My grumpy old mandom continues as I rapidly approach the start of my 42nd year on this planet.
I've talked about it before, but like Andrew Collings I get very narked about rudeness in gym. Even though I admit occasionally I am the transgressor, rather than the transgressed - I got told off by a woman for not wiping down my machine in a hotel gym recently and weakly bleated about the fact that I didn't sweat, even though my shirt was soaked through (it was true though that my hands had not sweated and there was nothing on the machine, but I grudgingly wiped it down anyway, muttering to myself as I did so). Yesterday a man was flamboyantly drying himself in the changing room, whilst standing on another towel (I approve of that, too many people drip on the floor). He was (
as Herring's Second Law dictates) using the locker right next to mine and I pleasantly said "Excuse me" because he had his stuff spread all over the bench. He said, "Hold on a second" and seemed not to be making any attempt to move, then began an elaborate shuffle, trying to manoeuvre out of the way as if doing the twist, riding his towel across the floor. It took ages and was an eccentric and unnecessary way to behave, but none of this I particularly minded. I tried to get as much out of my locker as I could and sat down the bench a bit so that I wouldn't be in his way.
Anyway when he'd finally got dressed and moved all his stuff out of the way of my locker (his flip flops remaining resolutely in the way until the last possible moment), he walked out with purpose, leaving his drying towel on the bench and his twist/shuffle floor towel on the floor. He wasn't a tough looking man and I came very close to chastising him. What I wanted to say was, "Hey mate, excuse me. I don't think your mum works here does she? If I am wrong forgive me. But if she doesn't you might have to tidy up after yourself." It would have been brilliant. As long as he didn't hit me with a flip flop or use me as a twist/shuffle floor towel. I resolved I would do it the next time I saw this happen. Whatever the consequences. Alas, or luckily, depending on whether you like my face being in the order it is at the moment, no one left their towel behind in the changing room at the gym today. At least not while I was there. Though there were still several of them around. Maybe a lot of people's mums work at my gym. I can't understand why these people aren't prepared to put their towels in the easily accessible laundry bins. It is so rude and selfish. Like my dad or Andrew Collings would do I usually end up doing it for them, even though I am not their mums. But I didn't want to touch the towels of the weird shuffly man.
I traveled up to Manchester for a couple of preview gigs this afternoon. I am slightly at a loss to explain the pricing structure of out wonderful train companies. A couple of months ago I booked a single ticket down from Scotland well in advance and it cost me £110. It wasn't first class. I hadn't left it til the last minute. I could find nothing on the site that would make my journey cheaper. Last week I booked my train tickets to Manchester. It advised me two singles might be cheaper than the £65 return fare. Indeed they were. I managed to get tickets for £13 each way. Which made it considerably cheaper than driving and confused me as to why I had paid do much to get down from Edinburgh, when I could go to Manchester and back for over £80 less. I am not complaining about the cheap fares. If all rail travel was this reasonable then more people might get out of their cars. As it was my cabs to the gig and back cost me just £6 less than my return rail fare.
The gig was largely encouraging. I did about 70 minutes. About 40 of it was good and the rest had potential. It's still going to be a struggle to bash this amorphous mass into a tightly honed structure, but it's moving in the right direction.
