Priority Seats on Buses

Years ago there were no such things as 'priority seats' on buses.  If you were disabled, or in a wheelchair or had a child in a buggy you didn't get any 'special' treatment.  In fact if you were in a wheelchair I don't even think that you could go on a bus.  As far as I remember there was absolutely no way that one would be able to get a wheelchair onto a bus.  And for the poor mothers who were struggling with kids in buggies and shopping etc, going on a bus was almost impossible.  They had to take their kids out of the buggy, fold up the buggy, struggle onto the bus holding the buggy, the child, the shopping and usually another young child as well.

These days, buses have wheelchair spaces, buggy spaces, priority seating and apparently one can also get a card to show to the driver that indicates that one has 'special needs' and needs extra time to get on the bus and find somewhere to sit.

Now, whilst I think that all this has got to be a good thing..........................  What I object to is people who abuse this system.

Take yesterday for example.  I got on the bus with my dog and sat in the wheelchair space.  If I am on the bus with my dog I like to sit in either the wheelchair space or the buggy space because there is room for my dog to lie down and she is out of the way of everyone else.  Obviously if I see a wheelchair user or buggy get onto the bus I move.

So there I am, sitting in the wheelchair space when the bus approaches a bus stop and I see an old man leaping around, waving his walking stick at the bus to signal for it to stop.  Actually I don't think that the old man was any older than me but that's beside the point.  I glanced around and noted that the buggy space was still free as were three of the priority seats.  Whoopee dooo I thought - I can stay where I am.

................Except when the old man (who I don't think was that old) got on the bus, he looked directly at me and said, 'Who's going to let me sit down?'  Other people on the bus pointed to the free four priority seats but old man (who I don't think was that old) said, 'I'm better in that seat'.

So then I felt obliged to move.  Not being one for confrontation I didn't even ask him why.  I just gave up my seat and moved.  And then after I'd done that I thought to myself; why have I done that?  He's not in a wheelchair, he's just a bit frail and there are four other priority seats available.  And what made it even worse was - the minute he sat down he proceeded to take out some sort of stinky crisp bread rivitta thing, covered in goodness only knows what, and was sitting munching away with the crumbs dripping down onto his horrible stinky anorak.

..................And then....................... when he got off the bus...................... he made a huge palaver about not getting up out of his seat until the bus had actually stopped.  He hobbled off the bus, using his stick and the bus drove off.

BUT..................  I looked back and actually saw him walking along the road without his stick.

Seriously not happy that people are abusing the priority seating on buses in this way???!!!

Airbnb - Your property can make you 300% more????

So today when I trekked around my normal dog walking route, I saw loads of neighbourhood cars had flyers stuck underneath their windscreen wipers................

....................These flyers were saying such things as, 'Boost your property rental by 300%'.

Firstly; ..................I would just like to comment - Boost your property rental by 300% of what???

And secondly................. Do these people who actually stick these flyers underneath car windscreen wipers actually know what they are promoting?

The flyers were from 'Airbnb'.

'Airbnb' is the biggest hospitality letting agents in the world and yet it does not own one single property.  A lot of people seem to be jumping on the 'airbnb' bandwagon.  I've seen jobs advertised for people to hand out keys, meet and greet, do property maintenance, etc, etc, etc.

Renting out a property short term is not easy.  ..............Well, it's not if you do it properly...................... 

..............And I'm not talking 'Airbnb' here.

You need proper building and house insurance in place, you need to check with your local council what rules they have re letting a property, you need electricity/gas checks in place, you need a TV licence, you need public liability for guests in your home, you need wifi, who books a property without wifi these days?, you need so many things, that to be honest, if you then have to pay some random person who is putting flyers around your local area................... is it going to be worth your while to actually rent out your property?

Holiday makers always think that people who rent out their properties in seaside towns or prime locations are making an absolute killing.  That honestly is not the case.  Yes, on paper, the holiday let home you have rented seems like a ridiculous price.  But lets just look a little closer at this............

Ie, - Two bedroomed property in a popular  South West seaside resort....................Price £1,000 for one week...........  Sleeps 4?

Letting fees - 20%   =               £200
Cleaning fees           =                 £50
Laundry fees            =                 £50
Council tax pw         =                £40
Electricity/gas pw           =          £25
Water pw                  =                £8
Landlords building ins pw =       £7.00
Landlords house ins. pw =          £7.00
Public liability ins. pw =             £7.00

Total expenditure - £394

Net income - £606 for one week. 

..............But then one still has to pay for a TV licence/netfix or sky or some other super duper extra TV service and a wifi connection and a window cleaner, electricity/gas check and various other things that I can't even think of at the moment.  And because people are paying £1000 for one week they will expect a hospitality tray which will include wine or flowers or tea/coffee or a welcome hamper full of high class locally sourced goodies.

So in reality the 'holiday let property' that you think is really expensive and is costing you £1000 a week is probably only going to give the owner about £450pw and that's before you take into account all the wear & tear that your kids have inflicted on the property.

£450pw = about £16 pppn.  Not exactly a lot is it?

£450 = about 62 hours pw of work at minimum wage.  A lot of people in the SW in the hospitality industry work much longer hours than this.

And before you say that your kids are really well behaved and would never, ever, think of damaging anyone else's property................... do you really know what your kids are doing at all times?

I have spent years living in the SW and for years my nephews & niece came to visit me in my house every summer.  They're very well behaved kids with responsible parents, but after each visit there was always damage to my property.  And at this point I would just like to say that any damage wasn't deliberate..........................  But that's the problem with renting out properties.

99% of the time, damage isn't deliberate but stuff happens.....................

Ie,:

1)  My niece used to slam the kitchen door so hard that the kitchen clock fell off the wall every time - until it ceased to work.  Obviously it had to be replaced 'at my own cost'. - £20.

2)  My nephews/niece used to sleep on a z-bed in my spare room but rammed it into the wall so often that it left indents in the wall.  Obviously the wall had to be re-plastered 'at my own cost'. - £40.

3)  My niece left my sun lounge cushions out all night and the following morning it was soaking wet and couldn't be dried out.  Obviously it had to be replaced 'at my own cost' - £30.

......................So that's another £90 added onto a one week stay.

Obviously the above is just an example of my own experience.  It was my sister and her family that were staying in my home and I'm sure if my sister knew that her kids had caused this damage she would be mortified.  But the fact is; that she didn't, because I didn't tell her people with kids don't actually know what their kids are doing..........................

But the point I'm trying to make is.................. 'holiday letting'??? -  your property will not turn you into a millionaire.................................

....................And 'Airbnb'....................  I still don't understand your flyers????

...........'Your property can make you 300% more???

300% more of what???'

.................Can anyone enlighten me??????????????????????

What should I rant about today?

So today I felt like ranting but wasn't actually sure what I should rant about.  And then I thought....................  I'll have another rant about a middle aged woman finding a job in a large city.

In the last four and a half months I have lived in a big city and in the last four and a half months I have applied for almost 100 jobs.  I still don't have a job.  All I want is a little part-time, minimum wage job, near to where I live.  Is that really too much to ask.

I have always had a job.  I've never had a problem finding a job.  I have always worked, since aged 13 years old when I had a paper round.

The trouble is; no one wants to employ a middle aged woman. 

I wouldn't want to employ a middle aged woman.  I've been in the position where I've had to employ staff and to be honest, minimum wage jobs usually attract kids with no experience.  In my position as an employer, if two people applied for a minimum wage job that required little or no skills (even though these days the list of attributes & flexibility one needs for a wage job is ridiculous), I have to say I would employ the youngster. 

Youngsters do what they are told.  Older people have more attitude (they'll speak their mind), probably could do the job a lot better, but could possibly be more confrontational. And there's always that thing...................  Give a child a chance???  I have nephews and a niece and if I were in competition with them for a job, I would obviously want the job to go to them.  And to be honest I would feel like that with any kid who is applying for a job.

However, at the risk of sounding like someone who has watched too much Jeremy Kyle..........  Youngsters are totally unreliable............... 

..................For example, youngsters have absolutely no qualms about phoning in sick after a night out when they have a hangover the following day.  Would a 58 year old do that? Of course they wouldn't.  If a youngster splits up with a boyfriend/girlfriend it's a traumatic event in their life and they need time off work to get over it.  As far as I'm concerned - stuff happens - get over it.  It never happened in our day?!  Well obviously it did, but we would never have dreamt of taking time off work because of a relationship breakup.  I guess growing up in the 1960/70s we were still living in the backlash of how our parents lived during World War 2.  Work, save, mend, make do.  Luxury's were something that had to be worked for and earned.

If you were out of work you were considered to be the lowest of the low.  It was the same if a female had a baby out of wedlock.  Britain 50 years ago had 'standards.' 

These days there are no standards and there are no luxury's.  Everybody has everything.  Ie., what would you call a luxury these days?  Inside toilet, heating, TV, phone, wifi?

It is just soooooo, sooooooooo, annoying that all the jobs that I saw advertised more than 4 months ago are now being advertised again.  Seriously.......................  if they'd employed me I would still be there now.  But that to me says two things:

1)  The person who got the job is a student/young person so is moving on to bigger and better things.
2)  The employer is awful to work for so people leave at the very first opportunity that they get.

Either way, if I had been lucky enough to get a job 4 months ago I would still be doing it now.

..............And that is what is sooooo, soooooo annoying.

#whydoesnoonewanttoemploya58yearold?

Receipts

I don't know whether anyone else has noticed but...............................

......................Where has this policy of asking one if one wants their receipt come from?

You buy some shopping, you get a receipt, you go home.  End of story.  Or at least that's how it's always been.  Now it would seem that you actually have to say 'yes' to the question, 'do you want your receipt?'  Has this got something to do with saving paper, saving the planet, being environmentally friendly???

Obviously I want my receipt.  If I don't have my receipt how can I check how much I have been charged for stuff?  Incidentally, I'm not talking clothes shopping here (when I may want to return the goods).  I'm talking supermarket shopping.  But even supermarket shopping; you often want to check how much you've paid for something.

And the other thing................  If I pay for goods via a credit card, I like to keep the receipt as evidence of what I've bought.  I keep this receipt until I get my credit card statement and then I check off my receipts with the items on my statement.  If you don't have any receipts how can you do this?

I think I am in the minority.   Or maybe I'm just old and don't understand the up-to-date way of doing things.  Perhaps there's some very clever app that means that you don't have to keep hold of a paper receipt once you've bought a load of stuff.  The number of people in a queue in front of me who never want their receipt is amazing.  Most of them pay via 'contactless card' but what I don't understand is; how on earth do they keep a track of their spending?  As I say, there must be some super duper clever app that allows one to do this. 

Or perhaps no one keeps a check on their spending these days??

Oh well, ho hum, until someone enlightens me on how one knows what one's spent without a receipt; I'll be continuing to say YES to the question, 'Would you like your receipt?'

Benefits

Firstly, let me just say, that I am not very au fait with people on benefits.  I don't mean that to sound snobbish; it's just that, although I have come into contact with many people throughout my life, who have been on benefits - until now I didn't actually realise just how much money one could get from not doing anything??!!

I have a friend OK I have quite a lot of friends who is about 64 years old.  I've known him for more than 20 years (but probably haven't seen him for more than 15 years)...........................

To give you a bit of background here; when I first met him, he was a bit eccentric, appeared highly intelligent and was a bit of an inventor.  He'd invented something which I personally thought had the potential to be a 'best seller'.  Together, we went to the 'patent office', and registered the said invention.  That was more than 20 years ago.

And now it's 20 years on and he's still talking as if this latest invention is going to be the best thing since sliced bread.  I really must google sliced bread?!  Obviously it's not, because over the last 20 years a lot of things have been invented. Lol!

Anyway, all this is totally irrelevant to my rant about benefits.

Since I last saw him, he's deliberately made himself homeless, and is now living in a fantastic spacious, council owned, two bedroomed flat, with far reaching views.  In the area that this flat is; it would easily sell for at least £250,000 - £300,000 if not more.

Apparently, he's getting £210 from the state every week.   And this is after all his bills have been paid.  Ie, electric, TV licence, wifi.  He doesn't have to pay council tax, he's just had a new heating system installed, the kitchen was refurbished three years ago, etc, etc, etc.  So he has £210 per week pocket money?!

Today I went to visit this 'spacious, 2 bed flat with far reaching views'.  And very lovely it was too.
 
..........At least it would be if he actually took the care to look after it.   It stank, it was dirty, there was rubbish all over the place, there was a leak/damp patch on the ceiling which obviously had just been left to fester, it was like a sauna because the heating was cranked up to full well why would he worry - everything is paid for.

I cannot believe that someone who has been offered such a fantastic opportunity to live in such a fabulous abode does not take the care to look after it.  The place was an absolute tip.  The 'new' kitchen (installed only three years ago) was caked in grease, as was everything else in the kitchen.  The carpet in the living room looked as though it hadn't been hovered since he moved in.  In fact the whole place was absolutely disgusting.

And the sad thing is......................  This actually belongs to someone I know, who I thought had the same values as me.

Well, to be honest, even 20 years ago, I guess I realised that he didn't have the same values as me.  I was brought up to work for everything I wanted and that's what I've done.  But when I met this particular guy.................... he was clever, intelligent, and had ideas for the future.  I believed in him.  I thought he was going places.

The reality - he's never worked since I met him, the fabulous invention that he had more than 20 years ago (and I have to admit could have been fabulous then)...................... is still what he thinks is going to make him into a millionaire today.

I have to ask myself - just what has he being doing for the last 20 years?

When I try to ask him, I don't get any kind of answer that makes sense.

In fact to be honest, it's very difficult to have any sort of 'normal' conversation with him at all.  But that's maybe me just being a very 'snobbish middle class, middle-aged woman'???  Personally I think years of alcohol abuse have addled his brain.

He looks like a tramp!

From what I can make out; all he does all day...................... is get up late, go to the pub, drink a few bottles of wine with his mates, but are they really mates? come home, go to the local garage to buy more wine, sit at home, drink the wine, go to bed.

What sort of a life is that?

From my point of view; it's no life.  But it's his life and who am I to say that my life is any better than his life.  BUT, what I'm ranting about here is..................................

BENEFITS.

I truly believe that everyone has the right to live their lives how they want to live their lives.

BUT, I also believe that to live your life, how you want to live your life, then you need to support yourself in order to do this.

Much as I love my very eccentric friend, I personally feel that instead of 'saving him', the benefits system have failed him.  He's been given 'everything' and ultimately that will be his downfall.

..................And remember this isn't someone from a 'sink' estate or a bad background or an abused childhood.  This is someone who had the intelligence to make 'informed' choices.  He made the choice to make himself homeless so that he could get a council house.  Unfortunately, somewhere along the line that choice has turned him into the person that he is today.

From my point of view;  the person he is today is................................. an alcoholic who is living day to day, living in the past, totally out of touch with reality and yet still believing that one day his inventions will make him a million.

I think the benefits system is great for people who are in dire straits.

But how the benefits system can be monitored, so that the people who really need help get it, is a very different question??????