An Almost Perfect Day...
was partially spoilt upon my return home yesterday.
I managed to do a little shop in Chester Le Street and being all on one level helped, I needed very little as it happened. All the buses connected easily and I did not need to wait for ages. You know what else is great about the town's retail area? It has many seats for you to have a rest. I also had chance to have a look in Iceland and though I try to eat healthily and for ready meals/variety/price their range of ready meals for one person were amazing so when I create some extra space in the freezer I will buy a few for myself. We used to have a branch on my town but that is decades ago.
I came back into Durham City and the three shops I needed are located next to the bus station so how easy is that? I avoided the main retail area.
Upon coming home a local pet shop was delivering to my neighbour goods for her large dog and trying to pull away and by the time I attempted to take a photo/get a registration number the van had disappeared. Instead of parking on the drive or roadside they had used the grass verge. There was a space on the other side of the road that could have been used. I have never ever seen this verge churned up so much whilst living in this property. Three neighbours commented on the state of it. Two of those had witnessed the incident as it happened.
Update:Thinking of comments below, I do sympathise that with all the wet weather of late they would not expect this to happen but if they could not park on the concrete drive and that includes the part that connects to the path or road it was a pity that they kept churning the verge when they were stuck and were not able to find another solution. They did not just leave tyre tracks but took great lumps out of it. It would have caused less damage had they run the length of the verge and off the other side instead of trying to turn off it.
I managed to do a little shop in Chester Le Street and being all on one level helped, I needed very little as it happened. All the buses connected easily and I did not need to wait for ages. You know what else is great about the town's retail area? It has many seats for you to have a rest. I also had chance to have a look in Iceland and though I try to eat healthily and for ready meals/variety/price their range of ready meals for one person were amazing so when I create some extra space in the freezer I will buy a few for myself. We used to have a branch on my town but that is decades ago.
I came back into Durham City and the three shops I needed are located next to the bus station so how easy is that? I avoided the main retail area.
Upon coming home a local pet shop was delivering to my neighbour goods for her large dog and trying to pull away and by the time I attempted to take a photo/get a registration number the van had disappeared. Instead of parking on the drive or roadside they had used the grass verge. There was a space on the other side of the road that could have been used. I have never ever seen this verge churned up so much whilst living in this property. Three neighbours commented on the state of it. Two of those had witnessed the incident as it happened.
Update:Thinking of comments below, I do sympathise that with all the wet weather of late they would not expect this to happen but if they could not park on the concrete drive and that includes the part that connects to the path or road it was a pity that they kept churning the verge when they were stuck and were not able to find another solution. They did not just leave tyre tracks but took great lumps out of it. It would have caused less damage had they run the length of the verge and off the other side instead of trying to turn off it.
If you click on the image(you can do so twice)you can make the image larger. Oh and after the saga of the drain problem that worried me for the last few months, my neighbour as I surveyed the damage found something to complain about again. I've lived here over five decades and had at least five sets of neighbours and never ever had any problems until the last few years. I would say this but I don't trouble anyone, help where I can, am quiet and yet I seem to come off worse. Hey ho...
In hindsight it looks a little like poor me? That last sentence especially. I'm not perfect. But not a compulsive complainer. It really was an enjoyable day out as those who were kind enough to comment. And I have barely given it a thought since. Its highly unlikely I would have taken the incident further.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 1:50 am
8 Comments:
I think you have to have some sympathy with the van driver here?he is on a tight schedule where people would complain if they did not get their goods on time and obviously he is tempted to take any shortcut that would shorten his task of carrying heavy boxes up to people's abode.
The grass verge will heal itself in time with or without human intervention.
In general I have sympathy but that bit of drive you can see next to the verge is the drive of the house being delivered to. And as said there is a space on the road in line with the drive.
Most delivery people use a trolley of some kind...of course I don't want someone to suffer ill health.
I lean over backwards on so many things to see the side of the underdog.
I'm with Anonymous on this, Gildy. If it's the grass next to the neighbour's drive, then let the neighbour deal with it/get stressed about it. Not you.
It's such a silly little thing to say it spoilt your almost perfect day. Don't view little things like that as "spoiling" what was a nice day. Let it go, and look upon your day out as a nice day without tagging the van incident on the end of it.
N x
Hmm, I see you didn't post my message, Gildy, any reason why?
Anyway, I had another thought re the neighbour complaining - if you are taking photos and registration details, and the neighbours see this, it could be misconstrued, and they might be thinking you will complain about them. So your neighbour could be suspicious about that.
I know if my neighbour started taking photos outside my property of some damage (which wasn't caused by me but by a friends car or delivery van to me)I'd be feeling a bit suspicious and rather anxious that I was going to be complained about. Do you see what I mean? People can be very territorial, even if it's just outside their front gardens...
Do be careful about being seen taking these kind of photos - you may be very quiet and helpful but neighbours could miscontrue this photo taking as you gathering evidence to complain secretly...
N x
The trouble with a blog is it can come across more serious than intended. A grumpy old man attitude. A Victor Meldrew type person. Its pretty well forgotten about. I can honestly say that.
A blog like a diary can give a wrong impression...there is something in the adage that you can overthink something.
If you met me(without being annoyingly so)I have a happy and open disposition.
It was a good day. I think what affected me more was another hint of an unwanted problem with a neighbour who if anyone has read further back in the blog(or have followed me here from elsewhere)knows it has not been easy. I try to avoid trouble and let things go. Life is too short. Its not my nature.
The damage is on my half of the verge and they ran onto it from my drive and stopped at the half way point. If they had run the full length and not left half on/half off the verge/road it would not have happened.
What's done is done and all comments and views are welcome. I don't want to drive anyone away. No pun intended.
Thanks x
Good to know, Gildy, that it's forgotton. However, I notice that you seem to edit your original blogs later to suit, following comments from people, so I don't think I'll be reading or commenting anymore. There doesn't seem to be any point in having a conversation and putting forward POV's, when you change things in the blog later to suit.
N
Sorry to see the comment N. No editing is not a habit of mine and usually what I would call an edit is the correction of grammer/spelling? I take on all comments and views that are left.
As I have with your comment here. It did not even appear in my inbox where it should have at the time and been published two weeks ago. So I did not deliberately avoid putting it on the blog.
Any alteration is usually just me saying something like...I changed what I had eaten on a certain day, that I did not go out when I said that I would and you can tell because I put in the body of the entry the word Updatein bold text.
I have just republished this comment within seconds of posting it because of a spelling error and the appearance of a word, no other reason.
The updates are done to keep everything tidy and easy for people such as yourself to find them rather than referring back to something from days/weeks/months ago and make little sense without seeing the original post.
Sorry to lose you but wish you well and all the best. x
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