are friendly people a dying breed

[hairymel]

would you class palming off responsibility for a crusty old fiat a friendly act?

[Cavcraft]

The best thing to do is either ignore knobheads on the road, or give them some back. Being a miserable old bastard myself I always try and get in front of people who are driving like wankers, then keeping to the speed limit or just below and let everyone out of junctions.

[Guest]

Outdriving cumfarts in otherwise much faster cars does it for me a lot of the time.

[ProgRocker]

I was in the petrol station in the Polonez and it wouldn't start so I had to pop the bonnet to have a look at which point the twat behind starts beeping. Kinda pissed me off that.

 

Maybe the person behind didn't realise you couldn't start it and thought you were casually checking the levels. Might have been worth telling him/her.

 

Some geriatric old cunt blocked the car wash the other week trying to stake his claim whilst he went to get a ticket. I already had a ticket and was a tad annoyed about this so I drove around the garage and reversed into the car wash and fucked off for ten minutes for a smoke to calm down. The last person to do that to me ended up being stranded in their car cos I hit the emergency stop button just as the rollers were washing her doors.

 

Brilliant! I remember watching a car reverse into a car wash once before (Cavalier mark III back in their pre shite days), on the advice of the petrol station manager. The oil tanker refilling the underground tanks was blocking the entrance to the wash. Chap was a bit nervous about doing it, especially after the mgr said it was counterbalalnced (?) but he did so like a pro.

 

When I was younger and more socially awkward than I am now, I used to get: "How long are you gonna be?" by the next grumpy prick waiting to use the facilities - whether it was the jet wash or the air line. I kept getting the same fuckin demand when I became a courier when I had to park the Merc Sprinter on a narrow cobbled street (access/deliveries only)and collect heavy reels of films in boxes from Cinema City in Norwich City Centre. After ringing their door bell, a vehicle would occasionally come round the corner:

 

Impatient Knuckle dragging Motorist (whose 'short-cut' never paid off): "How long are you gonna be?"

Me: "As long as it takes them to answer the door and for me to make my delivery/collection"

They soon would shut up once I gave them that stock answer....or mutter something out of earshot.

 

The absolute worse demographic for letting you out or giving way are middle aged women

 

Whilst walking though a retail park I almost got run over by some middle aged bint (judging by the fake tan, make up and bleached blonde hair, was trying to be '39 forever' ) in a Suzuki Vitara or Toyota Rav4. Despite the ability of 4x4s to take speed bumps at a fair speed, she slowed right down and I thought she was letting me cross the road by the speed hump/pedestrian crossing. She then hit the accelerator, giving me a scare and then eventually the brake. Not sure if it was fuckwittery on her part (and thus not really not up to driving) or an act of intimidation.

 

Bollocks to 'em all, I say.

[PhilA]

Having moved to the land of the self-opinionated loudmouth, there are a few miserable ones here, but on the whole the people are nice and friendly.

 

Definitely noticed the difference between here and flying back to the UK, especially in the last 5-8 years.

 

Number of people who will wander up to me at the gas station etc just to chat about the car, real friendly and genuinely interested because they've not seen one up close before- like adult kids in a candy store.

 

Conversely we have some of the Barbie-dolls too. Good example was one last week- I'm headed home from work to get lunch. I get to the end of the street, a boulevard that intersects Louisiana Highway 1. Fairly busy road. She's stopped near the end of the street in a white generic SUV thing, texting or makeup or something. She sees me, moves forward. no turn signal, and she's to the hard left of the lane, with plenty space to the right for me to pull beside and make a right.

 

There's a gap, she waits, I decide to wait, and at the point where I start to pull forward to enter the street after the next car she stamps on the gas and turns in front of me, screaming some obsceneties...

 

That's the stereotype here. Mid thirties, big Britney Spears Drug Habit glasses, bleach-blonde hair with dirty mousy bits pulled back into a ponytail, driving GenericSUV.

Granted a licence because they were pretty when they were 16.

 

--Phil

[Bobthebeard]

Our local Morrisons petrol station has the LPG/unleaded pump as the first one in a row, before the unleaded/diesel pumps. So when I fill up with LPG I have to stop and use the first pump, obviously. Several times the driver behind has started tooting the horn, or got out and asked me/ told me to move down to the next pump. Sometimes, when I point out that this is the ONLY LPG pump on the forecourt, they apologise. But on several occasions I have been called a wanker/dickhead/selfish twat for not moving, even after explaining. It is the only pump I can use FFS! The driver behind then sits there muttering and fuming while I fill up, or wheelspins back and drives round me to the pump in front or drives to another row of pumps. Why are so many people so angry most of the time?? I have taken to going out at 6 am to fill up with LPG to avoid the confrontation now!

[dollywobbler]

Folk seem quite friendly in Wales. There you go. Move to Wales. Avoid the nasty bits - there are still people where who believe bottle blond over dark hair dye is a new, fashionable look. These are the sort of people who park as close as they can get to the doors of Morrisons, blocking much-needed parking space for me and my minibus (when collecting the old dears who have trouble walking). Really does my head in that perfectly healthy people can be so lazy about walking to a door, then walk around an enormous superstore quite happily!

[Junkman]

...Why are so many people so angry most of the time??...

 

That is something I fail to understand for the life of me. Why don't they address what makes them so angry? Why do they let it out on me?

I also noticed that there is a direct correlation between attire and attitude. Well dressed gentlefolk is much more unlikely to unload their life frustration on me than people who consider a track suit appropriate to wear in public.

 

Then there are the impatient types. They will bully their way ahead of me in every imaginable way, including running me off the fuggin road, then all of a sudden have all the time in the world to slow me down as a sort of revenge act. They must be on some bad medication that severely affects the functioning of the cerebral cortex and their cerebellum must have taken over.

[Cavcraft]

Bollocks they are, Ian. We went to Llangollen yesterday and it seemed to me about 87% of drivers round there are wankers. That especially includes Captain Tink Cock Esq in his Range Rover E-Coque who overtook approaching a blind corner.

[dollywobbler]

Bollocks they are, Ian. We went to Llangollen yesterday and it seemed to me about 87% of drivers round there are wankers. That especially includes Captain Tink Cock Esq in his Range Rover E-Coque who overtook approaching a blind corner.

 

Llangollen is a popular tourist spot, so it's all you bloody English coming here and ruining the roads.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

Why is that horse trimmed in anthracite velour?

[meshking]

...Why are so many people so angry most of the time??...

 

That is something I fail to understand for the life of me. Why don't they address what makes them so angry? Why do they let it out on me?

 

I doubt it's personal (although, I've never met you so can't be sure ) I was talking with my regular car service driver the other day and he said he's noticed over the past couple of years people getting more aggressive. He thought it was just that people are under more stress (working longer hours for less, etc).

[oman5]

Folk seem quite friendly in Wales. There you go. Move to Wales. Avoid the nasty bits - there are still people where who believe bottle blond over dark hair dye is a new, fashionable look. These are the sort of people who park as close as they can get to the doors of Morrisons, blocking much-needed parking space for me and my minibus (when collecting the old dears who have trouble walking). Really does my head in that perfectly healthy people can be so lazy about walking to a door, then walk around an enormous superstore quite happily!

 

Don't move to Merthyr.

 

I think the aggressive thing is self-perpetuating. everybody expects everyone else to act like an aggressive wanker so they start to act that way themselves to prevent it.

[ProgRocker]

The layout of Morrisons petrol station seem to be designed on a tight plot of land compared to Shell and BP stations. Designed to annoy and frustrate it's customers as manoeuvring between tight gaps is often required.

 

Not just the petrol station, the supermarket itself too. Since the refurb a year ago, the aisles are slightly narrower than they were before. So when som dozy twonk parks their trolley in the way it becomes twice as hard to negotiate around them.

 

I do most of my shopping at Aldi now. However, one still has to negotiate around tracksuited chavs, to complete the shopping. But given Aldi's low price business model, sharing the oxygen with such pond life is a price worth paying.

[Morgan84]

A few years ago, a late friend of mine was crossing a road, and nearly got hit by a car which had turned the wrong way into a junction; as he jumped back, he said " you stupid bitch ".

The car screeched to a halt, and the woman driver got out, and said " I heard that " for my friend to reply " you were meant too "

 

Her final act was to say he was a rude old man, before screeching off in a huff leaving him laughing as she went along with several witnesses

[catsinthewelder]

A boy racer came tearing through the centre of Ludlow the other day with his stereo turned up rather high, I did giggle rather a lot when some old boy gave him the finger

[bub2006]

I have a tendency if I see a car with hazards on or bonnet up etc to stop and ask if there is anything I can do. Usually get told no but I think its the thought that counts. Lost count of times I broke down an no one stopped though. One that sticks in my mind was when I was around 17 I had a old 125 cruiser style bike. On my way back through huthwaite I spot a guy on bike stood at side of road tinkering with his Harley and obviously had no equipment tools etc. I stopped and asked if I can help and promptly got told to fuck off cos I ride a 125. I just smiled and climbed back on my bike giving it a wobble as I took it off stand so he could hear. I had just done an engine job on my mates car and had pannier bags full of tools. Probably more than halfords had in stock! Oh well!

[Caffiend]

As a nearly middle-aged woman (who has no quote or edit buttons on ere ) the thing about middle-aged women being worst for letting you out or giving way is absotively true. It's paying forward all those times that wankers tailgate me for DARING to be a blonde woman* in an old car in front of them.

 

*not aeroplane

[whitevanman]

/\ touche....

[Junkman]

As a nearly middle-aged woman (who has no quote or edit buttons on ere ) the thing about middle-aged women being worst for letting you out or giving way is absotively true. It's paying forward all those times that wankers tailgate me for DARING to be a blonde woman* in an old car in front of them.

 

*not aeroplane

 

Well, on the other hand it has always been 'Ladies first' in civilized areas of this planet. So why should a middle-aged woman not insist on her right of way?