You know what really grinds my gears? II

[FaaipDeOiad]

Yeah, hate those ****s, and the ones collecting for charities and ****. Fine if you want to sit there and call out to people as they pass and see if they'll give you money, but in Newtown the ****s will actually step in front of you to stop you walking away and ****. Even if you're listening to music and never make eye contact. You're asking me for a favour ffs, you don't harass me if I'm obviously not interested. What if I have somewhere to be? What if I'm a dangerous maniac and invading my private space makes me uncomfortable and I stab you 40 times? Inconsiderate ****s.

[Langeveldt]

Indeed, seperate wash baskets is the way to go. Wonder if Langers can find some old apartheid era signs lying around next time he's back in South Africa, would look awesome (if ever so slightly offensive) hung above the wash baskets

Those signs are quite rare in public in SA now, usually you only see them in museums. They've started taking the Verwoerd statues down now.. I'm not sure why we can't be reminded of the historical siginificance of what happened, but I guess they fetch a bit on ebay, you can buy signs like these there.

[Son Of Coco]

Street evangelists

If I'm walking reasonably briskly and looking at my watch (plus listening to music on headphones), it's a sign I'm not really that keen on the idea of being stopped to discuss religion. And don't interpret my discomfort as a lack of certainty about the meaning of life and an openness to being converted - I'm actually trying to get a word in so I can politely extricate myself from the situation.

And don't make it so obvious that you don't believe me when I say I have to be getting back to work - yes, some people do work Thursday nights.

You're too polite Ed!

[vic_orthdox]

Yeah, hate those ****s, and the ones collecting for charities and ****. Fine if you want to sit there and call out to people as they pass and see if they'll give you money, but in Newtown the ****s will actually step in front of you to stop you walking away and ****. Even if you're listening to music and never make eye contact. You're asking me for a favour ffs, you don't harass me if I'm obviously not interested. What if I have somewhere to be? What if I'm a dangerous maniac and invading my private space makes me uncomfortable and I stab you 40 times? Inconsiderate ****s.

...if?

[Mr Casson]

Ed, your problem is you're tweening here. Trying to get past without being noticed, even if you don't make eye contact and are listening to music, makes you an easy target. If you avoid making eye contact then they can't even be sure that you've seen them there, and that's practically inviting a conversation on its own.

You need to casually slip on past, say hello if need be but with a look that says "No, the paralympians can get a job if they need money so badly"

OR

Run at full pace. Then they don't bother.

FTR I employ both of these strategies and I've still never given anybody a dime.

[Top_Cat]

You guys are a bunch of pansies. Just walk confidently past them without deviating your track and if they so much as breathe in your general direction, say "Not interested, thank you." Trying to hide makes you more of a target.

[benchmark00]

...if?

+1.

[_Ed_]

Enormously uncomfortable taxi trips

There are some taxi trips that, even though they're the same distance really, feel infinitely longer than others. Tonight was one of those.

As soon as he pulled away from the taxi rank, the driver caught me by surprise with this - "never trust women, eh." I was like, "Sorry?" He repeated himself. I chuckled uneasily.

He then proceeded to rant for the rest of the trip about his lady troubles. Now, I don't mean to sound like I'm lacking in empathy, and I do usually pride myself on my ability to listen when people need to get things off their chest. But I usually prefer to do that for my friends, rather than for a taxi driver I first met literally 15 seconds earlier. This was just awkward, and it's really one of the last things I could have wanted after a long and busy day at work.

Surely he has friends he can talk to, rather than unloading on passengers who had no idea what they were getting into, and for whom the only other option is to leap out of a vehicle travelling at 80kph?

[Uppercut]

The worst is when they start going on a racist rant.

[Uppercut]

And i hate it when i see advert for people to donate money to the children in africa at the end of the day if u cant afford them or look after them then dont have them!!!

I've never seen a facebook comment quite this horrid before.

[_Ed_]

Yeah, very true.

[cpr]

Had a taxi driver telling me a story once how his wife caught him having an affair with one of his customers. It'd all started when he gave her a free ride (which is more than the wife did!). Made damn sure I paid him at the end (in cash, before you start)

[GIMH]

It can be annoying when taxi drivers do that, but tbf to them they probably have customers do it to them all the time and they just start treating it as the norm.

[FaaipDeOiad]

The worst is when they start going on a racist rant.

This happens to me so ****ing much it's unbelievable. I don't know if taxi drivers in Sydney are just racist a lot of the time, or if I look like a racist and they think I'll agree with them, but I've probably had 20+ cab rides in my time in this city where the driver has gone on a random racist tirade with no specific relevance to what we were talking about, or even if we were talking at all.

One time I had this South African driver taking me to central station, and he said nothing for the first 20 minutes of the trip aside from "where to?", and then randomly just before we got there he goes "don't you hate how many Indians there are here?"

I hate South Africans more than Indians, FWIW. Worst accent going.

[Howe_zat]

Strangely enough, I can't remember the last time I was in a cab where the driver was white.