h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Titania you need more

shopping should be Fun.

Shopping? I wasn't shopping - I was on my home to one of my friends to water her flowers while she was on vacation... and she lived in that part of town

Oh, I don't usually go around having fits, but sometimes, when I feel provoked... *twiddles thumbs*

oh ok...still good advice tho

Trophy of some kind for Titania.
for Emily (it would be a , but that would make it into the title of a rather unpleasant story.) Isn't cannabis s'posed to make you *less* violent? Anyway. Good about the non-smoking train stations in Brum, though, I've not noticed much trouble there. (tho' I could wring the neck of the voice-over man.)

any driving idiot tales? I am a footgoer by nature and treat everyone else in cars with equal suspicion. I have so far avoided killing them with driving.

Driving idiot tales?
As a continental I think the British should have the courtesy to let non-british cars drive on the right side

I think another reason people (especially young people) apparently lack common courtesy is peer pressure. They may know it's good manners to make room on a crowded tube train for someone more needy, but they often won't because it's not "cool" and they don't want their mates to think they're not "hard".

If an old lady gets on a bus packed to the rafters with students, the chances are somebody will give up their seat, but you'd see a lot more glancing self-conciously at each other with "will I, won't I get up" looks on their faces.

never guess what just happened to me...
at the library, was using one of the computers there. got up for a few minutes, leaving several windows open, and my stuff there; also there was time left on the counter.* when i came back someone was sitting there, despite all this, and despite the fact that there were computers open! they'd closed some of my windows, too. including a game that i'd been playing... obviously someone *else* deserves the name 'dolt'.


*the local library uses a system of signing up for a computer, they all have timers on them to show you how much time you have left if no one's reserved it.

I completely agree, you can't even smile at someone, but now i am increasingly begining to think its our culture, sure there are worse cultures, but also better ones, my origins are in South Africa, and there, and in China particularly, and even in the USA, everyone seams so much more friendly, and then you come back to england, and London especially and it becomes increasingly evident how pressured, and contained, even unatural our lifstyle is!

That might just be a London thing tho. When I'm there it is easily the least friendly, most unnecessarily rushed and tiring place I've been to, whereas places like Birmingham or Derby (size difference apart) are far more pleasant.

The level of courtesy really does vary with location. I guess that in general a big city is more likely to have a lower level of courtesy than a small village. I reckon age also makes a difference.

A few months ago I went with my parents for a week in a small village in the Peak District. They were very impressed that they could go out and if they encountered a local they would be greeted with a smile and friendly "good morning", even from the younger people - completely unlike at home.

When I went out I got little more than a glare from an old lady who looked like she'd spent her life years sucking pickled lemons. Maybe I just met the wrong locals, or maybe not. I'm in my twenties, my parents in their fifties.