Grumpy old lady

I find it quite difficult dealing with out-and-out rudeness and I think most people do, because it's just such a shock. There you are, patiently waiting to do X and someone walks straight past you and takes your place, and ignores you if you attempt to say "Er, eh? What?"

So it happened this morning in a relatively low-queue-wait scenario in Pret. This is unusual, I have to say. The queue usually snakes so far, I tend to not even bother waiting. I have in my hand my Orange juice and sandwich and I will be called next to one of the poor bastards working there. One looks up, ready to say "Next please" and a woman brazenly walks straight past me and to the guy. Without thinking, I say, in a stunned way "Excuse me, there's a queue" to the woman's back, who obviously ignores me. The thing is (as previously described) I can't actually hear at the moment. Therefore when I say it again I have no idea whether I am shouting or just sounding deeply affronted. I also have no idea what she might be saying because she's facing the other way.

Turns out that the poor overworked underpaid guy is actually saying 'I am sorry I can't serve you' to the woman, because he turns to me and looks enquiringly at me. Woman turns on her heel and thunders "Stick it up your arse!" at me as she stomps out.

Which of course makes me feel awkward and bad, as if it's my fault, and I should have just shrugged and let her get on with it. Maybe I should. Unfortunately the "Hey, what the hell?" type reaction tends to come in the first "Talk before brain engages" bit after which your course of action is unavoidable.

All of which pales in to insignificance compared to the roasting we gave a driver who nearly ran us over when he tried to run a red light when McK & I were cxrossing carrying Nora in the wrap over the weekend.

So here's an info graphic I made earlier. Well. Just now. Powerpoint can work wonders in les than 5 minutes:

Ah. So I missed out "Point A, point B" etc. Bah. So, where the arrow goes to is the *stupidest* red light / green light scenario I have ever come across. Whilst waiting to cross the junction to get to the common, the green man signals that the traffic going up and down Streatham Common Road has to stop, right? Fine. So you go across to the traffic island in the middle, and the second green man appears. Just *after* the traffic waiting at Valley Road has started to move around the corner. So they get a green light, turn a corner and are immediately confronteec with a red light, which they see *if they are lucky*. They also find it difficult to see *you* because of all the light poles and fencing.

Consequently, if you even dare to cross the road, with your baby trolley or carrying her in a wrap, you do so tentatively, and waving your arms rapidly saying "look! I'm here! Don't run me over!". I've nearly been killed there several times and more importantly (er, I think) so has Nora, who by necessity sometimes is going before me in her trolley. A poor guy at the weekend didn't see the lights and nearly drove over us, causing McK to stand there pointing at the lights and shouting hoarsely "It was a red light!!!" To his credit the guy got out of the car but was all defensive and angry because he'd done a bad thing and he saw we had a baby with us. Well. He'll never do that again at that junction.

It is really not a good situation. Consequently, I am going to take a leaf out of my friend Louise's book and get in touch with the council & my local councillors.