Friday 10 September 2010

Contains more grumpiness

Following on from my previous post, I may as well carry on in a similar vein.

I'm utterly sick of people who walk right across your path like you're not there. It's ignorant and annoying in the extreme. You're walking along and you notice someone in the periphery of your vision, entering your personal space and then straight in front of you even though - you would have thought - they damn well know that you're there, and that you'll have to stop abruptly to avoid bumping into them and tearing a few strips of skin off their heels.

Well, when that happens, I don't stop anymore. If they won't show me the courtesy of at least acknowledging that I'm there, then I'm tired of extending that courtesy to them in return.

It happened a couple of days ago. Somebody approaching from my left and, rather than wait a moment until I was gone, this guy just walked right across my feet.

I don't actually like confrontation (no, honestly I don't), but I carried on, and walked right into his heels.

He turned around, and it was hard to read the tone of his voice when he said, are you alright?

So I just said, you walked right across me. Watch where you're going, please.

I held his gaze and he turned and carried on. And so did I, after a moment, in the direction I'd been walking before I'd been so rudely interrupted.

Actually what's triggered off my posting about such further grumpiness is a very highly petty thing which happened just now in the supermarket. I was just in the middle of putting my shopping on the conveyor belt at the checkout, when the lady queuing behind me took it upon herself to take one of the dividers that you put down between your shopping and the next person, and to put it down next to my items before I'd actually finished.

Yes, I might be veering into sheer pettiness here but I thought that was a little presumptious - if not downright discourteous - of her, so I took the divider off and put it back where it was, until I'd put the rest of my shopping down.

I think she got the message, standing back until I'd made it clear I'd finished.

...and relax, breathe out, it's the weekend.

6 comments:

Zhoen said...

You cannot make anyone else do anything. (Repeat as needed.)

People who have oblivious conversations in the middle of pathways, doorways, the only ways through, have occasionally been bumped a bit more than strictly necessary, by me. Two women at the bottom of an escalator in a crowded airport got a bag slam they will not soon forget, and a completely insincere, "OH. I'm sorry!" I just happened to need to turn at just that moment... .

nmj said...

oh dear, trews - i have been guilty of this lady's crime, i think it makes sense to start putting your shopping down as long as there is plenty of room for both!

trousers said...

Zhoen, that's a very good point - one which I know, of course, but am thankful to be reminded of from time to time.

I don't blame you for the bag slam either...

nmj, I think it was more the way she did it than anything else - she didn't leave me enough room to put the rest of my shopping down, and that was what irritated me.

Janette said...

I read your post after coming back from Sainsburys where a woman ignored me asking her to move her trolley so I could get my card in the machine to pay for the shopping and then when I turned round to put my card in my bag, decided to shove the trolley into my legs. I don't need to say any more really do I??!

trousers said...

Hi Janette - indeed, say no more. I can only empathise!

Montag said...

It's good to see you giving the what-for to other people again, instead of being fat Dame Fortune's punching bag. (The old hag!)