CF Tourists - is it worse ??

[WeWillLookBack]

We have just got back from a few days in Cornwall - we live in Devon, so spend a lot of time in both counties and are very used to tourists and holiday makers. We stayed in a 'pub with rooms on the beach, which was lovely. However - I am utterly gobsmacked by the level of CF we have witnessed in the 3 days. It feels like peoples entitlement is off the scale. I don't know how those in hospitality are dealing with it.

Wednesday - Woman went mental at the poor young lad serving in the beer garden - insisted she had booked a table outside. Very politely told her that they do not take reservations for the garden, just the restaurant. Screaming ' Are you calling me a liar'. He went in, and didn't come back out.

Friday AM - they serve breakfast for guests 8am-9.30am, then open for breakfast at 9.30am (lots of signs saying open at 9.30am). At 8.30am a group were outside - rattling the door. Member of staff opens the door, and lets them know they open at 9.30am. Lots of moaning - insisting they can have breakfast now etc. She says no - very polite. So he tells her it is disgusting that they allow guests to sit in the window eating when others can't ! ( and to make up for their error, they should serve them breakfast too)

Friday evening - Family of 6 rocked up - no space in the beer garden. Started shouting - so the owner came out. Man very angry - they had driven for 6 hours - and the kids needed feeding. The owner was great - polite but firm. The man actually suggested the owner walk around the beer garden and checked when people were leaving so they could secure a table. He said no. A lot of swearing. Asked to leave.

Drive home Saturday morning. Along a winding road along the coast - car in front just stops. Man gets out and stands looking at the sea. Single lane - so I cant go around him. After a few moments I beep - he stomps over to my car and says 'Can I help you' ... I say you have blocked the road - could you move please. To which he responds 'I am looking at the view - maybe you could just be kind' FFS !!!

Agreed. I don't think you can tell someone that they were driving too slowly unless you know the specific road and the conditions.
There is a section of the lane I live on where 15mph is a very reasonable speed, if not a bit fast.The visibility is terrible and no matter how hood a driver you are or how well you know the road you simply have no way to see what is coming. I've lived here for 20 odd years and I still slow to a crawl going along there, as does everyone else who lives on the road. And none of us needs refresher driving lessons!
Yes, I do sometimes get frustrated by people driving slowly or erratically on our local roads - that's human nature - but I try not to let it show. Having suffered life changing injuries a few years ago courtesy of someone who thought he was fine driving at speed down an unfamiliar country road near me, I would much rather be delayed a few minutes by someone driving a bit slowly.
We all make mistakes on occasion. Most of us don't drive as well on roads we don't know. (Apologies to the good citizens of Glasgow who were behind me when I got in the wrong lane during the morning rush the other day and thanks to the taxi driver who let me in with a big smile...) I think most of the suboptimal driving I experience round here is due to unfamiliarity not any kind of malice, and I remind myself that those people may well drive far better in their normal environment than I would. I've learned to grin and bear it, and to try to leave plenty of time at busy periods, just like I had to when I lived in a big city and the first mile of my commute used to take at least 20 minutes on a weekday morning, and about 2 at the weekend.

The whole point of the thread is that sometimes sone people are CF

That could include the tractor driver

Just because he's probably male, local , not on holiday doesn't mean he might not be a CF

Well said @MrsAvocet and maybe people need reminding that ploughing into the back of any vehicle is the fault of the vehicle behind not the unwary driver stuck on an unknown road fearful of both an angry farmer behind and the potential to cause an accident to unknown participants in front. Some very small country roads were not designed for motor vehicles but for horse-drawn carts. It goes with out saying if I could have let the tractor pass me safely I would have in a shot. Better safe than sorry.

Agree that nobody said you're unwelcome, you shouldn't think that.

Nobody would argue that the tractor driver didn't behave badly - yes he was frustrated you were driving too slowly, and possibly unpredictably, but the correct course in this scenario would have been for him to have increased his distance from you. The name calling was also unnecessary.

I asked your speed as I thought it must have been slow for a tractor driver to have taken umbrage 😅

It's not my intention to derail the thread or tar locals with an over-entitled tourists schtick either. 🤔

I think it began in 1980s with Thatcher saying 'There's no such thing as society' meaning look after number one. If everyone looks after themselves as number one priority, they are self-sufficient and no one needs propping up by a nanny state. That was her theory. In reality of course it just means the brash, greedy, loaded, entitled etc get an even bigger head start than the rest and trample on the vulnerable to get even more.
The 80s was full of Self-First stuff - that song "The Greatest Love Of All" (about loving yourself) was in the charts forever. It was a greedy, selfish dec ade in essence and the people who came of age in that era are now running the country and in positions of power.

I asked your speed as I thought it must have been slow for a tractor driver to have taken umbrage
Not round here it wouldn't. Some of our local farmers, especially the ones in the big Valtras, go at quite a lick. I don't dread getting stuck behind a tractor on our local roads nowadays - our neighbouring farmers seem to do a much higher speed when they are on the road in the modern tractors than they used to. On the little roads they can go quicker than most other traffic as they are the only ones who can see over the hedges. Some of them seem to appreciate this fact, but you get the odd one who is a bit of an arse. They are just people, like the rest of us after all.

I am a Londoner. I do all that. I did it last night. I went to the cinema where I always go and saw the staff I always see there. Then I went to the restaurant I always go to after the cinema where the same thing happened and I left a tip. Even Londoners have our regular haunts - some closer to home than others - and we all have to live somewhere with neighbours and local shops and restaurants and things. I know people's names and the names of their children and pets and they know mine just like everyone does. When I get out of taxis I invariably say: "Bye, see you later." It's automatic but actually I have seen the same cab drivers quite a few times. They could be stalking me but it's more likely they regularly work in the areas where I work and socialise and hail cabs at the same time. It's a small world even in the big city. I don't think it makes you or me stand out like sore thumbs, It makes us nice people though and we're not that unusual wherever we come from and we won't change our ways wherever we go.

I was tempted to look up tractors but you know where that can lead..... apparently 😁

Not round here it wouldn't. Some of our local farmers, especially the ones in the big Valtras, go at quite a lick.

Some, yes, obviously. But I was speaking generally of tractors.

The difference being that the tractor probably drives that road every day so knows the conditions, OP didn't so she was taking precautions. 30mph isn't a target, it's a limit, I'd rather drive slower if I didn't know the roads, especially in a tourist area where you don't know who's round the corner

@goldfinchonthelawn The Greatest Love Of All was first released in 1977 by George Benson and was a huge hit before Whitney Houston's warbling 1980s version.

The opening lines: "I believe that children are our future/teach them well and let them lead the way" shows that is far from the selfish anthem it is taken to be. It is about the importance of learning to love yourself as the way to be a good person who takes pride in their achievements and helps others. But not everyone listens to lyrics. Lots of US politicians think Born In The USA puts them in a good light.

Margaret Thatcher's fans say her "no such thing as society" line which originally appeared when she gave a housewife-type interview to Woman's Own in the late 1970s or early 1980s has been wilfully misinterpreted. She went on to say there were just individual men and women so could be said to be emphasising personal responsibility which it could further be argued is a quality we all need if we are to be of use to others. A bit like the instruction to put on your own oxygen mask first when the pressure drops on the plane so that we don't pass out and can therefore fit masks to young children and the infirm.

But I don't really care that people think Margaret Thatcher was a selfish cow. I bet she'd have put on her mask first and been the first in the stampede for the emergency exit.

Sure, except the limit-not-target of that road was almost certainly 60mph.

I do sympathise. I absolutely hate single track roads especially as DH grew up rurally and he and his family think nothing of flinging themselves down them. They all think it perfectly normal (and his mother and aunties refuse to drive on motorways) but we once did a straw poll of his friends in the pub and fully half of them had written off a car by the age of twenty on a blind corner.

If someone is coming round blind corners so fast they would plough into the back of someone going at 15mph then God help any pedestrians, horses, mobility vehicles or bicycles that might be around the corner.

😀

I think 20mph ish is reasonable. 15mph is very very slow. Speedometers are set to allow leeway so in reality you will have been going about 12 mph. Your reactions are very slow if you cant react to a pedestrian at that speed.

Oh God. What did I just do? I meant to laugh at this joke which @shrodingersvaccine said was cracking. It was. See what can happen when you're browsing your phone and not paying attention?

We are on holiday in the Highlands at the .omens and have just come back from a day out at a nearby national park by a beautiful lake/Loch.

Judging by the signs about restrictions on campervans, I think they've had problems with CF and inconsiderate behaviour in the past. Only 5 campervans are allowed and any who stay have been requested NOT to promote the area on social media.

I'm Irish and I'm so looking forward to re-visiting London. Was last there about 5 years ago with a friend and we were so impressed with everyone we dealt with (with the exception of one extremely smelly taxi driver). Everyone else, London Eye/ Madame Tussaud/ various tube stations/ random art galleries/ restaurant staff were so pleasant and helpful.

It was the height of the summer season and I wouldn't have blamed any of those people for being brusque given the pressure they were all under. But no, they were friendly and helpful to us.

I always try to leave good reviews when I get good service, as I worked in a front facing role for a few years and it was "challenging"!

Surely you would just leave it by the door if it's a small shop?

If it's smaller you should take it off and carry it in front of you (see also aisles on trains, don't whack everyone in the shoulders as you walk down the aisle).

This is doing the rounds.

I would never leave a rucksack outside, it would be stolen.
If I can't go in a shop with it on my back, I just do not go in. Too much like hard work otherwise.
But I am not sure will ever do this kind of holiday again anyway.

Perhaps this is very niche but at some point in my childhood it was drilled into me that an abandoned backpack should be assumed to be a bomb until proven otherwise, and consequently I can never leave a bag anywhere.