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Original poster

Are there a lot of nasty people about or is it just me that brings them out? and what should be done if anything?

184 replies

WideWebWitch · 27/03/2005 18:23

I feel like some kind of middle class reactionary (which I'm not, I'm a fairly hard core Guardianista) but I'd be interested in hearing what people think about this.

While walking along a quiet 30mph country lane with dp and 2 children this afternoon, a car came racing along doing at least 50mph. He was going so fast I immediately shoved ds into the hedge to make sure he wasn't hit. We were walking on the right side of the road on a pavementless road in single file, in daylight. At the same time I threw my hands up in a 'what do you think you're doing' way. The guy stopped about 100yds on, opened his door wide enough (but didn't get out) to scream at me 'Yes, I'm using the road and I pay fing taxes, so f off, you f*ing slag.' How sweet, and in front of my children too! So my questions are:

Have I been living in the countryside for too long if I think this is disgusting, unacceptable behaviour?
Is this why people keep their mouths shut and walk on by while tossers like this get away with abusive language and attitude? In general, I mean.
Why are people like this?
Are people more like this then they used to be? Why?
Should I keep my mouth shut at all times? (some of you may remember I was screamed at in the park recently for daring to ask a lone 7yo if he was ok)
Has this sort of thing happened to you or do you just not ever do things like throw your hands up in disgust (I realise it may be me!)

This completely spoiled our walk, any and all views on this, NOT just on my specific incident, welcome.

OP posts:
Caligula · 27/03/2005 22:26

nah - electrocute the lot of them

Cod · 27/03/2005 22:26

Message withdrawn

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 27/03/2005 22:26

HMC, thanks! I do though, which is why I do wonder, a bit, if it is me. Caligula, good tip about the police, thanks! Now I know they're tolerant of mad biddys, weeeeell!

OP posts:
Cod · 27/03/2005 22:26

Message withdrawn

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 27/03/2005 22:27

Cod, isn't that Russia where they do that? Or maybe Russia too, who knows. Anthony Bourdain was doing it in Russia.

OP posts:
essbee · 27/03/2005 22:27

Message withdrawn

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 27/03/2005 22:27

ha ha essbee

OP posts:
handlemecarefully · 27/03/2005 22:29

WWW - I'm sure it's not you! - just a short run of bad luck?

JanH · 27/03/2005 22:29

what, fishing through holes? They do it a lot in N America too. And driving.

wordsmith · 27/03/2005 22:30

It's not just drivers. I was in our local park a couple of years ago with a friend and our kids, both about 2 or 3 years old then, so not best suited to jumping out of someone's way, when this male cyclist (in bright yellow lycra cycling gear so obviously owned the park, like some drivers own the road) came belting down the path at Tour de France speed and didn't even BOTHER to touch his brakes as he headed straight for our kids. My friend and I were frozen to the spot with terror as we imagined out kids being mown down - god knows what speed he was doing, it must have been at least 30mph - and to this day I don't know how he missed them. It was sheer luck - he certainly didn't take any avoiding action and didn't slow down at all. Maybe he thought they were an apparition and would melt as he passed through them? We finally managed to scream abuse at him as he sped off and he turned round and gave us a mouthful of something fortunately inaudible. I would like to say he went slap bang into a tree as he was facing the otherwday, but unfortunately not!

hub2dee · 27/03/2005 22:32

Cod, it's just my experiential phenomenal field can only accurately encompass the drivers in London. I come on MN to learn about drivers outside the M25.

Ref: Nordic countries - Language and weather. No thanks.

Aren't loads of Californian's mellow like their seals ?

Everyone raves about San Diego, and I've visited twice, but didn't really think it was that great. Maybe I need to check out further up / down the coast for a friendly community away from the concrete serpent that snakes the coast...

I wonder if Vancouver will be my utopia... (anyone got any experience of living there / extended holidaying / surviving Winter ?)

Either than or I'm in a shed like Henry Thoreau in Walden. That plus a bit of broadband and some wildlife would do me just fine.

MistressMary · 27/03/2005 22:33

Today
I noticed someone threw the empty contents of a mcdonalds bag in our garden.

Someone ripped a poster off the lamppost which was asking for help in locating a lost kitten.

People not giving way and not as so much as acknowleding us giving way to them.

Some foul mouthed children in the newsagent.

Dog shite on the pavement outside. (bingo alley -eyes down)

Spitting in the street.

I believe this and the like are very much the norm these days - sadly.

JanH · 27/03/2005 22:33

Most of them speak English though, and the summers are good...

Vancouver is mild and wet. Sound familiar?

hatsoff · 27/03/2005 22:35

my worst encounter was with a woman. (have put it on here before but will do again cos it was a good one) I pulled into carpark, opened passneger door for dd to get out, got trolley. Hadn't realised someone was in the car next to me and couldn;t get out of her car, coz of my open passenger door. but instead of winding her window down and saying excuse me (at which point I would have been hugely embarrased and apologetic)she wound her windown down, slammed my door, opened hers with such force a to do dent mine, then got out and ran away. When I later asked her why she hadn;t just said excuse me, she told me she hadn't got time for this and that I needed to see a pyschiatrist. At the time I was v upset. Now I laugh at the comical sight of this mutton dressed as lamb, old bat, getting out of her tin pot horrid car and running away.

handlemecarefully · 27/03/2005 22:35

Hub2dee,

Maybe you should....(braces herself and then blurts it out) move out of London? Yes it's a great place, but ime people are more inclined to be aggressive there (might be to do with the stress levels that you alluded to)

hatsoff · 27/03/2005 22:36

one of dh's favourite phrases is "hurrah for crapness". he wonders how I'd manage without it

Caligula · 27/03/2005 22:38

wordsmith don't get me started on male cyclists in lycra shorts. Hanging's too good for them! They are SO self-righteous with it - I'm not in a car, so therefore I am environmentally righteous, so therefore I can knock as mow down as many pedestrians as I want. They are a tad below white van drivers in my heirarchy system!

bubble99 · 27/03/2005 22:38

Wotcha www

I hate it when these kind of things happen. It totally spoils my day as I can't help thinking about it for ages afterwards.

Last summer I was in our local park with the bubble boys. An old well-to-do looking gent was walking his labrador, dog off the lead and bombing around. Dog stops and poos, he quite clearly sees it and turns to walk away. I call out and ask him, very politely, to clear up after his dog. He calls back telling me to "f**k off" in his days of the Raj accent and all in front of my two little boys.
He is the type of old git who moans about youth and their lack of respect. Old people are often the worst offenders IME.

alux · 27/03/2005 22:42

Some S. Californians may be mild as seals but loads are most certainly NOT. S. Calif has been experiencing a 'white exodus' for the last 10 yrs. Many heading to Oregon, Washington and Colorado. That's another story though. I guess getting up further up the coast people may be different. Got no experience with it myself.

alux · 27/03/2005 22:43

Maybe I shouldn't say a white exodus but a middle income exodus. Just that most middle incomes out there are also white.

wordsmith · 27/03/2005 22:44

I normally quite like cyclists....

Hub2dee - if you're looking for quiet roads and considerate drivers, western Canada should suit you down to the ground. No-one ever goes over the speed limit in the Rockies even though there's nothing else on the road but a few wandering elk. In fact I drove about 5 miles on the wrong side of the road from Banff to Jasper, sedately admiring the scenery, before I realised and hastily pulled over to the right. Didn't come across a single vehicle in the opposite direction. And our hire car was fab - it was called a shagnasty or shaganappy or something...

wordsmith · 27/03/2005 22:46

why didn't that underline?

hub2dee · 27/03/2005 22:49

I'd be out of London like a shot. dw, however, loves the buzz, the arts, the shops, the proximity to our families, the multi-culturalism etc.

Oh dear, don't tell me Vancouver's got crappy weather... I thought I reviewed the weather stats and it was much drier than the UK (perhpas not in mm - it is sea coast after all - but in days with rain per month).

Maybe I should invite dw and myself to tour the blessed countryside of the UK, visiting MNers to find delicious places to live !!!!!!

If anything, it would be SW I guess, because of the weather and my green fingers. I wonder if dw would go totally insane...

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 27/03/2005 22:52

hub2dee, I did screech at dp 'OH Let's just go back to DEVON!' but I don't think we will.

OP posts:
wordsmith · 27/03/2005 22:54

Vancouver does have weather like the Uk, however it has several different weathers depending where you are, as it's such a diverse city. If you get a sunny day in may, you can quite literally ski down Grouse Mountain in the morning and sunbathe on the beach in the afternoon. Go a few hundred miles east and you just get summer or winter (no spring or autumn.) It goes from minus 20 one day to plus 17 the next, stays like that for 6 months, thne the process is reversed.