This was my daughter’s word. Basically, ain’t life a bitch!
Culture and Customs
Got on a bus once in Italy. The bus was full, with people standing. The number aboard was within the legal limits (unusual in Italy I know, but it’s still a true story!) A woman and her husband get on, she heavily laden with shopping bags. I got up to offer her my seat and …. she invited her b***** husband to sit down. Never made that mistake again – in Italy or in London either for that matter.
Petrol Station Forecourts
Maybe I’ve just been unlucky so far but the majority of petrol station forecourts I’ve come across are designed the wrong way round!
“How can a forecourt be the wrong way round,” you ask? Let me explain.
All pump configurations are laid out with the display at one end and the various fuel hoses at the other. Forecourt traffic flow is usually organised so that the displays are furthest away from the entrance – your vehicle occupying the space defined by this configuration. Maybe it’s just me, but I draw a mental box around this space and park within it in such a way that my vehicle doesn’t overhang the exit route or impinge on someone else’s space.
Don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but petrol filler caps, regardless of whether they’re on the nearside or offside, have a flap that opens towards the rear – good aerodynamic design, really. Thus obliged to stand at the rear of the car, it never ceases to annoy me that the bloody display is located somewhere adjacent to the driver’s door and at an angle that makes it virtually impossible to read! Now this wouldn’t be a problem if the pumps were configured the other way around OR if the forecourt was designed such that you had to drive past the display first before reaching the pumps.
But they’re not!
Unless you own an SUV or some other monstrously high-sided vehicle, you can always park on the wrong side for the filler cap of course and engage the long hoses. This guarantees you a more straight-on view of the display – and also a few funny looks from other drivers. Another approach, not recommended by me I hasten to add, is to mentally redraw your box before parking such that the petrol filler cap is right in front of the display. Maybe, just maybe, if enough of us do this, sometimes overhanging the exit route in the process, people might sit up and take notice – write to Top Gear, post offensive comments on social media. If other motorists complain it’s relatively simple to explain with hand gestures that it only requires people to move up just two more metres when they park.
[The lady in the picture is definitely doing the “right thing”; whereas the Volvo driver opposite either isn’t aware of the “problem” or is so filthy rich that he doesn’t care – just squeezes the trigger until the pump stops automatically!
I mean, everything else stops for a Volv0, doesn’t it?]