Monday, 16 May 2005
Grumble
Today is a Monday, which makes some people grumpy. It's also supposed to be a holiday, which makes even more people grumpy.
"Supposed to be" a holiday, because the Monday following Pentecost was, until this year, a French public holiday. It was revoked (if that's the word) by the government in order to save money in order to pay for retirement funds. Retirement funds for public workers. Many of whom aren't working today.
Of course, in its infinite logic, the government is trying to pass of working today as "solidarity" (for the retired). So, today I'm working "in solidarity" to pay for the retirement of government workers. Who aren't working. Oh, they're also eligible for retirement some five years before private-sector workers.
Anyhoo, that's not the point. The point is, other people besides myself are grumpy. I wasn't grumpy (really!) until I wrote the above explanation.
So, I'm on the metro this morning. Whose conductors, incidentally, were on a work slowdown. Fortunately they were back to the full (holiday) schedule before I arrived at the station. Anyhoo...
So, I'm on the metro. And it misses a stop. It's not like the train kept on going. No, it stopped about five meters late - so that half of the frontmost car, which I was in, found itself in the tunnel. The rest of the car, and train behind it, had access to the platform.
So after what I imagine as an "oh, shit" moment in the driver's cockpit, the doors opened, people gave each other bemused looks, and the buzzer sounded. Then it was off to the next station, and all was normal again.
Looks like I know of at least one (other) person who was grumpy today.