Watch this argument with me

[Motherflubber]

I’m eating alone in a very small restaurant in a very small town and there’s a very small woman absolutely laying in to her dining partner who is resolutely refusing to react.

She’s in her mid-60’s I’d say. Her dining partner looks a similar age, he’s probably late 60’s although looks younger because he’s got that lanky teenage frame and posture about him. He’s deathly calm in the face of her fury.

Anyway, she’s fuming. It started about 20 minutes ago with a furiously whispered ‘well it’s just like it was in millets PHILLIP’. The ‘Phillip’ was spat with such venom I winced from across the room. There’s only them, me and another table here.

From what I can gather, Phillip has a long held opinion on something and as a result, doesn’t want to buy something that this lady would like to purchase. She says she will buy it for herself and Phillip has calmly said ‘that’s fine if you want to, I don’t mind you having one but I won’t be using it’. He’s eating a burger and switched from eating with a knife and fork to picking the whole thing up in his hands - this infuriated the woman further and she said that sort of behaviour was exactly why she can’t have him coming to Mark and Fiona’s next week. He didn’t reply to that and that also seems to have annoyed this woman even more. She has finished her main course but keeps picking up her cutlery and putting it down again like she’s stuck for something to do.

Phillip has attempted to change the subject a few times but she can’t let this go. They’ve not said what the thing is but my first thought was an electric car maybe? She wants one but he doesn’t? Whatever it is has clearly been boiling her piss for a while because she’s absolutely hopping mad that he won’t agree to use one of whatever it is. I’m also dying to know what happened in Millets.

Also yes I’m eavesdropping, although given the space is tiny and they’re feet away from me, I’d hear what was happening whether I was trying to hear it or not. It is indeed none of my business and if you need to tell me off to feel morally superior then please do go ahead. If you’re a people watcher though, come and speculate with me

There's an art to people watching. If you were too obvious i.e. staring at them like they were a tv show, that would be rude. Technically eavesdropping isn't 'polite' but you can overhear the best things (see the OP). As long as you do it unobtrusively.

Obviously I don't do it everywhere I go, it's normally waiting for a friend in a restaurant, waiting for the bus alone etc. I assume people also listen to my conversations!

I'm almost certainly ruder when instead of people-watching I'm trying to read my book on the train and get irrationally grumpy and scowly with people around me having perfectly respectably-volumed conversations.

Do you have a Mark? And is Phillip married to Judith??? Or is it too much to hope for?

Where do you think writers like Alan Bennet or Barbara Pym get their ideas from if not this kind of thing?

Goodness, what's with all the deletions?

They are all posts by the same person, so I am assuming they are either Phillip or Judith and are offended at their argumentative conversation being reported on.

I'm sure the same person also has several deleted posts on another thread.

I can't find the other thread now so maybe it imagined it. Ignore me

The poster was repeatedly having a go at me - I didn’t report the posts but apparently someone did!

I am incredibly nosy but I guess it isn't a black and white thing, sometimes you don't listen because you sense that what is being said is meant to be private, or because you sense you'd make someone uncomfortable, or sometimes you don't want to listen if you can predict where something is going and you don't want to go there. But in all other aspects people watching is just that, we are hard wired to be parts of a community and so being interested in other people is normal, enjoying the ride, rich tapestry of life and all that, I think.

Just like how you have been taught things is fine too, there isn't one way of doing things. Staring and making people uncomfortable would be rude, or invading someone's privacy, or making it clear you are judging, I'd agree with that being considered rude.

I think the deletions are from a PBP.
They have lots of deletions elsewhere today.

Fair enough - The thing is, sometimes I do have to go out in public and the idea that someone is watching or listening because they find it entertaining bothers me.

Plus I like to be on the safe side - it is not rude to keep yourself to yourself and not watch/listen!

I wasn't imagining it then.

He may NEED to NOT hear for an obvious reason.

Once she gets her aids, she might lower her volume....and he'll need them (or not) then!

They were personal attacks

Hearing aids aren't just about volume. They are about clarity.

I think I've seen those too, but i can't remember where ...

What's a PBP?

Previously banned poster

Oh I do love a good public row! My DD says I'm just extremely nosy though. 😂

i was in Tesco earlier and there was a woman and a teenage girl and the woman was hissing through her teeth ‘just get here and choose some fucking knickers’ I smiled sympathetically at the mum but was thinking of this thread