The View From Parson Street Nose

Hayfever season is upon us once again, and I was in Boots Pharmacy stocking up on nasal sprays, antihistamines and night-time nose plugs.

I wrestled my packages into a tiny plastic bag and headed for the exit.

Just as I was leaving the store a confident young woman in a bulging seersucker boob-tube strode past me with a purposeful gait.

A kindly gent held the door open for her. She threw him a withering stare and snapped like a freshly neutered terrier: "What do you think you're doing? I've got arms!"

The poor man looked quite crestfallen, he stepped back all of a quandary.

I saw him again later outside the Scope shop, where he had automatically moved aside to allow a woman with a pram access into the shop, just for a moment he hesitated wondering  if he had made yet another mistake.

I ruminated on the results of the young woman’s actions in Boots and decided that her behaviour certainly wasn't an act of feminism but just plain bad manners.

And, by acting in the way that she had, she may well have ruined one chivalrous gent’s good intentions for life, with the knock-on effect that an act of kindness which may make someone’s life easier as they fight with prams, bags or screaming youngsters will now never happen.

It’s true what they say: “Consider your actions or they may return to kick you up the backside.”

I like to think that stroppy young madam will one day be trying to enter a store with an oversized buggy and a wailing baby and find the door closed in her face - Kismet!