Cringes where you are still cringeing years later

[LemonWaterSugar]

I have no idea if cringeing needs the "e". I think it does.

Anyway, I was driving today and out of nowhere did a MASSIVE cringe shudder at something I did about two / three years ago. I forget about it for a while then BAM it comes back and I have to relive it again.

Basically it was when everyone was working from home, so meetings on Teams / Zoom were relatively new. I wasn't long back from maternity leave so even less experience with this type of communication in a work setting.

I was interviewing for a new team member with my manager. All going well, although it's slightly strange on a screen especially as you have no eye contact and it's not always clear who you are talking to.

My manager asked the question.. obviously to the candidate but because we were on a screen and it looked like she was looking at me I ANSWERED IT 😩😩😩😩 I don't know what I was thinking. Gave a full blown answer to an interview question.

I realised way too late, and my manager sort of smirked then asked it again and said something like "it would be good to hear the answer from the interviewee".

EUGH.

Anyone have any of these that just keep coming back?

My life seems to be one long cringe but the following scenario is one of the worst:

Years ago when I was single, I used to rent out my spare room to students from a local language school. One summer, I had a man renting the room, and I didn't really gel with him and had arranged for him to leave on the pretext of needing some urgent renovations. Anyway, he used to leave for school in the morning before I left for work. On this particular morning he left for school, closing the front door behind him. Having said 'goodbye' and heard the door shut, I went into the bathroom to have my shower. I took off all my clothes, cleaned my teeth, then remembered before I got into the shower that I needed to take something out of the freezer to thaw. I opened the bathroom door, and dead opposite me coming through the back door was student man with socks in his hand. The worst of it was, that I just froze in shock for a few seconds before slamming the door shut. He had for some bizarre reason remembered he had left socks on the washing line, and come home to retrieve them. The noise of the bathroom fan and my own teeth cleaning meant I had not heard him come in. That was a very awkward last evening hosting him!

A man I knew vaguely around the age of 18 from using his shop frequently would call me "Trouble" each time I was in and we'd have a jokey light hearted chat. He had two shops and I was usually in one more than the other.

One day I was at the other end of town and popped in to the 2nd shop and he was there too. I said hello and started chatting to him and he was clearly confused and so I said to him "it's me, it's Trouble!" which did not clear it up for him (clearly it was a fun name he used with people he chatted to but I didn't realise it at that time.)

I couldn't just walk out as I had things I needed to pay for and was in a queue by the time I'd seen him approaching the till. He turned to the person behind the till and said "this is Trouble apparently...?!?!" which confused them too. I could feel the people in the queue cringing too.

You could feel the awkward. I made no eye contact and legged it out of there ASAP and never used either shop again. They're not there now thankfully but I do still occasionally see him on the local market where he now has a stall. He doesn't recognise me (it has been 20 years to be fair 😂) and I still cringe.

Getting into someone's car thinking it was a taxi!
Slipping on the floor and falling my full length going into a crowed health and safety meeting.

This happens more than you think 😂

My ex mixed in the same circles as my boss and we bumped into him once in the pub where we worked when I was off one day. Anyway my ex had recently been on holiday and my boss making pleasantries asked him if he'd had a nice break, to which my ex replied yes thanks, did you..? To which my boss said no...I haven't been anywhere..... 😂😂

I had also had to refrain from saying thanks you too! To someone who wished me a happy birthday the other day 😄it was a close one.

This was many years ago when DDs were toddlers.

Some senior execs from another organisation had come to visit my workplace for a day of meetings. During casual break-time-coffee one of visiting women, hearing that I had twin toddlers, sympathetically asked how I was coping with work and home life, were DDs sleeping well etc? I was trying to sound all competent, so I breezily replied "Oh yes, in fact we often beat them up in the morning!"

Still die inside when I think of it.

WTF was he thinking!!!! 😂

We were doing French oral exams many years ago. One girl in the class meant to tell the examiner that her father is disabled. Instead she told the examiner that her father is available.

Oh my God, this was years ago but I still go all hot when I think of it.

We had recently moved to the area and I was trying to get to know some people at the school gate. There was a defibrillator attached to the school building, with a plaque saying 'donated by the parents of Child'. I commented to the group of parents that it was lovely that they had been able to do something in Child's memory. They all went silent and one looked at me and said, 'That child is in Year 5'.

It wasn't in the child's memory. They had just paid for the defibrillator as a community resource. I was mortified.

My friend and I went into a local newsagents which was in an old building. We both stood with chocolate in our hands, she paid for hers, I hadn’t paid as wasn’t my turn.

The shop keeper said to me “ I’ve not seen you for ages “ or something like that. to which I replied “ I know, I don’t come very often” which because we were very young, friend and I found hilarious, so much so, we both ran out of said shop howling with laughter. he followed us out and said “ you’ve not paid for your chocolate “ obviously thinking I was trying to shoplift (I wasn’t )

went back in and paid as had the money in my hand. Was mortified and couldn’t go into the shop for ages as I was so embarrassed

I was swimming in the pool on holiday with my sister. Saw her holding onto the side facing away from the pool so I swam over to her and pulled her long blond ponytail really quite hard, up and down whilst loudly saying 'ding-dong, ding-dong'! She turned round and it wasn't my sister 🙈 just a random woman! Mortified, it still keeps me awake at night!

I've also done a swimming pool one. When I was maybe 6, my big brother was doing a roly-poly in the water so at the point at which his arse was poking out temptingly, I quickly swam across and spanked it. When he completed the rotation it was not my brother but a completely different boy looking justifiably startled and pissed off. I was so shocked that I didn't even apologize, just swam off.

I was very young and doing my first management role. Our company was going through a restructure. I'd got the role over someone else, the big boss didn't think I was experienced enough.

Anyway, we brief our teams for around 3 weeks on plans for the upcoming restructure, no job losses thankfully but a lot of change. All culminating in a whole company meeting to 'unveil' final plans.

At the end their is a Q&A where one of my team stands up, absolutely rants and raves that they knew nothing, this is the first they'd heard of it etc. I go beetroot, big boss is shooting daggers at me wondering why one of my team is seemingly in the dark. Everyone is sort of whispering amongst themselves.

Thankfully, my manager smooths it all over and was actually present when I told this person about the plans, so god knows why she stood up and said what she said. Big boss still reminds me of it now, she said she's never seen anyone go so red 😂

Half (or more accurately three quarters asleep), I have said thank you to a cash machine before. I've also paid for stuff and walked off leaving the stuff behind 😂

This is strange.. he should have remembered you! Perhaps he had a twin brother!

Another one!
I was going to a new work location and was very nervous. Normally when I arrive, I press the buzzer and then speak into the intercom. So at this place, I pressed what I thought was a buzzer and started speaking. Another worker came up to the door and looked at me strangely. I then realised I was pressing the enter button that regularly staff can use to push open the door. (So not an intercom button at all.) It looked like I was speaking to myself. Still cringe when I think about that as must have looked so weird.

regular

Years ago, in my early 20s, I was in a lift with an older colleague.
She was wearing an extremely short skirt.
I said "You look great. I'd look like a prostitute in that!"

I was in my teens, at the stage when you are embarrassed by being alive, by your own shadow, or by breathing.
We used to hang out in a coffee bar and all the girls had these teeny tiny fashionable handbags. A boy I liked was teasing me by snatching my bag, pretending to give it back, holding it aloft until I grabbed it. Then he would do it again. I grabbed my bag, and meaning to say either “knickers!” or “piss off!”
Ended up saying “knickers off!” to this boy I fancied.😱

Dd on holiday in Spain aged 9- swam under water through dh's legs, popped up on the other side, turned round to face him to see a large startled German man. He just smiled and said HELLO, she was more embarrassed than me with anything I've personally done 😂

So would I, believe me. The word I use isn’t considered polite except in dog-breeding circles

I was once chatting to a manager of a site I did the nvq assessments for. We were talking about Port.. as in the drink. I declared how much I enjoyed Cockburns Port.. pronouncing it exactly how it is spelled. He took great pleasure in telling me it was actually pronounced "Coburns". I haven't touched port since.

Mine is so similar to your second one. It will haunt me till I die.

My late husband a couple of months into our young relationship. Standing looking into each others eyes. Hands on each others hips. I coughed, and a blob of phlegm flew out of my mouth and landed on his arm.
We both looked at the phlegm then at each other. Deftly, he wiped arm then rubbed it on the back of his jeans.
We did not speak of it in all of our years together 😂

This is the winner for me 🤣

I'm sitting in a parking lot where once, a few years ago, I kept trying to open my car door but for some reason, it wouldn't open. It was late, dark and freezing cold. I walked around to the other side of the car and tried again at which point, a man came running up shouting "Oi! What're doing to my car?!!" Horrified, I looked at him and then back at the car; it wasn't mine. I muttered an apology and scuttled off. 🫠

One of the Ofsted inspectors at our school happened to be someone I used to work with years ago and I hadn't seen him for years. I didnt know this so as soon as I saw him, without thinking, I ran up to him and gave him a big hug and started to ask how his family was. I then realised awkwardly that he was being given a tour of the school by senior management along with the rest of the inspection team. I then had to sort of awkwardly withdraw in front of them all and go on my way.