium, and not swing from one extreme to the other.

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Tenth Rant

Whatever happened to good manners. Oh yes, I know what you are thinking, it's another go at the 'kids', well it's not. This is a go at the older generation who seem to think that advancing age gives them the right to behave in the very way that they so often decry in others.

Take the sacred queue. The older people talk of the queue as if it was invented at the begining of time, when in fact it was started during wartime for the food queues.

Now picture the scene, young person waits patiently to be served in shop, and when it is her turn she is pushed aside by elderly gent in a hurry. When young lady states that she is next the miserable old soul starts moaning about the younger generation, and their lack of gratitude.

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Eleventh Rant

Just a thought. When I grew up in Brighton I used to see lots of Teddy Boys and Girls about. Recently I saw a poster for a music tribute to the 1950s, which stated that anyone over 60 years would get in half price. It was then that it occured to me that the trendy teens of the 1950s are now over 60. Somehow the thought of the Teds with bus passes just does not seem right!

 

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12 th Rant

The greatest invention of the 20th century was the electronic information super highway! Or world wide web, as it is usualy called today. And yet how many people still have not taken advantage of it?

I speak of the silent majority, without whom those in power could not get their own way most of the time. The day the silent majority becomes the vocal majority the powerful (in their own opinion, usualy) of the UK will be in for a shock.

Blogs. That's such a nice word to say. Oh Blog! Go on try saying it next time you burn your finger on a hot crumpet straight out of the toaster, as I did only yesterday. Anyone can run a blog, if they can use Word.   E-mails, e-petitions, e-surveys, the list goes on and on. All ways that anyone with Internet access can make their voices heard.

There is also of course voting, but the turnout for that is dropping all the time. As one who has stood unsuccesfully more than once, I can say it would be better to lose on a 100 per cent turn out, than win on a twenty per cent turnout. (and no, that is not sour grapes. And in any case I dropped out of party politics two years ago, sick of the yah boo to you attitude.)

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RANT 13

I purchased an item that came in a carton. On the carton there were instructions on how to open the carton, complete with little cartoons. This was not an item that needed to be kept upright, or not dropped!

It reminds me to tell you an interesting fact, the difference between boxes and cartons. As a former carton maker (sorry environment, but I was), I can tell you that a carton is made in one piece, and a box is made in two pieces with a lid that lifts off of a base.

Just to add another confession to my damaging the environment for future generations. I once, in a different packaging factory, spent a whole day in 1972 heat moulding plastic masks of Donald Duck, to be given away free as part of a promotion for kid's soap. Somewhere on a council tip those masks are even now laying there refusing to disintigrate.

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RANT 14

There is a well known high street store that now does not issue recipts if the good total less than two pounds. (It went up from one pound only this week). This is not only on their own brand product. So why do I not just walk in, take what I want that is less than two pound, and walk out the door without paying? How could anyone stop me on the pavement outside and demand proof of purchase.

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RANT 15

One of the interest times to not be a Christian is between the first of September and Christmas. The moment 01/09 dawns the cry of "only just over three months to go" echos around the nation, or at least across the supermarket aisles.

Thousands of people begin to panic, even though Christmas itself means little to them beyond eat up, drink up, try not to throw up. What to buy Great Uncle Willie, or cousin Shula, or wether to send a card to her at number sixty who didn't send us one last year. (One of the saddest address books I saw recently contained a two page spred for it's owner to write in the person's name and cards sent and recieved, by ticking in columns. There were spaces for fifty entries for ten years!)

Being an observer of the process I wonder what, once the 'religious bit' is taken out, as so many do, is Christmas actualy for?

 

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RANT 16

 

form from bank for community organisations --- to change signatures on account states....

1. If the person whose signature you are removing from the account has died a copy of the death certificate must be enclosed with the completed form.

2. If the person whose signature you are removing from the account cannot be contacted then a letter on headed notepaper signed by two Authorised Account holders should be enclosed with the completed form.

Anyone for a seance at the bank?

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RANT 17

To return to my theme of the need for an imagination (as exposed on my Jackie's Jottings and elsewhere).

Have you ever thought that without an imagination no inventions or scientific discoveries would ever be made? That the abiltilty to problem solve needs imagination? This is where we who grew up before 24/7 tv, computer games etc, will always have an advantage.

It will be interesting to watch in the future and see how the children of the developed countries, awash with imagination imparing technology, fare in the inventing and discovering stakes, against those brought up in countries where this technology is yet to become established.

I did not include exploration as needing imagination, as setting off around the world in the days before maps would probaly have been better left to those with a lower level of imagination!

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RANT 18

Feeling a little peckish I went into a shop to buy a banana. This is a shop with the fruit and veg outside, beside a busy road, with lorries and buses thundering past.

Having taken the banana inside, it was weighed, I paid, and told the assistant that I did not require a bag. I was informed that I must have a bag 'for hygiene purposes'. This for a banana that had already been polluted big time by the exhust fumes! I smiled at the young assistant and heard myself say in a kind (and no doubt condesending) tone, "You are very young". Even as I was walking out of the shop I was thinking 'what did I just say'.

Am I turning into my own grandmother. No. I can be sure of that because I am now reaching the age my grandparents generation would have been when I first remember them. How attitudes have changed in half-a-century. Someone said on tv that seventy is the new fifty, absolutely right.

What we now have a generation gap amongst pensioners. However you define a generation. Let's call it twenty five years. To someone of sixty five, someone of ninety is of thier parent's generation.

There is no difference between being thirteen and thinking that your parent's generation is from another planet, and being sixty and thinking that your parent's generation is from another planet. You may understand them a little better, but all that means is that the planet is not quite so far away.

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RANT 19

Once again the Government has had it's say on the levels of recylcing in the UK. And once again it has ignored a large fact. People can only recylce the items that their local council will accept. It is no good the Government spending a fortune on advertising, and then the people being turned away at the recyling centre.

This is an issue that must be addressed by central Government, before they have the cheek to introduce draconian measures such as fining ,( a back door tax?), decent people who would recyle the items if the facilities exsisted!

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RANT 20  

Isn't it interesting that when there is not enough money to pay for something local councillors say "the council has no money of it's own", but when there is something they want that most of the residents don't, they find the money and say "we are spending the council's money for the good of all". Double standards, as usual!

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 RANT 21

It is so fascinating to hear the councillors on Adur District Council thressing around looking for someone to blame for everything. As ADC's elected members (councillors) are all but three of the same party, there is no-one to blame but themselves for majority decissions. Oh, how politicians hate that!

 

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RANT 22

Why do people walk and text at the same time. They weave about the pavement, at total disregard to others. But the worse is when it is a person with a kiddie in a pushchair. The child must think it is on a fairground ride. Recently I say a young woman with a child about three in her pushchair. As she walked along texting the young woman obviously was unaware she had reached the kerb, and pushed the pushchair straight out onto the crossing, even though the light was against her. A car pulled up quickly, and what does out modern day heroine, finaly looking up, do? She berates the driver, in language that would make a docker blush, for nearly killing her child. Who nearly killed her child?

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 RANT 23

I went to buy a reel of black cotton this morning. Just an ordinary reel of cotton. Do you know how much it would have cost, if I had bought it? £4.95. I am shopping around in hope!

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RANT 24

In the 'greener than green' supermarkets what do I spy? More and more stickers on products, notably fresh produce and meat/fish and dairy. Now I know that each sticker is only a small piece of sticky paper BUT how much paper does this add up to over hundreds of thousands of packets? All this extra paper will find it's way into landfill - as I do not know of any council that is accepting plastic packaging (with or without paper stickers) for recycling.

Is it that the supermarkets don't think, or is it because they only pretend to care to try and sell more of  their products?