A little whinge

A woman sat next to me on the bus years ago, and took out a map of the shopping centre she was visiting. She held it out in front of her for quite a long time, and all the while, the back of her right hand was rubbing against the side of my left breast. I was mortified, and couldn't fathom why she did not realise what she was doing. There was absolutely no room to move away from her, and I was too embarrassed to speak up.

Ginny42

My whinge is when I park my Focus - not a small car - and I arrive back to it in a car park to find a 4x4 on each side. I then shimmy into the seat trying not to mark either mine or theirs and edge out in centimetres until I have clear vision of whether another driver may be approaching.

The absolute worst scenario is when there is someone waiting for my space and sits drumming on the steering wheel whilst I to and fro to get enough swing to vacate the space. Whinge over!

I hate it too Ginny42 when someone is impatiently waiting for me to leave, I go to pieces and takes me forever to complete a simple manoeuvre. My husband can't understand it and tells me just to ignore them but I can't.

Hands up I am one of those yogi's Grammaretto our yoga class is followed on by a yoga nidre class and unless I'm right by yoga teacer, I cant hear.
However it is very rare that any one wants to front of class, the scramble for places is usual at the back.

On my first day at this particular yoga class yoga. I plonked my mat down by door thinking I would out of the way , I was asked to move by another member, which I did.
This lady still goes and always in the spot next to the door , I assume she has a very good reason and no one complains.

Sometimes there is a reason why people choose to be in a certain place.

When I was a library assistant (many years ago) I went to work with a boss who was a communist. If someone phoned at a busy time when all assistants were occupied he used to make the caller wait in the "queue" for their turn.

Back then not everyone was on the phone (1960s) and he thought it unfair that people should be able to take priority over readers who had taken the trouble to come to the library just because they could afford a phone. I have to admit that I did this with my own library at busy times.

We had to answer the phone because the ringing was irritating but I used to say something like "Im afraid all the staff are busy just now so I must ask you to wait a few moments until some is free." Ofter the caller had hung up before someone got back to them.

nanna8

The first time we went to China, many years ago, they had seen very few white people. In a department store a lady behind the counter spotted my feet and beckoned all her friends round to stare and laugh at them because she thought they were huge ( not really, British size 6). I thought it was funny and laughed but can you imagine the comments if the situation was reversed? Thank goodness those people weren’t the victim of the woke police.

That reminded me of a Swedish friend* visiting her son in Malaysia, who wanted to buy some shoes.

When she told the shop assistant her size, the woman said, ‘We sell shoes here, not boats!’ 😱

*she’s like me, tall and size 7

I remember joining the chorus of a large semi professional opera company in my late teens not long before the first night.
The producer put me in the front as a ‘camp follower’ waving a flag. I was very pleased, but the older members of the chorus weren’t and as each night went by, they pulled me back until I practically ended up in the wings😁
Also working in Germany in a strange town, I decided to go to mass. What a cold reception from the regulars in their pews! Huffing, puffing and utter disdain for this interloper. Not very Christian I must say.

Calendargirl

^Is this a Covid reaction, do you think, overthehill, or do you just like to sit alone?^

I think many of us on this thread just like to sit alone actually.

Yep nothing to do with covid.

I think I have worked out why she did it. If she picked a vacant double seat she would have to sit on the outer one to hang onto her trolley. Then if someone wanted to sit on the inner seat, she would have to get up to let them in. Far better to sit next to someone already using the inner seat, saves her the bother.

Allsorts

Years ago I went to the cinema, it was almost empty, a man clutching his shopping bag came and sat next to me and offered me a humbug. He kept looking at me so I moved seats, within a few minutes he joined me and asked if I was ready for a humbug,

You should have told him you prefer Allsorts.

Years ago I went to the cinema, it was almost empty, a man clutching his shopping bag came and sat next to me and offered me a humbug. He kept looking at me so I moved seats, within a few minutes he joined me and asked if I was ready for a humbug,

Shantygirly

I go regularly to aqua aerobics and every woman has her 'spot' woe betide if you should encroach on someone else's!! A deliberate kick during exercise has been known, and some of those women are really scary!

It took me a while to learn that rule Shantygirly. What I find is that those at the front are very precious about their spots whereas those at the back will move up to let you in, and welcome you.

Is this a Covid reaction, do you think, overthehill, or do you just like to sit alone?

I think many of us on this thread just like to sit alone actually.

Maybe she didn't want to fill up the wheelchair space in case someone in a wheelchair, or pushing a pram, got on and she'd then have to move!
That may have been the seat she usually sat in, and thought you would not mind as it was empty.
Is this a Covid reaction, do you think, overthehill, or do you just like to sit alone?

Heve you ever sent someone to the back of the line when they attempted to jump the queue?

I saw a very grand old lady do it once in the Oxford St branch of John Lewis. She was seated beside the counter where the assistant was busy measuing out many meters of expensive curtain fabric. Several others were waiting in line. A young man walked up to the head of the queue and began engaging the assistant in conversation. Flustered, she stopped measuring the material and this obviously irritated the old lady.

"Young man" she addressed him in a snippy cut glass accent. "This assistant is attending to me. Kindly go to the back of the queue and wait your turn!" The young man looked at her, open mouthed. Then she banged her stick on the floor and repeated the order. He walked off pretty smartly and left the department.

I loved the way she "took charge" of the situation when the assistant was obviously lacking in training. In the kind of situations some of you mention here (like the swimming lane) I would tell the person myself to get out of the way rather than wait to do it through an intermediary.

Life’s too short overthehill -

erm...

Mind you I have a particular spot in the gym on the warm up space under a nice window to look out of to do my yoga. Woe to anyone occupying "my" space......[grim]

TerriBull

My whinge of late, minor as it is, is this. I go swimming around three times a week. Being a strange person, and I'm not alone I'm thankfully in the majority, when I'm in the pool, I just swim that's why I go. However, I can't help noticing that some people go, get in the pool, usually before they amble off to the jacuzzi and spend their time chatting to a friend, there is a bar/coffee lounge for socialising. The problem is, the talkers, will stay at the end of the pool, the bit where we the swimmers do our turn around and because some of the width is taken up, swimmers wishing to avoid them, get corralled into half a section of the pool because there are inactive people just hanging around talking at the end. I've started to swim at them now, depending on how many of us are doing lane swimming, one woman looked a bit shocked with an "oh" as I approached the end as if I wasn't observing the protocol of the "lets just stand here and get wet people". I mean I don't see the point grrr!

At my gym the pool attendant would intervene.

Ditto asking people in the wrong lane to move (ie a slow person in the fast lane or vice versa. Standard procedure. I'd have a word with gym management to hand down to poolside workers. Given that you have jacuzzi's and a cafe (which we do) its perfectly reasonable. It might help if there is a notice poolside to back this up.

Pascal30. More un nerving is being followed to the toilet in China. What do they hope to see? it is bad enough not having any doors.

It flummoxes a group of us if when we arrive at the staff room for lunch to find 'our' spot occupied by supply staff or students.
We do sit elsewhere without fuss.

It's when they help themselves (by the glass full sometimes) to staffs personal milk in the fridge, without enquiring.

Mollygo

mumofmadboys

Perhaps she was lonely and hoped to have a chat?

My first thought was, “Perhaps the OP looked a friendly sort of person.”

Well she got that wrong, didn’t she 😂

mumofmadboys

Perhaps she was lonely and hoped to have a chat?

My first thought was, “Perhaps the OP looked a friendly sort of person.”

Grammaretto, to make a change, I issued 'seat numbers' for my adult IT class (mostly pensioners, always in the same seats) - half way through the course. I said it was an experiment (well, it was my experiment) to see how well they managed when mixed up, randomly, without their usual companions. They did make new friends. Quite a few came along just to socialise.

People (well, here in London) do have their own personal spaces and we're instinctively aware of them. A woman at work 'just knew' her husband was having an affair - as he stood too close to a friend at the bar!

I’m SO pleased to read this from all of you, I thought I was the only one that felt like this!!!
I would like to get into the head of the person invading our personal space…. “ oh look, a whole empty bus (train, car park…) but there’s one person over there, so I’ll go and sit RIGHT NEXT TO THEM!!!” Bonkers 🤷‍♀️

I try very hard not to let petty things annoy me. They raise my blood pressure and that's not a good thing. So I take a deep breath and relax. In the case of parking in multi storey I'll go to a floor that has spaces if possible. I don't really bother who sits beside me on a bus unless I am going on a long journey then I move if possible.

, a few years ago I was going on a short break holiday and getting on the coach head down looking for my seat number, found it and sat down next to a lady who was 'with' the couple in front so they were quietly nattering back and forth. when we stopped at the services then returned to the coach I saw what the problem was..........all the seats behind me were vacant! why didnt they point this out to me... ha ha I did feel a fool.. but my head was down looking for my given seat number.