Life me up .....

..... where I belong, or at least where I want to go. Now I am not sure this just happens in Asia, perhaps I have been away from dear old Blighty too long and I have forgotten just how we Brits react. But ... But ... But what is about human nature, psychology that makes people call a lift (or elevator if you prefer), even though one, two, three or even twenty people before have already pressed that big button and called the lift! Lift manufacturers recoginised this issue a long time ago and placed a usually bright light bulb, I regonise some lights are as dull as dull can be, in the button denoting that indeed it had been pressed and the lift will be on its way.

I watch in amazement the number of people that come along and proceed to press the already illuminated button (often more than once to be sure). Is this due to a lack of confidence in fellow man-kind, we can't trust the person in front of us to have done this already? What is the irrational fear people have, that the lift may never arrive? That will be stranded where ever we are with no means of escape ...? I ponder these things as wait, counting those who press and re-press the call button ... and then it arrives .... and it is then with such speed that people move into the open doors! Another amazing thing!

I have noted in my many travels that people tend to dawdle down the street (I am told I walk too fast) meandering along, however present them with a pair of open lift doors and they move like the wind, like a whippet, like a cheetah after its breakfast. No doubt, driven by the fear that those doors just may close and leave them once again stranded. Occasions have occurred where somebody has been in the lift, selected their floor even before I have made it out. Now I take it upon myself (being a little larger than average) to stand firmly and squarely in front of the doors before they open, thus preventing those whippets, cheetahs and those with a good gust of wind behind them, from entering before I have actually departed, although I do fear that those behind me who aren't quick enough have once again been whisked upwards (or downwards) again.

They say patience is a virtue and while I endeavour to be as patient as possible sometimes when I enter the world of going up and down, the world of lifts, the world of elevators, I lose mine totally ... perhaps I have just left it on the floor I came from .... no escalators and moving walkways are a whole new world ....