Evening all. I’m slowly realising that my blog is just the literary time capsule of my youth and every time I open it; I nostalgia majorly. In a good way...always in a good way.
On a usual Wednesday morning, my colleague spoke of her teenage cousin who updated her Faceblag status to “OMG this lesson is borin”. The obvious conversation ensued about shouldn’t have her phone in class...yadda yadda.....didn’t have phones when we were in first year seniors....yadda yadda.....*conversation end*....Later, I associated the term “calling someone” with that of “calling-on someone”. Remember? Before mobile phones? When you had to go to you friends house....knock on their front door.... then get really nervous in case their parents / older siblings opened the door? Exactly. That feeling of dread / social awkwardness inspired our generation to become great communicators, to be able to blag emotions and feelings; to be able to strike up conversation with anybody and to chit-chat our way through charm-school.
But what now? I mean, when children just chat over MSN, text, Skype or whilst playing XBox or whatever....where do they learn these skills? It’s not just the skills they’re missing out on, it’s the family loyalty. When you were ten and had to chat to Mr and Mrs so-and-so before meeting your friends, you remember them. You grew up with them and they influenced you. They brought you juice and the loyalty and entente increased with time.
Is this not the reason that Mr Giggs’ recent affair caused so much pubic grumblings? Not because of the Superinjunction, (pfft), but because the public (and therefore the media) couldn’t understand how a man who had been so loyal to his work, his comrades, his team for twenty one years plus, couldn’t also demonstrate the same loyalty to his wife, long term partner and mother of his children. There’s only one lesson to be learnt from the whole Giggs/Twitter shenanigans gentlemen, keep it inside your shorts and don’t go practising your moves on the rest of the field.
I don’t mean to sound glum, but the more you think about this particular L-word, the more it appears less in day-to-day society. With numerous companies reducing pension payouts for long-term employees and some consumer loyalty schemes phasing out or actually costing more*, it’s no surprise consumers and emotions are comparatively fickle than they were in times of yore.
*Car insurance companies charging significantly more than going rate for continuation of policies, or some companies’ loyalty card codes making a product cost more than without it.
However, one example made my week....tell a lie, made my life. After weeks of faffing and not having enough time, a few weeks ago I popped into my local car garage after work to fix a problem with my window (the glass pane had come off the runners due to bent components thanks to January’s severe frost). Busy day....arrived at 12.30....no free slots till half three.
Returned later at the required time and left the keys with the guys behind the desk and duly waited in the reception as per. After recognising the chap who was kindly fixing my window as the same guy who saved my car from a near MOT failure last November; some time later, I was summoned back to the reception desk where another gent explained the problem whilst the mechanic was de-greasing his hands.
I shook the guy’s hand as he recognised me from previous visits (I’m pretty sure he recognised the car waaaay before he recognised me) and thanked him for his effort. I let him escape and avoided near-obligatory chit-chat (see above) as he said that he’d fitted me in between 3 urgent MOTs. TrueLAD. As he went behind the scenes, his colleague said in a rather friendly but forthright tone:
“Alright mate, let’s call it twenty quid for the beer fund for the boys after work?” I was quite taken aback as I wasn’t sure how much was mechanic-banter and how much was truth.
“Ah right, well...I’ve only got plastic on me I’m afraid” I said sheepishly
“Well...if you pay in the old card machine thing then I’m gonna have to charge you an hour’s labour and that’ll be at least seventy quid plus.”
“Shit....OK” (Seventy quid was the sorta figure I was expecting it to be)
“Here’s what you should do. Nip up ‘cash point up the road, bring back twenty quid for the boys and I’ll take ‘em out for drinks after work tonight alright?”
“Alright, cheers. I’ll drive up to save time”
“Brilliant, see you in a bit.”
After being quite pleasantly surprised at the conversation just passed, I was even more surprised to find my window not only fixed, but washed and sparkling. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well, eh? No queue at the cash point meant a prompt return visit.
Opening the main door, I found the bloke on the phone to a customer to ask why his 4pm MOT is a bit late...
“Here you go chief, here’s £30 for your trouble.”
(Mouthing) “Thirty? but I...”
“Have a few more on me, you’ve saved me a good ton and a fair amount of hassle”
A polite thumbs up and a beaming smile from us both as he carried on his phone conversation were all the confirmation I needed to let him carry on helping people out and to indicate he had made my day.
A little loyalty in the right places goes a long way.
Goodnight all.
x
