Smokers

I hate, hate, hate it when you're walking down the street or waiting at a crossing and someone's standing in front of you, waving a cigarette around. I don't have a problem with people who choose to smoke, that's their decision, but I choose not to, so why should I still have to potentially be at risk from the smoke?

Also, I think the smell is just plain nasty, and if you stand near a smoker too long the smell just starts to linger on your clothes too. Not nice.


Picture: Wikipedia Commons

Phones on the trains

Why is there always at least one person on the train carriage who just makes phone calls loudly for the whole journey?

It wouldn't be so bad but each one is the same: 'Hello...Hello...No, no you're breaking up ... Yeah I'm on the train now... I'm on the train now...No, still can't hear you properly, tell you what, I'll call you when I get there, okay? No, I said I'LL...CALL...YOU...WHEN...I...GET...THERE! Yeah...Talk soon.'

Then on to the next call, which sounds very much like, if not exactly the same as, the one before. It's good to know this is an issue over the pond too, though and not just me being fussy.

If your luck is anything like mine there will always be a minimum of one of these people in your carriage on a train, especially if you've got a fairly long journey. Quite often there'll be more than one, so once one person has given up, another starts up again so there's no quiet, unless this only happens to me and I'm doing something to attract them or something. They're even in the 'quiet carriages' too when I've been in them, although I can't remember being on a train with one of those for a while.

Also, train journeys bring up a dilemma (for me at least) when traveling alone. Do you leave the seat next to you free and put your stuff overhead/on your lap, thus making much it more likely that someone will sit next to you.

Or, do you put your stuff on the seat next to you instead; this always seems quite rude I think, and chances are somebody will ask you to move it anyway at some point, but it's less likely and usually the people who do this are the ones who get a double seat to themselves for the whole journey. I hate situations like this, which raise all of the moral questions.

London underground (again)

One other pet peeve of mine on the underground is people who ram themselves between the doors just as they're closing. ''Please mind the closing doors'' does not mean ''please go into Indiana Jones mode and dodge roll into the carriage with nanoseconds to spare, and stylishly make sure you don't leave your hat behind either''.


Earlier today I saw heavily pregnant woman wedge herself between the closing doors so that her husband/boyfriend had time to fling their suitcase onto the train. Now, I'll be the first to admit I know very little, if anything, about the 'do's and dont's' of pregnancy but, seriously? On what planet is that a good idea?


Picture:

Juℓiette's photostream

Other peoples music

ARGH! One of my thoughtful neighbours seems to think that everyone should be able to enjoy their music. While I appreciate the thought, I'd quite like to pass this time. Shame, even though so far I've had about an hour of it at least, I can't work out just who it's coming from, until I do that I can't ask them to turn it down.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was music I liked, if it was a bit of Cat Power or Laura Marling I'd be shouting for them to turn it up. But it isn't. Oh, the joys of student life.

Stressful supermarkets

Why, when in supermarkets, do people with trolleys instantly presume they have right of way? I just went shopping and people must have caught me with their trolleys about 8 times because they weren't looking where they were going. I dread to think how good their driving is (or isn't).

Awful student accomodation

I'm more than annoyed with the company I rent my flat from; 'Unite'. Like it's not bad enough that we were expected to clean the flat ourselves when we moved in, not that I can blame them for being reluctant to clean the sick from under one of the desks one of the last tenants had left behind.

Then, in November my toilet started leaking. After about one month of complaints, promises that the plumber was on site and would be up before 3pm, and mopping up leaking toilet water two or three times a day, it was finally fixed.

Okay, so it was a few days after I was told it would be fixed, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. And before it could be fixed somebody had to come out to it to ''ensure there was a leak.'' Which is good, as I don't always recognise a flooding room when I see one. Now there's a leak in the bathroom next to mine. I wish my flatmate the best of luck with that, but I'm not holding my breath that it'll be fixed anytime soon.

The cherry on top though was the dead mouse in our living room; always a nice find first thing on a Sunday morning. To add insult to injury, somebody from Unite came up this morning to check we'd taken it down. Sadly this is considered a lightening quick reaction from Unite. Our flat is one of the cleanest ones in the block, so if our flat had a mouse in it I dread to think what state some of the other flats are in.

London underground and butter thieves

I quite often get cross on the underground. Not furious, just into that passive-aggressive state where you sigh loudly and sarcastically, then dart away quick in case whoever annoyed you heard you.

Topping up my oyster card today and if the guy in the queue behind me had got any closer to me I'd have been giving him a piggy back. I hate that, especially when you're putting in your pin number. Some people have no sense of personal space, and I'm a person who doesn't really like people in mine.

But getting your tickets is only half of it. You've then got to get down the escalators. I can't talk for every station but I know my local one seems to have a 'stand to the right but feel free to put your bag/suitcase/pram to the left' unwritten rule.

Then on the platform people do the one thing that really drives me crazy; they stand right in front of you. I know everyone's got somewhere to be and its not nice to stand if you've got a long journey, but seriously? It doesn't get much ruder than standing directly in front of someone. In these situations I can manage a 'how rude!' or a sigh, although really I guess the best thing to do is move directly in front of them.


But my main bugbear on the tube is when you go to get off, and everyone on the platform stands in front of the door, looking at you with a 'hurry up, I want to get on' look in their eyes. I don't know if these people are used to being around people who can teleport, but I can't so it's completely beyond me why they make no effort to let people off of the tube. It's not like it's not in their best interests too.


Also annoyed today by one of my flatmates, who I've yet to discover the identity of, who keeps not only stealing my butter, but leaving toast crumbs in it too. It wouldn't be so bad, but I don't eat toast. If you're going to do something like that at least don't leave any evidence!


Tube picture: BBC