Once I completed my little list below, I had such a glowing sense of the therapeutic value of relieving myself of them that I had to go back up to the title and add ‘Part 1’, which gives me a great excuse to return to this topic again in the near future.
So, back to the topic of the day; those little situations, people, things and events that really ‘P’ me off. Never huge cataclysmic things, usually small and hardly noticeable to many, but still extremely annoying nevertheless.
1. Mothers with prams or pushers who habitually find the need to attend to their babies attire while blocking the entire entrance to a shopping centre. As well as themselves, a pram and a baby, they are often accompanied by additional toddlers and a shopping caddie to provide extra blocking potential.
2. Fruit annoys me. Every time I go shopping, the beautiful display of fresh fruit gives me an instant guilt trip. So wanting to satisfy my desire to lead a healthy lifestyle I of course buy some. Then once home, I place all my beautifully fresh fruit in a bowl ….. and then naturally, leave them there to rot. Such a waste of money.
3. Cheap, pretendy book reviewers. These are a new and nasty breed of beast who, armed with an Amazon ‘Look Inside’ first half chapter, decide they can then write ‘honest and independent’ book reviews. These nasty little creatures probably belong on one of my more disagreeable lists.
4. Charging cables. Ever since the advent of the PC and then later the mobile telephone, this problem has existed. Why oh why do I need a different cable for every single device? It is environmentally catastrophic as well as being a nightmare to keep track of. For heaven’s sake, they all run on the same damn electricity!
5. App updates are the newest annoyance for me. Yes, it’s so cool having these wonderfully handy and useful apps on my phone and iPad, but after a couple of weeks you discover the curse of the ‘updates available’ icon. Is it just me who wonders why on earth they just don’t update themselves and leave me to get on with my game of Angry Birds?
I am totally annoyed by all of the same things and more…rude or mean people really annoy me. I am working on a good "comeback" line for them.
I'm with you on the apps for sure, Derek. I'm not sure why there isn't at least an option to have your apps updated automatically if you choose. I guess I can see that some folks wouldn't want a bunch of apps updating while they're trying to do other web stuff on the device as it might slow it down. Truthfully, I'm just not sure why it hasn't been done yet.
EJ
Your number 1 annoys me to but what annoys me more than that is when anyone (parents with prams aren't the only offenders) stops and has a chat at the bottom or top of escalators so you can get on or off. Drives me mental!
I was nearly going to add the escalator 'jam' Kayleigh. The Swiss are specialists at that! I spend a lot of time walking backwards and trying to keep my feet! Maybe in Part 2. :)
Love this list!
I'm with you on all five Derek. There is one I would add however – people on mobility scooters who think they own the pavement and drive like a demented F1 driver! :)
You just followed me on twitter, so I had to investigate. I just started (or should I say restarted after a couple years lapse) a book blog. Your book Louis interests me. I'm going to put that on my summer reading list. I'll begin there. Thanks for following me on twitter, I followed you back, and am following you here as well, and will blogroll you too on my bookreading blog. (I have 2 blogs, check my profile here on blogger). Thanks.
Gotcha NoviceArtist! Both blogs followed! Look forward to reading your posts. :)
I'll have to write a part 2 soon I think Jack! Demented F1 drivers huh? I wonder what Schumi will make of that. lol
Yes to the mothers with prams thing (apart from when I had a pram, obviously, in which case everybody else was in my way) especially the ones who stand and chat in the middle of the pavement.I'm also with you on the fruit issue, especially pears which are just silly. There is a 5 second window of opportunity when you can eat a pear, between it being too hard and too squishy. The same goes for salad too which has no point whatsoever except to make people feel smug.(and I think the recent health scares prove that we should all stick to eating meat, butter, cream, chocolate and wine).
I'd like to add tourists to the list, particularly the ones who walk on York's cycle paths when I'm trying to cycle. Also, women who drive huge 4×4's just to take their children to school and back and then take up two parking spaces because they can't park/drive the things. And old men in hats who drive too slowly, or anybody who doesn't signal.
That's just the very tip of my very long list but actually, I'm a very easy going person :)
And that's just reminded me, I also hate those word verification things. I have The Wrong Kind of Eyes for those things, they're like the magic eye things, I never got those either.
Well Tracy, I think you've written part 2 for me. Maybe I'll just copy and paste for tomorrow! It's true what you say about pears, but everyone knows salads are necessary – to keep the compost drawer full at the bottom of the refrigerator!
Oh, I'm the worst offender of being over-optimistic about my fruit and vegetable consumption. It's doubly painful if you bought the fancy organic variety and then have to throw out the whole slimy mess after it rots!
Same for me Johanna. I ONLY compost organic fruit and vegetables in my refrigerator. :)
I assure you that the mothers you describe in annoyance #1 are equally as annoyed as you are. I feel a sense of annoyance just thinking about it. This is why I avoid letting my children out of their cages – kidding of course ;-)I am in complete agreement with #2 and have a freezer full of overly ripe bananas to prove it.Great read – made me laugh! Cheers,Lala
Very funny (because it's true!). Look forward to part 2 (and 3 and 4 and…)
I'll add mothers with prams who insist on buying the biggest tank of a pram for the smallest baby, then expect you to move out the way so they can take up all the room. That's if they can get on the bus in the first place…
Heh have to definitely agree with you about those annoyances. My personal favorite is the fruit. It has to be expensive, it's not like it grows on trees.
Yes, and they POLISH the fruit, to make it sparkle invitingly at you, and, when you get it home, if you do inadvertently take a bite it tastes like cotton wool – and that's before it's had time to hit its half-life.
Mind you, I do like cherries.
I'm a nectarine man myself Elizabeth. Organic preferably as they rot much faster! lol
I am looking at my two bowls of rotting produce (vegetables AND fruits) and my 30+ charger cables and powermats and feeling distinctly less like an albatross…
Oh how I wish your annoyance was sufficient to make a standard for chargers appear. Unlikely though.
Cables. Oh how I hate cables. If they can make my internet and printer work wirelessly, why can't they make them all that way?
And why is it the minute you buy a device that *does* have a different cable, it doesn't come equipped with that cable and you have to buy it separately? *Grizzle,whine, moan*
Great list :)
Angel
Couldn't agree more with some of these. My personal pet peeve is people who walk slowly and/or have no sense of spatial awareness.
Example, you're walking down a fairly narrow aisle in a store, or wherever, wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. But the person in front decides they want to walk slowly down the centre of the aisle, leaving not enough room for you to squeeze past on either side. Even worse when they decide to stop every now and then.
The “updates available” notice tends to stay there, taunting me, for a month of more before I take the time to click on it. I know my phone will do nothing else during the completion of the update process. So I ignore it.
Regarding the fruit, perhaps you could throw it all into a blender and drink it? If you can stomach the idea. I started doing that a few weeks back and… all I’ll say is the body appreciates it. Made me as queasy as hell at first, though. Each to his or her own I guess.