Tipping

Just to make my position clear, I hate tipping. The whole idea of it is a little vulgar to me. When someone is nice to me, I like to think it is because they either enjoy their job or they think that I'm a lovely fellow. It is horrible then to realise that after you meal, the person serving you has only been nice in an attempt to make you tip more. That is, if they are nice at all. If you think about it, tipping is quite patronising. It is much the same as tapping the person on the top of their head or pinching their cheeks saying, "You've done very well, you lifted those plates and delivered them all the way over to my table without dropping them or anything!" That is their job. It is what they are paid to do.

The argument that they aren't paid a lot and so the tips are to make their wages up doesn't wash with me either. The restaurant should just pay them more. If needs be, increase the prices on the menu. People shouldn't need to be bribed to be good at serving people, if they are poor at the job, they should be fired. This might leave a lot of grumpy and sullen people unemployed, but I am OK with that. Maybe they could get a job as a bus driver, my understanding is that those qualities are a prerequisite for the job. (Don't get me wrong, a few nice people slip through the net).

One thing a lot of people say when I chat to them about this sort of thing is that they don't like as they don't get tipped for their work. I'm not a massive fan of this as an argument. There a lot of perks that people get in their work that others don't. This might sound like I am contradicting myself, but I'm not. I might not like the perks other people get, but that is just jealousy, but tipping directly affects me as the onus is very much on me to give people money that I don't feel they don't necessarily deserve.

What I hate most about tipping though is the judgemental side of things. When I ever go for a meal with people and we are sorting out the bill, people always say about adding extra money for the tip. The problem with this is that if I question it, I appear as the tight bastard, where in fact I am just questioning if the service was so exceptional as to deserve any kind of monetary bonus. Surely, if we have to tip, it should only be when service has been exceptional, above the norm, not, as it is now, done no matter what. In America, servers have apparently been known to chase customers down the road demanding a tip.

I'm not sure I have any great point to make here so I shall summarise it like this: I hate tipping. Almost as much as I hate begging. 

Electric Cars

I was recently walking down the road and an electric car passed me. If you live in London, this might not be unusual for you, but where I live, it is quite the rarity. The reason I knew it was an electric was that as it drove towards me from behind, I heard a car but it sounded unusual. "Congratulations" I'm sure you are sarcastically saying, "You heard a car", but I thought it interesting because the problem as far as I was aware, with electric cars, is that no one can hear them coming and so they knock people over left right and centre, Grand Theft Auto stylee. This got me thinking.


The main sound I hear from cars is the tyre noise. I very rarely hear the engine of a car. Particularly in towns where the cars are just pottering about. Surely this would also be the case for electric cars. As far as I am aware, we haven't got the Back to the Future stage of hovering cars where there is no tyre or engine noise.

Also, I heard the electric motors whirling away. I think, if anything, the electric motors are louder than combustion engines, unless the car is racing somewhere.

So here is my point, and it is two fold. Firstly, I hate the idea that electric cars are going to get artificial noises played while they are travelling. Just imagine it. The engine equivalent of the Nokia ringtone going off every time a car passes you. Actually, if cars came pre-loading the the sounds from the Jetson's car, I maybe wouldn't mind it so much. The second fold of my point is that I love the idea of electric cars and I fear that any excuse, particularly made up rubbish about them being dangerous because they don't make enough noise, will delay or stop their introduction.

At this point I'm sure you are getting the wrong impression about me so I wish to set it straight. I don't care about global warming. I don't care how much cars may or may not be contributing to it. I don't believe cars are the source of all evil. In fact, as someone that isn't allowed to use one due to my eye sight, I can see (pardon the pun) that they are a great form of transport and the freedom they give people would be liberating, but I digress. What I love about the idea of electric cars is the lack of car fumes around me. I don't know how many times I walk around and the stink of car fumes becomes obnoxious. This is particularly acute in cities like London and Manchester. The fresher air would be a breath of fresh air! I doubt there will be many that would argue with me on this one. I have spoken to very few people that have come back from a holiday in the country saying, "It's lovely to get home. Fill your lungs with that smoggy air".

One of the main communities I have heard making noises about the 'silent' electric cars is the blind community. For a long time I agreed with their reasoning. It makes sense that silent cars would be more dangerous crossing the road but having come across a number of electrics cars, there has not been one have I not heard. No cars have snuck up on me without me hearing them. I have always heard them before I have seen them, and in fact their unusual motor sound, while they remain rare, makes them more noticeable if anything.

I conclude that as a community, blind and partially sighted people have to pick their battles. If complaints are made about subjects that the average man on the street thinks isn't accurate, when complaints are made about real issues, no one will listen. Reminds me of a story I heard once about a young Shepard and a pesky wolf.