Do manners really cost nothing?

The bloody nerve!

OK, let me give you the back story to this. I got stuck at work on the one night of the week that I meet up with my friends. It’s only ever on this night! Anyway, I left work about 20 minutes late, so I’d missed the company shuttlebus that takes me home. So I waited at the bus stop and called Frazer to let him know I’d be late.

He told me that he and John were in a pub at the top of the hill. The hill I was at the bottom of. This big bloody hill….

So I told him I’d be up in a few minutes.

Now, I was already out of breath from running to the bus stop, and I set off up the hill. It’s a hell of a climb and I was rushing it to get there fast.

So I’m walking and walking and walking, and getting more and more out of breath.

About 50 yards from the pub (still going uphill), I passed this old lady selling the Big Issue.

Now normally, I do say no thanks to people selling it, if they are being vocal and offering it. But I was panting and sweating and seriously out of breath, so I didn’t.

And she shouts at me!

“It doesn’t cost anything to say ‘no thanks’ you know!”

If I’d been less out of breath, I’d have told her I was too out of breath to say it. Talk about a catch 22.