Careful, the politically correct police are watching...

Heard this bit of news on the TV just before I left for work today: A woman who had been victim to a hit-and-run accident called the police and described the man who had hit her car as "fat". She was cautioned by the police for using an inappropriate term about her attacker.

Evidently the woman's political incorrectness was more important than her being the victim of a hit-and-run. Never mind getting her description of the man who was the suspect in the accident, their first priority was to put her right about her gross transgression. Maybe they would have been more sympathetic to her (and followed up on the fat culprit) if she'd described the man as "differently thin", perhaps. Differently thin by about 50 kilos, maybe.

For god's sake, "fat" and "thin" arent terms of disparagement - they're merely descriptions, on a par with "tall", "curly-haired", "slender", "short"... - oops, I mean "vertically challenged". Or do I? If I was short, I'd rather accept that fact than be patronisingly called "vertically challenged". SHORT SHORT SHORT! FAT FAT FAT! THIN THIN THIN! STUPID STUPID STUPID! So there, you commonsense-challenged upholders of the law!

Oops: Two corrections. It wasnt a FAT GUY, it was a FAT WOMAN. The lady who got hit wasnt in her car - she was standing on the pavement talking to her friends when the FAT WOMAN in a Citroen hit her.

Musings...

I've come to a rather disillusioning conclusion - people are people, bosses are bosses and office politics is office politics... the same seething mix of bitching, back-stabbing, buck-passing and insincere glad-handing, no matter in which part of the world you are. I'm sad to report that the company I'm working for is no different, although I had hoped for better.

I have no complaints about my immediate colleagues - they're a great bunch of girls. It's the powers-that-be who, although seemingly cooperative and helpful, are actively spinning in circles trying to stab others in the back while trying not to get stabbed themselves.

And while the dance of the Janus-faced carries on in its deceptive fashion, those not in the know, who are trying to mind their own business, suddenly find their backs bristling with daggers.

Phew. That got rid of some steam in the form of some really bad writing :) But honestly, isnt it frustrating sometimes, how red-tapism and one-upmanship by other people can bog you down no matter how good or efficient you are? Sometimes I feel like screaming "AARGH, JUST LET ME GET ON WITH MY BLOODY JOB AND PLAY YOUR GAMES SOMEWHERE ELSE WITH SOMEONE ELSE".

I really wonder how social workers and other civic-minded folk manage to keep going despite the constant obstructions they face from the establishment. More power to them!

***

Now on a completely unrelated topic - the next time someone here says that they're moving to a Mediterranean country for a total change in lifestyle, I will take them with a bucketful of salt. I've just (give or take a day or four) returned from a 10-day trip to the Costa Blanca part of Spain, which is seeing a huge property boom as thousands of Brits move there.

I might as well have stayed at home, for all that I saw of "Spain". Yes, the weather was lovely - sunny and warm in the daytime, pleasantly cool in the evenings. Yes, the scenery was different - a scrubby, dry landscape instead of the lush green of Britain. But that was as Spanish as it got. The restaurants were all catered for British tastes, with the ubiquitous fish-n-chips, burgers, kebabs, Chinese takeaways and - of course - chicken tikka predominating. All run by expatriate Brits for British tourists. Irish-style pubs and British pubs sold Guinness and imported beers. Thank GOODNESS there wasnt a Tesco or Sainsbury's, or I'd have felt I hadnt moved from the UK at all!

Seems to me that if people move to another country, they should try and assimilate into that culture - at least make friends with (cant think of a more "grown-up" phrase here) the local people instead of alienating them by creating "expat" colonies, mini versions of their hometowns. It just doesnt seem right.