PS. I didn’t tell you my airline story last time did I? When I disagreed with 180 people due to get on a place to Bologna… this is it… So I’m at Stansted airport to get a flight back to Bologna. And I’m one of the first to arrive at the gate. It’s not clear, though, where you need to queue. The most obvious place is the desk where they check your documents. But off to the side facing away from people is a Ryanair ‘check the size of your bag’ stand. Now, you normally queue up behind this stand – one queue for ‘priority’ and the other for everyone else. In fact, I wandered round the other side of this stand and there were the arrows to denote which queue would be which. But the stand was really off to the side, I thought ‘it can’t be here can it?’ But I followed the logic of it – this is where we’d normally queue, so I stayed there, first in the queue. Then, I watched as everyone arrived and had the same thoughts as me – ‘Where do we queue then? It’s not obvious, it can’t be there can it?’ And they began to form a queue next to the desk, in the obvious place… even though they could see me standing off to the side. I would say to people who looked particularly confused ‘I think the queue will be here actually’… But the lengthening queue in the more obvious place was too powerful for them to resist – they all joined the queue there. I gave up telling anyone. So that I didn’t feel like too much of a dick, I just got on and read my book, whilst 180 people formed an orderly queue (or as orderly as Italians, as many of them were Italians, can form a queue). And I did realise I was taking a risk by staying there – if I was wrong I would be the 181st person on a plane when I’d arrived there as one of the first (and they’d have no room for my bag so they’d take it from me, and I didn’t want that). I thought it was interesting that people were more inclined to follow what other people were doing, than obey a sign (and I did point out the sign, with it’s arrows for each queue, that I was standing next to). Or perhaps they just thought I looked dangerous or smelly so didn’t want to stand near me. Whatever, as time went on, and no member of Ryanair staff turned up, I was actually more convinced that I was right, but I now wondered what the staff would do faced with 180 people queueing in the wrong (and not inconvenient) place (and just 1 person in the right (and not particularly convenient) place. It was me against 180 people. And maybe it would become me against the Ryanair member of staff. Eventually the staff member turned up. She saw what had happened. She shouted out – ‘You’re all queueing in the wrong place – the queue’s over THERE – where the sign is’. And they all now scrambled over, total chaos, to get behind me. I enjoyed the briefest of smiles. It was partly a smug-like smile – I WON, YEAH – kind of smile. But it was also a smile at a couple more things – 1. Wow, how it’s so easy to follow the crowd, it’s almost irresistible… so watch yourself if you’re on whatever treadmill you’re on just because everyone else is. 2. That years of doing the F**k It thing have had their effect – I’ve learnt to say F**k It and do my own thing, even if it goes against what the norm is… I’ve learnt to say F**k It to what others might think (even if I’m in danger of looking like a dick)… I’ve learnt to say ‘F**k It’ and enjoy a smug-like smile here in the knowledge that I was right, this time at least. That’s F**k It in action. And this has turned into more like a chapter from one of our F**k It books. It must be the longest PS ever. PS. Heres a book.... Right, back to work, or whatever it is you’re doing – and watch out for that calendar landing in your inbox tomorrow. Johnx
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:30:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015