Pet Peeves

[Sput]

oo oo! Following on from that. Couples that have a MASSIVE choice of seats but who sit directly in front of you on the bus, and then start getting sickeningly affectionate, forcing you to look in every direction but +/- 30 degrees in front of you

[Parbold 103.53]

Solo-passengers on National Express coaches who refuse to sit next to each other to let a couple sit down.

I've noticed this on trains as well. Now if a couple are looking for seats, and there's only single spaces, I'll move next to another lone traveller to let them sit together. While the couple are almost always grateful, my new-found neighbour isn't usually so pleased. OK, they won't actually object, but I just sense something. Must be because I've dared invade their space.

[cdd]

Well this business is very simple:

First I would only move if I were 100% sure that I would get someone next to me anyway by not moving, and second I would have to be sure that the person I would choose to sit next to would be a better bet (less fat, less smelly, less likely to engage me in a journey-long conversation about bollocks etc) than the person who is threatening to sit next to me anyway.

Hence the standoffishness!

[Gavin Scott]

The above peeve is denied.

I spend the weekend on the train and had booked seats. All the lone passengers seemed to be next to an unreserved adjoining seat so that in the event of a not-full train (ha!) then they can spread out a little.

But I watched endless couples kvetching and harrumphing that they - with NO reserved seating - couldn't manage to find two seats together.

Well tough tittie.

Unlikely as it may seem to them, the world does not actually revolve around making sure your every whim is accomodated - and if it means that much to you to sit together and coo in each others ears then you should have reserved your seats.

So fuck off and leave the single people who booked alone.

That is all.

[Gavin Scott]

And just to qualify my slightly aggressive tone there - the train journey home was a nightmare.

Drunken man who kept locking himself in the bathroom, and then vomited all over it; the young woman who had no reserved seat and moved from one reserved seat to another - annoying everyone who came on to claim it - but by that point her books and laptop and other scattered minutiae was all over the place - and then the Glaswegian ugmo family and their screetching TWO kids, who were only happy when they were cramming their mouths with crisps and chocolate - with the parents and grandparents oblivious to the noise.

Yeesh.

Maybe the couples weren't the annoying ones - but by that point I would have killed the lot of them.

[Sput]

That's two for two for my theory that every train involving scotland has a drunk person on board. At least yours locked himself in the bathroom rather than gently molesting you gav!

[Gavin Scott]

That's two for two for my theory that every train involving scotland has a drunk person on board. At least yours locked himself in the bathroom rather than gently molesting you gav!

There was no way to tell if he was Scottish. He didn't say anything.

My potential molestation happened on the way down with a chap from Darby.

Which was nice.

[Sput]

You wouldn't have enjoyed my molestation. I certainly didn't.

[Gavin Scott]

Unlikely as it may seem to them, the world does not actually revolve around making sure your every whim is accommodated - and if it means that much to you to sit together and coo in each others ears then you should have reserved your seats.

Thoroughly agree with cdd on this one; I wouldn't move so that they could cuddle, unless they asked. If I was the couple, I'd probably ask somebody if they minded moving - no harm in asking afterall. The same applies to giving up your seat for the infirm, elderly or pregnant - if you want to sit down, ask me to move, I'm not going to assume you're too decrepid to stand and risk offending you, or make a fat woman cry by suggesting she's pregnant.

Case study - one of my colleagues was on a tube train with me and wanted to play a bit of bump-and-grind with a hot lad stood up in the carriage, so when a woman got on at the next stop, he offered his seat to her so that he could casually go over and begin frottage. She said it was fine, "I'm not that old", so he tried to smooth it over by saying "I didn't think you looked old, just tired" - she didn't look impressed, but she laughed it off when I told her the real reason he'd offered her a seat.

Don't what it is about trains, but I've joined the 125 club before. I suppose its all the hours to kill with people to look at that does it. And the fact that all men are rampant.

Oooh - that brings me on to this latest thing in the papers about "famous men having torrid affairs" - Tiger Woods, him from Take That, Ashely Cole etc.

I picked up a copy of Heat/Closer to kill some time and read all those letters from wombyn squirting their venom at how these men could do such a thing - as if it were somehow a side effect of money and fame.

I do hope they've all watched the latest South Park, where its made clear that ALL men are up to it at ALL times.

And if anyone here says they're not then they're lying or have unusually low libidos.

[cdd]

[..]wanted to play a bit of bump-and-grind with a hot lad stood up in the carriage

I think we've all been there
/sleaze

[scottishtv]

Drunken man who kept locking himself in the bathroom, and then vomited all over it; the young woman who had no reserved seat and moved from one reserved seat to another - annoying everyone who came on to claim it - but by that point her books and laptop and other scattered minutiae was all over the place - and then the Glaswegian ugmo family and their screetching TWO kids, who were only happy when they were cramming their mouths with crisps and chocolate - with the parents and grandparents oblivious to the noise

I was on a CrossCountry train yesterday with a similar experience. Drunk man spewing, but his stag party 'friends' decided they should video as much of it as possible. Hen party women from Newcastle then got on saying the daftest things:

Woman 1: "Are you sure this is the right coach? Coach D is what is says on the ticket."
Woman 2: <squealing laughter> "What are you like? It's not a coach... it's a train..." <squeal>
Woman 3: "I can't sit this way. Going backwards like this. No way. Who's idea was it to design a train with all the seats backwards?"

I still can't decide my view on rail seat reservations. Beginning to think they are more hassle than they are worth. I used to hold Gavin's view on this but recently I've been told "reservations not possible right now" numerous times by the booking system, and end up finding myself having to flit about the train on journeys where I really did want to reserve a seat but couldn't.