COVID-19, THE SUNDAY UPDATE: 'UNBELIEVABLE...'

Covid-19: Unbelievable… 

(The Sunday Update From Solihull…)

It has certainly been quieter whilst taking the daily exercise walk of late but clearly folks are not wanting to be aboard buses, for several empty in-service single-deckers have passed me by in futile manner.

The turnout for the clapping on Thursday evening at 8pm in this road was again noisy, with whistles from a fitness instructor across the way and a bell ringing from the house I live in, mainly to thank neighbouring teachers who are key workers, as well as the remarkable NHS staff members. Unbelievably, fireworks went up too…

However, the use of a local shop is by no means a necessity for some people, even one of the managers there mentioned to me that he cannot believe how many individuals simply walk in and buy a daily newspaper and nothing else, or perhaps their packets of fags to last through the next day or so. 

As I walked past yesterday, a cyclist had pulled up outside the store and emerged with a cold drink and snack to use during his ride, which seemed a bit unnecessary but that kind of thing appears to be the norm. Quite unbelievable…

There is almost a game of ‘dare’ going on with some pedestrians too, whereby they won’t cross a road to avoid other people and thus force oncoming walkers to do it instead, at the very last moment and the look of triumph on their faces is as ridiculous as it is sad, as it is unbelievable… 

One youth did make the crossing of Tanworth Lane to allow us to progress however, which was really refreshing, until we realised that he was nudging a football along and it was clear that he had been, er, playing football with his mates. Unbelievable…

On Friday we crossed the road near the local store to avoid people on the same pavement and also another three rather dim looking characters some way behind them. However, the trio was heading for the shop (carrying no bags, so it really did seem like an unnecessary visit) and they crossed the road to find themselves directly in front of us… One of the two women was talking on her mobile phone, both females looked, er, rough, whilst the bloke with them, also a harsh looking individual suddenly coughed and spluttered loudly… We had taken evasive action, stepping onto someone’s garden, for parked vehicles had prevented a sojourn into the road but we were astonished at the lack of common sense, the rudeness, the lack of intelligence and the sheer ignorance displayed… Unbelievable. 

I truly hoped they choked on their fags…

Saturday was uneventful actually, bar a bizarre incident as we turned from Shakespeare Drive into Hathaway Road. Three cycling chaps in their twenties suddenly and illegally cut the wrong side of some bollards positioned at the junction of the side-road, in order to turn right out of Shakespeare Drive, hoping to duck in front of a rapidly approaching motor cycle. They wore no helmets and were obviously out together ‘joy-cycling’ but they hadn’t counted on the motor cyclist aboard his rather noisy vintage-sounding bike, accelerating madly towards them and thus forcing the cyclists to make a late dash to negotiate their crazy manoeuvre…

They barely succeeded, laughing to hide their embarrassment but then, despite their ages, two of them decided to do ‘wheelies’ along the Hathaway Road…

Unbelievable… 

And so to YODEL, the delivery firm… I had ordered some coffee from Nespresso online and I was informed via email that the parcel would be delivered between around 15.31 hours and 17.31 hours on Saturday. Being in lockdown, I was, of course ready and waiting…

Nothing was delivered.

I tracked the parcel later in the evening, which unbelievably stated that the address couldn’t be found… Really? The house number is clearly displayed in two places… More unbelievably, I was asked to choose whether to have the coffee ‘left in a safe place’, or, er, with a neighbour, which would be interesting, as the driver was unable to find my address anyway and thus would have no neighbour to hand the coffee to, or even a safe place to dump the parcel… 

Naturally, I was unable to contact the company after 17.00 hours and the offices were closed until after the Easter weekend.

Today? Quiet again on the pavements but busy on some roads, especially with cars travelling very quickly over humps and playing bass-biased music. However, whilst walking through a public grassy area (covering a steam, hence not built upon), a guy gardening shoved hands-full of his garden refuse between the council owned trees and onto the public walkway, just as we passed…

We have green bins for that sort of thing here…

Unbelievable…