Room 101, 102, 103........

Why am I getting more irritated with little things the older I get?
I am not depressed
(well I don't think that I am?)
I have not been slighted by society
I am not an abject failure of a person who blames others for his misfortunes.
I am not a psychopath
I think I am a nice person
So tell me then...why do I get so irritated by the oddest things
(Flexes muscles and stretches laced finger)
Like these.....

This kind of tv advert actually incenses me
The target audience ( 30-40 somethings that perhaps are looking for companionship and a bit of excitement) are waved a carrot that could get them hooked on an online gambling game 
Ok, if you are stupid enough to get suckered in by the visual promise of donkey riding a new friend down Southport beach, well then what I should be saying is good luck to you, you daft buggers....but really my irritation lies mainly with the way that the Bingo company has tried to manipulate and entice


.
My next pet hate may sound somewhat disingenuous , but I do have a specific and deep seated dislike for our local Hospital Radio mobile van.
Now I am sure that in some shape and form, the volunteers that run Hospital Radio stations are doing a sterling job, especially when faced with the fact that most patients have access to flat screen tvs which blare out Jeremy Kyle 24/7... I am not irritated with them per se , I am specifically irritated by the way that this van (above) will appear at any local event and thunder out 80s hits at a level that could drown out a 747 on it's final approach.
The last time I saw it was on the day the Olympic torch came to Rhyl.
There was the bloody Hospital Radio van in a deserted Sainsbury's car park thundering out Whitney Houston's "I wanna dance with somebody"......
I almost went up to it to tell them to "turn it down, no one's listening!"
But I couldn't be arsed.



 I despise travelling on Arriva Trains Wales.
The coastal train breeds a kind of underclass , track suited, beer drinking swaggering type of passenger who really does not give a stuff about anyone or anything.
On my way to Manchester on Tuesday, I had the misfortune to be sat next to a couple of such delightful characters as I waited for the coastal train on Prestatyn station.
It was 2pm in the afternoon.
The woman who was around 40 (and looked 50) was sharing her can of extra strength lager as she bellowed her many complaints about life, love and the universe to her partner and to anyone else in a half mile radius.
Her manners was disgusting and her language was beyond belief  and after two minutes of it, I got up quickly and started to walk away
"Have I bothered you" she called after me in a slurring, sarcastic manner
"Yes" I told her shortly, but I was prudent enough to keep on walking
It's like this every time I travel by train


I could go on....but the truth is, I am now ACTUALLY irritating myself by doing so.
drunks on trains, hospital radio.....tv bingo.......lists of pet hates....
What irritates you?
Answers on a postcard

57 comments:

  1. You have just reached the age when most men turn into grumpy old ones, that's all. I used to think I would mellow with age. It's just the opposite, unfortunately.

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  2. Cruelty. Any cruelty, but particularly cruelty to animals.

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  3. What irritates me is underpants that contain nettle leaves.

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  4. All sorts of things irritate and annoy me these days ~ I blame it on being a menopausal 51 year old woman but I rather think I've been like it for a number of years! My family like to take the mickey out of me for my "irrational" dislike/annoyance of certain folk on TV, one example of which is Sue Barker. I have no idea why it should be thus but she just really, really irritates me!

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  5. smalltalk.....bloody hate it....and also when i am cutting the grass or washing a car and a person winds down their window as they pass and says shite like ..."...theres another one round the corner which needs doing when youve finished..."...always accompanied with a smug laugh to themselves as though they have invented a new comedic line which frankie Boyle would see as potential material....knobs !....also hate when people say things like "nice weather we are having" or another real goat in my boat is when they tell you something and use the phrase " i cant tell you ...."...for instance in this example " i cant tell you what fun we had ....".....why the hell cant you tell me ? i am not interested most of the time anyway so please make me at least see you as possibly interesting for once in my existence......apart from these i think things are generally fine with life !

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  6. You want to hear the din here every Saturday due to the Church Wars. Once there was just a tiny Catholic Chapel. Then the Igreja Universal moved in conducting services on the beach through speakers as big as Brinks Matt armoured cars. So the left footer's retaliated by mounting similar sized speakers on trucks driving them up and down through the village blaring out God's word, at midnight.

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  7. Life really is too short to be that angry about anything...

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  8. I am irritated I cannot be like Bel-Ami

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  9. no one can Nota
    no one can

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  10. I am not a psychopath...
    I think I am a nice person...


    Oh that's just begging for a witty response. I will resist, and leave that one for Bel Ami.

    I despise travelling on Arriva Trains Wales...

    Agree. Who are these people? Where are they going? Why? Do they ever go home? Both fascinating and awful in equal measure.

    Thanks for the visit!

    Nx

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  11. I believe you a becoming a curmudgeon. You are about the right age. My Hub is becoming one, too.

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  12. Everything annoys me. Sometimes for various reasons I can force myself to make an exception, and other people see these exceptions as non-annoyance, which annoys me. The word "annoy" is a stupid one, don't you think? Sounds vaguely oriental which is not at all what one needs when feeling annoyed. I was alert once, but I'm much happier being a noyd now.

    Why isn't the word "annoyed" something more gutteral and forceful, such as GRRRAREGHHEOTHWERPPP?

    Bugger off, I find you extremely GRRRAREGHHEOTHWERPPPing would sound so much better, especially when combined with a left hook and a few shots in the air.

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  13. Is something in the air? I turned 48 and now I'm irritated by everything! In fact, this has been the year of irritation!

    For example, I'm annoyed that I'm not as amusing as Owl Wood...

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  14. Lots of things irritate me, but since I ma reading blogs right now, here are some blogging peeves.

    The use of LOL in blogging or texting.

    Bloggers who say they have news but can't spill it yet.I was taught never to say "I have a secret"

    The over complication if everything. Why can't salt be just salt instead of sea salt?, why can't a bean be just a green bean and not an organic bean. The other day I saw a post titled "homemade Whipped cream" FFS.

    The bloggers "sneak Peak". Just post a bloody picture of the whole thing. FFS

    Winking people ;) and all those other little abbreviation do-hickeys.

    Photos with no credits bother me a lot less than ones that say "Image Google.com" FFS

    Photos with the caption "I don;t know where I got this image, but if anyone recognizes it, please contact me"

    The use of "my good friend". Face it, you met through blogging. If you have never met and spent time together, they are not your good friend.

    Anonymous comments.....hiding, afraid to speak openly, bullying...

    Blog profiles that say "I married my best friend"

    Blaming menopause...I'm just a cranky 51 year old.

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  15. Too many to mention! It is our age I think :-D. Trains my son uses that line a lot as well but thinks our local North Kent line beats it we get the odd rush hour stabbing to spice it up more!

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  16. My personal pet hate is when someone points to my other dog and asks "Is that one called Custard?" and goes off into hysterics like they are the first person to have the wit and brains to think of it.

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  17. We are all a bunch of grumpy pants ,that's why we meet up in this comments section...it's our spiritual home!
    Jane xxx

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  18. Unfortunately there will always be people in the world who drive you nuts with their stupid and anti-social habits. But there's no point in raising your blood pressure over it. Best just to walk away, leave them to it and go somewhere more relaxing.

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  19. People talking on mobile phones in public places! I despise when people pull out their phones, whip them open and proceed to natter away in a LOUD voice. Any kind of voice, actually. It's all rude.
    Earlier this week I was having supper with a friend, she received a phone call and took the call at the table! Her side of the conversation could be heard three tables away and she nattered on without a clue! People at the other tables were staring and I was mortified; tried to look as contrite as possible although I accept none of the embarrassment that, correctly, was hers.
    Yours is a good list and share your frustrations.

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  20. Anonymous1:37 pm

    People who are deaf and refuse to wear their hearing aids. Requiring you to shout and scream and be heard three tables away..

    I will stop there.

    The things that I am NOT irritated by would actually be much quicker to list. J (aged 54 and three quarters)

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  21. Poor English on BBC (or any!) news bulletins, such as singular subjects with verb in plural form e.g. the Conservative Party HAVE decided.....
    Is this matter too trivial in comparison with some others? No siree! This is H-U-G-E!!!

    Btw: I'm also with 'The Elephant's Child' (#2 above) - though it's way beyond mere irritation, as I reckon it probably also is with that writer.

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  22. But you see, it's the lack of anger in my life that has given me that unsettling air of youthful immortality...

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  23. The downbeat interpretation of the news on BBC TV - they love bad news. The BBC's obsession with murders is truly sickening.

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  24. 'Patience is a virtue'.....my grandmother always said! And she was very patient.
    What has bothered me of late is when you are talking with someone and you know they are not listening or in the least interested in what you are saying!! Drives me crazy I tell ya!

    As far as people like you met on the train.....yes they can and do get on my nerves but I pity them more so.

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  25. Dare I say that I no longer get irritated by much John. I shut my ears to things, even my eyes metaphorically - I enjoy the scenery on long journeys and if there is something which irritates me (I am sick of hearing about poor old Harry and the strip billiards) then I just shut the TV off - and I would never buy the Sun in a million years, so they can print their image of him on the front page - it just endorses what I think about them anyway - I don't care - and i am sure they don't care aout me either. Rant over.

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  26. I am of an age where I still open doors for women, and often make quite a flourish of the act. When no 'thank you' is offered in return, I find myself saying 'thank you' instead (whilst my blood slowly comes to the boil).

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  27. I have definitely been soaking up my husband's grumpy disposition. On him, it's funny. But I get too worked up about things. Feel in a constant state of irkdom lately.

    YP. Stung my butt on nettles when peeing in Yorkshire in the woods five years back. Agreed.

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  28. I think there is something in the air. There are alot of annoyed people about this week. Someone shouted rude things at me for waiting at traffic lights too long. I was short with a number of telephone call centre operators this week because they said no to me getting my hands on my own money overpaid on my bank account. So in short grumpy stressed people and banks that won't let me have my own money back. Well done to saying that someone annoys you too.

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  29. I am annoyed by unwanted phone calls from people trying to sell carpet cleaning services, asking for money, or promoting a political candidate. I pay for that phone, they don't, that activity should be totally banned from the phone lines but since the politicians also use it, they won't pass the legislation. Oh, and politicians annoy me too.

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  30. When I get irritated I just pour a nice single malt Scotch, sink into my big soft chair and tell them to piss off. Life suddenly gets better.

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  31. Ok.

    Firstly I have to say I also am irritated by the little things but I AM depresed, slighted, an abject failure, psychotic. erm...

    Why not just say you've turned into a miserable old git and be done with it? We all turn into TS eventually.

    And anyway, how did the Olympic torch end up in Rhyl?! I know everyone wears a tracksuit there like an scum uniform but surely the permanent rain would have put the torch out?! (assuming nobody tried to nick it)

    I'm half Welsh so I can say this stuff. South Wales I hasten to add. The better bit. No scum in Newport. Ahem. Btw it's my top half that is Welsh.

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  32. It was worth reading through the large assortment of irritants to get down to Chris's comment about being half Welsh. Good one!

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  33. It depends on the day, John. On a good day, it rolls off me like water on a ducks back. On a bad day... Not enough room to write it all down. I try to avoid the bad days...

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  34. I'm with Doc on this one.
    Jo xx

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  35. chris
    most of the characters on the aforementioned trains are in fact ENGLISH xxx

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  36. Yorkshire Pudding's comment intrigued me - what would be the reasons for having nettles in one's underpants?
    Answers on a postcard ....

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  37. I am becoming more annoyed as I get older, I get annoyed about everything so much I am annoying those around me, which annoys me even more.

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  38. I detest that diet pills are pulled off the market and everyone is sued when there are a couple of deaths. HOWEVER I also hate the fact that this targets women mainly. Conversly VIAGRA is never ever mentioned as the casue of deaths but everyone knows there have been deaths ... and is there talk of taking Viagra off the market? Never EVER. It really annoys me. I also detest people who are poor listeners.
    Okay I'm done. Its Friday right?
    PS I also hate that two days a week off seem like so much... and it is yet the dawn of Saturday am has me up and ready to go but by Sunday morning It's almost over... so bad so sad. Ok now I'm done.
    Ruth in California

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  39. Good grief, look what you've started!!!Personally, I just don't sweat the small stuff, it's all small stuff....I got that on a Kit-Kat wrapper and now it's posted on my fridge...s'pose someone will come along in a minute and say how irritated they get by Kit-Kat wrappers and folk who stick them up on their fridges!!!Hey ho.
    Have a good weekend, MY FRIEND.x

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  40. Why would someone be drunk in the middle of the day and on a train? What people do nowadays confuse me with their erratic behaviour.

    Gill

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  41. Thankfully, hospital radio doesn't exist here.

    I'm fed up of patients who nag at me because the TV is a rental service and they have to pay for it. You're only here 24 ours get over it.

    Cell phones. Nobody is that important that you need one glued to their ear at all time.

    I'm just fed up and my list is too, too long for here.

    Maybe you are the male version of me and jsut attract drunks???

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  42. Baggy arsed jeans sitting belted as tightly as humanly possible around the top of "yoofs'" thighs showing four inches of fake Calvin Klein. Why? Why wear a belt if you're going to put it in the wrong place? Why? It makes said "yoofs" walk like constipated camels. Why?

    People on buses who play bloody music on their bloody phones at top volume. I don't want to hear your crap taste in music. No one does. But we'll sit quietly seething in our seats "putting up with it" rather than face vitriolic expletives . Pah!

    Text talk. What's the point of typing "boi" when it's just as easy to type "boy". "Ov" instead of "of". Why? There's no abbreviation? It doesn't save any more wear and tear on your thumbs. PAH! Oh lord - now look what you've done!!

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  43. John! Look what you've started!!! We're OUT OF CONTROL!

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  44. I had a similar experience in the late 70's years ago travelling from Edinburgh to Stranraer to catch the ferry over to Northern Ireland. I was travelling with hubby (who was from Belfast) and my parents, who were going to meet his folks for the first time. The first part of the journey was lovely - a nicely appointed train took us to Glasgow, whereupon we had to detrain and get on the same train as Glasgow Rangers and Celtic supporters who were returning to N.I. after a match. I had never seen such filth on public transport. My bad luck, I had to pee desperately, but when I saw the deplorable condition of the bathroom, I decided to hold it in. We were serenaded during our lineup to get on the ferry with a delightful song about 'dying a Fenian bastard'. During the boat trip we had to step over passed out drunks on the deck. To top it off, during the bus ride from Stranraer to Belfast, we heard someone yelling from the back seat, miscalling (in graphic terms) someone in the bus who had the nerve to wear green. At one point, as one of these 'charmers' was getting off the bus, he took a swing at the offending green coat wearer. An eye-opening introduction to the reality of the 'troubles' at the time.

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  45. I am now a whopping 43 yrs of age and already no longer have the patience for a lot of things in life. It all seems to silly most days. What shall I be like when I get even older?! lol

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  46. Lots of things irritate me, John; but I'll just say that I hope you have a great weekend. :o)

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  47. I used to have tons of patience took a lot to rile me. Now sighhhh no patience. People irritate the heck out of me. ROFL could it be me? LOL

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  48. Wow, y'all have your knickers in a wad. It takes a lot to annoy me, but it does bug me that our local newspaper has taken to patting itself on the back by informing us every day what a fantastic job they're doing. Don't TELL us; if they just DO their job, we'll be the ones to decide if it was done well.

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  49. Leaf blowers.....bloody leaf blowers!! Loud obnoxious polluting leaf blowers!!
    There it is!! That is the biggest thing that bugs me!!! I can take a lot but the second I hear a leaf blower....I lose it!!

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  50. Piss Off I'm trying to enjoy me Scotch. I really love yer Blog.

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  51. Cro Magnon opening doors for women and then getting no acknowledgement. Yes, I too am of that generation. I still do that, I stand aside to let women (or, as I prefer to say, 'ladies') get on a train or bus before me - and even give up my seat to a lady even though she is now, more often than not, younger than me. Doing the latter just about always does get a 'thank you' or a polite refusal, but not always the former little politenesses. It's not that one is doing it in order to GET gratitude, what gets my goat is that non-acknowledgement seems to mean that they feel that they are ENTITLED to be so treated.

    Oh, and while on the vaguely same subject - this use of Christian names - sorry, FIRST names - by someone whom you've never met and, in my books, hasn't yet earned the right to be so informal. I always ask for their surnames so I can call them Mr or Ms. Of course that throws them, but they'll still not reveal it.

    (You've really started something here, J.G.!)

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  52. John, look what you've done? What would Aunty Gladys say? I have decided today is going to be a 'not going to get annoyed at all' day. Great posts from all.

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  53. hey- sweat the small stuff, it keeps the big stuff from getting big!
    I hate blogs that play music when you just want to read the post aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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  54. My - well I thought he was 'my' - firewood merchant's judgemental comment that I hadn't bought wood from him for two years so I didn't qualify for what he has left: that's for favoured customers. So he thinks I'm still cruising on a civil servant's salary and buying elsewhere. The last two years have been the worst f***ing two years of my life and I've been burning my own homegrown wood to eke out my widow's pension. Yeah, so judgemental business operators who think they are indispensable. Oh and thanks for an excuse to rant ;-)

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  55. That bingo advert has the opposite reaction from me. It shows people having fun doing anything BUT play bingo. To me it's saying 'forget staying in playing bingo by yourself, and get out and enjoy life'.

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  56. I live in a place with an ageing population, and many times older men have held the door open for me or with a flourish if their free hand, indicate that i should go in first. I always thank them, although i must say it did confuse me a moment when an older male friend did that when we were in my my house.

    I've also had some of these same gents offer to carry something heavy for me. I usually decline their offer as i'm not certain their hearts or backs are up for thta strain, but it's no less appreciated!

    I have a list of things which irritate that's too long to list here.

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