LIVE24SEVEN // Feature V I EWS – WI TH SANDR A PAUL Unbelievable! Summer is here – woo woo!
The sun is shining, butterflies are flitting and there is no better time of year. For some.
My brother believes my outlook is pure ‘unicorns and rainbows’ but the onset of summer finds me retreating to an Ebenezer Scrooge personality and I’m sorry if the next 500 words make you sad or mad.
Firstly, I find driving from A to B along beautiful country roads quite terrifying at this time of year. Summer has brought out those nutty cyclists who think they own the road. I am not anti-cyclist. Some of my best friends are cyclists. It’s just I wish they would cycle with their own safety in mind, especially when hurtling down steep winding paths with only enough room for a small Fiat.
The speed limit for these country roads is 60mph and yet I never go above 30mph for fear of knocking down another of my pet hates – the walkers. But cyclists who ride in large groups, alongside each other as opposed to filing neatly behind each other, are like swarms of bees in lurid Lycra – they cycle with deadly intent, a grimace set across their faces and the clear intent to OWN the road. I’m not asking for much. Just stick to your side of the road!
My second hate has to be kids travelling en masse. Especially for end of year school ‘treats’. Why can't ordinary travelling adults be given prior warning that a group of screaming, giggling, farting, young yobs will be travelling at the same time? I think it should be incumbent upon the airlines, trains and coach companies, to inform
/ 104
potential passengers that the particular journey they are thinking of booking, will be accompanied by a gaggle of the unwashed. And I think the cost of these trips should be reduced if you then choose to go on the journey despite the noisy disruptions.
I popped over to Barcelona last week thinking I was being clever. The majority of schools hadn’t yet broken up for summer and I thought the whole experience would be much more enjoyable with less crowds, less screaming children, therefore fewer smelly… you get the idea.
I did not plan for the school trips. My flight was so early I had to leave home in the middle of the night so you can imagine, lack of sleep did not make me the most patient of travellers. However, being stuck in the midst of thirty 14-15 year olds who had drunk a vat of Red Bull or the equivalent was seriously my idea of hell. No chance of getting 50 winks. I was even thumped on the head by one teenager ‘sitting’ behind me. When I turned around to ask him what was going on, Kevin, (he looked like a Kevin) denied it; then he said it wasn’t his fault; then he said it was my fault my head was in the way of him pointing something out to his friends. That was merely the start of the flight.
The rest of the journey was like being in the middle of a Lord of the Flies nightmare. Why pass a bag of crisps to your friends when you can throw the open packet? Why sit quietly in the seat allocated to you when you can clamber over the aisles and choose a better seat. So what if someone else is occupying it – just sit on top of them!
While the kids rampaged up and down the plane, the teachers and the flight attendants skulked at the front behind the curtains (popping back the G & T’s I’m sure of it). Do I blame them? No. Both are jobs that deserve higher pay packets and awards galore. However, I find it unbelievable that in this era of consumer choice, the sophisticated adult traveller (me) is not given a choice of adult-only travel. I love children, really. It’s just I have grown into my mother and yearn for the days children were seen but not heard.
Sandra Paul
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
