Pet peeves and minor irritants

Things not big enough - or worthy - of the First World Problems thread. I'll start

- teaching junior to drive - would swear the L plate is a flashing neon sign saying "dangerously pull out in front of me" - or - "sit right up my date when I'm going the speed limit"

- people who stand at the supermarket checkout for 5 minutes or more, while their groceries are run thru, but don't even start to slowly rummaged thru their bag and fumblingly pull out their wallet/cards/cash until "after" the cashier tells them the final total

 

Where do I start...

People who cough or sneeze without covering their mouths
People talking loudly on their phones whilst on public transport
People who don't thank you for opening a door for them

...and many more

 

People who go up/down an escalator and then stop to think where to go to, causing a pile up behind them.

Ditto for people that do the same at shopping centre/supermarket boom gate entrances

 

People who rush up to stand right next to the luggage conveyor belt at airports, before they've seen their bag, blocking other people's access.

If everybody stood back behind the lines that are often on the floor - about 1.5m back - everybody would be able to see the luggage. You can then wait to move forward when your bag is approaching your position, and everybody would have ample space to retrieve their luggage without jostling.

Instead, people rush forward and the people at the back can't see what's going on, or get in to retrieve their bag if it arrives before one of the people who's pushed forward. Then you have to yell 'excuse me!' to get idiots to move, and try not to bash them with your bag.

 

People generally.

 

@wylie, you're a girl after my own heart. Yes, that drives me nuts, too. And when the airline calls "everybody in rows 15 to 30 only", and >80% of the departure lounge gets up. Do you really want to maximise the time you spend sitting on the plane? Because that's the only thing you're doing - you're not getting there earlier.

 

The really fat individual who smokes while walking her kid (kid on road ) to school.
Person who speeds while smoking ( electric wheelchair )on footpath nearly knocking old person who is walking over.
Do I sound intolerant yet?

 

Immigration is the bottleneck in most situations and that can sometimes mean an extra 30-60mins waiting if you're at the back in busy times. Especially heading into a country as a foreigner. Getting off first in those situations is worthwhile if you've got connections that have to be made. More than a few times I would have missed connections has I not deliberately sat myself in a seat near the exit and prepared to deplane asap.

 

People being so pushy on public transport. No respect for an existing queue and dodging the queue by coming in from the front-side

Australian politics

 

Time wasters in general and some good examples above.

The species that takes the prize though is the one who always seems to be in front of me doing 5-10k less than the speed limit. For no reason whatsoever.

It’s uncanny how they always then dawdle through the next orange light leaving me with red.

I wish I could time equity and property markets like these time wasters time traffic lights.

 

Rain delay yet again at the cricket World Cup.

How can you award hosting rights to a country that can’t provide the correct weather for such an important tournament?

 

Is that you M.T?

 

People ignoring well researched evidence because it does not fits their world view. Anti-vac, climate change denialist, trickle down/laffer curve supporters etc.

 

People who walk up the escalators... they're actually slowing everyone down as they cause a bottleneck at the entrance of the escalators.

 

You're going to have to explain this one to me as I do not get it. How do people that walking up an escalator cause a bottleneck?

 

Research was conducted in the UK tube system I believe. As people jostling at the bottom to get into walkers and standers side, it reduces throughput of passengers moving through the system. In addition people will stand to the left (in au anyway) and not use up the right hand side even when not body is using it, effectively reducing carrying capacity by 50%. People walking up the escalators effectively slow down everyone else so that they can obtain maginal gains in travel time out to the station.

 

Coffee machines behind bars.

Unsolicited advice.

Anyone who calls and asks why I haven’t responded to their urgent email ... sent 5 minutes ago.

Printers and scanners.

People who fill up at a busy servo, leave their car parked on the forecourt, while they go inside and browse.

Harvey Norman ads ... I don’t need anyone shouting at me in my living room.

Inane reply all emails.

Someone unbeknownst to me turning the dial on my toaster. (I have calibrated it perfectly).

 

People that leave cupboard doors and drawers slightly open, if you're going to the effort of closing it, CLOSE IT!