All the very best for the year to come. It’s always interesting being in central Edinburgh at this time of year, it’s just like the Festival in that I am stopped on an average of every 2.5 minutes and asked for information. Where does this bus go? Where does that train go? Does it stop at X? Why not?* Where is the High Street? Scuse pliz, where is castle? Belter in Inverkeithing car park on Monday, I was standing right beside the info board when a woman asked me if she had to pay to park there, I pointed at the board and said “That’s all the information I have,” then she informed me that was no use because she didn’t understand information. Fair enough, (not) but I sensed she really wanted someone to break said info down into manageable chunks for her, spoon feed them to her and then assume complete responsibility for any misinterpretation, so I started to move away, at which point she shouted at me that she hadn’t paid anyway. Fortunately Paul arrived at that point so I jumped in the car and said “Drive.”
On another occasion a tourist shouted at me because she could not get on board the train thundering through Dalgety Bay and clearly not stopping. Sweets, if I wrote the timetables it would be illegal not to stop here but I don’t, Yet.
Don’t get me wrong, we have often been the most grateful recipients of helpful advice when being tourists ourselves, including and most especially in New York which shocked me somewhat, and I do try to be as helpful and polite as I can. If I think it’s quicker for them and I am not pressed for time, I will walk with folk to get them to where they need to be or at least in sight of there. This being an introspective time of year for me, I do try to analyse why I am a target for the destination or guidance seeker, and I believe the below applies:-
- I am older, therefore possibly judged as more knowledgeable (fnarf)
- I am a woman, therefore possibly seen as more approachable. (Seriously. Even after a day at work).
- I walk with my head down, therefore am not a tourist (or a very bad one).
- I usually wear a large flashing neon sign above my head saying “Ask me!!!” pace Monica in Friends.
So yes, go ahead and ask me, and understand that the first thing I do is clutch my handbag very, very close because after all, it’s a recognised distraction technique.
*because it doesn’t go there in the first place; caedit questio.