Things that annoy you

Slow swimmers who join me in the fast lane of a pool - and insist on starting their length as I am about to do a turn off the wall, then crawl (well breast stroke) down the middle of the lane so I cant pass them.
 
Swimming pools that dont have the fast lanes clearly marked out, so you are left scanning swimmers trying to establish which lane you should be in. You choose an empty-ish one in good faith. You start off with your faithful breast stroke trying to warm up and build up the courage to a front crawl only to realize you're holding up a cranky Duncan Goodhew behind you
 
You obviously chose the wrong lane then!

More things that annoy me

Those incessant Eircom radio ads about Laura and how she likes the little things in life and she likes her bundles, accompanied by that stupid stupid dawdling tune in the background and then the voiceover which starts with a mono Irish accent and ends with an American accent telling you it's in the stores now.

Those incessant 123 insurance ads. Have you ever heard such a moronic jingle and sound effects in your life.
 

...and what about those ads for 'Clearwire' broadband? With the smug, homely, American accented voiceover -

..."and we're American"

So What!?!?
 
Bringing the shopping trolley back in a massive supermarket carpark! Dont ask me why it annoys..i pay the 1 or 2 euro (thats another saga..why are the bigger trolleys cheaper than the little baskets on wheels??) ..pay stupid amounts of money in the supermarket on stuff i didnt need (fair play s/market ergonomics)find my car..then realise ive to walk all the way back to the supermarket entrance to get my euros back cos theres no trolley bay within a half mile radius of where ive parked the starlet! Have been tempted to ditch it (trolley not starlet),then feel guilty for blockin a space, then have a mini dilemma in my head goin "cant waste the money..im bein a lazy so and so..oh for f sake its such a long walk...im lucky to have the money in the first place"...yep...i think too much! It is a thread about things that annoy...theres mine!
 
Just realised im the only one whos posted here post end of work time (5pm ish)..does everyone (who doesnt have a fri nite social life...savin for the new place thats my excuse) leg it off to boards.ie ..hmmm??
 
I have to confess to not being the most patient when waiting in a shop queue situation. But why do I always get stuck behind a woman in our local Centra who when she gets to the till:

1. Firstly puts hand bag on counter
2. Then proceeds to take keys out of handbag and leave on counter
3. Searches for purse and eventually locates same
4. Searches for the amount and then decides to use all her small change
5. Starts counting out small change
6. Eventually realises that she doesn't have enough change and
7. then decides to use laser or paper money if you're lucky
8. When payment eventually complete, starts to
9. put keys back in bag
10. Put purse back in bag
11. Pick up groceries and departs ! At last but....
12. Forgot the bin ticket and it starts all over again !!!!!!!
 
That drives me mad too. I really hate the bit at the end where they have to reverse all their actions in slo-mo; close purse, put back in bag, put items one at a time into shopping bag. You're left standing there exchanging frustrated looks with the shop assistant while you both wait for them to shuffle away from the counter.
 
Ruth Scott. The only radio presenter that makes me to change station whenever I hear her voice... How she didn't get the sack after her disastrous morning show (with Rick O'Shea) I'll never understand - not only did she keep her job but she ended up with 2 shows...ridiculous
 
Bad in a shop but worse in the queue for the ATM. Women; if you want to reorganise your bag/ purse after getting money out of the hole in the wall then stand to one side and do it!
 
Yeah I hate waiting in queues too, but look at it from her angle. As a woman with a purse in a handbag, the fact is that I'm programmed not to take my purse out of the bag unnecessarily in public view because I'm afraid I'll get mugged! I know I'll hardly get mugged while queueing in the shop but it's one of those personal safety things which just get conditioned into you. Translates into a habit of not taking it out until I have to use it! To be honest I only have 2 hands anyway - not enough to hold groceries and handbag and ferret out change all at the same time while moving forward in a queue.
 
Those awful Kerrygold ads. I'm still trying to repress "who's bringing de horse ta France?"
 
When someone rings and it's a wrong number then they ask if I have the number of the place they meant to ring ( particularly when they sound annoyed when I say 11811)

This has happened to me at least 5 times today at work
 
When someone rings and it's a wrong number then they ask if I have the number of the place they meant to ring ( particularly when they sound annoyed when I say 11811)

This has happened to me at least 5 times today at work

How on earth can they expect you to know the number??
 
How on earth can they expect you to know the number??

I know.

It's like when people say: "Do you know so and so? because you look like them".

They could live 158 miles away and have no logical link to the other person whatsoever.
 
It's like when people say: "Do you know so and so? because you look like them".

Or if you ask someone how long a job is likely to take and they glance at their watch before answering: "Maybe three or four days ..."
 
I'm from Roscommon and was chatting to someone today and mentioned that fact, and they said to me "oh I used to work with a girl from Longford, you might know her". WTF?? It's not even in Connacht, just happens to border part of our county.
 
I'm from Roscommon and was chatting to someone today and mentioned that fact, and they said to me "oh I used to work with a girl from Longford, you might know her". WTF?? It's not even in Connacht, just happens to border part of our county.

Dubs eh?

who paradoxically are among the most parochial people I've met...
 
(1) The RTE radio newsreader (Michael Murphy?) who pronounces Garda as Gore-da. It's Gar, not Gore. There's no fada.

(2) The fact that nobody in RTE says "before" any more - it's always "ahead of". I think it started in the sports broadcasts ("X is training in France ahead of next weekend's match"), and spread from there.

(3) The way Fergal Bowers breaks his sentences
down into bite-sized chunks
with peculiar pauses
in the middle of sentences
when he's reading
even if there's no punctuation.
He's fine when he's giving a direct interview and not reading from a prepared script but the reading...! And he puts a weirdly excessive emphasis on the "zeck" bit of Health Service Executive.

(4) Ronan Gilligan of AA Roadwatch, who no longer uses simple sentences.
He's adopted the construction "X: That's [description]" rather than "X is [description]" and it's really starting to bug me - mainly because I'm afraid he'll infect the rest of RTE in the same way as occurred with ahead of/before. He's already started to influence one or two of his fellow Roadwatchers, although none of them is as bad as he is. It's fine for the occasional sentence, but his entire broadcast sounds something like
"The M50: That's backed up to the Red Cow roundabout.
The Naas dual carriageway: That's at a standstill.
The 3 horses that were on the road at Lucan: They've been moved."

His delivery: It sounds really disjointed. (All I want is "The M50 is backed up to the Red Cow roundabout. The Naas dual carriageway is at a standstill. The 3 horses that were on the road at Lucan have been moved.")

I think I need to turn off my radio.