cycling home last night, i’m preparing to take a left turn , and see a couple (in their 40’s, thereabouts) just about to cross the street. Because I’m going too fast to slam on the breaks (and because I need to break that often my breakpads need replacing every 6 months), I swerve out, and pass by them (with plenty of space to spare, I assure you).
Now, a second before I pass them, the guy looks to the right, sees me coming, and stops his women in mid stride (nice guy, i think, fleetingly, he lets me pass).
AS i’m passing him, he yells in my ear: you fucking eejit you!
WTF???
first of all: THEY were j-walking, and obstructing my path, not the other way around
secondly: I wasn’t going to ram them, I was already swerving when yer man looked at me
thirdly: yelling abuse at me is not going to make me nicer next time i need to swerve for you.
Guess i’m trying to say that assholes in traffic are my pet hate. Hate them hate them HATE THEM!
beeping their horns at me, cos i happen to be in the way when
*they’re[/] in the middle of violating the rules of the road?
blaming ME for nearly running me over?
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
so what’s your pet hate? What really ticks you off?
I agree, but I’m surprised you didn’t add brake and break mis-users also
BTW, it’s a well-known fact that motorists hate cyclists, cyclists hate motorists, cyclists hate pedestrians, pedestrians hate cyclists. Everybody hates everything that is either bigger or smaller than they are, either because they’re “dangerous” or just “in the way.”
I’m not overly fond of slow people in the fast lane.
My literature teacher sees sexual symbolism everywhere, while I think that sometimes a spear is just a spear; she also regularly mispronounces Greek and Roman words. Neither thing would irritate me except that I’m stuck in a room with her, I paid money for her class, and as an “expert” she should know better.
I hate to step in dog shit. Horse shit and cow shit are also unpleasant. The proverbial deep shit is also very much not good. As far as I know, I’ve never stepped into any other kind of shit, but I would probably hate that as well.
I hate it when my foot starts itching while I’m out in public wearing shoes. Aggravates the hell out of me.
My hate is people who make the same cliched cracks that they have to know at least 700 other people have made within the last hour.
For instance:
Mr. S. “Would you like your check.”
Unoriginal Bastard “No, you can keep it!”
U.B. then proceeds to chuckle madly at his own witiness, while Mr. S. behind the bar slices wrist open with shot glass and proceeds to rub lime wedge on the wound to ease the pain.
It’s a 2 sided thing, though.
For instance again:
Mr. S. (drunk and wants to go home) “Can you call me a cab?”
Unoriginal Bastard Bartender “You’re a cab!”
As above, U.B.B. laughs at own witiness, while Mr. S. decides to drink anti-freeze and hopes that the ambulance will take him anywhere away from U.B.B.
I don’t know why it bothers me that much. I think it’s similar to what I’ve come to know as the “duck echo quack syndrome” (DEQS). There’s only so many times you can here the same thing without wanting to huff on a car exhaust pipe until your eyes turn into cream and slowly make milky tears, emilating the lactating pain which you can’t express with word.
People who tell me to smile. Grrrrr. It’s my damn mouth, I’ll do whatever I want with it.
People who I’ve only just met, who think they know me better than I do.
Passive-aggressive comments and behaviours. If you can’t ask for what you want, without manipulation, I’m going to do my damndest to make sure I don’t give it to you until you can be upfront.
People who won’t take “No, thank you” for an answer and insist on pushing.
Lots more, but I’m probably better off stopping now before I just conclude that my pet hate probably is just : People.
Smudge/Fingerprints on my computer monitor/mirror/car windows. Man that irritates me… Why do people feel the need to TOUCH my computer monitor when they want to show me something? And whenever I drive with my sister in the car, there’s always a reminder that she was there by her kidsize handprints on the windows. Same goes for my sunglasses. Why do people insist on smudging the lenses??
Also, restaurant servers that “top off” my coffee without even asking. I add just enough sugar and cream for one cup of coffee to make it taste just right. Then some server has to mess it all up by adding more coffee.
i’m with you on this one. i’ve been waiting tables for a while.
i hate when the food is taking a while, or the people are just impatient and they say “what’s taking so long? do you have to kill the cow/chicken?”
as i’ve heard this way too much and am a bit of a smartass i normally respond with “well, we just caught him, but no one has the heart to kill him.” it normally shuts them up.
or how about “i’ll be right back with your check…” “really, where can i cash it?”
off from the service industry… i hate people telling me i’m short. yes i know i’m short. it’s not something you don’t notice by the age of 23. and please don’t argue with me over it. i’m 5’ not 4’6. why would i lie about it?
and finally knoxville drivers. with a posted speed of 45 on the interstate they go 80. some how though, these same people go 30 on kingston pike where the speed limit is the same. i just don’t get it.
You approached a corner so fast that you couldn’t slam on the brakes? That sounds pretty damn dangerous and stupid. If a pedestrian started to cross the road it’s not safe to pass by in front of them no matter how much space you leave out. And I don’t know about your city but where I’m from, if you hit a pedestrian with a bike it’s your fault even if you had right of way.
My pet hate, as you have figured out by now, is cyclists who ride dangerously. They make all cyclists look bad. Cyclists are an oppressed minority as it is; the last thing we need is to ride dangerously and scare other road users, even when you feel their fear is unjustified.
Daylight Savings time. My biological clock is still off right now. I just don’t see the point, and I hate it with the seething hatred of a thousand Nazi parties.
I cycle around Dublin, and I invite you to join me for a change. There’re no provisions made for cyclists, and even if there are, cars ignore them (like cyclepaths).
The corner I was approaching was the corner of a square, so I could see traffic coming in every direction. I had my eyes on the pedestrians long before they saw me.
I anticipate what other road users will do, and calculate that in.
And I’m sorry, but if a pedestrian is walking out into the street in front of you, where there is no pedestrian crossing, and if i’m not going over the speedlimit, then it is NOT my fault.
I do not cycle dangerously, on the contrary. And the guy wasn’t yelling at me out of fear, he was yelling because he had to wait until I had passedbefore he could cross the street, and that just totally pissed him off.
elfje I dunno about the road rules where you are, but here, once pedestrians are on the road, they DO have right of way. It’s called not killing people by doing stupid things! YOU might have seen them ages ago, but they probably didn’t see you until you tore around them.
As for my pet hate… it’s PeOpLe WhO ThInK ThEy’Re WiTtY By AlTeRnAtInG CaPiTaL LeTtErS WhEn ThEy TyPe!!!
People who teach so-called “self defence” which in fact only gives their students a misplaced sense of confidence and couldn’t in fact use it to defend against a bunny rabbit.
