 Oct 15 2007, 02:16 PM |
a very sad place to try and live quietly.
Im pretty tired of our consumerist lust for shopping and buying and owning and making things private.
First of all, who's GREAT idea was it to privatise the trains? that's rubbish for a start.
anyway, that aside, my main gripe over the past few days has been busy bodies who have gone out of their way to make me feel most unwelcome or have made me feel like the scum of the universe.
I was parking my motorbike last week on a footpath that lead down to the towpath. I chained it up to a lamp post, parking the bike neatly at the edge so it bothered nobody who used the path. So far so good. except one morning I came out to face my hour or two of commute to work and a woman came striding from the nearest posh flat with "double aspect views of the river"
"Can I ask you what are doing parking here?"
(me)"I live here"
(her)"where?"
(me)"over there"
(her)"where's that?"
(me)"in a narrow boat"
(her)eyes narrow slightly... "oh, well can I remind you that this is private property..."
(me)"but where I'm standing and where my bike is parked is public land"
(her)"yes but your chain is around that lamp post and thats on private land" (by 4 inches, ie just at the edge of the path)
I replied, slightly dubfounded by such pomposity, "well, I will be gone tomorrow, I move around you know, I rarely stay in one place for very long"
she finished off by saying, "well as long as you aren't staying long then I suppose it will be ok."
needless to say we moved again this weekend, and trundled down to the river stort, it was getting seriously dark on Saturday and with me being slightly myopic with limited night vision we opted to stay put at the top of a lock until the next day.
So looking around I see what looks like a nice out of the way spot behind a boat on the bankside. it was either that or moor on the bend on the lock moorings. Opting for the more friendly option of leaving the lock moorings available we headed over to the bank.
Suddenly a head popped out from a boat moored in what looked like a fenced off area nearby.
"You can't moor there, it's private"
I reply, "what do you mean private? it looks like the safest place to moor in the dark"
"No you cant moor there it's private, it's a turning point anyway. "
I'd already looked at the bank, there was no signs to say turning or private. plus it was so out of the way it wouldn't effect anyone who decided to turn at that late hour of the day.
as we hovered around in the middle of the river wondering where to go, another head popped out of another narrowboat, "you can't moor there, it's private"
"I know that, she just told us," I replied pointing in the direction of the other boat. "so where can we moor then?"
we were pointed in the direction of the lock moorings and told its alright to moor over there.
which we did.. with half the boat poking into the middle of the river such was the bend.
What a bunch of unfriendly beings. they seem to have their heads stuck so far up their own arses that they don't know the meaning of neighborliness, friendliness, or humanity. They are so busy protecting their "territory" that they have become a right old bunch of misers.
I have a good mind to take my dinghy down there (we've moved up the river now) and offer them some home baked cookies...
Kill them with kindness, I think it's the best response to such a bunch of shrivelled up old shrews.
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