GRUDGE OF THE WEEK #4
Every week, I’ll be sharing a new grudge that’s not in my book — sometimes mine, sometimes someone else’s (with their permission, obviously!) There are plenty of new grudges born every minute – send yours to grudgescanbegood@gmail.com if you would like to share it and have it analysed!
The Correct-Destination-Averse Taxi Driver Grudge
This week’s grudge is about taxi drivers. Not all, by any means, but definitely a sizeable minority. I’d say this has happened to me at least a hundred times in the last two years —and always in central London. We’ll be driving along (me having given the destination address) and the driver will suddenly point and say, ‘See that alleyway there, love? If I pull over in a minute, you can just nip down there, turn right, walk for about ten minutes, cross Trafalgar Square, walk for about twenty minutes, climb a steep slope carrying all your heavy bags, and you’ll be there. It’s probably quicker than me driving you all the way to the door.’
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration…but a version of this has happened to me countless times. This grudge (which can extend to include any number of taxi drivers) is what I like to call the Correct-Destination-Averse Taxi Driver Grudge, and it has taught me to say quite happily what I used to be too scared to say: ‘Actually, I’d like you to drop me at the address I gave you, please — remember, the one you agreed to take me to when I first got into your taxi?’
Discover Sophie’s Grudge Type classification system in HOW TO HOLD A GRUDGE – available from all good book retailers now!
OTHER GRUDGE GOODIES
“About devastating historical events and atrocities, we often say, ‘Never forget’. Why? Is it that we want to extend the suffering for as long as possible? No, of course not — it’s because we know that history (the horrible bits of it especially) contains useful lessons and warnings that we would be fools to ignore.
Yet about upsetting personal incidents, we often hear people say, ‘Don’t hold a grudge. Move on, for your own sake.’ Every time we say this, we are effectively asking someone to forget the important warnings and lessons from their own life history.”
