A bad morning

Yesterday was my cousin's hen do. A very special occasion, and something I had been looking forward to for months, and it was really, really great. We all went go-karting in the day, then went out to a Greek restaurant in the evening which was followed by Greek dancing, then it was to Oceana's for some drinking and cheesy dancing. A brilliant day, even for Birmingham! It made up for what could only be described as a nightmare morning that occurred before the events that took place that day.

It all started when I got to the train station at Lincoln, so I could depart from there to Nottingham, then from Nottingham to Birmingham New Street.

Well, technically, the trouble started before I left the train station. I knew I was going to encounter a problem, and I was hoping for it to be easily resolved. This was proved wrong quite quickly. For future notice, and my advise to young persons under the age of 25 and are likely to have some use of travelling via trains, if you are going to get a railcard, buy online, not at the station. Why? Because when you buy from the station, you have to have two pieces of cards that make the railcard. One with the photo I.D, then one that is the actual valid as the discount card. Lose the discount card part, expect to pay the full price for a new discount card.

So basically, it's just another way for them to make money out of you. Daylight robbery. At least the railcard off the internet sends you just the one card you need, and if you loose it, it's really easy to go online and organize a replacement, which is also cheaper then having to fork out for a new one like you do when you are at an actual train station.

I paid £25 for an open train ticket from Lincoln to Birmingham New Street, that's the price with a young person's discount. I went to the train station to see if my railcard could be sorted out reasonably. My only option was having to buy ANOTHER train ticket for the same price WITHOUT refund on my previous ticket for £34. So it would have cost me over £50 for a train ticket to Birmingham, somewhere that I was only going to be there for a day. The other choice, buy another railcard for £28. Both choices were way out of order, but there was no way I could miss my cousin's hen do, and rail companies must love making money on people's crises. I took the second option. It probably was actually a good thing, as it was due for renewal the following month anyway, it was just one more expense I could have done without at the time. Pay day was less then a week away, I was broke and the money I had was saved for what needed to go on for the hen do.

That brings me to the second part of the nightmare morning. I got into Birmingham, the first thing I needed to do was to make a phone call to my parents to ask them to loan me money to cover the expense of paying for a new railcard. I couldn't phone my parents because I was blocked from making any sort of communication on my phone, as the bill was over due. I thought I was good for that til pay day, which was only a few days away.

Not only was I stuck for calling my parents, I was also stuck for calling my cousin's hen do organizer and bridesmaid for details of where the hotel was and where to meet for breakfast. So I ran around like a headless chicken looking for an orange shop, a natwest and somewhere with free wifi. Found an orange shop and had to negotiate and negotiate for them to put my phone back online, which cost me £10, but at least it meant I could get hold of help! So I called, got sorted and then was running around trying to find a Holiday Inn, which seemed impossible, especially as everyone walking or hanging around Birmingham that I asked for directions seemed as clueless as me! Can't believe I couldn't find one person that could give me directions.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I've been getting gradually ill since my holiday in Yorkshire the other week, Friday being the worst so far, and then Saturday was just as bad, so being ill and having a crappy morning was not improving things.

Anyway, eventually I got to the hotel, and in a state of relief after checking in, and getting a phone call telling me where to be, but being slightly awkward to describe where to go, even though it was less then a minute away, but my scrambled and stressy brain at the time just couldn't process it, I burst into tears. They were tears of relief, as a girl named Fiona, my cousin's friend, bridesmaid and the hen organizer met me from the hotel and took me to the whetherspoons where everyone was meeting for breakfast.

After that, everything went perfectly, as mentioned at the beginning of this ranty post somewhere.

Well, it's Sunday now. I'm still ill, lost majority of my voice, got stuck in Nottingham for three hours, as trains to Lincoln from Nottingham on a Sunday is atrocious.

But now I'm home. It's half 11 at night, still ill, and I've got work tomorrow. Well, at least it's not til early afternoon, hopefully some luck will come my way, and I'll start to get better over night in my sleep!

Tarka, over and out!

My Thoughts on the England Riots

I know this is a few days late, but I was away in Yorkshire on a family holiday. So...

I am appalled by the behaviour of our British citizens that are responsible for the riots that have spread across Britain. Britain should be a country that its citizens are proud of, and the excuses of individual characters whether involved in the rioting or not, are despicable. There is absolutely no excuse for the behaviour of those involved in the looting. If the rumours are true, that the looting is in protest against government action, then these people shouldn’t be acting violently towards their neighbours. The people who work hard to run their businesses, the people who provide the community with everyday services, the people who are struggling themselves to make a living are the people getting hurt, innocent people. It is despicable. I hope the families of those involved in the rioting and looting are ashamed of them, and don’t hesitate to report them to the police if they know that members of their families are involved. This also goes for those who “understand”, meaning, agree with those involved with the violence, theft and arson that has contributed to the destruction in the mayhem and chaos of the riots and looting.

I am also disappointed with the media in their portrayal of those responsible for the riots. “Youths”, “teenagers” and “children” are the most common words that have been used to describe the majority of those that have been involved with the riots. This is an unfair stereotype, and a predictable one at that. While I can admit I have an unfair bias of my distain for chavs in hoodies, it is clear from the CCTV footage shown on the news rather than just the photographs in the newspapers that it isn’t just the “youths” involved, it’s adults too. I ask the media to be more forthright with this reality. This is a common occurrence with the media, and society’s opinion on the youth of today.

This doesn’t mean I deny that no youths are involved, I know there is a small minority responsible, but the way the media have been representing this notion makes it seem that all the youth of today act this way. Now, it wasn’t long ago that I was in that “youth” group. I’m 22 now, and while majority of my family would consider myself and my cousins of the same age, to cousins that are up to 25 the children in the family, I am an adult. It wasn’t long ago, however, that I was in my youth, and in that time, I still had the same stereotype follow me and my friends. In my home town, the shopping centre I used to visit, I would have security approach me to tell me to put my hood down, if by chance I had it up. This was in my college days. Now, I bet if it were a thirty year old with his hood on his hoodie on, no-one would bat an eyelid. It’s not like there are just hoods on hoodies either, raincoats, and other clothing garments have them too. I bet no-one who wears a hat is asked to remove it.

I can admit the thugs involved in the riots and lootings are giving hoodie wearing folk a bad name, but I implore people to not take this as a thought of assuming all people wearing hoodies might mug, rob or attack you. I’ve seen a response from the general public that this is a common opinion.

The problem with the troubled youngsters AND adults is that these particular have either not had a proper upbringing, which cannot, in all cases, be blamed on parenting. While I think in some cases, this can be true, particularly in witnessing poor parenting skills in the general public.

What really needs to be addressed is the lack of power in schools and general public services. Teachers and the police don’t have enough power these days to dish out the force and punishment that is required to shape our society into a civilized community. As a nation, we are too soft. The government urgently need to review and rectify a suitable solution to this ever growing problem.