Being moved along by someone who "wants your place".

I recently finished a circuit training course for health at our local sports centre. Some weeks the course was better attended than others people generally were polite to wait their turn. I would not be bullied into getting off an exercise machine by anyone I would also tell them to jog on..
Some people are just down right selfish and think they have the right to push others around. I have experienced this especially abroad I won’t say where because I would be stereotyping. Let’s just say it wasn’t about sun beds as I don’t sunbathe it was about seats at a beer festival.

Not the gym but in an internet cafe in Kathmandu years ago and well before smart phones and universal internet access. Cybercafes were a bit of a novelty and probably quite expensive for the locals. There were about 10 machines all occupied and I was the only woman there. Most others being used by male backpacker types. This is relevant.

A Nepali man comes to my side and says "I need to use this machine". I tell him "Ive paid for my time and have 30 minutes left. Use one of the other computers." "But they are all full". He stands beside me and I tell him to move out of my personal space where he continues to stand. I stand up and face him and I am quite a big lady and at 5 ft 8 ins and taller than most Nepalis, even men. I tell him "Go away or I will call the manager" in a deliberately loud and commanding voice pitched so that all can hear.

Next machine has two male backpacker types. One turns in his seat to look round and the other half rises. Not intervening but using quite menacing body language. The Nepali starts to back away. He scoots over to the manager and there is a conversation. Manager shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. Nepali man slinks out followed by backpacker calling after him in a loud voice that "Good for you. He tried that yesterday and never pays." I tell them that I am not a charity and I dont like scroungers.

Nepali man hangs about outside and I deliberately book another half hour on the computer. Backpackers leave and say something to the Nepali who quickly leaves as well. The cyber cafe is on a busy junction that I have to pass several times to get to where Im going. Nepali man is hanging around outside the next day but looks away real sheepish when he sees me.

People have actually told me I should have been "kind" and allowed him to steal my time because I was a rich tourist compared with him.

Yeah, right. So why didnt he ask one of the men? He learned a valuable lesson that just because he picks on a woman she is not going to cave in. Nepali people are usually quite polite and non confrontational.

Pfft !!! I would say "jog on.".

😂🤣😅😆

I’m currently struggling with this and having to become oddly assertive.

German men in a nice Spanish hotel, at the food servery think they can just bulldoze me when they want to occupy my space - so I’m having go stand with my feed a metre apart and shoulders back braced for contact.

Similarly on the narrow footpaths (happy to receive any feedback here from anyone with knowledge) the footpath widths will only accommodate one person going in each direction - but the Germans approach fully two-abreast and don’t give way. Also puzzled that everyone over 50 is also holding hands? Again, I’m bulking myself up to look like a tank and “take up my space” - just to get through.

In fairness, I do love how everyone walks on the same side as they drive - so everyone you meet keeps to the right 😊

On an aircraft I have my rehearsed answer ready “I’m happy with the seat I’ve booked thanks” (I haven’t booked the seat - I’m just not moving)

On the other hand, when DH and I travel by tube and people can see that we're together, but in seats which aren't next to each other, they often move so that we can be next to each other.

I was asked to move so that a young child was not separated from its family so I agreed reluctantly. Seated elsewhere I realised there were 2 adults and 2 children in the family, 2 either side of the aisle and the reason for me moving was so that said child could have my window seat. Not pleased.

Aren’t Jo public a lovely bunch?
Thank goodness I can’t be bothered to drag my aged body to such a delightful establishment!

I'm with you BigLouis.
I've posted previously about people's behaviour on public transport. I commuted into London for over 30 years. I know whereof I speak. On occasions where people expected me to move so that they can sit "in their group" there's been an immoveable "no, I'm fine where I am thanks" from me. Most astonishingly people who more or less demand that you do these things are always incredibly unpleasant!!! This has always baffled me since if I wanted someone to do me a favour , I'd be as nice as possible. That's a no-brainer , surely.
Incidentally I'm not usually an unpleasant person and I'll do someone( a stranger ) a favour on most occasions if I'm asked nicely.

I’d like to see some one try and move me on!!

I have seen so many arguments arise on line, apropos of plane seats, where someone who has paid and booked a seat is asked to move. I think I read, again on MN, someone was asked to move so that a woman could be next to her children, when the person in the seat responded with "I've paid for this seat" the entitled mother said something along the lines of "what difference does that make!" duh! well clearly the price of the pre booked seat you deliberately obtuse person I know when we took our children abroad when they were young that wasn't the case, families were automatically placed together. It does seem that is no longer the case, and we all know when we book our plane tickets there is an extra charge for where you want to be positioned. We always pay for two outside isle seats opposite each other, I don't like being hemmed in, some prefer a window seat, it's fair to say that most people don't want the middle seat and it does seem that is often the seat that gets offered to those who have already paid for their seat that some other entitled person wishes them to give up. .

Aisle every time for me so I can get up and walk about without climbing over sleeping strangers.

I checked the booked seats on the journey home and made sure I booked mine, free at check in, that had one person or a couple next to me so no-one had to clamber over me!
My DDiL is a frequent flyer so showed me that trick.

I ended up with a couple who were from Glasgow and quite chatty. None of us slept much.

I always book an aisle seat on planes. Less claustrophobic, and at least you don’t have to climb over a large, sleeping person to get to the loo. And I’m afraid I wouldn’t swop to a middle or window seat for anybody.
Dh always wants a window seat, so sometimes we have a random person between us, but that doesn’t bother us.

RosiesMaw

^I was a bit taken aback but it was so that a parent and her child could sit nearer to the rest of their family who were in the window seats^
Never seen the point of window seats on a plane!
When you’ve seen one cloud, you’ve seen them all surely?

Nooo! I always want to sit by the window. If there are no clouds you get some wonderful views. Greenland glaciers spring to mind! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Then another time there was low cloud and I saw something sticking out the top. I rubbed my eyes. It was the top of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately we couldn't see the city below.

I thought the Same Biglouis rude and entitled. When I read it I was thinking I would have said no as well.

My daughter and I went on a day trip and part of it was a river boat cruise. We wandered down to the jetty, which was empty, to wait for the boat and stood right next to the barrier.

After about 10 minutes two women came down and one of them was so close I could feel her breath on my neck. I moved slightly to one side and she then pushed in front so she and her friend could be first in the queue.

We still laugh about that! 🤣

I like a window seat on a plane only because I can rest my head on it and nod off 😂

What a cheek.
I have only asked someone in the gym have you finished? as they are sitting there scrolling through their phone sitting on the machine you want.

I’ve read that it happens a lot on planes.

I was a bit taken aback but it was so that a parent and her child could sit nearer to the rest of their family who were in the window seats
Never seen the point of window seats on a plane!
When you’ve seen one cloud, you’ve seen them all surely?

If you want to sit together on an aeroplane then you pay to reserve the seats, surely? If you don't pay you risk being away from your travelling companion(s). As in many things in life, you get what you pay for.

Damned cheek. They’d get short shrift from me.

Awful, such a cheek.
I was asked to relinquish my seat on a recent flight to NZ and offered another one at the other end of the mid aisle
I was a bit taken aback but it was so that a parent and her child could sit nearer to the rest of their family who were in the window seats.
The nuisance was mainly that my vegetarian meals kept being brought to my neighbour.!

Surely you go to the gym to exercise not to chat to a friend. There are some very needy people who can't do anything on their own and to inconvenience others so you don't have to spend an hour or two alone is not acceptable.

I remember years ago Mum
telling how she joined an exercise class when she first retired. She put her mat down on the floor and two ladies said, “you can’t put it there it’s so and so’s spot!! She said , “really? I will wait till she arrives then”. Suffice to say no one turned up to claim the spot! 😃

I read that Biglouis, my thoughts were, like the most of the responses "what a damn cheek" I do go to the gym particularly for the treadmill, sometimes with my husband, there's no way I'd ask anyone to move just so we could be side by side, what rubbish

Similarly, plane seats booking side by side or anywhere in the plane requires a fee, the times I've read people being asked to swop having paid for their seat. What is with these entitled people who think what they want should inconvenience someone else