Anyone else just worn down by illogic?

[CountessFrog]

Examples of completely illogical ‘roolz’ everywhere - they give me ‘rule fatigue.’ I may even have reached ‘Peak Roolz.’

For example. On holiday last week I entered a shop that apparently had a one way system. It was a small shop, and because everyone was directed left on arrival, they had crowded into a narrow area in the left, thus ensuring no social distancing.

I didn’t know about the one way system, so I noticed the crowd on the left and headed to the right of the shop to browse and stay away from people. The shop assistant shouted that I wasn’t following the one way system And I needed to join the crowd in the left (I left after that).

Second example. In same small seaside town, We were there for two weeks. On our last night we went to a chippy on the seafront that we’d used three times already. They only accepted cards. They made you queue outside, allowing one customer in at a time. Fair enough.

However On this occasion they were now ‘cash only.’ I had no cash, so I asked to place my order and go to the cash point or find DH who I knew to have cash.

They refused this. When I returned with the cash, the shop was empty so I went in. But silly me, I was still breaking ‘the roolz’ Because they had another (less obvious rule) that you couldn’t go in if they were busy doing something. So she was busy battering fish, and this meant I wasn’t allowed in. Because any fule know that’s a dangerous situation.

Ice cream shop where you had to wait outside and stand behind a line when they let you in. Couldn’t see the ice cream flavours from behind the line. Was allowed to ‘step forward two paces.’ Second time I visited, whole family in the shop, primary aged children literally licking the glass counter. No objections raised

I’m totally over the roolz. Anyone else?

My local library has finally "reopened". You select a genre online, they put 5 books from that genre in a bag, and you collect that bag the next week.

The Oxfam bookshop 5 minutes' walk away is completely open and allows you to choose your books as normal. They're now getting a lot of my business when I'd normally go to the library.

There's also a independent shop with a little porch that means you can't tell how many customers are in the shop. I understand they need to tell people to wait outside, but being shouted at "can't you see there are 4 people in here!" when there was absolutely no way you could see doesn't encourage repeat business.

Our little cafe in the park is doing Mr whippy ice cream but only in a tub. Because apparently they want to handle things less. But they touch the tub?? And they could put a napkin round the cone and not touch it?? It's all ridiculous

Coming home from France via the channel tunnel.
If we drive in with the car roof down, we have to wear a mask.
Put the roof up and we are required to open all windows and sun roof fully, but no mask required!

@diplodocusinermine

Shouted at by lady outside Co-op who I didn't realise was waiting to go in - 'You have to wait for someone to come out first'. Stood behind her and waited, and waited, and waited. Couldn't see anyone at tills. Went in shop, despite lady's tutting - THERE WERE NO CUSTOMERS IN THE BLOODY SHOP. We could have been waiting 'til doomsday........

Lol, I had this at our local coop. I stood outside trying to peer and see if anyone was in there to wait for them to come out before abandoning convention and wandering in. How can you possibly know if you need to wait when you can't see inside because of all the covid 19 signage🤣

I was huffed at and told off for entering a public toilet which said 'one person/household at a time'. The door was closed. I am apparently supposed to be able to see through doors to know if someone is in there already.

I was also tutted at in a shop by someone behind me as I stepped two steps into an empty aisle as it was against the one way system. I was apparently supposed to walk down the (also empty) aisle next to it to then turn into the one I had just walked past.

I hate sheep who are incapable of applying their own logic to a situation. It makes me sad that we are given brains that we are told not to use.

The M&S foodhall one way system is so painful. People stop to buy produce so you either have to abandon social distancing and squeeze past or go at the pace of the slowest shopper with the most to purchase.

We got to the end of the aisles and genuinely could not figure how we were meant to get from one end of the checkouts to the self checkout section. All the arrows pointed the opposite direction to which we wanted to travel top and bottom of the vertical aisles so we had to break the rules to pay🤣🤣

@Orchidsindoors

A few times now, rather than being able to exit by the nearest front door of the pub or restaurant, which has noone near it, I've had to follow the one way system which means I have to walk through 3 further rooms inches away from diners.

Haha yes! I had to walk all the way around a cafe past all other tables to follow the one way system to get to the till to pay for our food. I then had to queue inbetween tables and the woman on the table was giving me daggers because presumably I was too close to her table. It's a minefield haha.

This thread is quite funny though thanks OP

A lot of people are getting off on dictating to people whether in a shop or about masks. With regard to shops, if somebody barked at me I would about turn and head out. I think shops and staff have it hard at the moment. But they should not be shouting and eye rolling at people who are potentially keeping their businesses afloat. Particularly as winter comes. I would be very surprised if people will be queuing in the rain and cold to do any non-essential shopping, so they need all the help they can get.

I have not been in a shop since they made masks mandatory. My DH does the supermarket run at weekend and we don't shop anywhere else because of masks, one way systems etc. I am a spendthrift, but I no longer miss shopping, if I need anything (and it has to be a genuine purposeful purchase rather than a splurge) it's online for me.

It's going to be a long winter, isn't it?

‘It may seem pointless to stay on squares and lines in an empty shop, but when driving you do the same. You're not allowed to drive on the pavement/wrong lane just because there's no one about.‘

But things happen faster with driving and if you make a mistake you are risking a collision or running someone over rather than having to walk slightly too close and thus increasing your risk of transmitting Covid by a tiny amount should one of you even happen to have it which at the moment you almost certainly don’t.
And if you go down what you think is an empty aisle and a person appears the chances are you can backtrack well before you are within 2m. Whereas cars have a much longer stopping distance and are much harder to turn round!

‘My local library has finally "reopened". You select a genre online, they put 5 books from that genre in a bag, and you collect that bag the next week.‘

Our library tried this, it didn’t last long. I think they realised it was basically pointless being open under those terms. Now they just have a maximum browsing time.

There's a small independent shop selling a limited range of groceries. At the start of lockdown they were very vocal on Facebook etc asking people to keep shopping with them rather than just getting everything at the supermarket. Then suddenly there was a ranty post about people doing most of their shopping elsewhere and popping in for 1 or 2 items- saying that they had ALREADY had to turn away some people for doing this. Followed by a series of passiveaggressive posts about how they are open for their LOYAL customers and reminding anyone thinking of browsing or just buying one item to think about whether theirs was an 'essential' purchase.

Not sure how shoppers were supposed to know that they only actually wanted to serve regulars (or indeed how anyone could do their 'big' shop somewhere that only stocks dried and canned food).

My favourite is the shop which tells you how many people are allowed in at one time....a shop full of displays which means the only way you know how many people are in there is to go in, walk round and count.....

Agree....on one hand you can see people are trying their best but....on the other has logic and common sense completely flown out the window?

Went to a pub last night that had a roulette thingy outside the male and female toilets with occupied/non occupied and a direction to change the wheel to the right colour when going in and then coming out of the toilets by using your elbow.

Ok.....except a)

Everyone was forgetting to do this so either leaving it on occupied leading to a queue in a cramped corridor while people stood outside for ages waiting for someone who wasn't there to come out or the opposite going in because it was on unoccupied only to find there was someone in there who hasn't changed the wheel

B) after carefully setting the wheel to the correct setting with your uninfectable elboe you then had to use your hands to open and close THREE separate doors between eating area and toilet cubicle!

So.... pretty pointless!

Yes! You are my people!

I have stopped going out. I am buying as much as possible online. All the "Rules", the signs, the lack of common sense, the officiousness - it is just exhausting. I am a fairly intelligent woman in my 40's and I struggle with it all, it must be so daunting for anyone with any kind of disability.

I think a certain sector of society get off on it all.

Don't get me started on schools....

I have posted this picture before but I thought it would benefit from another airing under this thread. It was in KFC.

I asked in a charity shop to donate some clothes (washed, very clean. All great condition and some unused with tags). ‘WE DONT HAVE TIME TO SORT CLOTHES’ said the lady working there in a stroppy way . . . maybe they would if they didn’t have someone stood by the door telling everyone the ridiculously strict rules that are written on the door anyway.
There was a queue of people outside waiting to go into a shop that barely had anything in anyway!

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

‘So many. Just these two for now. Why can I huff and puff in my gym but not sing in my choir?’

To be fair, there have been lots of outbreaks associated with singing (choirs and churches) but afaik none with gyms though nobody quite understands why.
There might be a reason to do with the activity or it might totally be the difference in demographic but for now I think it’s fair enough.

But subsequent investigations suggested that in most cases the outbreaks were linked to the social aspect of those choirs (sharing food and drink in breaks) rather than the singing itself. You must remember that for the few choirs that had outbreaks there were thousands of choirs (both amateur & professional) rehearsing and performing in those weeks and they did not experience outbreaks.

Am in Italy. In a museum went to use loo. Loos through door in corner of a large room. There were barriers like at airports for people to queue to access the loo. Only the room was totally empty just me and a cleaner. So I ignored the barriers and walked straight into loo. Oh no lots of shouting from the cleaner. I had to walk to end of barrier and get to door that way despite being the only person in the room!

Insane. Even weirder she stood right in doorway so I get to brush past her to get in! In a huge empty room! Mental.

Our swimming pool ones are quite OTT. To avoid passing in the (large, airy) lobby we have to go out a dark, grey concrete fire exit into an underground carpark- quite dodgy on an evening, and walk around the whole building through several doors..

oh and have to wear your costume to the pool but fine to change out of it afterwards. Maybe the chlorine helps or something. Along with of course the single shower and toilet due to the others being closed, and big yellow and black signs everywhere...

none with gyms though nobody quite understands why

I thought zumba was apparently very 'high risk'

Camping trip. Every second toilet and shower closed off. Causing queues.

This would annoy me because it's totally illogical. More people are using the toilets that are open, which is surely worse?

I went into our local post office, which had a sign up outside saying only two customers at a time. Fair enough, it's a small shop. Except due to the layout, and a large shelving unit in the middle, it's not physically possible to see the whole shop from the outside. You have to go in and walk round the shelving in order to see all areas. So, I went in, got immediately angrily barked at to get out because there were two people there already. While waiting outside I double checked there was no way of seeing the other people (a mirror showing the hidden area or something), there definitely wasn't. If he'd just said there were two people there already, I'd have left, there was no need to shout at me like a child, when there was no way I could have known!

Do you think "don't you know there's a pandemic" will become as ubiquitous a phrase for us as "don't you know there's a war on" was for my grandparent's generation? My nana used to laugh about how for years and years after the war finished, any attempt to complain about anything was met with that response on autopilot.

Think “Covid” will be the new “data protection” ie ridiculous made up pointless rules that none too bright people with a little power will gleefully enforce on the rest of us and by saying the magic words any dissent shut down.

It’s all nuts. Can’t be arsed with it.

@MsTSwift

Think “Covid” will be the new “data protection” ie ridiculous made up pointless rules that none too bright people with a little power will gleefully enforce on the rest of us and by saying the magic words any dissent shut down.

And a big yes to this!