Well, it’s Wednesday 10th November, and I have two full days left of my holiday, am I still on edge? Well, yes I am, I suppose. We have the reverse travelling to do soon, and it’s not been helped by news from home relating to my parents, and whilst it’s nothing serious, they are old, and I often feel I should be there to help them more often.
There’s nothing we can do from Fuerteventura, and we all have holidays, but should I be doing more when I am home. Admittedly it’s a four-hour drive to get to where they live, and often their appointments and hospital visits are during the week when I can’t be there due to work.
It has helped me knowing that there have been a couple of times I have been there when they needed transporting, especially on the day recently that they released my Dad after four weeks of radiotherapy. Only a little journey home but an important one, and one I was more than pleased to do. Admittedly it coincided with a trip to see Mum, as we didn’t think my Dad would get out when he did. But when we got the news, he was getting out, and it was a case of perfect timing. Importantly I was able to spend time with him too, so a good trip!
So speaking with one sister who does everything possible to help out regarding the arrangements for my parents medical and health needs, we also discussed Christmas and what we were doing. I can totally understand why this can be such a stressful time for people, thankfully not for me, nor does my anxiety return. Still, it’s frustrating for reasons I won’t go into in too much detail.
But living four hours’ drive away, I have to consider visiting my parents, taking a sister into account that doesn’t want to see her siblings? I take my parent’s age into consideration, and both being in their late eighties, they can’t have people coming and going during the day. It tires them out, and we need to give them the consideration as the senior members of the family.
So my sister who doesn’t want to see us is visiting my parents on Christmas Day, meaning we can’t see them. And so a decision she made a couple of years ago means I can’t see my parents, and to me, that’s not right. But I will have to go along with it as this may also have been my parents’ choice, I don’t know, and I don’t get involved in those discussions. My sister lives on her own and also has serious health concerns, so even though we don’t speak, she has to have priority, and I do get that. But yes, working around family can be very challenging, especially at a time of year meant for the family to be together.
And so some families want to do this, and some want to do another, which can cause all sorts of friction. As a family, not including my daughter, as she now has a family of her own to worry about, we number ten, which causes issues. I’d hate to be trying to organise a Christmas get together for twenty or thirty people. It would be a nightmare, and that could potentially make people stressed and potentially (maybe me) anxious, thankfully something I will never have to worry about.
So it looks like a return home over the New Year period, and all are yet to be finalised. The important thing is to sort something out to see the family that wants to see us – yes, there are still one or two! I’m sure it will all be sorted in the end – hopefully anxiety free!!
Secondly, I know this will look like I am jumping on the bandwagon here, and there’s nothing much I can do about that, but the use of e-scooters concerns me, and I wanted to write after reading this story in this morning’s paper (courtesy thesun.co.uk)
I had planned to write about these things at one stage, so why not now when they have hit the headlines?
They are an absolute pain, and if you have read the above story, people will become more seriously injured than the young man involved, to the extent I believe someone will be killed either using one or possibly being hit by one. Here in Fuerteventura, they have what I assume is a government-run system, where you use them with a phone app and also think you get charged for as long as you use one. To assist, there are dedicated cycle and scooter lanes, and some absolute idiots are using these things, as there are cyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians. Yes, even pedestrians.
Obviously, (well, it is to me anyway) these lanes are for cyclists and scooters, yet people saunter into them and walk along them, being either inconsiderate, ignorant or silly. I’m going for the middle option here, as the photo shows. Not the ones crossing the path, which in itself can be a bit of a hazard, simply because you do forget about them, and it is easy to cross one without looking first. But I don’t get the walking along one; the worst bit here is that some cyclists then cycle out onto the pedestrian area to overtake the pedestrians using their cycle lane, and they do it at speed as well, as do the scooters.
Many travel at speeds that are far too fast for a pedestrian environment, which is why they are dangerous, someone will make a mistake, and someone will get hurt. I have seen someone doing the same in my home town, totally ignorant and illegal, and without a care in the world through a small pedestrian area, another accident waiting to happen.
And so to the story above, I wonder how much they got paid to take this story to the paper, but again this to me is all wrong. Surely, if you are going to buy such a thing for a fourteen-year-old, you would, first of all, do some research and teach them. I did when I bought a drone; you need to know the basics at least.
So any quick internet search tells us e-scooters are illegal, unless part of an approved government scheme, or you use them on private land, such as her back garden, but I can’t see a picture of their back garden in the article, is it suitable for a fourteen-year-old to use his e-scooter – I somehow doubt it, but it is the mother trying to defend the son that I find strange.
He was on the main road when he shouldn’t have been, and I quote, again courtesy of thesun.co.uk:
According to UK law, driving a motorised scooter on public roads or paths requires a driving license.
They also have to be an ‘approved’ scooter that can only be ridden in one of the areas currently trialling them.
The mum has slammed the force for being ‘unfair’ and believes the case would have been dealt with differently if Jamie was a cyclist or pedestrian.
‘I still know it was wrong, but my children don’t know the laws. I have raised them to be sensible,’ Denise said.
‘My son could have easily been a pedestrian or a cyclist, and I feel it would have been handled differently then. The driver of the car should have been more aware. My child could have so easily been injured much worse or even killed.’
Sorry, I don’t get any of her defence, and first of all, where was the parental control
that allowed him to go out onto the street and use a scooter when her children don’t know the laws? Shouldn’t her parental responsibility have been to have taught him the laws – parental control tells me she should have.
As for it being treated differently if it had been a cyclist or a pedestrian, there are no laws restricting cyclists and pedestrians to go out onto the roads or pavements or walking on shared cycle/pedestrian paths. But there are laws not allowing e-scooters out and about in public. Sorry it baffles me, but as I have written in the past when people do wrong these days, they feel they have to defend themselves and blame other people, and this is one of those cases.
I don’t usually look to blame, but as the mother is looking to do so, I will, and I blame her, for buying the scooter in the first place, allowing him out on the road, and not researching the use of the scooters – that’s who I blame. Along with the son as I can’t help thinking he knew he was doing wrong, because again, according to his mother, it was to be used in the garden, and he must have known this. Although I’d also like to know where they were going on their family holidays, that meant it was legal for him to use it – but that’s me.
And if this situation warrants points on his licence when he gets some, why is she arguing the case? He would have received the same punishment had he taken any other vehicle out onto the road so what’s the difference with an e-scooter, they are illegal. Yes, the boy has done wrong and he will get another chance as he won’t be banned from driving and the points will eventually disappear just as mine have. We take our chances and we pay the price!
What I will say to finish is this, if they are illegal in so many ways, why do the government allow them to be sold, knowing full well they won’t just be used on private land, but used as this unfortunate teenager used his? Maybe they should be made illegal full stop, and if stopped by police confiscated and crushed – but again, that’s just me.
And as I finish this, my sister has rung me to let me know that my Father is going back into the hospital for more check-ups due to a bad cough that he has developed and additional to my first paragraph. Oh well, we can, but hope!
Thanks for reading, and stay safe
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