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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to carry a pomander when travelling by public transport?

208 replies

ElaineFiggis · 27/09/2009 18:13

I was verbally abused this afternoon on the train by a very rude old man who seemed to take it personally that I was using a pomander

I know it's a bit unfashionable (don't know why though!) but the way I see it is why the hell shouldn't I take whatever measures I deem appropriate to protect myself from discomfort?

If people observed proper personal hygiene (nothing obsessive here, I just mean not actually smelling bad and making other people feel unwell) and stayed off the buses and trains when they have hacking coughs and sneezes etc, I wouldn't use it

but I travel a lot and just want to be comfortable - why he was so rude I don't understand

he called me a "cow"

OP posts:
halfcut · 27/09/2009 19:38

Buses always make me sneeze...will look out for weird woman wafting oranges about when I'm on the bus tomorrow

lal123 · 27/09/2009 19:46

How one earth did wee smelling man know that it was a pomander? If you saw somw weird woman sniffing a dried up orange on a bus who would you think was the weird one??? Would you think "oh - she's got a pomander, I must smell"? or would you think "weird woman"?

CNyle · 27/09/2009 19:46

god i LOVE the op
i sniggered all the way upstairs

Original poster
ElaineFiggis · 27/09/2009 19:49

OK I am getting a bit fed up here now

Some points I want to answer:

  1. mouth breathing isn't healthy under normal circumstances and I don't find it helps witha strong odour, tasting it is even worse if anything
  1. How can anyone "hate hate hate" the smell of an orange fgs - it's a pice of fruit - you'd rather have shit and piss and phlegm
  1. if somebody is so ill they need the hospital they should not be getting there on the bus and spreading their disease to everybody else, and however sick you are you can still use a hanky!

Mumsnet is very strange [gmm]

OP posts:
bodeniites · 27/09/2009 19:50

i got a pomander for my christmas once in the 70s it was Pink china with flowers on it and Lavender inside it was to hang in my wardrobe to make my clothes smell vile nice

TheHeadbangingWombat · 27/09/2009 19:52

Strange? We're not the ones walking about with a clove studded orange.

Habbibu · 27/09/2009 19:52

Elaine - COPD can cause a hacking cough, and require regular hospital visits. It is not, however, contagious, and one of the horrible aspects to the disease is the embarrassment sufferers feel in public from people like you assuming they are somehow dirty and contagious. They have a hell of a lot more reasons to feel fed up than you do.

lal123 · 27/09/2009 19:52

So - if someone has a cough/sneeze how would you suggest they get to GPs/hospital??? Ambulance??
yes of course its us that are strange....

TheHeadbangingWombat · 27/09/2009 19:53

And you still haven't answered my question about how a pomander will protect you from germs?

Original poster
ElaineFiggis · 27/09/2009 20:34

It's not unreasonable to not want to sit in a cloud of someone else's dirty body odour or have pathogens coughed all over you

And here you all are laughing at the "weird" woman who has brought an ORANGE onto the bus

Funny old world!

OP posts:
lal123 · 27/09/2009 20:37

but your orange isn't going to protect you from pathogens?????????

Original poster
ElaineFiggis · 27/09/2009 20:40

it cleans up the air around it and filters what you breathe, and it removes nasty odours (which is where the germs are!)

I haven't heard of COPD but when someone is hacking up phlegm constantly I do think they shouldn't be out on the bus giving to everyone else

OP posts:
BoysArrLikeDogs · 27/09/2009 20:43

heh heh heh hope you carry a lucky rabbit's foot too

Habbibu · 27/09/2009 20:45

Oh, ok, a wind up. Somebody call me for the big reveal, please?

SardineQueen · 27/09/2009 20:51

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at the turn this is taking...

Not sure how an orange can filter the air either...

FWIW cloves ming bigtime, I would be as repulsed by pomander wafting as bloke with excess aftershave or woman honking of perfume. Yes, I would rather smell a bit of good old fashioned BO than have someone shove a pomander under my nose

RumourOfAHurricane · 27/09/2009 20:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ChookKeeper · 27/09/2009 20:52

ElaineFiggis is this how you use it to filter out the nasty germs?

SardineQueen · 27/09/2009 20:53

Ditto pot pourri. Bet OP has a special hat with integral pot pourri receptacle.

And a little basket with rose petals to sprinkle in her path before she steps.

BoysArrLikeDogs · 27/09/2009 20:53

elaine is my new fave Mner

ElectricElephant · 27/09/2009 20:54

haaaaaaaahahahah

such a classic MN thread. awesome.

marenmj · 27/09/2009 20:54

hahaha! you've just given me inspiration as I have TWICE this week been caught on a bus with someone whose body odour was gag-inducing, and that with the windows open!

Here I was being all common and breathing through my sleeve!

Habbibu · 27/09/2009 20:54

Bah - was quite good, but I got irked. Late pregnancy grumpiness, I'm afraid.

Heated · 27/09/2009 20:59

Elaine, I can't imagine you ever would frequent such a place, but avoid Asda on a Sunday.

dodgyseventiesgear · 27/09/2009 21:12

Truly, it's not going to clean the air at all - just add a few nice orange smell molecules to the air round you so you get to breathe those in at the same time as the germs.

It's not a bad idea as a way of having something nice to smell, but the idea that it's actually going to clean the air of germs round you is a medieval delusion.

Habbibu · 27/09/2009 21:16

A nineteeth-century delusion, dodgy! Not many oranges around in the middle ages in Britain...