Very annoying people

I reckon it's time you mowed him down, then, Chewbacca . (But do try to avoid the dog, who deserves a second chance of life with a more sensible owner )

This has happened to me several times recently.... me, driving along a road, with a jogger running on the pavement, often with a dog on a lead in tow. Headphones clamped to his head, the jogger suddenly, and without warning, runs across the road in front of me. The dog, having no headphones clamped to its head, has heard the vehicle approaching and tries to stop. Jogger still not bothering to look at the road, yanks on the dogs lead to make it hurry up. It's only when I sounded the horn, loudly, that the jogger even notices that there really is traffic running up the A6 at 8 o'clock in the morning. Jogger then waives his fist in the air at me and berates his poor and more intelligent dog. This has happened to me twice this year so far. Probably the same jogger.

Last year I had occasion to be fishing a local reservoir which is also popular with local walkers, having a tarmac path around the perimeter adjacent to the bank. But principally, it is a fishery. There are signs indicating that walkers are not to impede anglers, but they blatantly stand behind you chatting or waiting for their dogs to pee on your fishing bag, or throwing bits of bread into your swim to attract the ducks. Then, having surrounded you with avian wildlife, or let their dogs have a nice swim, they b****r off to ruin someone else’s day! One day - this is absolutely true - a couple of ladies in wheelchairs ambled round, parked themselves behind me and proceeded to unwrap sandwiches and in between eating them, to discuss, very loudly, the sexual predilections of the partner of one of them and how it was adversely impacting on her life!! The man was obviously some kind of deviant! I hoped that, once lunch had been eaten, they would move on but no, on it went, and by this time I was so embarrassed by it all I was practically steaming inside my waders, and I exited the water and asked them to either carry on their conversation elsewhere so that I could concentrate, or to reimburse me the £12 cost of my fishing ticket to cover my discomfiture! They then proceeded to berate me in a very colourful way, but they moved! I sat down on the bank to recover my equilibrium and marvel at the casual way that some people choose to share the most intimate details of their lives with all and sundry!

Reminds me of an old joke where a train passenger receives multiple mobile phone calls. “I’m popular today” he remarks. “Not with us” replies another passenger.

I have had to raise my voice on a train to speak to my grannie, who was deaf. However in that situation, I find the speaker and the listener will keep their conversation to the essentials out of politeness.

Years ago, before mobile phones, I found myself squashed into the window seat of a packed morning train on a 4 -hour journey opposite a fairly boozed up young woman who proceeded to tell us all about her love life. She was particularly taken with me (a female of similar age), though I gave her no encouragement but she started asking loud, rude, personal questions while tanking up on miniatures from the trolley. The quieter my answers got, the more she repeated them at volume.

It's very difficult to be honest or blunt when you are physically jammed in with little chance of finding anything else. I had previously witnessed/ had to endure similar behaviour on crowded trains but both times was travelling in a supportive group or the guard intervened. The two people in the aisle seats kept reading their books. I think they realised they'd be on that train with her a lot longer than I would as her journey was about 7 hours.

I finally found my steely core when the loudmouth started making terrible, racist comments about a Chinese family at the table opposite. I can't repeat what she was saying here but - although right was on my side - it was difficult to speak up, admittedly belatedly, and still nobody came to my aid.

I like wine too, but I don't think it goes with crowded public transport.

On a lighter note, when did it become acceptable to eat crisps in the theatre or cinema? The crackling and crunching goes on forever.

The one thing I hate, probs in common with other people, are those people often on trains who both like to think that the whole carriage wants to hear their choice of music and don't use earplugs or headphones and those who seem to like the sound of their own voice and talk loud on their mobiles. their is no need for that anyway. They hold the phone up to their ears anyway, so the recipient can always hear them and they don't have to talk like a fishwife. There are other things that annoy me as well, but this is probs the main ones. love, hugs and kisses xxxxxxx - BIG COL

Yes people who talk over you....grrrr. This is only for those I don't like much - I now stop talking and adopt a vacant gaze. When they eventually run out of steam and are waiting for me to reply I stay silent until they ask if I'm OK. I then reply that I was just waiting for them to finish speaking because my Grandma taught me that it was good manners to do so! Takes the wind right out of their sails, hehehe. Also can't stand folks who bring smelly packed lunches onto the plane, coach etc. What's wrong with a plain cheese or ham sandwich in that situation? And those strangers who insist on talking to you on journeys, even though you're reading or watching a film...

This now reminds me of another.
People who, whilst talking to you on the phone , are texting and e-mailing, you can hear the dings and then get short silences whilst they are reading replies.
I am sad to say my D is very guilty of this. I do call her out on this but it is always "important or work related"..
I sometimes say well deal with it and call me back but she concentrates on me then.

Yes ... mobile phones!!! People in supermarkets standing in front of shelves saying, 'Do you want beans or spaghetti?' etc. Can they not make the simplest of decisions without support?!!!

Oh maytime2 I have done it myself but I rolled about laughing at your posts.

A really interesting thread. I can empathise with most of the comments and I, too, know someone who talks over me, where I continue to speak so that we are speaking together. I must admit I don’t know anyone who’s particularly late. I’m always early so that would be annoying. Oh yes, the Liz and Tom thing, odd, isn’t it. Maw’s point about lack of a thank you for her lovely book gifts would make me really angry. I think I’d have to ask whether they’d enjoyed them, but I shouldn’t have to. I did recently ask a man to take his feet off the train seat. I asked politely and he did comply. If he’d been a yob I probably would just have moved where I couldn’t see him.

Most of the people I find annoying are on mobile phones. Those who discuss personal things, or have arguments on their phones in public. Those who almost walk into me because they're looking at their phone. Those who I think are talking to me when they suddenly shout "Hello!" because they're wearing earphones and talking on their phones.

Me too Marelli! Even not on the phone, people talking at you whilst pretending they are having a conversation with you but not allowing you to respond or just talking over you if you try to join in. I have a relative who does that constantly and on the phone too and so I put her on loudspeaker and talk to her as if I was having a conversation with someone normal so that DH can hear and then just see how outrageous I can be. I have never yet been caught out because she just does not hear anything as she is so busy talking. It keeps us amused but I wouldn't do it if I thought she was listening anyway.

lizzypopbottle your comment brought to mind an occasion when we took a friend to see the film about Florence Foster Jenkins. He was pretty ok until the lady started to 'sing' when I felt our row of chairs start to shake and I knew it was he who was laughing because he is quite a large man. Well, that was ok but when one of the characters in the film started to laugh our chairs shook so much that even DH was raising his eyebrows at our friend. But it was when that character in the film was being hustled out of the theatre by her husband and was laughing so much that she could no longer stand and ended up crawling out on all fours that our row of chairs were reverberating like a steam train and I really thought we were in trouble. The problem was that nobody else in that little theatre was laughing at all and that was when I so nearly lost it because I found that fact almost funnier than the film! I honestly thought our friend was going to end up on the floor too. He said that he couldn't remember when he had enjoyed a film more but at least he didn't make any noise about it I suppose. To this day I cannot understand why nobody else was laughing!

Myself! I annoy myself all the time - just gone and agreed to something I don't want to do rather than cause annoyance. Learn to say no woman. Apart from that, people who park off centre in car parks rendering the adjacent space, usually the last one, unusable, queue jumpers, sorry I'm in a hurry, don't care if your car parking ticket goes into the next price slot as long as mine doesn't and ........ Yuk - mums in cafes or restaurants who don't go and change baby's nappy immediately it obviously needs done - I have left and told staff why. Smelly babies are NOT cute. Oooooo I feel better.

Clearly got your finger on the button Maytime!

Maw see my thread on 'thank yours'. I am sorry they have not been gracious. Is there time yet to hope for acknowledgement? ....

A friend and I went to see 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' a few years ago at the very small Alnwick Playhouse. They show films on a big screen on the stage. Otherwise, I think our next nearest cinema is a good 30 miles away. Anyway, it's a pleasant, mildly funny film, one that made me smile a lot and chuckle once or twice. A group of ladies behind us shrieked with laughter throughout the film and irritated the hell out of me. I can only assume they'd been drinking.

A newly widowed old school friend of mine was over from the States. My husband and I went out for a meal to a local slightly upmarket Restaurant. We began talking about old times and we laughed a lot. I think it was the first time she had laughed in a while. About 9.30 a man came over to us and said we had ruined his romantic night out with his wife. We apologised but when they’d gone we also apologised to the Restaurant Manager who said we had caused no trouble at all and were welcome back anytime. My daughter when told laughed and said Mum you have a combined age of 180. You’ll need to stop getting into trouble soon!!

People who talk over me when we’re speaking on the phone. One of my friends does this, and I’ve tried carrying on with what I was saying - which means both of us talking at the same time - but she doesn’t notice. Just goes to show how interesting my conversation was. ?

Some of us can’t help coughing at concerts or the theatre! I do always struggle to hold back a cough but that just seems to make it worse somehow.

Speaking of concerts, people who rattle sweet bags. We went to the theatre recently and the person behind us rattled bags the whole way through, despite me turning around several times to give them a look. It was very offputting.They were oblivious.

People who cough at concerts.

Overbearingly loud people are really, well, overbearing, aren't they?
kitty wouldn't it have been satisfying to start a very shouty conversation with your DH - loud enough to drown out the irritating woman, and maybe loud enough to stop her in her tracks to look at you? Then you could have smiled apologetically and said "Oh I'm so sorry, but it was the only way we could make ourselves heard above your strident voice". Oh to have the nerve to do that
And well done Baggs for dealing with the young woman on the phone in your carriage - that was a class act

Christinefrance I agree my books are my friends. I borrowed one of my all time favourites to a good friend, I know it was a very big book(over 900 pages) after 6 months she informed me sorry I've lost it. How?
It was book 1 of a 7 book series. Out of print, it's taken me 2 years to hunt one down. grrr

Dd2 was threatening a miscarriage and I raced to help by train, getting in the quiet carriage so I could must courage and composure. A woman and her husband talked to a young man opposite who tried to keep his voice down. She had a very listen to me voice and in the end I had to say that this was a quiet carriage but she just said it meant people weren't to use phones. I'm afraid I said that she really had no need of a phone ever. I still hate her and the threatened miscarriage is now 8.