[Jayneflakes]

Yesterday afternoon I wandered down to the BP garage in Weston and filled up the fuel can for the generator for Bike Night, which cost around £7.50. As I walked into the shop to pay with the money in my gloved hand, the girl behind the counter asked me to remove my helmet. I asked her why and she told me it was because they like to see people's faces for the security camera.

Now bare in mind that she was looking me right in the face as she said this. I pointed out that I was wearing a flip front helmet and she could see my face. To which she replied "Oh yeah, I had not noticed!"

The thing that annoys me is that I am wearing a £500 helmet, with a £50 radio strapped to the side, I have a neck gaiter and a leather jacket, while on my hands are a pair of armoured leather gloves. To remove my helmet I have to take off my gloves, undo my jacket and undo the helmet chin strap. To put my lid back on I have to remove my jacket so that I can put my neck gaiter back on properly and secure my long pony tail, then I can put my jacket back on, slide my helmet back on and secure the strap, do up my jacket and then pull my gloves on. I struggle with the cuff of the glove and then discover that while struggling with all of this, I have put my bike key in my pocket while undressing, which means I have to undress again to find to my bike key.

Finally I can get back on my bike and get going, after an ordeal that has hurt my shoulder and taken fifteen minutes instead of five. All the while, the impatient car driver waiting to use the fuel pump has got aggressive and has sounded his horn to hurry me up.

Now people in garages can understand why I get a bit irked when asked to remove my helmet. Let's see the next car driver have to undress and then get redressed on the forecourt just so that they can fill up with less than a tenners worth of fuel.

When I told my friends about this, I then got the racist comment of "They never ask Muslim women to remove their veils" and this upsets me too, because in a round about kind of way they are right and having an ignorant shop owner cause a racist bigot to have a thought that is kind of right is wrong on so many levels. I do not know any women who wear a veil or a Burka, not because I am opposed to Muslim women but because I just have not met any, even at Bike Night. The comment though is not aimed at the Muslim woman, but rather the difference between a mode of transport and religious expression.

As an Atheist and a woman, I find the idea of having to cover up my hair or even my face kind of weird and in truth I do not know why a Muslim woman is required to do this or why she would want to do this, but that is her choice. I am required by law to wear a Bike Helmet when I ride my bike, if I am not wearing one I can be fined or worse, so the use of a Helmet is not actually my choice (well, yes it is. I value my brain too much to risk having it splashed across the road like a hedgehog sandwich!) which makes it even more annoying.

I have a friend who works security in Tesco and he says that he asks motorcyclist to remove their helmets because and I quote "You would not walk into a bank wearing one!", only he is wrong. I regularly walk into my bank wearing my helmet and I get smiled at and welcomed with a polite and friendly "Hello Sister Jayney". I do remove it because I am usually doing something that requires a bit of a chat though and the sound proofing of my lid is really rather good. However, if I just want a quick balance or cash I go to the ATM.

It was pointed out to me that with a polite explanation the issue can be resolved, but again the emphasis is on the motorcyclist being the polite one and to be honest I am growing very tired of having to be the polite one all of the time, especially when I am spoken to like the contents of a dog toilet. Not activating the pump because I have my lid on is rude, barking an order at me is rude. The girl in the BP garage at least had to the common sense to ask me politely to remove my helmet and my reply back was equally polite.

As for ASDA in Weston, they can go and insert their heads into their own orifices. While having to return a scratched DVD and with no where safe to put my lid I pushed up the front of my lid and spoke to the woman on the customer service desk, who agreed that I had done the right thing. Meanwhile outside some cretin pushed a trolley into my bike! Moments later, the overly officious security guard very nearly got a thump when he spoke to me like filth and went to put his hand on me as he barked at me to remove my lid. Carbon-Kevlar knuckle protectors would have made a nasty mess of his cheek bones I thought to myself afterwards.

What am I saying with this? I don't know, just that I am really really fed up with other people. From now on I am using the automatic pay at pump service and quite frankly, the officious small minded bottom miners go and dry hump their own mothers.