"Why *do* I bother?" I said, aloud, as I drove home today from Newport Pagnell, in the pouring rain, this lunchtime. Good question! But why am I saying it?
Well, as I drove along Marsh Drive, in Great Linford, taking the missus home from her swimming session in Newport Pagnell, (the road is a quiet, almost country-lane type of road, with a country park one side, and the edge of Great Linford village on the other); a young woman with 4 children in tow, was waiting to cross from the village side to the park. She wasn't really watching her children - albeit that they were all standing at the kerb, (looking suspiciously like they all might just run across the road, possibly in front of an oncoming motorist), and with the eldest, about 5, on her little bike, itching to get across the road to continue her cycle ride, and her younger siblings impatiently squabbling whilst standing at the roadside... ...
And the woman? (mother / child-minder???) ... ...
She could have been on another planet, for all the control she was displaying of the children, or the attention she was giving to crossing the road!
So why was she not in command of her tribe?
Oh, she was prattling away on her mobile phone whilst trying to hold a brolly up against the rain, and push a pushchair! Totally oblivious to what the kids were doing, or for that matter, whether there was any traffic to be aware of as they waited to cross the road. Yap, yap, bunny, bunny... laugh, laugh, yap-yap, laugh ... ...
All this I saw and took in, as I drove up the road towards them. So, being the kind, generous, big-hearted type that I am, I slowed to a halt, wound down the window, and beckoned them to cross (it was safe - there was no other oncoming vehicle in sight).
The eldest child saw and understood my hand-wave (i.e. "you can cross now"), and cycled over the road, followed by the [still squabbling] siblings... and this woman pushing the pushchair... still gabbling away on her mobile, and (here's the bit that really got to me) never stopped yakking, never looked at me, and *never* even gestured a wave of thanks!!! Grrrrr!!!
Hence: "why do I bother?" ... ... ... But then again, as my dear old Dutch. put it to me a moment later, "because you're a nice, kind, husband!" ... ... ... Aaah ... innat nice?! :-)
