AIBU to think this lady was nuts? Share your WTF interactions with strangers here

[BarbaraVineFan]

In the park with 4 year old DD today and she became fascinated with a ladybird which she found near the path. We were standing by the side of the path as DD let the ladybird crawl over her arms and hands. A lady went past with a little kid of a similar age and was looking over, so I said 'we've got a ladybird!' (Not sure why really but I felt the need to explain.) Upon which this woman sort of sniggered and went 'ah..,Chlamydia!' And then just...went on her way.

Having googled, I see that apparently ladybirds carry all sorts of STIs, which they transmit to other ladybirds and not humans. So I guess that's what she meant. But at the time I was like 'What the actual fuck?' 😂 Who even says that to a stranger?!

Does anyone have any similar stories of batshit interactions with strangers to share?

But if it starts trying to swim you want it to swim out not in... or are we talking a dead one? I assumed fresh out the tank goldfish.

This made me laugh! 😂

Man on the bus offering to teach my 1 year old baby to play the flute. He was very insistent. It was a long old journey.

DH stopped outside a house with a For Sale sign and the next door neighbour popped up and told to "keep on walking son. You can't afford it."

Woman in a coffee shop came over to tell me that my 1 year old baby (same non-flute playing baby) was a "right pain in the arse." All we'd been doing was sitting quietly and sharing a toasted tea cake.

In my younger days, a man sidled up to me in a nightclub and pointed at another woman happily dancing nearby. He said, "see her? Her bum is MUCH bigger than yours."

Innocently waiting for a train at Waterloo and a man stood beside me for a moment then asked if I believed in God. I said no and he snarled "wrong answer!" and shimmied off.

Working in Butlins one summer and was booking in a holiday for a woman for the following year. She picked up my hand and said "you'll never marry, you know." Then we carried on booking her holiday.

This is the worst male behaviour on this thread, horrific.

I once managed someone who'd say things like that. My stock response to practically everything she ever said to me in the workplace was 'Let's pretend you didn't say that, shall we?'

Oh dear…

Years ago i used to travel a lot on the Central line. One day i got on and opposite me there was a nun in full black habit, sitting, knitting.

At the next station her ball of wool fell off her lap and slooooowly rolled right across the floor and plopped out of the door onto the platform! No one was getting on or off and it seemed to happen in slow motion. The few people who could see it just watched it sort of mesmerised.

I looked at the nun, who wasn't going after it, and she looked at me and loudly snapped ''Go and get it then!!'' as if i was a naughty kid and i'd dropped it!

And readers - i did as i was told 😂

My husband and I were shopping in Morrisons. We were buying a block of tofu when an older woman walks over and asks my husband what it tastes like. He begins to explain when she cuts him off, shaking her head, and turns to me and says, ‘Can’t understand a word he’s saying’. So I explain and she nods her head satisfied and walks off. My husband is English and I’m very much ‘foreign’ looking with an accent, so no idea why she couldn’t understand his English but mine was no problem 😄

The flute story’s quite funny 😂 but your poor baby being called a pain in the arse by that woman!

In my younger days, a man sidled up to me in a nightclub and pointed at another woman happily dancing nearby. He said, "see her? Her bum is MUCH bigger than yours."

This unfortunately is fairly common and is a typical display of how pathetic men try and pit women against one another. He was trying to insult at least one of you. Depending on whether he seen a bigger or smaller bum as attractive.

I used to walk DDog on some fields near our house (hes too lazy now) and I met a man with a dog. Out of nowhere he told me that his dog wasn't feeling well because he had been stung on the penis by a bee.
It was said in a very matter of fact way with no pervy overtones at all

What accent does your husband have though? And what accent did the woman have? That matters a lot as there’s such a wide variation in accents in the UK.

Many Londoners will claim they can’t understand certain accents eg. Strong Scottish or Jordie accents while they can happily understand say a French or Indian person with an accent.

A few years ago, just after my DH died, l had an appointment with his consultant for some much needed clarification of his treatment in the days before he died. I’m a wheelchair user and was waiting patiently for a space to open up in the very small disabled car park. I was next in line and it was getting quite close to my appointment time so l was relieved when someone began to reverse out of a space. I reversed a bit to let the car pass, and as l did so a car came from nowhere and pulled into the space.

As the woman got out l pointed out that it was an honour system and l was next. ‘No you weren’t you were just sitting there - snooze, you lose’ she replied and rushed off. Luckily as we were talking someone else pulled out and l parked. Now I’m aware there are hidden disabilities but there was something about her that prompted me to check her windscreen on my way past. No blue badge, but there was some kind of NHS visitor sticker there.

l got into the hospital and headed to the service desk to ask for directions just as this woman came out of the ladies loo and rushed in front of me to the desk. She asked the clerk where such and such a department was as she was late for a meeting.

Possibly the prospect of my own appointment had stressed me out, but uncharacteristically for me, as l’m usually quite shy, l piped up from behind her ‘And you think that’s an excuse to park in a disabled bay ?’ The clerk shot her a look and asked if she had a blue badge - the woman stuttered that she couldn’t find a space in the staff bays and the main car park was full. The clerk told her she would have to move her car because the car park was intended for disabled patients only and was operated and monitored by a private contractor. When she tried to argue, the clerk advised that they operated a strict policy and there was a £50 fine for unauthorised parking anywhere in the hospital.

I think the incident stuck in my mind because of the nature of my appointment, and for this woman’s parting shot to me as she skulked off to move her car ‘That was really petty of you, are you happy now ?’

When my son was a baby an older lady asked his name and when I told her, chuckled and muttered 'these new fangled names'. Yeah, it's in the Bible love but whatever.

It was her son's dog, its him I'm talking about with recall and she was stood there with him.
And don't tell me what is and isn't offensive, you're not the arbitrator of ignorance.

Thinking about the nuns who taught at my high school that doesn’t surprise me in the least !!

Dh was minding his own business in a shop when an old lady walked up to him jabbed her fingers in his face and hissed “you should be ashamed!”. Dh was quite shaken we never worked out what was going on! Dh is a pretty blameless person!

Neither are you, and - newsflash - you’re not the thread police either.

What is the accent from around Bury St Edmunds? This lady, to me, had what I think of as a ‘standard Southern’ English accent, it sounds similar to my husband to me. I’m not sure what you call that regional accent?

I do sometimes have difficulty with some British accents unfortunately. While I was waiting for something, I was standing at the far edge of a shop window display with lots of figurines, and a young man came up to me and politely asked me to move because he wanted to look at the figurines which were right along the edge. He was apologising because he realised not many people want to look at the bus figurines. Then he started listing different bus models and facts about them (I believe he was autistic), and I wanted to ask him more about it as he was very nice and he obviously wanted to talk about them, but his accent was so strong that unfortunately while I could understand generally what he was saying, I couldn’t understand well enough to carry on a conversation, so I had to awkwardly leave. Maybe it was Newcastle? (Not really asking anyone as of course no one heard him to know 😆).

Tail first probably wouldn't even work. Unless the fish was frozen, obviously.

I would've been tempted to say"yes,the other 8 are at home" why would he even say that? Pillock.

Regarding the fish/foof conundrum, I have spent quite a few moments pondering the fact that it would slip in more easily head first, but removing it might be more difficult as the scales and fins are laid so that the fish moves through the water more easily in one direction. And then I thought, yes, but the tail might be easier to grab onto to pull it back out.

I really want to know the context in which the question came up though!

Hahaha I love this. We sing this quite often in our family! (No 80 year old men in our immediate family so probably not related to me!)

I worked in retail management for many years. I’d worked on a new store opening and on opening day was chatting to customers. Was having a conversation with an old man who was very interested in hearing about the store and all the preparations for opening. He ended the convo by saying ‘gosh it all sounds like hard work! But still, it creates jobs for you kind of people’

I thought the same of myself as l was thinking ‘well obviously head first’. I was trying to work out how to - erm - ‘insert’ the fish, tail first, without it flopping around as it went in. Head first seemed more sensible somehow. Surreal.

On the tube a woman got on, sat down opposite me and pulled out an apple. She then proceeded to stare at me while she ate the whole thing. The WHOLE thing including seeds, stalk everything.

Another time on the tube a woman was eating a tub of peanut butter with her fingers. It was all over her face and hands. She kept making lip smacking noises and was still going when I got off.

The tube is a weird place.