Angry People

It was raining this morning and on my way to work I was confronted with many people carrying umbrellas. The incident that brought my thoughts on umbrella carriers to mind was when, having just passed a lady carrying one, I turned to cross the road but could not do so safely. Why? The lady’s umbrella was obscuring too much of the view for me to make a judgement on whether it was safe to cross.

I might add that it was only raining lightly, and after a 10 minute walk to work wearing a jacket, my trousers were not noticeably damp.

What is it with people, usually blokes, that carry those huge golf umbrellas. There must be a psychological explanation for this but I can only think of the old “I’m making up for a little inadequacy here, look at the size of my umbrella though…”

Now, all of these behaviours are only minor irritations when walking down fairly quiet residential streets, but really, you have to be ignorant and selfish to carry an umbrella in the centre of town.

I wouldn’t mind as much if we had the sort of rain you get in the Caribbean or the Far East, where water literally falls from the sky, but in England we have a kind of general dampness in the air and all the namby pambies either break out the umbrellas or worse, get in the car!