h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Safestyle windows advert.

"You know the one, you buy one, you get one free!!!!!!"

Makes me want to break things.

Okay... I'll compress my moanings down to one sentence- chavs that bad-mouth you, bad manors in cinemas, spitting chewing gum on pavement- eeew!

This could be a series of petty hates or one huge character flaw...

I hate fear in other people's voices. I hate that I can't control my temper and I hate being pointlessly harsh with people with fear in their voices. I hate that this whole process causes a feedback loop and I hate the inevitable guilt I feel afterwards.

Yes, Ireland. And people who can't spell.

Ooh, I find other people's fear terribly irritating! Nerves I can just about handle in the right situation, but that quaver in the voice, and usually body language screaming discomfort makes me want to do something drastic to snap them out of it! (like, here's a hungry tiger, now you know what fear *actually* feels like!)

I'm not normally insensitive, but GR!

I have to ask, AnnaElana153, what is the issue with the flow of immigrants to Ireland that it needs controlled?

Hi Beatrice. I'm not looking down on immigrants whatsoever, but c’mon, they do the jobs we hate, yes, but sometimes I think that the English language should be mandatory before coming here- while I have no bother with learning new languages, having a Pole who can speak little to no English on the till of a McDs seems to piss off their coworkers (or, at least, it does in my local one).

I know that they come here looking for a better life but either we need to shape up and start teaching languages like Polish in schools or Europe needs to buck up its economy!

Sorry, I'm in a bad mood tonight.

Nope, I'm with you. It works both ways too. Lost count of the number of shows with Brits emigrating to Spain or wherever with no clue how to speak the language!

Exactly. I’d like to live a while in Finland, Russia, Spain… so I'm learning the language, difficult as it may be (although I already speak fluent Spanish). And speaking in their native tongue around those who do not understand is not only rude but makes you very paranoid…

>>speaking in their native tongue around those who do not understand is not only rude but makes you very paranoid…<<

Rude? If I'm speaking German with my mother and it's a private conversation, I see no reason to switch over into English if an English speaker walks by...

But I agree - not learning the language of a country you plan to spend some time in is very inconsiderate. Even if it's just on holiday, at least learn how to say hello and thank you, it'll make your stay go much more smoothly.

Saw the news report report earlier about the trouble in Manchester. The reporter at the scene today said that all she could smell was beer and urine. The urine problem isn't a reflection on the people at the event - it's a problem caused by the organiser's failure to provide adequate facilities. It's the same problem I've faced many times - the organisers have no interest in providing facilites they can't make money out of.

I went to the Epsom Derby a few years back and planned to have a good drink. Unfortunately there was one toilet for about ten thousand people and that scuppered my plans for a boozy day. If the organisers hadn't been so short sighted and tightfisted and had provided adequate facilities I would have ended up spending more money in the long run.

When people give unnecessarily long and drawn out answers for simple questions. Drives me crazy.

My petty hate for the day is: Getting up before 8am.

But today is the last day of that, thankfully!!!

While I agree in principle with Groob, I'm going to have to stick up for Manchester here.

I moved to Manchester a couple of years ago and I have to say I find that they generally do provide facilities that they can't charge for. Every single Thursday, Friday and Saturday night there are extra public toilets out on the streets, just big plastic urinals with swing doors really, but they are cleaned and stop the drunken idiots just releaving themselves anywhere. Manchester didn't have to put those big screens up, but it did. They could easily have just had a lot of police about and strong armed any fan coming to the city without a ticket. They could have forced all the bars and pubs in the city to close before, during and after the match, but they didn't. They used the city's publicity budget to put on not only the main big screens, but also have a spare on stand by just outside the city centre in case something did go wrong. They organised, very well I think, a good party for those fans who couldn't get tickets.

From what I've seen of the mess, it was sheer laziness of a large number of drunks.

I work near to the motorway at the north end of Manchester, and yesterday lunchtime I popped to the local supermarket to grab some lunch. It was full of drunken football fans stocking up on beer before heading back home. Outside in the car park the bushes were full of drunken football fans emptying themselves before the drive home.

So, while I do agree with and share the petty hate of organisers not doing things properly, I don't believe it was the case with Manchester.

A fresh petty hate, the voice of the woman who works on the other side of the office from me. She seems to combine a whole host of annoying qualities. She's loud, I think she believes she actually has to shout loud enough for the person to hear her. She giggles constantly. She has a nasally drawling voice that also manages to grate on your teeth the same way as fingernails along a blackboard.

I have one of those sitting in the cube outside my office- I get in to the office around 6:00 AM, and he comes in around 7:00, so I only get one hour of peace and quiet every day.

He plays his radio too loud, with the bass set quite high. He clears his throat and does that disgusting snorty thing people do to clear their noses when they can't be bothered using a tissue or handkerchief. He drinks from a straw and squeaks the straw in and out of the cup for hours on end, slurping loudly, and then chomps the ice cubes. And I can hear him eating his lunch! Any time he carries on a personal phone call (which is about half of most days), he does so in a loud enough voice that hsi conversations can be clearly overheard.

The'd actually terminated him upstairs because of it, but he whined to a friend down here who got him re-hired.

I tried an experiment the other day with this noisy lass, I've started having conversations with my collegues about her personal life. Nothing nasty or vindictive, just discussing the stuff she talks loudly about on her phone. We all know how much her baby craps, how well or badly they sleep. We chat about her mortgage and how she's not looking forward to moving house. We've even started being able to chat about her husbands bedroom performance. As I say though, we only chat about things we over hear her talking about, and it's not hard to over hear her.

Annoyingly though, she carries on. Perhaps with her it's an attention seeking thing, and according to her and her husbands lack of performance, it may well be the case.

People who take pieces of paper out of your blazer pockets. Read the song that I have written for my g.c.s.e Music Special Occasion (which was a first dance at a wedding) and then proceed to say that it's actually a love song written to the guy that I fancy at my school, and write rude comments all over it and show the guy I like because the annoying little that took it, is best mates with him!

Malabarista- I mean when it’s damn obvious you are speaking about someone, if you know what I mean. At least have the guts to say whatever it may be to their face, whether praise or criticism.

Awww, Niks. Batter the shite out of them.

Anna that type of thing happens all the time. You might as well get used to it.

I'm with Mala - if I'm speaking my native tongue with another native, and we're not including anyone else in the conversation I am sure as heck not going to rattle the grey matter and use another language.

Mala's far too well brought up to speak about people in front of them, anyway.

my petty hate, triggered by a comment in another thread:

People in meetings who spend the whole time answering their mails. It's annoying, it's distracting and it's bloody rude. Get out of the meeting if you're not taking part - otherwise learn some manners.