To sit here and quietly seethe with resentment

[BoobleMcB]

...about the bloody person who has come and sat at the end of my admittedly longer than i need table at lunch when there are literally DOZENS of empty tables (including numerous long tables like mine)?!

In case of predators. Especially if they think you look tastier or slower.

Loons the lot of 'em.

I reckon the empty car park thing is down to people having to have another car in their eyeline to help guide them into a parking space - to make sure they are square on. Or it could be that they are fuckwits - one of the two.

What gets me are cashpoint queues on busy pavements when people queue perpendicular across the pavement rather than along. Really twists my melon big time.

I might be a bit late, OP, but that is weird behaviour. Creepy, in fact.

Haven’t read the thread yet but hope you moved.

Ooh I agree. This has happened to me a lot. Particularly in the bus or tube in London. Empty bus and woman sat in seat next to me. I'm not particularly assertive but I was in a morning mood and asked her to move as I wished to arrange my handbag. another time a bloke sat next to me in empty carriage. He then talked at me. I answered politely a couple of times then absorbed myself in my book. He continued to speak to me, getting arsier and finally asked me why I was reading when he was talking to me. I said I wish to read and dont wish to talk. He then asked me (shouting) if I was on my period. 😂

Public toilets, lots of empty cubicles but someone will use the one right next to you. Whyyyyyy???

I hate this and I move whenever it's possible with a well directed ' you fucking freak' face .

But the toilet one, it's happened to me before where I've gone in the farthest one and it's a disgusting mess! Next one has no paper so only leaves me the one next to an occupied toilet, sorry but when you've got to go you've got to go!

I always put paper down first though.

This has happened to me twice this week! Firstly Dh and I in a totally empty cinema 10 minutes into the showing a guy by himself sat directly in front of me. I made lots of passive aggressive noises and then moved literally any other seat in the whole room would have been ok. Second occasion in an empty restaurant seated at a table for 2 lovely romantic meal. The waitress then sat a table of 6 middle aged men directly behind/next to us essentially trapping me against the wall as 2 chairs were actually touching mine. I asked to move immediately and we were sat the other end of the restaurant was so glad we moved as I could still hear them from there.

@CanIBuffalo that HAS to be the reason! I can't believe I didn't realise this! I had been to the gym before work so clearly couldn't run as well (takes a while for these old legs to recover).

And yes to the toilet thing! Strange...

YANBU. It's seriously creepy. Probably has Asperger's or something similar. It's certainly not normal behaviour. If a dog did that to another dog it would get snarled up and with every justification.

The same principle that dictates that someone will come and park next to you in an otherwise empty car park.

I see this has already been covered!

My Dad used to test this hypothesis in car parks - he'd park in an empty far corner. Sure enough, within 10 minutes another car would park next or nearby.

Hate this! On the bus tooo. Unless of course it’s a very handsome man 😊

Shop ailes ! If I stop and read a label so do two or three other shoppers. I move away to carry on shopping, they move away too . Usually not buying the item . Just weird people think they must be missing something I suppose

I get up and move if someone does this. I don't want people to sit next to me in an empty room unless it's someone I actually know and like, in which case I will look at them and smile and say hello. But a stranger getting into my space when there is room elsewhere is a clear indication that the stranger is going to be a nuisance of some kind. Maybe they want to tell me about Jeeeezus. Maybe they are going to creep on me (OK, less likely now I am old and scruffy). Maybe they are going to ask for money. Maybe they are one of these appalling people who think of themselves as 'warm and friendly' and therefore demand not only attention but praise from everyone they can find.

Very strange behaviour that.

If they were with a group, I might understand them trying to make a point that you would be better at a smaller table, but alone? it's odd.

I was once driving ever upwards in a multi story car park, basically because there was a car following me and it seemed inconsiderate to make him wait whilst I pulled into a space. There were plenty of spaces on each floor. Eventually I got fed up and decided he would just have to wait. He then, of course, pulled into the space right next to me leaving me a couple of inches to open my door.

In that situation, I'm childish enough to drive straight out again and park somewhere else.

@BoobleMcB

This happens to me sometimes. In the cinema, or on public transport.

I'm no gonna lie. I move.

I sit on my own because I want my own space, and quiet, and to be uninterrupted by coughing, sniffing, and smelly people. If someone sits by me (when 50-60+ more seats are available,) I will move.

I may sound like a rude, ignorant cunt, but I don't want to talk to someone I don't know, or care about. 4 times out of 5, when some weird stranger approaches you to sit by you, (and talk to you,) all they talk about is themselves. Fucks me right off!

As I said, I will move. And I DO move. I don't give a fuck if the person is offended. Why should I?

There's a silly internet app for men about urinal behaviour that is like this... it's about where one man is already standing and where it's appropriate for the next man to stand... it's NEVER next to the current man unless it's the only available space.

We seem to instinctively know where to stand...

Why on earth someone can't work this out for a dining arrangement is beyond me!

I think it's because the second arrivee doesn't want to risk offending the person who's already there by sitting far away. Implying they smell, look annoying etc etc.

foxy I like the back row of the cinema too so that might have been me

Surely they don't have to sit at the opposite end of a room, but another table would suffice?
I can't see anybody but the paranoid interpreting someone sitting at another table as some signal.

If it was a large table for a group of people, some of whom may not know each other then I can see how they'd share the same table and not want to be polar opposite ends, but not next to each other either.

In all other cases, if there's an empty table, use the empty table. It's the unwritten rule of social etiquette! (isn't it?)

I hate this abnormal, buffalo herding behaviour. What goes through the heads of these people??

On a similar note, people who almost climb over the top of you when queuing at the supermarket checkout annoy me.

it is weird in most circumstances but the resturant one could be theres not alot of staff so they sit people near each other to make it easier for them

We get this everywhere. Yesterday we stopped at a motorway service station and went into a Costa. Loads of tables so 2 women sat at the table for 4 immediately behind us, facing in our direction, and talked loudly and non stop until we left.

Gives me the rage when I’m sat at a table outside in a cafe or pub with my family (small, well behaved children) and someone comes and sits on the very next table to us and lights up a bloody fag!!! If I’m on my own, on fair game, but next to little kids?? Just rude.