Ways middle aged men have told us off this week

[Siblingsadness]

I've got 2 today and it's not even midday yet
I swim every day at 6am . There's normally about 6 of us, today I had the pool all to myself. I swam in one of the lanes as i am working on staying straight during certain strokes. After about 20 minutes a man got in the pool. I've seen him before, he always goes in the unlaned bit and does physio walking up and down.
Today he came over to the lane and said I shouldn't be in there as its the fast lane and I wasn't fast. I thought he was joking so I laughed. He then said he wasn't joking and I needed to move. Of course I told him not to be ridiculous, no one else was in here and if someone fast wanted it, I'd move. He called me a silly batch.
Then just now in tescos, I was in the pasta aisle and a man picked up a jar of pasta sauce and said "is this any good" I said I wasn't sure sorry, I normally just get the passata and put onion and garlic in it. He sort of mocked me and said "ooh good cook are you" I said yes, I'm OK and I enjoy it too. He then said "well at least I can parallel park you silly cow"
Now I know I just encountered 2 nutters (maybe a third is on the way) but I'm a bit cheeky and a cow before lunch today despite just going for a swim and buying cheaper pasta ingredients. 🤣🤣

Hope you got out of that car and sacked the driving instructor!!

I did and I got a refund for my block-booking too.

Thank you. I was aghast that he'd followed me- the arrogance! I was peri-menopausal & just wanted to get to work on time, so my reply was quite forceful! He totally deserved it. I'm now menopausal & I think he'd get worse. I've never been slow coming forward, but these peri/ meno years I'm definitely something else 🤣.

Yes, I had the same thought about the nan outside the shop- women hating, it was so obvious. His poor son. I was also aghast at his belief that they would open up the shop for him, you know, because he's a man & all powerful. I've never seen him again, thankfully. He had a vile, ratty face & I feel so much for the woman who had birthed his child 😔.

And I'll continue to post long posts if I like- which I'm allowed to do.

And I'll also continue to reply to passive aggressive posters, which I'm allowed to do. I don't need you posting information about my driving skills.

And I'll continue to curse bloody inconsiderate cyclists, despite them being legally allowed to be inconsiderate, which I'm also allowed to do. My DP & my 3 DS are huge mountain bikers - we're just back from a mountain biking holiday. DP has always said he has zero idea why people would want to cycle on a road as it's boring as hell, particularly a standard, busy road in a city like ours. I'm inclined to agree.

You have NO idea if I was giving him enough room. He was wobbling all over the place, I passed very slowly & gave a wide berth. He was pissed off at another driver too (male, big, fast car) & decided to abuse a woman in a nice car when I'd stopped because he could. Or are ALL cyclists justified in what they say on the basis of them being in your 'crew' of fellow cyclists?

These are unbelievable examples! FFS.

It wasn't passive-progressive; I was just pointing out your mistake.

And some of us ride on the road because it's how we get to work, ok?

The gas engineer who's come to do my gas safety check has just told me off for greeting him at the door because he was on a call and I talked over the person in his earpiece! How I was supposed to know he was on a call I'm really not sure, not to mention the fact that it's rude and unprofessional to be on a call when knocking a customers door but evidently I deserved a telling off regardless Currently sitting in my living room while he works debating the wisdom of going and telling him he's rude but DH will be home in 5 minutes so might leave it to him, bet he doesn't get a telling off!

You can do exactly as you please, but cyclists who are going to work are not inclined to go super slowly 2 or 3 abreast just for the hell of it because they're legally allowed to. That's just pita behaviour. I'm legally allowed to drive at 10mph, or walk around in my bikini at Sainsbury's, or play drums at 8am- doesn't mean I'll do it, because I'm cognisant of others' points of view.

When cyclists start legally paying road tax & legally needing insurance I'll have more sympathy. Until then I'll give the same sympathy I did to the cycling twerp who scratched my car, had no insurance & claimed poverty, so the police couldn't proceed- ie none.

I think you need a new thread!

But VED (which I assume is what you mean by "road tax") is an emissions tax so some cars don't attract it (though they will now) never mind cyclists.

And as a mountain biker I am surprised that you don't have more empathy for people who cycle on their commute.

And cycling two abreast is perfectly fine, it forces you over onto the other side of the road to overtake, which you'd have to do if you overtook a slow moving car. The whole point is that you are meant to go onto the other side of the road when it is clear.

Sadly a lot of drivers don't understand that, including, evidently but rather amazingly, some who also cycle!

I had one of these - random man in the street, "Wanna fuck?" I ignored him and carried on walking, for which I got, "Fucking bitch!"

What is wrong with these men? Do they actually think they might get a woman saying, "Sure, your place or mine?" Or do they know from the start they will get a rejection of some kind, and then it's an excuse to verbally abuse us?

Best one for me was a guy who told me I was walking on the wrong side of the road

This was a residential street, in the middle of the day. There were literally no cars or people around.

He would not have stopped to tell a six foot tall blokes that. No way

Plus, most cyclists (the Lycra ones) that everyone seems to hate, tend to have insurance, normally through British Cycling, or if like me a seperate insurance firm because their bikes tend to cost more than most people’s cars 🤣

I'll grant you that this does belong on another thread.

I was merely irritated I was being told off for not giving enough room, when I'd given plenty. The implication was that the man who verbally abused me was justified as I'd done something wrong - I hadn't, he was pissed off at the car in front of me who was a man in a big, fast car, but chose misogynistic abuse of me instead.

Everyone still calls it road tax. I didn't need to pay as I'm electric, but that changed in April, so it's not an emissions charge anymore, really.

I agree that cyclists of any sort SHOULD have insurance. DP's various bikes, and the DC's, are all expensive & we have specific insurance. Thankfully, as we needed to use it a few years back when DC2 had an accident. He was shunted by another cyclist into a parked car, which our insurance paid for. I wasn't so lucky & had a hefty bill when one of the lycra-clad crew scratched my brand new car as they had no insurance.

Just because we're a biking family (not me, I'm a hiker) doesn't mean I can't dislike road cyclists.

Anyhow, sorry for the de-rail.

See my last response. My new car was scraped badly by one who didn't have insurance.

Build more cycle lanes everywhere/ use cycle paths, I just don't want them on roads, really.

Just to clarify, I couldn’t care less whether your male/female when I send this response and I’d happily say it to anyone’s face.

I will not ride on the path for someone else’s prerogative when I’m entitled to ride on the road. If you can point me to a dedicated cycle path that is for road cyclists, where I can ride 100miles feel free.

For the record, I don’t get angry at road users/chase them etc, I report them to the police. I’ve only ever reported two in thousands of miles, as I’m not Cycling Mikey… however both have been prosecuted.

If I damaged your car, my insurance would cover it, don’t tar everyone with the same brush. It’s no different to me saying all benefit users are lazy. Simply not true.

Do you display a number plate or similar @RH1234 so other road users can identify you should you cause accident, injury or damage?

If you don’t then your insurance is not worth the paper it is written on, at least not for the third parties (I.e other road users) who you might injure/whose property you might damage.

Just FYI from an insurance professional.

Pretty stupid comment. You know full well there’s no number plate, as there is no legal obligation. However, in the world of CCTV/Mobiles/Dash cam, finding people isn’t difficult and then those informal should be found and held accountable.

The bit that makes me so angry is, the hatred and stupid comments when all I am long is what I love.

If I do something wrong, I’ll stop and put my hands up, yet I’m judged like the “teenager riding his bike to the park”

Sorry @RH1234 bit it is your comment that is stupid (and unnecessarily insulting I might add).

What good is your insurance for your oh so expensive bike when you cause injury to third parties and cannot be identified? Your damage might be covered, their loss will not as you cannot be identified. It’s “I’m alright Jack” all over.

Your suggestion that random cyclists in helmets can be identified easily via cctv is laughable btw. Again, from an insurance professional (claims).

You mention you work in insurance, but I don’t care for that fact, it’s irrelevant to everything I’ve said.

Ive said I have insurance and I would stop when responsible, I can’t be accountable for others. My insurance covers injury and damage to others, I pay more cycle insurance than I do for my cars.

In regards to identifying, sure you can’t spot everyone, but trust me I know who most people are near me by their jerseys or bikes. Much like a car on false plates, you can still tell it’s a blue fiesta, a £10k bike stands out to those who know.

Jeez, what have I started?! Apologies again for the derailing.

All I'll end with is that I have my opinion on road cyclists, others have theirs. We all have the right to express those.

If insurance was obligatory, perhaps they'd all be as responsible as &RH1234. As it stands, I still don't like them.

Haha, it’s always a contentious subject.

I just don’t like being tarred with the same brush, and ultimately I just want to get home to my wife and daughter.

The test is always “would they say that to a man”.

A middle aged male teacher at dds school was extremely rude to us both at a parents evening. Like hell would he have spoken to us like that if tall besuited imposing Dh had been there.

Being 50 at least means the leering / perving and disgusting sexual comments have stopped 🙄. Though my daughters get those now. A subset of men are truly grim.

To be fair road cyclists receive almost as much abuse as women. Dh cycled the whole of France and had not ONE unpleasant incident. An average 3 hour ride in England he gets 2 or 3 abusive drivers. Honestly don’t know what our problem is.

Horrible! And you were right!

Also what an idiot... Surely he should also give way to his right then, the moron

OP my response to the pasta sauce man would have been to tap the sauce jar hard in the lid so it fell out of his hand, then shout very loudly 'rude bastard in aisle 3 has dropped his sauce, clean up needed'