RULES RULES RULES!
Has anyone else noticed people seem to be increasingly delighting in enforcing rules?
Yesterday, my trip to the dentist resulted in me being told to wear a face mask. I refused to adhere to that rule. In a charity shop yesterday, the assistant barked out loudly, "We don't negotiate in this shop!" as though negotiation was a heinous crime. I'd simply asked if £29.99 (yes, £29.99!) was the best price for a poncho. How dare I?! I learnt my lesson.
Moments later, another unsuspecting customer asked if she could return a pair of jeans should they not fit. The assistant pointed at the poster behind her that stated, "As we have changing rooms, we never offer refunds". The lady then tried to reason with the assistant saying, "But I'm over on the parking and they're so quick to fine here." Once again, the poster was pointed at and the jeans were returned to the rail, the assistant looking satisfied.
The worst rule breaker in this post is, of course, me: I tried to rehome two lintels from the skip at the tip. The previous time I visited the tip a lady was fishing out from the rubble skip a couple of plant pots. On admiring her brazenness, I promised I would be like her the next time something beckoned to be rehomed. The tip is a recycling centre after all: the less that gets processed the better, right? Apparently not!
While estimating the height of the two lintels I snook out of the rubble skip, a young man in a yellow vest (not the good type but the bad type) hollered at me for all to hear, "What do you think you're doing stealing things out of the skip?" I replied, "I found some lintels. I might be able to use them in my fireplace. It's recycling" to which he replied, "It's not recycling: it's stealing! Now put them back! And you're on camera by the way!"
I'm not sure if it was his usual approach or if my campervan and dishevelled appearance (I was doing a lot of DIY) triggered this public tar and feathering. I duly heaved the damn things back into the skip and quietly cursed the damn flower pot woman and her almost magical ability to persuade me to become sticky fingered! I photographed the two poor unadopted lintels, back in their coffin, destined for dust...other than their stiff metal backbones that will do some damage to the cruncher machine...ha ha! I have, of course, emailed the council and complained that I, the world's No.1 recycler/2nd hand lover, have been almost criminalised for being too keen a recycler.
No responce as yet but I have been told it's a money-maker and not a recycling center: all materials are sold and the aim is to make a profit and not reduce waste. Anyway, I now have visions of the faces of the latest people who have delighted in enforcing the rules and they all look a bit like N.azis: authoritarian glee.
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