JP's Corner of The Blogosphere

If you were hoping for something profound, I'm afraid that you're going to be disappointed.  If thoughtful and profound is your thing, you're probably better off waiting for the Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas message.  I say probably, though, because I've just seen the BBC Headline which tells me that his message is going to be about not waiting for heroes to solve the world's problems.  I always think that it puts a bit of a dampener on things when the media announce what people are going to say in a speech, but in this case I hope that it's just something of a cliff-hanger.  As a message in itself, it's a bit nice-but-pointless. Personally, of course, I hope that he really encourages people to think about the Christian faith.  The message of the Christian faith, of course, has not changed since last year  but don't let that put you off having another think about it.  Believe me it's worth it, and the birth of Jesus really is something to ...

Normally, I'm not overly enamoured by people who interrupt my morning commute with their unnecessarily loud (but oh-so-cool) ringtones, or feel the need to share their music with their fellow passengers in glorious low-fidelity sound. This morning, however, I did raise a smile when I heard one of JP's Top Anthems.  It was suitably random and a good way of breaking the monotony of a Monday morning train journey. Incidentally, with reference to my last post, I didn't mean to come across as something as a Scrooge. I might object to the idea of making unnecessary political statements, but I have to admit that Alasdair was right.  Cards are a great way of keeping in touch, "Winter Greetings" or otherwise.

I know that we had this debate last year, but I’ve once again found myself wondering what the point is of a card which says “Winter Season’s Greetings”.     I’ve not (yet) received such a card myself so before you worry, I’m not being rude in an ungrateful sort of way.   Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop me having an opinion.  Personally, I feel that such a card implies that the sender is a bit self-righteous.   The message conveyed is a bit “I’m not celebrating Christmas. Get me and my political correctness.”  If you don’t want to celebrate Christmas, then I’m not going to stop you.   But it’s a bit pointless to send a card if you’re not celebrating anything.   You wouldn’t expect to send a “Summer Season’s Greetings” card in August, would you?   Besides, what’s wrong with wishing those of us who will be celebrating it a “Happy Christmas”?   What’s wrong with enjoying the festivities of Christmas, even if you don’t believe?   You don’t have to pretend that it isn’t really Christm...

..as opposed to 'back with a bang' or however the saying probably goes.  You wouldn't expect any less, really, would you? Getting down to business, I've had a few experiences recently in which I've been very frustrated by the selfish and unhelpful attitudes of some people in what I would term 'customer facing' roles.  Some might say that this is nothing new, but it has annoyed me nonetheless. For my first example, we'll head to Three Bridges station, because tradition dicates that I should talk about something train-related once in a while.  Last week, I was on the platform at said station and I saw the electronic sign which told me that the train I had hoped to catch was 'Delayed'.   Maybe it was unreasonable of me to have wanted to find out some more details, but approaching the Southern employee outside the door marked 'Information' seemed like a logical step to take.  He couldn't tell me how long the delay was, but did go to great...