There are some things in life that are really annoying. Then there are things that are only mildly annoying, little habits and behaviours that shouldn’t bother us, but, somehow, they do!
I understand that we are only human. We all have irritating little foibles. Take the person who stops in a doorway. Not beside it, or just outside it, but right in it! They’ve reached the doorway and decided that this is the perfect place to check their phone, rearrange their thoughts and consider where they want to go next.
A queue of people soon builds up behind him. They would quite like to use the doorway for its original purpose.
‘Er, excuse me,’ someone says politely.
He doesn’t move.
‘Um, sorry, please could I get past?’
Eventually he moves about three inches which is clearly his contribution to the community!
Supermarkets are where patience is stretched to the limit. You want pasta sauce. Two women are comparing jars with the concentration of someone deciding which candidate should become prime minister. You hover, politely. You are ignored. You move to the left. So do they. You step to the right. So do they. Defeated you move on to the next aisle hoping you’ll remember to go back and get your bottle of pasta sauce!
Then there are those who don’t realise that their cars have something called indicators which should be used when they are going to turn. They can move a lever either left or right, up or down. For them indicators are optional. For us it’s just another irritation and another hazard on the road!
Let’s not forget the person who tells you that they’ll only be five minutes. It’s an optimistic statement made by someone who has no intention whatsoever of measuring time. It could be twenty minutes, half an hour, or, in extreme cases, next Tuesday!
Another real bugbear is cyclists, most of which are also motorists. They drive cars. They must surely suffer the same frustration as we do when we round the bend and are suddenly confronted by a hoard of cyclists. They’ve spread across the road like they’re out for a leisurely catchup with friends. Not a couple of cyclists keeping to their side of the road. The entire membership of the local cycling club in a happy little convoy, chatting, laughing and gesticulating, completely oblivious to the fact that they’ve created a traffic jam of biblical proportions.
Why do cyclists morph into a different species when they climb out of their cars and onto bicycles? Suddenly the road belongs to them. It’s amazing how quickly personalities change when swapping four wheels for two!
Then we get the one speed driver. It doesn’t matter if the speed limits is 20, 30, 40 or 50 miles an hour. They have selected their speed and that’s it! Along that whole, winding road with no overtaking places, the speed limit will vary from 20 to 50 miles an hour. Their car is stuck at 28 mph! Perhaps their car has only two settings. ‘Off’ or ‘28 mph’! Perhaps they just regard the speed limits as interesting suggestions rather than actual instructions!
Some people have never heard of ‘personal space’. They stand so close behind you in a queue that you can practically feel them breathing down your neck. You take a small step forward. They follow. You gingerly edge forward again. So do they. Eventually you’re standing so close to the person in front of you that you’ve inadvertently become part of a human sandwich.
Emails were invented to make life easier. I’m not convinced! Every morning I open my inbox to find clothes I don’t want, holidays I can’t afford, things I didn’t even know existed and special offers on products I have never shown the slightest interest in. I spend a part of every day deleting them and trying to ‘unsubscribe’. For a lot of companies the tiny word ‘unsubscribe’, although a legal requirement, is well hidden and often ignored!
The ‘reply all’ brigade are really annoying! Someone sends an innocent message to twenty people. Within seconds phones start pinging. ‘Thanks John’, ‘see you Tuesday’, ‘can you send me the details’, ‘good idea’. For heavens sake, we don’t care! It’s between you and John! Push the correct button!
I suppose life would be rather dull if we were all perfect! What would we have to complain about?
We’re all mildly annoying though we may not agree
For what drives you mad might seem harmless to me
So don’t take offence at what people do
‘Cos there’s a good chance that you’re doing it too! 👠
Jenny Burrell 