Shopping Centre nightmares

Hello... Hello... Can you see the big white arrow on the ground in front of you? Yes that one. It's not pointing at you because you are awesome it is pointing at you because you are an idiot and going the wrong way. You also expect me who is going the right way to back up for you so you can be a lazy git and grab that nice car spot right beside me. Well guess what. I've got a book to read and I'm not budging.

I despise using shopping centre carparks. With a passion. I despise the wandering aimlessly down the middle of the road shoppers who think it is their right to wander aimlessly down the middle of the road holding up traffic. I despise the can't park for peanuts people who might as well leave you a can opener so you can get back into your car upon discovering how lonely they are and have parked practically touching your car for comfort.

There are lines on the ground for a reason. Park nice and neat and straight between them leaving a nice even gap either side of your car to allow ease of access for you and the person who parks next to you.

They are not lines of challenge to see how far sideways you can get your car and still be between them, nor are they for seeing if you can get your wheels to be so completely on them but still leave the merest hint of white visible so as to say you are properly parked.

I despise the cranky sods who sit there honking at you while you are loading your car because they want the car spot.
I despise the lazy sorry excuse for a human beings who are too lazy to walk their trolley back to the trolley bay so leave it leaning 'safely' against your car.
I know he is old and a little dinged but he is my car and I love him. He is not your leaning post, your easy ticket out of doing what you ought.

I despise the morons who think it is ok to use the carpark for their astray or rubbish bin. It's not ok. Stop it. The world is not your personal tip.

And then to add insult to injury after navigating the horrors and frustrations of the car park you make it as far as the entrance where the smokers have lined themselves up for the last minute gasp before entering. I just love (sarcasm) how you stand under the no smoking signs and puff away like the sign was made for everyone but you. I bet you are one of the sideways parking, wrong way going, aimlessly wandering treasures.

Inside is no better once you weave your way through the self absorbed herds of shoppers who think nothing of aiming their trolley's at you, push past you or snatch things from under your fingers or let their feral children use the shop as a playground, you come to the checkouts.

The 12-15 items or less checkouts are high on my kill me now scale.
For reasons known only to morons and button pushers people line up in a single cue even though there is two or maybe more registers open and space has been designed for a cue at each one. But no they have to stand way back to see who will be finished first so they can be served faster... it doesn't work all you are doing is creating chaos and annoying people like me.
Pick a register and go to it. Go on, Be brave, Live in the moment and make a choice. But for the love of my rapidly fading sanity don't stand there looking lost and forlorn or eyeing each register for the fastest serving wench. If you were in the 'normal' check out aisle you would pick one and line up. Same deal here folks, so come on be a dear and PICK A @#$^(!# LINE.

I was highly opposed to online shopping. The dehumanisation of the world and all. But people like this make me want to consider it as a valid alternative to jail time because one day someone will get punched in the face. And let me tell you punching someone in the face is no where near as satisfying as it sound. I've done it. But that's another rant.

Be a dear, Be a love, Be someone I want to smile at and talk too. Go the right way, it's not hard and it is the law. Park a nice easy distance between the white lines, Don't wander down the road tempting me to run your down. Don't stop right outside the entrance for that last two or three cigarettes I will one day assume you are on fire and throw water at you. And please, please don't let your children run around and then get mad at me when your little 'angel' runs into my trolley and hurts themselves. Not my fault. And when you get to the 12 items or less check out I beg of you pick a register and line up at it. In short, save my sanity and don't be a shopping centre nightmare.

trials and tribulations of a school Mum

Yesterday My Beloved and I had a heated discussion with our Miss 9's teacher over her changing two words of a poem our girl was to read as part of the ANZAC ceremony.
Our argument was that A: it is copyright protected so what right did she have to change it. B: she was asking or daughter to also breach copyright and therefore teaching her to have no respect for other people's work and the law.
I will leave out the argument over religion because this was never about that, although it did offend me that it is ok to not mention God so as not to offend non Christians but Christians are ok to offend.

No one was ever going to win this one. Yesterday I was frustrated, angry and downright affronted by what I perceived to be a blatant disregard for the sacrifices of our ANZAC's, ex-servicemen and current servicemen. I was astounded and upset that copyright seemed to mean nothing to a teacher or the school and they think nothing of editing out what they don't want the kids to know for one reason or another.
But I am not a teacher. I do not know why they deem it necessary to modify what I shall loosely call history. I mean history from the perspective of anything not written or recorded in any form within the last week. Once it has happened it has happened, come what may it is unchangeable. But history is written by the victor and by those who have the power to get away with deleting what doesn't suit their needs.
In this case it was two words 'Worship God' because not everyone worships God. That is true. But this man did. This man meant it when he wrote it and it was therefore covered by moral copyright as set down by the Berne Convention in which Australia is a signatory, as well as the standard meaning of copyright.
What she changed it too was also accurate 'Be free'. But it was not what he wrote.

According the the Department of Education representative I spoke to, each year they pay an exorbitant fee to the government to be able to breach copyright laws where they deem the information would not be fully understood by students. She agreed with me it was wrong, but it was within the schools legal right to do so.
She said I could have pursued it under the moral copyright but how would the Department police what was being changed and by whom?

So today, ANZAC Day. A day in which we dedicate to the honour and memory of all those who serve and served I feel sad.
Just as there was no winner in war there is no winner in this argument.
All it has done is put a greater divide between myself and my daughters teacher and no doubt the Principal.
A divide that time may smooth off the ragged wounded edges but will not erase the clear line of difference between us. Trust and Respect are easily crushed and very hard to repair.

My daughter needs to be able to trust and respect her teacher and have faith in her to be teaching her the truth. I now know that sometimes that will not be the case. She needs to know that I trust and respect he teacher, because without it it may undermine her trust in her own perception and values, possibly leading to a vast array of issues.

So I have several options before me.

Nod and smile and grit my teeth and hope the occasional (I hope it is occasional) modification of facts does not raise a child in ignorance and misinformation.
I can request that anytime the school edits or modifies in some way any works presented to the students that my daughter be given both the original source and the modification, so that she can choose for herself and see for herself the facts.
Or I can do my best at home to counter the politically correct madness we are now forced into and let her know that her teacher is not deliberately falsifying history but is under the direction of the education system, so she too is in fact a victim of circumstance. Where I can help her to know and understand the accurate facts even if it is uncomfortable and unpopular. I don't lie to my children and I won't be a party to her being lied too.
That is the one I am going to take, even though everything in me screams to go with the second option all I can see coming from that one is more division and angst between the school, my daughter and my beloved and I. Not an environment I want for my daughter. I want my daughter to have a pleasant happy experience at school. Her happiness is my main concern.

So where to from here? I can go an apologise for my outburst to her teacher and let her know I understand why she did what she did even if I have no respect for it and let the matter end there. Or I can do nothing. Say nothing. Pretend it didn't happen.
No doubt I will go an apologise for my outburst and assure her that as far as possible she will have my support. It will then be up to her to choose where we go from here.

Shopping Centres should have the same rules as on the road.

You know what drives me mad?
When you are trying to navigate your way around a shopping centre or supermarket and people just cut across in front of you or stop without warning. Seriously It drives me mad.
Women with prams seem to think they own the place and can push that thing where they want and how they want and too bad if they run into you, coz they are the bigger 'vehicle' and so have automatic right of way.
Ahhh... yeah... no you don't.
I believe if the same rules for driving applied to pedestrian traffic through a shopping centre then it would be so much easier (for me).
I like my personal space. I don't like people bumping into me or dawdling so you can't get past them despite the fact you are right behind them, breathing down their necks and moving from side to side trying to get a clear path through.
I reached the point one day where I actually tapped the couple blocking my path and said to them 'you know if you both take half a step away from each other you will be able to fully block the walkway' they weren't too pleased with my comment and moved out my way.
Same as people who stop to chat. Hell I run into folk I meet all the time and yeah we stop to chat, but guess... what we move to the side... out of the way so we don't block traffic. My friends are now used to me asking them to move so we don't block traffic.
I want to shout at people 'THE WAY...GET OUT OF IT' but I can't really. Manners and all.
Curse my obsession with manners, it is my downfall in these places. I am forced to grit my teeth and smile at meandering mothers with their children who they let touch everything and don't teach them not to touch what isn't theirs. While I try to pick up an item that does not have kiddy snot or drool all over it.
So if road rules were applied to shopping centres and supermarkets this is what we would see.
Order.
Folk walking around mindful of other people. Not actively trying to mow you down with the trolley's and prams. Not moving at a snail pace preventing you from getting by them. Nice neat groups of people out of the way enjoying a trouble free chat.
Shoppers on a mission walking a brisk pace glancing over their shoulder before changing direction so as to avoid cutting someone off.
Order.

You don't read an article jumping around all over the place from one line or word to the next. It makes no sense.
You don't speak jumping between conversations and topics at break neck pace and expect people to know what you are talking about.
You don't drive wherever you like on the road or footpath with no regard for other motorists.
Then you shouldn't wander around like Browns cows in the shopping centre.
Or I may just have to consider you a game of dodge ball and start throwing things at you.
hmmm now there's an idea.