If we complain more now, it’s with good reason... | Emma Kay

As we get older you begin to realise we complain more.
People are being encouraged to volunteer to help vaccinate others and get their booster jabs at St James Hospital, Portsmouth. Picture: Habibur RahmanPeople are being encouraged to volunteer to help vaccinate others and get their booster jabs at St James Hospital, Portsmouth. Picture: Habibur Rahman
People are being encouraged to volunteer to help vaccinate others and get their booster jabs at St James Hospital, Portsmouth. Picture: Habibur Rahman

And, it isn’t some deeply rooted, complex reason. It’s because as we get older many of us tend to read more.

We read and we watch the world around us unravel like spaghetti on an unbalanced plate. In turn, that leads to frustration on our part, because as people we do care.

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We want things to go well, we want people who deserve it, to succeed. We lap up success stories like milk. Seeing people come through adversity and selflessly help others gave us a spark of hope that we could band together and do what is needed. Because as a nation we are a people who, mostly, are proud to do our best and dig in when it matters most.

Up and down the country, people complained about clapping for the NHS because they deserved more than a round of applause, they deserved an increase in their wages when it became apparent how little they earn for how much they do, but we still clapped because they deserved that and more.

We line up to volunteer to vaccinate to keep people safe because we do what needs to be done.

We made do and mended by making masks for people who had no had no way of defending themselves.

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When sufficient PPE wasn’t being provided by our government we personally made sure there was enough through schools donating science goggles to hospitals.

Companies like Playmobil changed their company production to make masks and breathing machines. Inmates in prisons worked tirelessly to make hand sanitiser to keep the public safe when there was not enough to go around. People delivered food parcels to the vulnerable.

People persevered to make sure our tech fearing relatives knew how to Zoom and WhatsApp so we had that connection.

People went out and did their jobs to keep things ticking over even when the pandemic was at its newest and scariest.

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Schools like mine had staff in every day keeping a brave face on for pupils. Keeping learning at the forefront.

Cleaners everywhere double and triple-checking they had done the best job and more.

So you can hardly blame us for the very public reaction to the Downing Street revelations on gatherings coming from our very British sense of equality and fairness. It comes from our dislike for hypocrisy. Boris’s personality ratings in 2019 were way below that of Theresa May’s two years prior.

We are a nation that is more than the sleaze associated with our government. For the last two years we have endured and we have been there where they have not. So be proud and let’s carry on our gumption into 2022.

STAY AT HOME IF YOU CAN’T FIND YOUR MOUTH AT THE CINEMA

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Trips to the cinema are terrific, especially after such a long absence.

Peaceful darkness and being surrounded by sound and adventure. Sadly the popcorn pests rigorously ruin it with their mess for so many avid cinema-goers.

On our latest trip to see Spiderman, when the lights went up, we were greeted with a popcorn galaxy swirl across the entire aisle floor.

A frenzied popcorn pouring left ungraciously for the poor staff to clean away with no thought or care. Why buy popcorn in the first place if you can’t figure out where your feeding orifice is?

Are manners just for other people?

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Do everyone a favour and stay home to create your own mess when watching a film.

MYBE IT’S TIME TO FIND SOME NEW NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Losing weight will be the number one new year resolution for so many who feel their waistline could do with some shrinkage.

Tedious talks of diet and food measurements haunt every office space, staff room or pub without the slightest thought of how much it bores the rest of us.

Why not make a new year’s resolution that is more meaningful, something that will give you a new talking point that others may well start to show an interest in?

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Learn a new language, take a first aid course or raise some money for charity.

It may not mould you into your desired new year shape but will ensure you become a more well-rounded person overall. Who knows? You might even enjoy it.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron.

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Stay home if you can’t find your mouth at the cinema

Trips to the cinema are terrific, especially after such a long absence.

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Peaceful darkness and being surrounded by sound and adventure. It has been a long-awaited luxury for so many of us. Sadly the popcorn pests rigorously ruin it with their mess for so many avid cinema-goers.

On our latest trip to see Spiderman, when the lights went up, we were greeted with a popcorn galaxy swirl. An ever-flowing yellow cosmos smothered the entire aisle floor.

A frenzied popcorn pouring left ungraciously for the poor staff to clean away with no thought or care. Why buy popcorn in the first place if you can’t figure out where your feeding orifice is?

Is eating that difficult for you? Are manners just for other people? Do everyone a favour and stay within the confines of your home to create your own mess when watching a film.

Time to find some new new year’s resolutions

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Losing weight will be the number one new year resolution without fail for so many who feel their waistline could do with some shrinkage.

Tedious talks of diet and food measurements haunt every office space, staff room or pub without the slightest thought of how much it bores the rest of us. Getting chewed out for our overindulgent calorie intake is draining.

We really don’t want to hear about it.

So, why not make a new year’s resolution that is more meaningful, something that will give you a new talking point that others may well start to show an interest in? The calorie-free list is endless. Learn a new language, take a first aid course or raise some money for charity.

It may not mould you into your desired new year shape but will ensure you become a more well-rounded person overall. Who knows? You might even enjoy it.

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