I often hear people say, ‘It’s health and safety gone mad!’ and I have to admit that, sometimes, I think that England can be a bit over cautious. Maybe it is because we are a nation of people ready to sue if anything happens. I am regular asked if I have had an accident in the past 5 years. Sometimes I feel like I have to make something up to get them to leave me alone. After our recent holiday I am glad to live in a place that takes health and safety so seriously as I think Menorca may be a bit behind.
Our first glimpse of this was when my husband took Bob to the children’s play area at the hotel, to give me 5 minutes peace. There was a slide, some swings and a lovely caterpillar tunnel. He returned in shock. Some sand had been put on the floor but there was exposed concrete in many places. When I went to look I realised that it was exposed in the places that needed it the most. When we mentioned this to the Rep he said that he would have to check as they were allowed to have exposed concrete in some places. I was sure that underneath the swings and through the tunnel were not those places.
We realised that this was a common theme throughout Menorca. Every playground we came across had either tiles, concrete or sharp gravel on the floor.
We then went to a restaurant and when we asked for a highchair they brought this!
In their defence I suppose it is high and it is a chair. We realised that we were supposed to put it up to the table but it was very rickety and it left a gap big enough for Bob to slip through. I didn’t fancy sitting Bob in it to eat her dinner!
My husband works in food retail and there are many strict guidelines that they have to adhere to. Again, I don’t think they worry too much in Menorca. I was served raw chicken in a restaurant and one morning there was a pan of raw sausages on the breakfast buffet. We overheard a man asking if they were cooked and the chef said ‘No, they are just waiting to go in the oven.’ Surely there was a better place to put them!
If all this has given you food for thought (Did you see what I did there?) the next time you think that we are health and safety crazy, think yourself lucky!
My brother hired a car in France. He had booked car seats for the kids (and it was a well known firm)but when they arrived there were no car seats, the bloke serving them just said they should put the kids on their laps! Regardless of how dangerous that is they have 3 kids, including 1 baby, how can one of them drive a car whilst the other holds 3 children!! Once my brother kicked up a fuss the bloke huffed off to the office and came back 2 minutes later with 3 car seats, they had them all along, the bloke just couldn’t be bothered to get them.
That’s horrendous! It was terrible when I thought that they didn’t have car seats but the fact that they had them and just couldn’t be bothered is, somehow, even worse!