Evidence that Fran will never be a marathon runner - if you needed more ...

We're all wired so differently.

My youngest sister's approach to crossing roads is this:

Cross the damn road.

Mine is this:

Spot a level crossing or zebra crossing in the far distance with a pair of binoculars. Walk a mile to it. Wait, checking carefully that cars have stopped, and that the light is green/the way across is clear. Check again for feckless motorists who don't believe in stopping despite the presence of a human body. Cross the road, checking all the time. Walk the mile back to original position.

I am not a risk-taker. She is. I like to check, do a risk assessment, then move. She just MOVES.


She's the same sister who hates public transport because it doesn't go straight from A to B. For me, I like the fact that my favourite bus, which could get me from home to work in five minutes if it went directly, travels via four housing estates, stopping seventeen times to pick up locals with whom the driver has a long chat about the weather or Mrs Jones' operation before it moves on.

For me, this pace is just right. I think I was a tortoise in a former existence. One with a limp. Or maybe I was a stone. I hate to feel harried or rushed. I don't even like a stiff breeze, pushing me along the road like a nag, saying, 'Come on, come on.'

I took my sister on a long bus journey only once. Half way to our destination, she said, 'This is really annoying me. It's just stop, start, stop, start, stop, start all the way.'

'But,' I said, 'how else would people get on and off?'

'Hm,' she said.

If I hurry a little, thought the tortoise, I can pass that plump lady with the glasses easily





Comments

  1. I never cross against the "don't walk" sign at controlled intersections because if I'm hit by a car, I don't want my personal injury damages reduced for contributory negligence. People laugh at me for this. But they're the ones living in a fool's paradise, I tellz ya.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are the wise ones, you and I ....

      Delete
  2. As the poem goes... What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare? Sometimes an hour on the bus if good for the soul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An hour on a bus is my idea of soul food, definitely.

      Delete
  3. I don't enjoy being rushed either, unless it's me doing the rushing. Sometimes I'm in a hurry to be somewhere else.
    I wouldn't walk a mile for a zebra crossing though. I'd just cross as soon as a big enough break in traffic occurred that I knew i could make it across.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I try to organise life so I'm never in a hurry. It doesn't always come off ...

      Delete
  4. Anonymous18/7/15 09:03

    The big question now is why did Fran cross the road?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because she had organised to meet a chicken for coffee and cake?

      Delete
  5. All that nonsense about genetic connections is just that - nonsense.
    My sister and I are so different I often wonder which of us was dropped off by the gypsies.
    And my own children might as well have been born on different planets. At a foot apart in height, they don't even view the world the same way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's just that I look very like my sister, so people kind of assume we're similar in other ways. We have the same daft sense of humour, that's for sure.

      Delete
  6. I can shower, dress, put on make-up and jewelry and be ready to go out before Willy Dunne Wooters is. But I stroll. I don't walk. I don't jog. I amble. When I worked in the nursing home I moved as fast as I could without actually running. I loved that job, but I move at a nice, slow steady pace now.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe that's why I like my 'down' time to be leisurely, because as a schoolteacher I run from place to place and have to race to get through all the material in lessons. By the end of the day, I'm stressed out with hurrying, and want to sloooooow dooooooowwwwwn.

      Delete
  7. You never fail to amuse and entertain, Fran. I would love to leave a comment that fully articulates my admiration but I find myself tongue-tied every time, like a shy pupil sitting in the back of your class.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your comment is enough for me! The shy ones are always the ones worth listening to anyway!

      Delete
  8. I am extra cautious on Zebra crossings & wait for the cars to stop both ways before I step out. I never learnt to drive but waiting for busses drove my daughter crazy & she learnt to drive as soon as she could. Now I have my own personal Taxi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was extra cautious when I used to drive - I never trusted anyone else to obey the rules. I gave up driving as a result! And I'm the same as you on zebra crossings. There are too many idiots around who seem happy to run down menopausal women at the drop of a hat.

      Delete
  9. 'Sometimes an hour on the bus is good for the soul'. Yeh but every...flippin...journey, sheesh! I am also Jewish where Fran is not.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evidence that Fran is still around

Reasons why Fran is desperately in search of earbuds

Evidence that Fran is looking forward to winter