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Original poster

Because of my shyness I came out of a chip shop with a portion of fish...

389 replies

MysticTed · 26/09/2017 20:33

Instead of a cone of chips.

Which is what I asked for but was too embarrassed to correct the woman serving me.

So I ended up eating a massive battered cod on its own for lunch.

Can you please share any silly scenarios you've been in because if your lack of assertiveness to make me feel I'm not alone!

OP posts:
MrsGrindah · 26/09/2017 22:50

Sorry that sounded sneery wasn't meant to be

ElizabethDarcey · 26/09/2017 22:50

OMG - my tribe!

I often buy things in shops just to prove I'm not a shoplifter because I feel self conscious browsing.

I accept all substitutes in my online shop as I feel too embarrassed to send them back. Pickled herrings instead of tampons? Yeah that'll be fine.

I had to do a poo at work so when I went back into the office I loudly told my colleague I'd just had a call from my dad - so they'd all think I had been on the phone and not off pooing.

Timefortea99 · 26/09/2017 22:50

What are you lot like!!??

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 26/09/2017 22:51

It's ok Mrs.G we're all far too polite to say anything. Wink

MargaretCavendish · 26/09/2017 22:51

This isn't quite the same thing but it reminds me of the time that I decided to buy DH an antique map as a present. Went into a specialist shop. None of them have prices. I ask about one. It is £80, which is about what I imagined spending. Ask about another one. It is £2600. Despite the fact that it was now completely obvious that I knew nothing about these maps and was selecting them essentially at random I went through a whole charade of pretending that I was weighing up the two and that it just so happened that I preferred the £80 one. Who did I think I was fooling?!

Fiona1984 · 26/09/2017 22:53

When I was younger my mum had a friend who called her the wrong name, let's say she called her 'Jane', this woman became 'the Jane lady' to me, and I couldn't even remember her real name.
On my work experience, I was too shy to correct one of the staff when they called me the wrong name. They found out a few days in, it was quite embarrassing.

Maelstrop · 26/09/2017 22:55

I have drunk many cups of white coffee because I wanted to show gratitude for someone making me coffee. I take my coffee black, why do people automatically assume everyone takes milk?! I'm too polite.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 26/09/2017 22:57

My elderly neighbour started calling me Jodie (not my name) and I missed the chance to correct her.
I even sign her Christmas card from "Jodie".

AlexaAmbidextra · 26/09/2017 22:57

Well I'm holding mine at the moment. A beautiful baby blue Apple IPad cover that I pointed to with a breezy wave when buying my new IPad Pro. God knows why but it came in two parts that you bought individually. The total cost of both parts was just over £100. One hundred fucking pounds I tell you. Shock Why on earth I didn't change my mind I shall never know. I'm normally very assertive. Confused

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 26/09/2017 22:57

I walked home from school on and off with a girl for 5 years

I still dont know her name

AmericanPastoral · 26/09/2017 23:02

My elderly neighbour started calling me Jodie (not my name) and I missed the chance to correct her.
I even sign her Christmas card from "Jodie". Grin

AmericanPastoral · 26/09/2017 23:03

Why didn't the * bold action work??

GanawMe · 26/09/2017 23:03

I once paid £48 for some olives. Not my finest hour and I'm still bitter about it a few years on Grin

rosybell · 26/09/2017 23:04

My dh's aunt once rang me in October to wish me a happy birthday. My birthday is in March. Instead o correcting her I said thank you and then had to make up what I was doing to celebrate!
So awkward as she spoke to my mil after and quickly realised she had the wrong date.

Liiinoo · 26/09/2017 23:04

I had a personal shop in John Lewis. I have had them before and since very successfully but this one was a disaster. She didn't bring anything I liked. But I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I bought a few random things and returned them later. To two different stores on different days so had to pay three lots of train fares for the privilege of taking home clothes I didn't like and didn't want.

Since then I have had a lot of therapy (for other issues) and a happy bonus is I am much more assertive now and it wouldn't ever happen again.

NooNooHead1981 · 26/09/2017 23:06

I went to an appointment with a private neurologist and was a bit deaf in my left ear as it was blocked.

A consultant came out and called a name, no-one else stood up and I didn't quite catch it so I thought it must have been me...

Cue a very embarrassed scene in the room when I started to explain what the matter with me was, all the time looking very puzzled as to why he had an x-ray of my neck on his screen (it was nothing to do with my neck!)

He said, no your condition can't be that as it is this problem and pointed to the screen. I then looked at him and said 'Aren't you Mr xxx the neurologist?' He obviously seemed perplexed as to why I was sitting there and said his name was Dr so-and-so and the person I wanted was down the corridor! Blush

We both laughed and I got up in a very embarrassed way, shuffling towards the door. He didn't seem to mind and said it reminded him of the time two patients who were completely unrelated to one another were in the same appointment by mistake, and neither of them realised until he asked them if they were together and knew each other! Maybe I did need my head examining thoroughly that day after all... Grin

crazymissdaisy · 26/09/2017 23:10

Cautionary tale: a friend (late middle aged, establishment job) did a parachute jump and was asked if the straps that go around your groin/ top inner thigh were ok? She was very English and polite and said yes fine thanks, even though they were tight. When she jumped out of the plane and opened the parachute the straps so tightly around her ( ?)femoral artery(?) that she passed out. If it hadn't been a tandem jump who knows what would have happened?

PS I also have swished my hair saying ooh lovely to a butchering hairdresser and paid 5 quid for cherries.

dolphinbbq · 26/09/2017 23:10

I am absolutely laughing my head off at some of these!

I was at IKEA one weekend, I went into the showroom and felt beyond ill, to the point I thought I was going to collapse. So I sat down in one of the “livingrooms” for 5 minutes and had a drink. One of the staff members came over and asked if everything was okay, I said “fine thanks just having a look”. I spent the next 35 minutes listening to her talk about the variations of TV units, different style sofas.. 😴

HappyGoFucky · 26/09/2017 23:11

So pleased I found this thread. I thought I was just nuts Grin

I feigned illness and paid £30 for a taxi home from a new boyfriends house because I didn’t want to have a wee in his toilet

mids · 26/09/2017 23:14

Totally changed my workout at the gym because someone I know is in there and I don't want them to see me doing it 'wrong' so I stick to basics! E.g today I missed out on my legs day and just did some cardio. Gutted

Sukitakeitoff · 26/09/2017 23:15

Oh I also do that thing of realising I'm walking in the wrong direction but too embarrassed to just change direction without patting pockets, checking watch etc. At the same time, I mentally rehearse an "excuse" in case someone who knows me sees and asks why I was walking the wrong way Blush

Sukitakeitoff · 26/09/2017 23:16

Oh and I've bought expensive cherries too! Seems a common one

MoralBeryl · 26/09/2017 23:17

A surgeon I know once told me about someone who had been asked to confirm their name was Mrs Bloggs just before being anaesthetised. She said yes.

The problem was, she wasn't Mrs Bloggs. Thankfully, the real Mrs Bloggs was wheeled in as this happened, leading to lots of confusion but saving the intruder from the wrong surgery.

Procedures were changed.

JaniceBattersby · 26/09/2017 23:17

When in was just finishing my PGdip I went on work experience to a newspaper I wanted to work on. I did well and got to write the front page with my first ever byline. The editor inexplicably used a shortened version of my name (ie Debbie instead of Debra) that I'd never been known as before. She then offered me a job. I said yes of course but was too polite to correct her on the name issue.

Of course, the only way to get another job in journalism is by sending your cuttings with your byline on as part of your application. So I couldn't even change my name back when I moved jobs and cities two years later. My colleagues became friends and so most people just called me by the name my editor had picked for me. Fourteen years on, I am now known universally as the shortening, and only by my family and my husband as my actual proper name. I'm even the shortened version on social media because it's just easier than explaining what happened to people (although some people I went to school and uni with are a bit confused...)

So yes, I have basically changed my name because I didn't want to be rude to my boss. Let that be a cautionary tale Blush

EKLInTraining · 26/09/2017 23:17

I got engaged by accident once. He sprung it on me very suddenly when I wasn't expecting it at all. We were engaged for about eight weeks during which time he was looking for a flat and job in my town etc. Eventually I summoned the courage to tell him I didn't want to marry him, although I genuinely considered just marrying him to avoid any fuss.

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