Ralph’s Place

It seems the big issue these days is ‘Respect’. Whether in politics, at music festivals, in sport or just in the words you utter under your breath at the inconsiderate, overpaid dingbat who pushed past you on the tube this morning. The issue of ‘Respect’ is all around us in today’s society.

In Japan - and this is brilliant - they’ve even gone one step further and enlisted the help of manners police to help bring the issue under control.

I don’t have answers, but it does make me wonder sometimes… how did things end up like this. Not necessarily all bad, per say, but different. What changed, what events occurred that slowly but very surely meant that each generation was just that bit more rebellious than the last?

The more you think about it, the more obvious the answer appears to be. The clearer it becomes just how much control one thing has over the development of a child’s mind and what they perceive as normal behaviour. You can even see how this thing has developed and adapted in an attempt to follow cultural changes without realising that it is itself the driving force behind any real change.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. You only have to watch a bit of children’s TV today to see how obvious the differences are to when you were a child. Where once we had stories with morals, and heroes who prospered by doing the right thing, now we have nonsense that’s neither particularly stimulating for a child or educational. We have ‘cool’ shows that glamorise the bad guys as much as the good and leave the child to make the distinction themselves based on… what?

We all either learned our respect from our parents, or the tele, whichever we spent more time listening to… and as time goes on the TV is starting to win, could it be time to start fighting back?

Finally got round to sorting my photos from the lake district. Some are on facebook, some are on this site HERE

=^)

Confusing, isn’t it. Why would someone who enjoys the occasional drink, choose not to do so on this occasion? Are they feeling ok? Is something up? Health problems? All these questions have come up in response to the statement “I’ll have a lemonade please”, whether outspoken or kept to yourself, you can’t help but wonder.

So why? Why is it, that unless you are openly teetotal, driving or pregnant, it has become socially less acceptable to meet friends in a bar and abstain from drinking alcohol, enjoying a soft drink instead?

Or maybe it’s just when I don’t drink? I dunno

All the time you hear and read about people complaining about things. Everything from a bad customer service experience to being fully ripped off! Almost never though, do you hear praise for a company or service.

Well, right now I want to do just that. I recently signed up for O2 broadband and quite honestly, it’s been about as simple as it could get! (not to mention relatively speedy) The only glitch I had was getting the wireless box delivered, and that’s because I wasn’t in. I called the guys up, they offered to send it to a work address (this was around 3 in the afternoon) and it promptly arrived the next day. To get connected, you just plug it in, and it works. Easy!

Good service. Simple to set up. Quick. …what more could you want?