As you may have
gathered if you've read my recent posts, in the kindness of strangers part 2, I
fell out my chair. Now, I know that you non chair users are all shocked and the
chair users are sitting there snickering a bit in a 'been there done that' kind
of way, but the truth is I wasn't hurt. Actually (in an attempt to gain some
sympathy), I did end up with a bruise on my arm (from where it hit the wall)
and my back was very sore the next few days. Now, before you panic, I need to
be truthful here - none of that is so out of the ordinary for me, since if I'm
not falling out my chair I'm simply falling over on a regular basis...
Anyway, hubby resisted
the temptation to laugh or take pictures of my upside down chair and me acting
like a beetle on my back and grabbed the chair to right it as I sat up and
leant against the wall. I assessed my body - was did anything hurt (more than
normal), was I concussed, bleeding or shocked? My arm seemed a bit scraped from
the wall, which was by then acting as my friendly support and a man rushed over
to help. He stood and looked at me - I smiled back, which I guess reassured him
a bit and then he looked on as I fussed with the chair (putting brakes on etc)
ready to get it. Did he interfere? No. What he actually did was say to me
"Do you need help getting in? Do you need me to lift you?" I said I
was fine, but he stayed close by until I transferred into the chair at which
point I thanked him and he headed off to the bar.
It was an odd
experience for me - the perfect offer of help and it got me wondering about
stuff - a practice that I am sure I am quite famous for, by now!
The thing is, this
friendly helpful chap, wasn't British and my experience of this kind of thing
while on home soil usually results in one of two things:
1. People completely
ignore you, making sure they are looking the other way and 'didn't see anything
(guv!)'.
2. People rush to
help, grabbing you by the arm (please don't restrict the bits of me that
actually work fine - thank you!) and ignoring all protestations of "I'm
ok, please let me do it on my own!".
So, the question is,
why the difference? Is there better disability awareness in other countries? Do
other countries have better manners? In fact, this guy was German and they
aren't widely renowned for their good manners are they? (Although I base this observation
purely on the fact that they are famous for putting towels on sun beds early in
the morning *1 and don't wish to offend any German
readers at all) Do they have more respect for the elderly (and possibly
infirm)? I just don't know, I simply don't know the answers to any of these
questions. Let's face it, if I did I wouldn't be wondering about it either...
The strange thing is
that it extended further than the German guy. I was wheeling down beside the
pool and as I approached a gap between the flower bed and a sunbed, the
(Russian?) lady indicated 'was the gap wide enough?'
In Britain, I am more
used to:
1. People completely
ignore you, making sure they are looking the other way and 'didn't see anything
(guv!)'. Or
2. People leap to
their feet, moving their sunbed, their partner's sunbed and anything else
within a ten foot radius ignoring all protestations of "Its ok there's
plenty of space"
These are just two
examples, but I could give you many more. They all make me wonder why things
are the way they are. I actually think with Brits, that those who ignore you
mostly do it because they don't quite know what to do. They don't want to
appear patronising, and so they do nothing so as to allow you to be
independent. Other people go to the opposite extreme - they are desperate to
help, but don't know how much (or how little) to give and so go over the top.
In all cases, I think that people are basically kind and helpful. But
then...the big question is, just why are people from the continent so
different? Any ideas anyone?
*1
which may in fact be just due to the fact that they get up early in the morning
maybe?
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