Who's sorry now?

Ahh . . . breathe in . . . and hold it . . . a relax. Ahhhhh. I do apologise for my lack of earliness this morning but I was battling with the beast printer in the workshop. I thought to myself 'I'll just get this little job running before I make myself comfy'. So one hour of cursing and shouting at it to just behave and flipping well work, here I am!

There really is nothing worse than machines that you rely on decide to not play ball! GRRRRR. I'm sorry, I do apologise once again for ranting about it, it doesn't really help. Mind you what's annoying me now is that the Facebook spell check is questioning my spelling of apologise!! This is how it's spelt you stupid programme!! Just because your system was built in America doesn't mean we all want to spell things the stupid way Americans do!

Sorry. Apologising is something we Brits do an awful lot of isn't it! I have come to realise that, it’s normally the tiniest of things that can drive me crazy and send me hurtling into a half-hour violent rant while the bigger things don’t really seem to effect me all that much.

The way I see it, if the earth were to wobble off its axis and plummet into the sun, causing a massive explosion which would in turn destroy the entire universe in the space of a few seconds, it would only kill me once. On the other hand, the fifteen minutes between me not being able to find something and then eventually finding it in my pocket will set me off on a rampage of banging things about in a fit of such violent frustration that the whole ‘earth-sun-destruction of the universe’ scenario might seem like a picnic by comparison.

So when things like that happen, we have to apologise.

I think that apologising is one of the hardest things that anyone has to do, in any language and no matter who the person concerned is. Sadly, most people’s apologies these days very quickly become excuses, and eventually switch from ‘I’m sorry for what I did’ to ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’, which is not really an apology but an accusation! Other people just don’t bother to apologise, and try to pretend that nothing actually happened, which is worse! An apology has to be made, because if you don’t say you’re sorry when you should, it sort of means that it wasn’t that big a deal to you, and you don’t really care. So, how should it be done?

“I’m really sorry” is always a good way to start, but maybe the phrase “I apologise” is slightly better? ‘Apologise’ is a verb, and therefore adds a lot more to what you’re saying, whereas ‘sorry’ is just telling the person how you feel. Although maybe it does sound a bit trite?

Here, then, are some 'go to' expressions that may help to get you out of the giant hole you dug for yourself at some point...

Please accept my apology... I 'm really sorry.
I was wrong.
I shouldn’t have said that.
I made a stupid mistake.
I’m genuinely sorry.
There was no excuse for how I acted.
It was not my intention to... I’m terribly sorry.

The key to a successful apology is sincerity! If you don’t really mean it, then don’t bother to say it. Right, now I must crack on with things I suppose . . . Now where did I leave that thing I need? It was just here a minute ago...