In the autumn Yorkshire
experienced record levels of rain completely flooding the base. Thankfully our house was spared the horrors
many other experienced though no building seems to have been as badly hit as
the primary school. Water damage caused
the entire school to be relocated to one of the training buildings and almost
five months on the school is still closed.
With the barracks now in the slightly unusual position of
having a hundred young children running, skipping and screaming across it every
morning and afternoon as they get to school certain measures have been taken
under the heading of “Health and Safety” the most obvious of which is the
creation of a walkway along a road erected to ensure children don’t get run
over by the passing traffic on the way to school. This sounds sensible enough
in theory but sadly the actual implementation has been very poorly thought
through.
Firstly there is the location of the walkway – instead of
locating the route between two properly paved pathways separated by a ten yard
gap, the powers that be have placed it on the edge of two long roads, neither
of which have a pathway between them.
Secondly there is the construction of the walkway – a set of
plastic cones tied together with white rope and orange plastic tape. The cones too flimsy and the rope and tape
too long – today’s wind and rain has knocked over two cones despite them being
held down with bags of rubble (one of which had split spilling stones all over
the road). Two sections of tape had
snapped and were flapping about wildly threatening to whip anyone walking past
and where the rope and tape was still connected it is so slack that it blew out
not only across the width of the walkway but extended a foot beyond it over the
muddy grass.
Finally there is the guarding of the walkway - each morning
some poor sod in uniform stands on the corner of the road directing parents and
children. By the afternoon however nobody
cares about health and safety anymore and people go their own way.
And so, we come to this afternoon. In the pouring rain with 20mph winds in my
face, running late, I ran to nursery to collect Alby pushing the buggy in front
of me. Following the same route I and
many other mums take each afternoon I ignored the walkway and took the more
direct route. Halfway across I was
shouted at by somebody on the other side of the road.
Now I fully accept that I was taking a short cut and I fully
accept that the only way to be heard when you are trying to catch the attention
of the person on the opposite side of the road is by shouting but still I felt very
cross about it all. Forget the rain and
the wind, forget that I’m an adult pushing an empty buggy and forget that I and
countless others have used that very route every afternoon for the past five
months without issue, if you want me to do something you start your sentence with
a “Can” and you end it with a “please”.
You don’t bark orders at me.
I did what was told of me swearing under my breath the whole
way but I couldn’t shrug it off. And so, once I’d collected Alby and walked the
long way around (which by the by, I and all other children and parents had to
do on the wrong side of the walkway, aka the middle of the road) I went to find
out who had shouted at me.
This isn’t something I would normally do. I usually stand very true to my British
character in not complaining. But
whether it’s lack of sleep, subconscious feelings following Mark’s departure or
hormones today I decided to speak out.
I wanted to say that if you are going to impose a rule be
consistent with it. If you want to speak
to somebody you come and talk to them, you don’t shout from across the
road. If you seriously mean to follow
Health and Safety guidelines you need to come up with a better solution than
what they’ve done. I managed to get a slightly more senior figure involved in
the conversation than I wanted but so be it – nobody asked for my name so I
like to think I’ve remained as anonymous as possible. But despite it all being conducted
constructively I left feeling like a total bitch. I thought that having spoken my mind it would
free me of the frustrations I’d been experiencing. It did not.
I thought that it would make me feel better about the silliness of the situation. It did not.
I thought that I would feel good about standing up for myself. I did not.
I felt silly and petty and troublesome.
There are two thoughts which dominate my mind after this
incident. Firstly, echoing what Mark
advised the other day – I need to learn how to have a conversation without
getting all emotionally involved in it.
When it comes to something pragmatic, be pragmatic.
Secondly, there’s something about needing to learn how to
let go. When my emotions (and good
sense) are rattled I need to be able to respond and then get over it. All too often I find myself still feeling the
repercussions over an incident a week or longer since it’s happened. Obviously not as strongly, but still. There is an art form in both one I have yet
to master but give me time.
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