Monday, 19 August 2013

Be a good passenger, eh...


Car manners

I recently gave a new colleague a lift. Before we'd gone too far, he'd rummaged in my door map holding man-drawer thingy, and commented on a couple of cds that were in there.

I immediately knew that we weren't ever going to get along very well. Personal space. You just don't stick your uninvited beak in. Unless you want a broken and bloodied uninvited beak. My mum does the same, without the slightest hint of “I shouldn't be doing this but...”. Straight in with the nose.

How is it that I can drive all the way to, and around, and back from the Isle of Wight with three different guys in the front at different times, and all they do is lob their kit in the back, take it out for the game, and lob it back in again, without any of them feeling the slightest temptation to have a delve? Then, minutes after returning, I pick up the newboy and he's having a poke around.

He's not the only one without the personal space awareness, but I do wonder why us low-empathy guys have untold syndromes heaped upon us, while the question after question after pointless, needless unnecessary question, and nose-ache part-time coppers get to go along their merry way without being labelled, spectrumed, or made to feel unusual. I may not understand why you're quite so attached to that particular pot plant or soft toy, I may struggle to understand why people want their thick kids to go to university like the clever kids do, there's whole shedloads of stuff I don't get, but I'm not going to be looking through your glove compartment unless you ask me to.

So it was a long drive with the newboy, and it didn't take long to suss him out as a nervous passenger. It was raining (pouring down at times) and we were doing the speed limit (or thereabouts) of 70 mph. When I answered the first phonecall (which involved finding the phone, hitting the right button, then talking on the handsfree jobbie) he started to squirm a bit, and so I couldn't help but start reading the odd email (“shall I do that?” he offered) and making the odd outgoing call (“shall I do that?”) and watching his unease escalate (lesson here – don't stick your nose where it don't belong). Eventually he assumed the crash position when I had both hands off the wheel swapping the cd in the player with another from the carry-case. He wasn't crying, but the “shall I do that” was a bit more urgent and high-pitched. I know it was wrong, but I couldn't help myself, particularly as he'd volunteered us for the long drive there and back.


Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis (whatever it is he does)...

...cost Arsenal £10,000,000 a year in wages. So, without those two expensive non-achievers over the last eight trophyless seasons, and given a bit of sensible investment, we could now be outbidding Real for Gareth Bale.

Wenger, in a press conference, compared Arsenal to Chelsea and United in terms of the search for, and purchase of players to add to their squads. This weekend has shown how false that comparison was. United didn't play well but still beat a decent Swansea side 4-1, away, and Chelsea won and, apparently, had a fantastic, blistering first half. We lost. At home. To almost relegated Villa. No, Arsene, we're not in the same ballpark as our supposed peers.

Oh, and Citeh are 2-0 up against Newcastle and cruising.


I don't understand how...

...Cam-moron can have disc problems. A career politician with a backbone?

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