Drive like a moron season

What is it about the autumn/winter period which turns drivers into complete morons?  Over the past few weeks, the standard of driving on our local roads has gone from 'rubbish' to 'dreadful'.  I've seen near-misses, people driving so close to the car in front that they could probably read the dashboard of that car, people jumping chicanes (and not just one car, but five in a row), people ignoring red traffic lights, blocking box junctions, and others driving at 50 in the second lane of the motorway when the first lane is completely empty.

This morning, in the space of only half a mile:

• I stopped for a lollipop man but the idiot behind me couldn't wait and tried to overtake me, before realising that there were several small children in the road, accompanied by a man dressed from head to toe in high vis clothing and carrying a bloody great big sign with the word 'STOP' written on it;
• A driver pulled out of a side road, straight across the path of a cyclist who was wearing a high vis vest and enough lights to furnish a Christmas tree.  Fortunately, the cyclist managed to stop in time and wasn't hurt, not that the driver would have known that, because he hadn't even seen him and just drove off;
• A driver pulled out of a side road by driving up and over the pavement because he couldn't wait the extra three seconds for a car on the main road which was turning right.

Drivers really do need to sort themselves out before someone gets hurt, or killed.

Next time, I'll rub your nose in it.

I am really really angry this morning.

Yesterday, we were out at a Lancashire Day event, and some idiot kept feeding our dog on tuna sandwiches.  As soon as we caught him doing it, we told him not to give the dog any food but, a short while later, caught him doing it again.  I explained that it wasn't good for the dog and that it would make him ill, and he said 'OK, sorry.'  A few minutes later, was the sound of chomping, and there he was, feeding the dog another sandwich.  After telling him again, we ended up walking away, because this guy clearly wasn't listening.

Some time later, we went back to where the entertainment was, and the idiot was nowhere in sight, so we sat down.  Within minutes, we felt a tugging on the dog's lead and, guess what?  Yes, the idiot was back, feeding him on another tuna sandwich.  At this point I got very annoyed and told the lad, yet again, that he should not feed the dog.  "But he likes it!", came the indignant reply.  Of course he bloody likes it!  He's a Labrador - a self-propelled stomach who will eat everything he can get his chops round!  That's why we tell people not to feed him.  We took the dog away again.

This morning, I came downstairs to an extremely unpleasant scene in the living room.  The multiple tuna sandwiches had taken their toll and there was one hell of a mess.  The dog was extremely upset, but it's not really his fault.

Today, I am looking for a dog vest which reads 'Do Not Feed Me', in the hope that it might have some effect, and if I find that lad again, I will rub his bloody nose in it.

My lifestyle choice is not to be ill

My local Tesco now has a whole aisle full of gluten-free, wheat-free and dairy-free products.  I should be rejoicing, but, somehow, cannot bring myself to do so.

Firstly, thank you Tesco - I'm really am pleased and impressed that there's such an amazing range of products there.  There's some fabulous stuff, and it's all really tempting.  However, it's so prohibitively expensive that I can't afford to buy most of it, so I came away with just one  bag of lentil chips, just to see what they were like.  They were lovely, incidentally, but at £1.49 a packet, I'm afraid I won't be buying any more.  I have got used to doing without, because I simply don't have that sort of disposable income for 'unnecessaries'.

The thing which really got my goat, though, was that the aisle and the associated promotion has 'Lifestyle' emblazoned all over it.

Pardon?

Are you implying that my allergy is some sort of lifestyle 'choice'?

It is a lifestyle choice that I 'choose' to eat products which won't make me very ill?  Coeliac Disease, wheat alleriges, lactose intolerance, dairy allergies, etc. are not a lifestyle 'choice' - they are sometimes life-threatening, and I find it extremely patronising to label it as a lifestyle, as though sufferers are faddy children who will grow out of it.

Perhaps this perception of it being a choice rather than a necessity is part of the reason why these products are so expensive.  Yes, I am aware that there are higher costs in producing allergen-free products, but £3 for a gluten-free loaf as opposed to 75p for a normal loaf is just ridiculous, particularly as 1 in 3 gluten-free loaves are utterly unuseable because they fall apart or have massive holes in the middle.  This photograph shows one loaf, exactly as it came out of the bag.  I'd say it was very expensive bird-food, except that when I threw it out, the birds wouldn't eat it.

I've all but given up on ready-made gluten-free products now.  It's far cheaper either to  make my own, or do without.  Usually the latter.

Orange are still rubbish

It's been a few years since I ditched Orange in disgust over their rubbish service and, tonight, I have had my poor opinion of them reinforced.

My friend has purchased an Orange SIM, which came with an inclusive £10 topup.  However, upon attempting to claim this topup, the website tells me that the SIM number is not recognised, and to ring 450 for help.  So, I rang 450, only to be told that you can't contact them without any credit.  So, in order to get the credit, I have to ring a number which you can't actually ring without having any bloody credit!

Orange are still rubbish!