How to Experience Awful Pain at the Petrol Bowser on Shopper Docket Day
Try to fill up on a Wednesday afternoon. Now i will admit that I'm usually not so stupid as to join the queues of drivers trying to get petrol just after work on a Wednesday immediately before the weekly discounting cycle ends. It is a nightmare and it really isn't worth the time.
Because seriously, how much is your time worth? I once saw a queue or cars stretching out on to Springvale Road at 10.30pm on a Wednesday night. They were blocking the entire left lane. The wait to get to the pump must have been at least 20mins.
Right across the road at a non discount shopper docket station the bowsers were empty. The saving by using your docket as opposed to paying retail across the road? 2cents a litre. And if you didn't have a shopper docket, petrol was cheaper elsewhere.
In other words, for the average motorist who puts in say 50 litres, their saving was a measly $1. Their 20 minutes extra in their car was worth just $1. Less of course if they chose to let their car sit in idle for the entire wait. Yes, the idiots do that. Would you work for $3 an hour? No? Then why is it logical to waste your precious leisure time for the same?
But back to my experience. So I'm close to empty and i rock up to the only station available. A Safeway/Woolworths Caltex. I'm lucky, i get to drive in pretty much straight away. Ive struck the jackpot. Or have i?
Ahead of me in his Nissan Maxima was an old guy. He got there before me. In fact he could have been there all day as far as i know. Because when i got out to fill up, he was still sitting in the drivers seat.
Nobody will ever know what he was doing in there, because he didn't get out to fill up until i was almost done. But before he could start, he decided to strike up a mini conversation with the other old guy on the other side of the pump. Topic? The weather. Specifically, the heat. Genius really, talk about how awful the heat is while wasting time outside in it.
Anyways, no matter. He was blocking my exit, but there was another way out despite cars queuing up behind me. I may be able to sneak past him when the vacant Mazda people mover next to me drove off. Presumably, its occupant was inside waiting to pay.
So i joined the queue of drivers waiting to pay for their petrol and those that had just popped in to get their daily shopping supplies. Head of the queue was some guy with tattoos. Youngish bloke. Seemed OK. That was until he had all his items scanned then decided he wanted one more. Off he trudged to find it while the rest of us waited. No dramas fella.
In the background the whole time i waited to pay was the whining of a mother and her child as they decided which drink and ice cream they wanted. It went on. And on. Enough already, just give the kid an icy pole and stop annoying the rest of us with your useless gibberish.
I pay and finally escape. And hop back into my car only to see the old guy still filling up. Perhaps the Maxima has the largest tank of any car on the market? Alas, next to me the Mazda is still there...vacant. Ive nowhere to go.
I wait. And i wait some more. The queue behind me gets longer. Its 32 degrees, and I'm conscious of not letting my car sit in idle right next to a pump. No air conditioning. Brilliant.
And then they come. The mother and her child. Yes, while people waited, they were inside shopping. A mother trying to satisfy the little squirt with an ice cream. No concern for anyone who was waiting outside.
So she and the kid hop into their people mover which is kind of odd given there is only one kid. But damn it to hell, she has driven into the bowser the wrong way. So she drives forward a bit, then back. Then forward some more. Then back a bit. I'm not sure where the hell she thinks she is going. Nowhere actually cos cars are ahead of her, and she hasnt the skill to reverse her way out. Karma.
But i do notice one thing on her windscreen. A disabled parking sticker. I know that some people have disabilities that we cant see. But which of them allows you to walk normally and utilise a large 4WD type people mover? Needless to say that i think they must be handing out disabled passes for minor retardation.
My old guy came back. Finally. He hops into his car. Does he move? Does he what! Maybe its a fear of doing anything too quickly. The slower you move, the slower you will go to the grave. I'm not sure on the logic. But for all his faults, at least he drove to the bowser the right way and didn't waste time in the shop. Which is more than i can say for Mazda lady and her sprocket who were stuck tightly with nowhere to go.
It was hot. And it was a Wednesday afternoon at a petrol station. But its also representative of many people's completely self centred, insular minds. They pay no attention to what goes on around them, nor would they care if they did notice. Its all about them.
The lesson being, if you see this lady in her blue Mazda with the disabled sticker, give her a bitch slap - a really hard one. Whack one on the kid too. No judge in his right mind would give you a custodial sentence for that. Not in this state anyway.
About Just Grumpy
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