Don’t Let Crappy People Spoil Your Day

We thought going late for lunch was a clever way of avoiding the lunch-hour crowd.

But it looked like lots of people had the same idea. So Sonny, Robbie (my nephew) and I stood in the five-foot way and hoped we didn’t have to wait long for a table. It would be very embarrassing if I were so hungry that I’d keel over or have a panic attack. (Strange things happen to me when my blood-sugar level dips.)

Lunch was served at 2.30

You know what it’s like when you’re waiting for something. Two minutes is a long time. Five minutes is forever. This is especially true when you’re waiting for that person to drive out of a parking spot while you’re holding up a mile of cars behind you. As you control the urge to lean on your horn,  that dim-witted Gaman casually gets into his car, closes his door, opens it again to get out and check his front tyres, gets in, adjusts the rear-view mirror, combs his hair and puts on his sun-glasses before he drives out of the parking lot at the speed of a sleepy snail. If you felt like screaming, I don’t blame you. We all have good days and, occasionally, terrible ones.

 

 It was on one of my not-so-good days when we decided to eat out and, apparently, half the residents of KK decided to eat at the same restaurant. After waiting some fifteen-twenty minutes, I was glad when one of the proprietors waved us over. A group was just leaving. Gratefully, we stood at the table as a waiter cleared and cleaned it. 

Imagine our shock when a couple casually walked over and immediately plonked themselves at OUR table! 

Hello! Did we suddenly become invisible? Or were the man and woman really ghosts only we could see? I was too flabbergasted and angry to say anything!

 

“Do you want to share the table?” Sonny asked. He wasn’t giving up.

“No,” I replied. “I might choke on my food if I had to face those pea-brained nincompoops.” I didn’t say the sentence aloud. No point having a tantrum and starting a brawl and making it into the Daily Express the following day.  Just imagine the headline: Elderly woman in hot soup for pouring hot soup on couple!

 

The driver who grabbed the parking lot

In the same league with that obnoxious couple, are people who jump queues by squeezing themselves in front of you at check-out counters—or going straight to the head of the line—and motorists who grab the parking space you’ve been waiting for—with your signal lights (and eyes) flashing menacingly that anyone with the tiniest bit of intelligence knows exactly what your intention is.

I had an encounter with such a driver a few months ago. There I was, signal lights flashing, waiting for Driver A to get out of the parking lot. Driver A was hardly out when Driver B who was a few cars behind me zoomed into the space. (Giving way for the held-up vehicles to pass before attempting to park was a stupid act of courtesy on my part.) I could only say stupidstupidstupidstupid. Not a glance came from Driver B. Not a furtive look. Instead he poked his head into his car and kept it there for a long while. Maybe he thought I’d go away. I did but only after taking his picture.

 

I just can’t understand why people have no sense shame when they grab at something they know someone else has been waiting for.

Just like the couple who took our table, the man who took the parking space acted like nothing was amiss.  It probably wasn’t the first time they had done what they did. Survival of the fittest? Hah, it’s more like survival of the rudest, most obnoxious, shameless jackasses.

 

What kind of idiots makes your blood boil? The doctor who makes a diagnosis by flipping through your six-month old case notes without actually reading them? The sales-assistant who follows your every move as if convinced you were a shoplifter? Or tells you: ‘Don’t ask if you don’t have the money to pay’? The boss who expects a ten-hour job to be finished in one hour? 

Don’t let the jerks spoil your day! Cheers!