Well it has been a long time and I am a bit older! Also Happy New Year.

Retired now and living in Wincanton, Somerset.
I am an inveterate Radio 4 listener and was interested to hear that the Prime Minister has promised to keep State Pensions in line with inflation, cost of living, wages.... for now.

I wonder how long this will last.

Another thought is this though. Many people are retiring now who have not paid off their mortgage and have no possibility of doing so in the near future if at all.

When you are considered for benefits, only your income is considered. So a person with a lower income than I, can qualify for benefits BUT what is not considered is that I, and many like me, have less disposal income because a mortgage is still being paid.

If you are in this group, with a mortgage stretching far, or infinitely, into retirement, make your voice known. Comment here and tell your MP.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Customer Service - HA!!

Today's rant is about shop assistants. The ones that 'serve' you while ignoring you. I have had a girl supposedly serving me in Boots whilst carrying on a conversation with a colleague about what she did with Wayne last night.... As if I wanted to know.

What I want is someone who greets me politely, rings up my items and looks at me when telling me what the total is. And says thank you afterwards. If customers weren't buying stuff then she wouldn't have a job!

I also hate the way most shops teach their staff to give change. I would like my change counted back to me. Coins first so I can drop them in my purse then the notes and the receipt. The way staff are taught is to hand you the notes with the receipt on top and the coins balanced on that. So you need two hands to sort it out and put it away when of course your other hand contains your purse, handbag, goods....

I will say that my local Waitrose has very pleasant, polite staff who also take notice of the customer - they still do the thing with the change though.

I worked on my Dad's stall for 17 years and in various other retail situations and I always counted the change back to the customer so they could see they were getting the right change.

West London Pedestrians

There seems to be a breed of pedestrians in West London who believe they have the absolute gods-given right to walk across any road without checking if there is traffic coming.

They walk across the road without looking at any point. They CERTAINLY don't check at a zebra crossing to see if a car is approaching and has time to stop. And they look at you when they do become aware and just stroll on.  Even when you, the car driver are turning off a main thoroughfare onto a side turning and are left with your car's arse hanging out into the main road just waiting for another car to hit you!

MP3 players and mobile 'phones are FAR more important and interesting than checking the traffic and there seems to be no suggestion in their  little heads that they do not ACTUALLY have right-of-way when they step from the pavement into the road.

At night it is worse because under orange lamps, dressed head to foot in black with their face gazing down at the player or 'phone they are all but invisible.

Hellooooooo! I will try my best not to mow any of you down but cars are road-users too! Be aware! For your own sake - and my blood pressure! 

Just to introduce the purpose of this blog

I find myself frequently saying ' you know what makes me really cross? ' and then I tell maybe one or two people. Well, there are lots of things that make me cross these days and I thought I would blog about them and see who might be in sympathy with me.

At least, I will have got 'it' off my chest. I don't promise a blog every day.... some days there might even be two.
I'm not generally a grumpy person - ask my friends - but just lately there are some very very annoying things going on.

So look out and if you do feel yourself in concert with me... post a comment!
Cheers
Kris