Please don’t ignore me, I’m standing right in front of you

I decided to walk to work today, not as part of my keeping fit regime but more for my ‘trying to reduce the stress in my life’ regime.  But more about that later…..

It was a beautiful mild November morning and I felt quite content kicking up the leaves as I walked along the banks of the River Ness.

This morning

I enjoy walking to work and am frequently reminded of what a beautiful part of the world I am fortunate enough to live in.  As I walked I passed the odd jogger, people also walking to work, mothers pushing prams and people walking dogs.  Manners and the fact that I’m a nice kinda person dictates that I always smile and say hello to people.  It never ceases to amaze me how many people neither react to or return the gesture. A simple smile or a hello is all that is required.  Of course some people do – even stopping to talk about the weather or let me clap their dog.  It’s nice to be nice I feel, but clearly some people just want to exist in their own little world and don’t want to be disturbed by my wee hello and smile – instead choosing to pretend that the smiling woman is not actually there – so they walk past looking at the ground.

Their attitude of ignoring me, pretending I’m not there took me back to last night – and the reason for my stress free walk to work this morning.

Last night I was late leaving work – I had some trouble winding up a meeting with a client who was not responding to my our meeting is now over signals, instead choosing to continue to go over stuff that we had already covered.  I understood this, he was stressed and worried and his problems could not be resolved quickly or in one meeting.  However we had spent some considerable time together and I had identified and agreed a strategy to sort things out.  It was the end of the day and I needed to get home.

Eventually I closed up the meeting, jumped into my car and in response to a text from my husband I stopped at the supermarket to buy something for dinner and pick up other bits and pieces.  That done I headed home.  Now Inverness might be a city but it’s not a huge place and although traffic was busy I don’t think anyone from a real city would consider it to be rush hour traffic in the sense that they are used to.  I waited in the queue of traffic to get on to the roundabout and noticed a police car parked up beside the roundabout.  I smugly patted myself on the back for remembering to display my new car tax disc on my windscreen – confident in the fact that they couldn’t pull me over for being in breach of road tax regulations.  It was my turn and off I went onto the roundabout.  Then NOTHING – my car died right in the middle of the roundabout.

Despite panic setting in I managed to turn on my hazard lights while people tooted and shouted at me.  I would like to tell you that I looked like a damsel in distress however the fact is that I looked like a crazy lady with a car full of shopping and eyes resembling a rabbit caught in the headlights.

HEEELLLLLP ME!!!!!!

By this stage cars were now dangerously trying to drive around me and there was no way my car was starting.  It felt like an eternity when I noticed a high viz jacket coming towards me. It was a trucker who had spotted my panic and parked up just off the roundabout.  The policewoman who had been sitting in the police car close by arrived and between them they pushed me off the roundabout and I parked up behind the truck.

I explained that my battery light had come on just as I pulled on to the roundabout so the policewoman said she would head back to base and get a battery charger.  The trucker, who I discovered was called Joe kindly offered to stick around – and so we waited.

Whilst we waited for the police to return we chatted and I discovered that Joe also hailed from Glasgow.  Not only that our grandparent lived in the same block of flats – Pinkston Drive – on the same floor!  Joe was just finishing his shift when he stopped to help but assured me that his wife and daughter would not be home until later – so he wasn’t missing anything important like his dinner.  The fact that I was safe and things were being sorted also meant that I didn’t have to call my husband – who I know would have rescued me – but that would have complicated things even more.  It’s not easy for carers just to drop stuff at home and come a running.

It was nice of Elvis to stop by and give us a tune, but in reality he really wasn't helping

Eventually the policewoman returned, my car sprung into life and there was relief all round, lots of thank-you’s from me and then I was off home.

In reality it all happened in a bit of a flash but as I drove home I could feel my legs shaking and my heart pounding.  So yes Inverness experienced a huge traffic jam last night with our rush hour traffic resembled rush hour in London – all down to little old me.  So if you were one of the people who were late home for your dinner last night I apologise and promise not to do it again.

So what’s the moral of this story – well like the people who choose to ignore me and not to smile and say hello as I walk to work they would probably also be the people who would toot at a crazy broken down woman and shout as they drove past.  However there are people who smile, say hello.

So yes, it’s nice to be nice, but sometimes when people find themselves in a bit of a rut it’s more than just nice, it’s a lifesaver.

So thank you Universe for the people who smile and say hello (and stop to help if you break down) – because it really does make all the difference in the world.  Well, it did to me.