Invisibility

You hit the nail on the head, Greatnan. It's an insurance issue. If a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis and gives the wrong treatment in an emergency - on a flight, for example - he/she can be sued.

Jess/Jodi..thinking of the bus journey to Walsall where I poured out my worries about my sick goldfish to the lady sat next to me . Don't ever sit next to me on a bus/train and, if you see an elderly lady with a whippet walking towards you leggit in the opposite direction. As for yesterday, Jodi you deserve the gransnet medal of the highest honour .

crimson I'm still waiting for my Geek of the Week Award from last week, forget which thread it was???

I think elegran made off with it

Sorry about your goldfish. Is it ok now?

Feeling "invisible" can be useful as I don't want to be noticed for the wrong reasons. I could rant on about white hair pros/cons for hours (but won't!) but I think facial expression and a narrow attitude can be much more ageing than white hair. I do give people who push in in queues the benefit of the doubt but try to look a little "taken aback". Occasionally I have been accused of pushing in in front of others in a supermarket queue which has shocked me as I'm just not a "pushing in" sort of person. The thing that makes me feel bad is when someone at the checkout hands me my change but looks elsewhere - makes me feel like an object. Yet it probably says more about the other person probably lacking confidence. Must admit that I have been known not to take my change and when they are forced to look at me, I then take it! Nasty aren't I?

Elderly crimson are you talking about yourself? 20 years in the future or something?

Jodi; it is an ex goldfish. Can I also advise everyone not to come back as either a goldfish or a houseplant belonging to me as the chances of survival are very slim . gkal; I once spent ages in a supermarket helping a lady with her shopping [think she'd forgotten her glasses or something] only for her to wrongly accuse me at the checkout of either queue jumping [I hadn't]or being at the basket checkout with too many items [I wasn't]. I was gobsmacked. Felt like grabbing her basket and putting all the stuff back on the shelves .

Jess; it depends whether I have make up on or am in bag lady mode [my boss told me I looked like a bag lady the other day; no face,woolly hat, trainers and long grey coat]. I couldn't disagree with her!

crimson are you perhaps my next door neighbour?

When she goes off on one of her trips I have to look after her house plants and pets. I spend ages trying to rescussitate dying plants, curing her goldfish of white spot or fungal infections or searching for her b****y tortoise.

This year she forgot to box the b****y thing up before the frost came and conscripted me in to joining her in a house to house search of neighbours' gardens, climbing over wall if they were out. I still have the bruises. We never did find the blasted thing. If its got any sense it's found a new home

...I hope it has the sense not to come here ....

I normally have a pleasant expression and I smile a lot - this can be a nuisance as people often approached me for directions which was not always convenient. However, I have a certain look which can turn wrong-doers to stone (they teach it you when you train as a tax inspector!) I think it is quite right to force a check-out operator to look at you when handing you your change. I get mildly annoyed when the women on adjacent tills are holding an animated conversation whilst checking items. I always check my till receipt as I am sure they could easily make mistake.

One of those laws of nature, there you are walking around in a place you are completely unfamiliar with, and someone else will stop to ask you the way. Maybe everyone else is dashing along looking more purposeful?

greatnan I surmise it's the same one my children call my SMO look!

My nephews labelled it my sister's Erna Gruhn look - she was married to one of Hitler's generals.

My daughter blames me for the lines at the side of her mouth - I told her always to have a slight smile in repose and she says it caused her laughter lines. You can't win, can you?

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