Tag: insular locals

Road Rage

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

I did something today which I like to believe was out of character. I pulled over to park on the main street of this little village and I did it in no great rush without indicating. That’s not the strange behaviour, this is a little seaside village it’s how people drive. There was a guy behind me who hooted, or claxoned as the French like to say which is such a great word, and as he drove past gave me a stare and waved his arms around. I maintained eye contact although didn’t respond but he annoyed me and I drove after him. Very quickly I realised I was ridiculous and I actually asked myself what I thought I was going to do, fight the man? I mean come one, I don’t fight people and I rarely if ever give in to road rage type behaviour. I mean I barely even bother hooting the horn, or claxon, at people. For me it’s strange behaviour and I’m not embarrassed, I more surprised and I find it amusing in it’s stupidity in a way.

For context I had been awake since three AM delivering bread and had then been doing some semi-urgent handyman work on a holiday home so was pretty tired and already in a funny mood. Also I knew instantly that the guy was a local and he thought I was some annoying tourist. For further context over July and August you can’t move in this place for the tourists wanting a bit of the white sandy beaches and castles. I love the energy and life they bring. I’ve mentioned it before but without tourists this village would be crumbling and the locals resent these visitors for their own dependence. I knew exactly what the hooting was about and I think the mans stupidity annoyed me, but then that means all that happened was that he transferred his anger on to me and I don’t want that. Incidentally I got hooted again later by another car in the same spot as I turned down into an alley that I park overnight in. I indicated but took my time turning and could see him in my mirror looking exasperated as he drove past. I enjoyed that one. It’s only early July and it’s already getting too much for them. I suspect they liked having their village back over lockdown. Insular heaven. Also two incidents suggests my driving must have been a cause and it may have been part of it but it wasn’t that bad. There’s some angry people out there. I nearly joined them for all of about four seconds. Thank god there’s always a funny side to everything. Ultimately, people are fascinating.

Another Day, Another Ramble

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Today is one of those days in which I can’t think of anything to write about. One of those moments the mind feels stagnant. But I write everyday, there can be no excuse, 365 days won’t reach itself. Incidentally I’m definitely over six months now, maybe even seven or eight if I could be bothered to count. I just know come October I’ll have to start checking the exact date I started and try to avoid writing endlessly about how close I am to completing a year and how nice it’ll be not to have the constant thought in the back of my mind that I have to do something. Some days I enjoy it, some days I just can’t be bothered and some days I wish I had written something earlier as I’m tired and want to go to bed. Rarely I don’t enjoy it though.

I’ve still not written a poem, that was one of the things I thought would be interesting to try. I’ve not written a short story either. I can’t remember the other things I excitedly thought I may do. I think I misunderstood how my writing would go down. I don’t take the time to write creatively like that, life can be busy and I generally just give myself an hour to bash these out. I suspect this will be a little less but that’s because it’s one of those filler pieces. Yet I’m still writing.

I thought about mentioning Covid-19 and the political implications of todays relaxing of lockdown rules but I’ve been talking too much about that already recently. I even checked RT.com to see if they had anything outlandish I could talk about. They don’t seem to think too highly of Meghan Markle and I’m not entirely sure why. What ever she did to piss off the Russians is beyond me. Maybe I should have checked Al Jazeera, I could have compared their stories, RT’s stories and the BBC’s to create a balanced version of the days events. I’m sure you could add all their stories up and together they would create a reputable version. Either that or the average of what total bullshit could look like.

In personal news I’ve been fantasising about living on the canals again. This is not a new one and I nearly did it about five or six years ago until I realised I wasn’t quite ready for such a sedate life. Sounds lovely now though. Nothing against the village, but I suspect small insular communities don’t quite have enough to hold me. Not that I’ll find the opposite all along a canal. It’s times like these though that I remember how being oblivious to the same type of thing but in foreign countries and therefore foreign languages, made places seem so much nicer. There’s something lacking in forever being on the periphery though. I wonder if people come here to the white sandy beaches, castles, monasteries and walks, and think how lovely the locals are, unaware to how they really feel about outsiders. Perhaps they just resent them because they know they depend on them.

But I shouldn’t be too unfair because I don’t know everybody and I don’t know they all feel. Also nobodies really done anything directly to me it’s more that I just feel sadness at witnessing such a beautiful little area stifled by idiots who can’t see outside of this tiny little whole universe of theirs. And I’m judging people I don’t really know again which I shouldn’t be because it’s unfair and that just makes me a dick. It’s just the frustration that’s all. This place just isn’t the best version of itself it could be. But then what and who is.