Winning is no excuse

Yesterday in Farnham I was unfortunate enough to witness a Spanish horde. I guess I should qualify that statement a bit. I’m guessing the horde was Spanish. At first I thought it was Italian but on closer listening, it sounded Spanish. I apologise if I am wrong.

There’s a language school in Farnham and I can only assume they were attending classes there. There was about 40 of them in small packs wandering the town. And they were all tweenies – not quite teenagers, but not younger than 10.

The thing that struck me the most was how rude they all were. It was like everyone else just wasn’t there. To my knowledge I’ve only met a couple of Spanish people and so I can’t say whether it’s a cultural trait. I’m also not sure if it was an age thing, though, of course, children in packs can be quite surly and rude. But let me give a few examples.

The footpaths in Farnham are quite narrow and it’s an accepted fact that if you walk three abreast, you are going to have to move if someone is coming in the opposite direction otherwise you either run into them or they are forced onto the road and a certain injury from the ever-present traffic. This did not bother the horde.

I was run into a couple of times simply because these kids refused to concede any part of the footpath. Naturally I was going to hold on to my small claim of ground and so, they ran into me. No apology, not even a glance, they just slid around me having crashed.

In Starbucks, a group of about eight girls ordered drinks then hung around the bar like so many pesky insects while an elderly couple waited for their orders. The barista delivered the elderly order and one of the kid’s drinks. The kid rushed forward, almost pushing the elderly couple out of her way and grabbed her drink.

The elderly lady was a bit peeved but in that polite English way, she just huffed and puffed a bit and probably moaned about them all the way home. The young girl just kept up her constant chatter to her friends. I should note that they were all pretty sullen and their hair and clothes were almost identical. To be honest, they all looked related.

As I left Starbucks, a group of boys arrived at the door. Because I was inside and they were between me and freedom, I naturally held the door open for them. A couple drifted through but one decided that half way in was a great place to stand and have a conversation. I was going to give him a good clip around the ear (metaphorically of course) when his mate pushed him through the doorway.

And then, finally, two of them were in Waitrose having a conversation in one of the aisles. A woman in a mobility scooter was trying to get to whatever product was behind them. They just kept talking, completely ignoring her.

Maybe they were all from some sort of boot camp institution for rude kids and they’d not learned anything yet. All very odd. It certainly made me think that the Spanish are really rude. Not a good ad for an entire society given that I extrapolate things to a massive degree.

And then, this morning, it struck me. They won the World Cup. Perhaps this explains their air of superiority. Damn them.