to have ruined her peace?

[wimblehorse]

As it's still warm & sunny here, I decided to eat my lunch outside. Too far to walk to a nice park & back (work lunch half hour), so I sat on a nearby bench.
As I got up to leave, a woman sitting at the other end of the bench muttered to me "Thanks for ruining my peace".

I laughed and went on my way.

Was this a peaceful, idyllic setting?
No, it was the pavement outside a parade of shops on an A road in north London with buses, cars & vans driving past and a LOT of people walking past.

I was not eating smelly food, did not have a conversation on my phone (or try to engage her in conversation) and do not smell. I sat at the opposite end of the bench to her. There were no other free benches.

Am still trying to wonder if I breached some unspoken rule of only one person being able to sit on a bench at any time, or what could have happened that she was having such a bad day that me sitting a metre away from her could have made worse.

Suggestions please?

The sound of people eating apples makes me feel physically ill (I'm glad from this thread that I'm not the only one). Everywhere I go somebody starts chomping on one. One day I'm going to ram one down their throat. She probably felt the same.

'Leave the bench-ard!'

lol @ captainmummy, good one

This made me chuckle! I'd return as much as possible for as long as possible at the same time everyday lol @ bench police!

dogeared, I'm in Glasgow and have always called them pieces!

I think you are a loud eater OP, shame on you!

maybe she could read you're thoughts and not be able not to iyswim

ooh what were you thinking?

I have to ask, but were you on your phone?

Petsin there's a bench opposite our nearest Ann Summers - that's where she should've been, not on a naice bench.

My then eighty-year old mother was sitting on a bench in Newcastle Central Station when a sixty-ish guy sat down next to her. He pulled an enormous pair of women's knickers out of his pocket and started ostentatiously sniffing them. My mum did not allow this to ruin her peace, but sat there until her train arrived.

She must have ruined his day, though.