What tiny things have you done to specifically annoy someone?

[FlyingSoHigh]

My Mil came from a pretty wealthy family and definitely saw herself as a 'cut above' most people.
So I always used to chop carrots into rounds when she came for a meal as I knew she thought it was 'common'; posh people always cut carrots into sticks.
It was a tiny thing but it gave me so much pleasure over the years.
Can anyone beat passive-aggressive cooked carrots?

@AnonymousCheerleader

I download stuff to my brother's Sky box from the Sky Go app. Not because he's annoyed me, just because I find it funny.

It's usually some reality TV show that he'd hate or something.

I once unintentionally put a girly film on DP's Netflix list instead of my own, and he got so annoyed that it filled his recommendations up with similar stuff that now I do it all the time

*There is so much wrong with this, but I’ll single out the fact that you are sneering at this poor woman for holding her knife like a pen (‘HKLP’),, thus according to you betraying her non-U origins, whilst in the next breath you use the phrase “out for a meal”! What would Nancy Mitford say? I’ll tell you: “meal is for chickens”. Judge not, etc.

Why would you deliberately choose to cause your father in law embarrassment?

He couldn't admit there was no WAY he was paying for the posh option... I actually thought I might have broken him, I really did, the squirming was intense!

So you thought it was funny to make a man in his seventies, your father in law, ‘squirm’ by trying to shame him into booking a restaurant more expensive than he could afford? If he wanted to behave in a certain way around his ‘lady friend’, why not just respect his wishes? Why did you need to torment him, and find reasons to sneer at her? Getting a bit above themselves, were they?*

I knew that one would get you.

You've assumed rather a lot there dear, OH's DF (not my FIL we aren't married, terribly non-u I know..) is significantly better off than I or OH, he just doesn't believe in spending it in restaurants, he would rather spend it on guitars and model trains (And it is his money so he can do what he damn well likes with it.)

We actually have a pretty good relationship, he rings to talk to ME if he's worried about stuff, because he knows I'll give him a straight answer. In fact it is such a good relationship, guess who it was he asked if he should actually ask LF out, and was it ok if he had a relationship with her 2 years after the death of OH's DM... mm! Me.

I think judging his LF on HKLP is no worse than her judging me (erroneously!) for choosing an american style burger diner (particularly given she has NO idea I'm strapping on my judgey pants for her cutlery usage, whereas she left me in no doubt whatsoever of her judgement of me.)

Ultimately, I don't give a flying fuck whether I particularly like his girlfriend or not, he likes her, it works for them, they are happy, hurrah.

He gets a bit of gentle pisstaking from time to time, I tolerate him wittering and telling me 'well thats nice but im not interested in talking about that sorry' when I tell him what I'm up to (if it ain't trains or music, forget it!).

It might be a surprise to you... but you can't actually judge a relationship based on a single post, there's far more complexity and context you just can't be aware of.

@Mybalconyiscracking

Used to put a tiny bit of glitter make up on DH’s pillow, so he’d go to work a tiny bit sparkly.

Oh I'm borrowing this one!!

I used to buy garage flowers when I went to visit my dad. My step mother was vile so I loved arriving with the price label still on, I normally sat on them and then handed them over with a huge smile thanking her kindly for having me visit for the day. ( she never invited me and spent most of the tine hissing under her breath whilst I was there).
The pure joy of watching her having to thank me and then put them in a vase, was worth every penny.

An ex of mine admitted to hiding his step mum's car keys in the fabric of the sofa cushion to annoy her/make her late and then be the one who found them and get the praise. I still think how this is probably why she didn't like him although he is convinced there was "no reason"

@WorcesterWombat

I used to buy garage flowers when I went to visit my dad. My step mother was vile so I loved arriving with the price label still on, I normally sat on them and then handed them over with a huge smile thanking her kindly for having me visit for the day. ( she never invited me and spent most of the tine hissing under her breath whilst I was there). The pure joy of watching her having to thank me and then put them in a vase, was worth every penny.

Did you ever watch Fleabag? There is a good ‘giving flowers to step-mum’ scene!

@WiddlinDiddlin

*There is so much wrong with this, but I’ll single out the fact that you are sneering at this poor woman for holding her knife like a pen (‘HKLP’),, thus according to you betraying her non-U origins, whilst in the next breath you use the phrase “out for a meal”! What would Nancy Mitford say? I’ll tell you: “meal is for chickens”. Judge not, etc.

Why would you deliberately choose to cause your father in law embarrassment?

He couldn't admit there was no WAY he was paying for the posh option... I actually thought I might have broken him, I really did, the squirming was intense!

So you thought it was funny to make a man in his seventies, your father in law, ‘squirm’ by trying to shame him into booking a restaurant more expensive than he could afford? If he wanted to behave in a certain way around his ‘lady friend’, why not just respect his wishes? Why did you need to torment him, and find reasons to sneer at her? Getting a bit above themselves, were they?*

I knew that one would get you.

You've assumed rather a lot there dear, OH's DF (not my FIL we aren't married, terribly non-u I know..) is significantly better off than I or OH, he just doesn't believe in spending it in restaurants, he would rather spend it on guitars and model trains (And it is his money so he can do what he damn well likes with it.)

We actually have a pretty good relationship, he rings to talk to ME if he's worried about stuff, because he knows I'll give him a straight answer. In fact it is such a good relationship, guess who it was he asked if he should actually ask LF out, and was it ok if he had a relationship with her 2 years after the death of OH's DM... mm! Me.

I think judging his LF on HKLP is no worse than her judging me (erroneously!) for choosing an american style burger diner (particularly given she has NO idea I'm strapping on my judgey pants for her cutlery usage, whereas she left me in no doubt whatsoever of her judgement of me.)

Ultimately, I don't give a flying fuck whether I particularly like his girlfriend or not, he likes her, it works for them, they are happy, hurrah.

He gets a bit of gentle pisstaking from time to time, I tolerate him wittering and telling me 'well thats nice but im not interested in talking about that sorry' when I tell him what I'm up to (if it ain't trains or music, forget it!).

It might be a surprise to you... but you can't actually judge a relationship based on a single post, there's far more complexity and context you just can't be aware of.

You can’t backpedal your way out of this I’m afraid. Your behaviour was not nice, and you’re boasting about making a man in his seventies, your partner’s father, ‘squirm’. Shame on you.

As for the non-U thing, which I can see has gone straight over your head: I don’t care if loved ones behave in a way that might be considered common, but you clearly do. Hence your “seems nice but HKLP mm” remark.

The problem with doing that is that you risk being hoist by your own petard, as you have been on this thread.

I think you're on the money there, @Iamthewombat!

@SailYourShips

I think you're on the money there, *@Iamthewombat*!

*@Iamthewombat* generally is.

It's very silly to post a personal anecdote on a thread and then complain that the only information people have got to go on is the information you gave them.

And it's also silly to try to invoke a class war when failing to grasp to grasp the actual point of etiquette and manners: to make people feel comfortable and at ease. Do you think the Queen would try to engineer a situation to make someone uncomfortable over money or knife use?

We had an awful man in our office, he thought he was better than everyone else and was a real twat.

We all used to take it in turns to turn his seat round (to lower it) and would moan to the manager that his seat is faulty and keeps going down.

Some of the work ones have reminded me of something I did to a guy I worked with when I was at school. I worked PT for a local council for the summer in their call contact centre (as they insisted it was). He was racist, sexist and bigoted in every way possible. He was also young and had that incapable vibe that a couple of the older women in the team couldn’t resist babying - one of them even brought him lunch two days a week ffs.

His Mum was fairly high in the council so people were afraid to pull him up on his comments, and he was pretty clever at saying them in a way that if anyone did he could say “Oh no, you’ve misunderstood… I meant there should be more opportunities for refugees and immigrants to integrate…” to get away with his bullshit.

I sat next to him and it drove me round the twist. Browsing the Internet jobs section I discovered that another council nearby were looking for Refugee Integration Worker. The applicator pack was full of information about how you’d be expected to use funding to help refugees settle and had information about classes, days out etc. I knew it would make him combust so I had an application pack sent to him.

He ranted that much about it the day it arrived he got an serious official warning for his language and rants. It cost him a promotion and his place on the counting team for the next election (which cost him £££).

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

Unplugged DH phone when its charging if he's been fiddling about on games too much & ignored requests to cut back. It enforces a break, which often then makes him realise he's been on it too much and resets things.

I switch between pulling out the charger cable and blaming the children, turning off the wall socket, or pulling the USB end out if the plug til it doesnt work.

What?! He's an adult not a kid!

I spent hours fixing my cousins PC after he got a virus. Restored the data, ran some fixes so it'd run better. It took me about 4 hours. While I was doing it he didn't even offer me a drink or a thank you.

At the end of the job I wrote a little script that starts on bootup. It makes it beep at random times of the day. Drives him mad.

Ex family gave our child an old computer i spent time and money upgrading it when we split up they demanded it back stating "sentimental reasons" (there was nothing really left of the original i even put a new case on it ffs) so I returned it before I did i set the internet age to under 13 (so very restricted) and set an admin password which was his daughters name and date of birth i believe they refused to ask for the password and paid a lot of money for someone to "fix it" I would have undone the changes all they had to do was ask.....

Came back to mention that I have done plenty to annoy phone scammers when they ring up. I waste as much of their time as possible, sometimes I ask them if they are forced to do what they do, sometimes I make duck noises at them. Generally I give increasingly ridiculous answers to their questions.

Me and DP share a Spotify account, we can each control the playlist from our phones - while he is at work, I can see on my phone if he is listening to music on his headphones at his desk - sometimes I’ll suddenly switch the song to something random and annoying (Mr Blobby, the Agadoo etc).

I’ve recently discovered the Walkie Talkie app on the Apple Watch, and have been using it to wind up my mum (who also has an Apple Watch). So she’ll suddenly hear my voice from her watch asking her to make me a cup of tea or something like that - she lives 300 miles away. (We both find it amusing )

My husband was moaning about pineapples being everywhere and on everything; ornaments, wrapping paper, pineapple themed lunchboxes etc.
This started a couple of years ago and we now buy him a pineapple themed gift for every birthday, Christmas and Father's Day. It annoys him immensely and entertains me and my kids.
His birthday has just gone and everything was wrapped in pineapple paper

^If I understood it correctly, by making the same food he ate all the time he was away.^

Yes just a silly little thing but it tickled me

@LyndaSnellsSniff

If DH has annoyed me I use the rubbish pegs to hang out his washing and hog all the good pegs for my clothes.

It's a little power trip that makes me chuckle in an evil fashion.

This is a lovely one! No harm to the ‘victim’ but joy to the perp!

Do you think the Queen would try to engineer a situation to make someone uncomfortable over money or knife use

If The Crown is to be believed, yes. On that series she put people through the “Balmoral test”, deliberately trying to catch them out dressing inappropriately etc.

Grand, colleague has no fucks to give about that
Just love the turn of phrase on MN - fab economy of wording!

@ChaToilLeam

My ex once really annoyed me, so I locked myself in the bathroom and sang Kumbaya. For hours. And when he yelled at me, I sang “someone’s shouting, Lord”. When he begged me to stop, “someone’s pleading, Lord”. 🎶 He saw reason in the end.

Oh, god, this one had me howling!!!!!! Just wonderful!!!!

[quote NamechangeApril21]@figmenofimagination Yes, I set up 2 routines, one for replacing the normal command, and then a second so it works when he says please.[/quote]
So clever !!!!!!!!

@Egghead68

Do you think the Queen would try to engineer a situation to make someone uncomfortable over money or knife use

If The Crown is to be believed, yes. On that series she put people through the “Balmoral test”, deliberately trying to catch them out dressing inappropriately etc.

Oh, OK. Must be true, then.

www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a34452385/the-crown-balmoral-test-real-castle/