re: Space awareness in campsite loos

[Mindyourownbusiness]

Went camping this weekend, lovely little break, great very spacious facilities, shower rooms, long row of loos and handbasins and mirrors opposite (about 12 in a row). Also a row of mirrors with just worktop/ shelf (no basins) for make-up, hair drying etc I suppose.

First morning - in l goes with my toilet bag to do my oblutions. I was standing in front of second to end basin looking in mirror cleaning my face with cleanser/cotton wool with a headband on etc and thinking - ' oh this is nice /great facilities etc etc ' ( last place we stayed they were very very basic and not good ). There was no-one else in at all.

With that in she comes - a youngish woman about thirty/thirty five, walks past the whole row of sinks to get to the end one next to me, maybe eight inches between our elbows, then proceeds to vigourously brush her teeth.

Why ?

This sort of thing has happened to me before and l just dont understand - l really dont.

I even went back in later with my friend and l pointed out where l had stood and where she stood and there was no extra space or extra light or any other factor at all to explain why she chose that sink. Also l observed lady later interacting with her group and she seemed intelligent , polite etc etc.

Very puzzling and makes me more than a little l'm afraid.

Rant over.

That was about the woman in OP that last sentence btw.

I got a bit twitchy the other day when I was buying metrolink tickets at the tram stop with DP. Three women came along and were looking at the map next to the ticket machine- fine. Once they'd decided where they were going they then proceeded to surround us right up close, peering over our shoulders as DP was typing his pin number into the machine. Bleeding rude.

Dowagers I think a few of us need to get out more on here ! and would do if we could guarantee some bastard wouldnt spoil it by wanting to be right on our arse wherever we go or whatever we're doing!

I think we ought to start saying a curt 'Do you mind ?' Ooga

I've always thought I was wierd for leaving too much space etc, so I've been actively moving closer to people At my son's new school, I was early for sports day, so all the chairs were empty apart from one (front row far left). so I sat on the front row, leaving 4 seats between us. I think I did it because, both myself and the other lady were on our own, and also it was my first time at sports day, and felt a bit intimidated, so I wanted someone close, in case we were sitting in the wrong place.

We started talking, and it turns out she is a member of the same internet forum as I (a school forum) so we had a lovely chat (At her request I moved seats to be next to her) and made a real life friend, out of a cyber friend.

I always chose the second to last/first cubicle in the toilets if they are all free

Obviously the world is divided into people like us (in the right) and people who don't care (wrong)

I can't stand people being too close to me. I really hate people leaning over my shoulder at work - I have to make them sit down next to me if they're looking at my screen or I feel quite murderous :o

Yes derek me too in a social setting - l agree it can appear rude if you sit miles away but l still cant understand why people do this in non social settings.

Unless of course some people see brushing teeth/shaving armpits/going to toilet as a social activity . Well it takes all sorts l suppose !

Dowagers 'people like us (in the right)'

love it

I think it's a magnetism thing. The same thing can happen in car parks.

My FIL once went into a car park that was empty except for one other car. He still managed to crash into it.

I did say 'weirdo' loudly once as I left my cubicle. I don't know where the word came from as I haven't used it since I was a teenager

I don't get this sort of thing at all. I remember going to the cinema with DH years ago and it was completely empty apart from one couple in the middle set of seats, about half way up. I followed DH up the stairs and he entered their row, made them stand as he walked by, and sat at the end of their row. I kid you not! They looked really alarmed as though he was completely off his trolley.

I walked along the row in front of them and apologised on his behalf .

My DH is my complete opposite. He still remembers the time that there was someone on the phone in a cubicle so he rushed to the one next door and made as much noise as he could to make it clear where the man was. It was years ago and he's still proud of what he termed his 'splidoosh' :)

As a student used to go to a cinema where they gave you seat numbers. They'd start in the middle and work out so you'd end up sat in a group of 20 in an otherwise empty cinema.

In school "queue" which is honoured more in the breech! & why stand BESIDE me? Personal space ladies!

peppersaunt - yes, the school queue. Why is it, when I am waiting quietly in the middle of the playground for the LO to come out, someone ALWAYS stands directly in front of me. Not the same person, just a random parent. I fume (but I'm not brave enough to say anything!)

I had this happen to me on the Tube once. Unfortunately it was less the clueless act of simpleton and more an opening gambit to sexually harrass me.

Late at night I was sat at the end of a carriage next to the glass, with perhaps 3 other people in the carriage. A man sitting right at the other end of the carriage looks over at me, he then gets up, walks all the way down and sits next to me. I could not believe the brazenness of it. I was so angry and also quite scared. He then proceeded to widen his legs so they were touching mine, and lean on me with his body. At one point he started to talk to me, and I snapped at him 'I don't want to speak to you' before putting my headphones back in.

I then realised that I would be in big trouble if I got off at my stop and he followed me. After worrying about this for a while I formulated a plan to feint leaving at the next stop. I started to fiddle with my possessions as if getting ready to get up and as we rolled into the station I zipped up my coat and bag all ready to depart. Luckily he was fooled and leapt up to get off the train before me. I stayed put and watched the doors close on him. Very relieved!

Sometimes these personal space invaders are actually malicious.

It's the same with tents though - whenever we've been fortunate to find a nice empty campsite the first day we go out we come back to find another tent with its guy ropes practically entwining ours and an otherwise empty field/forest. They then of course turn out to be Mr and Mrs wahey-lets-party-we're-on- holiday-dontchyaknow. Its enough to make me want to stand guard over our tent ready to defend it against newcomers.

And why is it that whenever we are at the cinema that we get a family of giants in front of us, and the most giant of giants always sits in front of dd so she has no chance of seeing anything, so we end up having to swap seats around.

Oh yes bad kitten .

We are fortunate to be one of those horrible apparently sociopathic 4x4 owners[grins] so we always park that a reasonable distance from our tent to preserve some space alongside it but not big enough for another tent to squeeze in. Plus we make sure the other side is the corner of the field / a ditch / farm gate whatever so no-one can go on other side of us either.

Thought we were really clever until one day we set up on a nearly empty field as per above 'cunning plan' and walked into village only to return to find some cheeky twats new arrivals had squeezed their small tent imbetween our tent (their guy ropes actually going within the gaps in ours iyswim) and our vehicle.

I found my assertive head that day though and said 'You are having a laugh'

When they assured me they werent l marched down to office and told the proprietors they either moved them or we were off.

Luckily they came and moved them.

Their excuse was they had set up there for shelter (between our vehicle and tent) and they really couldnt see the problem

Unbelievable.

! blimey mindyour. That really is taking the piss!

It's normally because people are a bit like sheep.

I know that sounds bitchy and it's truly not meant to. But look at human behaviour. That dress that Everyone Simply Must Have. Doing something because someone else is doing it. Liking something because it's been on the telly. People follow other people. All the time. We take our cues from other people, we seek out other people. Look at something as simple as clapping, for example. That moment of dead silence until one person plucks up the courage to clap and then within a second - everyone's at it.

so. In conclusion. Someone will always park next to you in an empty car park because they are actually seeking you out to be next to you, mimic you, take their cue from you. You were there first, you 'led' them in where to start the row of car parking from.

Yes Hecate l agree they are. But l really dont understand why someone would want to brush their teeth shoulder to shoulder with a stranger when there's a row of opportunities to do it somewhere else.

l suppose some people have very low levels of embarrassment, because l for one couldnt do what she did, l would be very self conscious, one for standing there in the first place and for two, brushing my teeth next to a complete stranger.

But it's like some people will walk round town eating a pastie, mouth full of crumbs, taking huge bites out of it, almost as if they are in a room on their own with no self consciousness whatsoever.

Or the woman that will sit in a restaurant and pull out a mirror and start examing her teeth, putting fresh lipstick on. l have never ever done that and never will - l would always go in the loos. I am just way too self conscious/private person to do that.

So l suppose these sort of people are going to think so much less of displaying the 'up close and personal' behaviour displayed on this thread.

Or maybe as someone said upthread maybe the 'they are just twats' hypothesis wins.

I think your mistake is looking for sense where there is none. Looking for logic where it doesn't exist. I don't think these people think at all about what they are doing. I think it is purely subconscious and they don't take a second to look at what they are doing and ask themselves why.

This drives me mad.

My commute across London used to involve getting on an 8 carriage train at a quiet time. It went into Waterloo where the exits are at the front and you entered the platform at the rear. Vauxhall has the exit about a third of the way along and Clapham Junction has one near the back and one near the front.

Being a thoroughly antisocial commuter I used to carefully position myself somewhere entirely random on the platform, nowhere near where any of the little "exit" clusters regularly formed. If I was the only person on the platform you could absolutely guarantee that the next person would come and stand about 3 inches away from me. One day there was one lone person at the other end of the platform and me, surrounded by a little herd of about 5 people all trying to get as close together as humanly possible.

I did consider screaming "I don't know where the sodding doors are going to stop. I'm not psychic, people!" but I thought that would be Not The Done Thing.

I also had the shop-rail thing recently. I was in White Stuff in an outlet village. It has some rails of samples and ends of lines. There were 2 of us in the shop. I started working my way through the sample rail and she came over and joined in about 6 inches behind me, but tried to go faster than me so our hands were actually colliding and she was squashing DS2 who was on my back. And then she tutted at me!

There should be byelaws about this sort of thing.