AIBU or is this mad behaviour on a train?

[capermum]

So today I have a meeting the other side of the country today and I get an early train, guy in my seat when I arrive but shifts over for me (it’s a table of 4)
I’m window forward facing
he’s aisle forward facing

But THEN! The guy reaches down into a carrier bag on the floor and pulls out a large bowl which he places on top of his laptop, then reaches down again and retrieves a box of cornflakes that he tips into said massive bowl and then pulls out a big bottle of milk, pours it on the flakes and proceeds to munch away while watching iplayer though headphones like munch munch munch right in my effing ear, it’s not first class or anything so the seats are very close to each other.

I wouldn’t even sit next to my DH to eat cereal that close let alone a stranger!!!

After about 2 mins of this I interrupted his viewing and say “You have to let me out! I have to move while you eat, this is so antisocial and I can’t bear it”
“But I’m nearly finished” he says agog
“But I can’t bear to listen to another mouthful!”

So i do indeed leave while he finished and read my book further down the train where I can, in fact, still bloody hear him munch-munching away…

Then when it’s safe I return to my seat and get back to work

Oh yeah and when I’d arrived I get out my laptop and set it up to work, he reaches right across me an plugs into the socket that would have been closest to me, before I have a chance to, the passenger across from me notes this and offers me his socket with a knowing look, so is this further proof he’s a without doubt a total psycho?

I think in the end I made him as uncomfortable as he made me by calling him out, so I guess we are quits (for now)

It’s quite out of character for me to confront anyone ever, so tell me, is this totally antisocial or am I being over sensitive? and if I’m you think I’m being too soft then, please tell me what’s the worst outrageous antisocial behaviour you’ve witnessed on a train?

My colleague just told me she watched someone clipping their toenails once with those clippers that fling the nails every which way. So that’s probably worse

God a million percent if it was porridge, I hate when someone eats that in the office. But yeah her telling him it was antisocial was a bit much I reckon

I was reading a fairly niche academic book on a train. There were two men sitting opposite and one asked me if it was a "real" book. So I showed it to them, and they were flicking through it, astonished to find out that it was, in fact, a real book. Why, they wondered, would anyone write a book on such a niche subject?

"We thought it must be a fake cover on a porno" one of them told me as he handed it back.

😂😂😂 love this

😂😂😂

😂

OMG trains, I hate them. From the chap in a business suit who sat opposite me picking his nose for the entire journey, to the lads with the boom box in full volume (I wanted to punch them), to the train out of London at 17:30 full of people eating take aways , I have come close to violence in the face of anti social behaviour. I wouldn't mind so much if I hadn't paid extortionate prices to endure this. I once paid £174 for a train ride of less than 2 hours and there wasn't even a toilet that was fit to use. How I hate to take a train, if it's not the service, it's the passengers, and people wonder why we love our cars.

Croissants leave bits everywhere. I'd rather the cereal muncher. I would also much rather someone had their breakfast than skip it in case some drama llama has to run away down a train carriage.

Not on trains but people carrying hot beverages in a standing room only tube annoys me. It's totally fine in a train or when the tube isn't at rush hour and you can be seated. But when everyone is crammed in like sardines, there's no way they can guarantee their arm won't be jostled spilling their coffee or whatever on someone. The worst is when they're standing over me with the drink loosely held, with multiple bags and precarious balance and you just know the train will jerk, as will their cup. All over you. It happened to me once and ruined a perfectly good jumper.

I wouldn't be bothered at all.

I find the assembling of the cereal and carrying all the parts unusual but not necessarily weird train behaviour. He might have had an early start and needed to eat then. Not my food pick for a train though.

I find your behaviour stranger. I think most people would just suck it up or moved quietly. If I'd been on the train I'd have appreciated you providing some entertainment on the commute however.

I'll qualify my comments with: if you were wearing perfume, he should have eaten two bowls. Perfume is the most horrible thing on a train IMO.

He was a very easy going, candid fellow to say the least, though I would not have moved.
It would have made me hungry for breakfast cereal!

Once you’ve seen someone eat a whole roast chicken off of their lap on public transport, anything else is tame by comparison.

Stunning and brave of you, OP, for making a stand against breakfast consumption in public.

I have misophonia too so would have had to move but I don't think he was doing anything wrong. People get very angry about smelly food, but you can't eat crunchy food either now!?! It was a bit unusual to be eating breakfast cereal but I wouldn't regard that as anti-social. I didn't really get what you were saying about the plug, was there a plug near to him he could have used?

@TortolaParadise As someone with a fragrance allergy that would be hugely problematic for me. Fragrance can also set of asthma attacks and cause issues for people with lung conditions. Plus spraying perfume in an enclosed space will mean it gets on other people who may not want to smell like your chosen fragrance.

God you've brave. What if the train had jolted! 😳

If you sit in first class you're sitting next to people eating all sorts of things! On Monday, for example, Leeds to KingsX, me with a bowl of ravioli with truffle sauce. Very strong smelling......

I also saw someone clipping their nails on the train

Not sure why I didn't say anything

Last time i was on a train , youngish lad with his shoes & socks off & feet up. He then played shouty, foul language videos on his phone at full volume, disturbing the whole carriage.
To top it off he lifted his top up and started squeezing his acne type spots in his chest - gross.

Of course this is anti social

He could have made a sandwich or a croissant and it wouldn't have been as bad

I always feel self conscious eating on a
Train

I would have moved carriages.

It's not the eating on a train that's odd. It's the bowl of cornflakes. Totally unreasonable

I think people are easily disturbed by stuff that doesn't follow the social norms, even when it's something absolutely harmless.

CORNFLAKES on a TRAIN?? What a PSYCHO!

Some people need to expand their experiences I think.

DD used to take her weetabix in a plastic lidded tub - is that more acceptable than a bowl?

Behaviour very odd but your response was very over the top. I wouldn't really call it antisocial, just put headphones in.

People eat on trains all the time 🤷🏼‍♀️

Someone ate fish & chips next to me on the tube a few weeks ago. That I definitely think was antisocial! But didn't say anything because I'm not the queen of the tube.

I may be unwisely stirring the cereal debate up again, but this morning, remembered something about this person listed above that hadn't registered at the time (due to being more gobsmacked about the weeing).

• Well dressed man with rucksack on (very drunk, it turns out) walks up the centre aisle to the articulated space between 2 carriages and has a wee in the space (about 8pm).

He was dressed as if he had come from the opera or something. The incongruous thing was the rucksack. But maybe it wasn't - I have just realised he got on at a station in the heart of a really rural area best known for its walking and dark skies! Fallen asleep from somewhere else to the end of the line maybe?