We can all get grumpy and moan about sharing a public space with the anti-social behaviour of a teenage hooded monster. Designer trainers sprawled across seats and a loud, repetitive trebling noise emanating from little white earphones. But what annoys me more is sharing public space with a responsible looking adult who probably shares my disapproval of this type of anti-social behaviour, who hasn’t got the decency or dignity to practise his or her own social manners in a public space.
Yesterday evening I was on a train to London during rush hour. The train was at least half full when a well dressed businessman complete with suit, tie and umbrella boarded the train & sat opposite me. For five minutes he stared out the window. But then he decided to pick his nose, and not in a discrete half-wipe half-picking way; first one nostril then the other. Searching so high I thought he was going to pull his eyeballs out.
If that wasn’t disgusting enough, he studied his finger after each exploration, and then flicked whatever he had retrieved onto the floor between us. Then straight into his ears with a similar rummage; and again with each he flicked whatever waste he had found onto the floor between us.
What a disgusting individual. Not a teenager, not a tramp but a well dressed man in a business suit. The words judgement, books and covers come to mind.
No doubt he was on his way to win a big contract over an expensive meal at an exclusive restaurant in town. And the first thing he was going to do was to shake his client’s hand!
6 comments so far
1 Justin Somerville-Cotton // May 11, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I blame the parents
All joking aside though; appearances are constantly deceptive in all walks of life. Your “Kevin” type teenager is probably carrying all sorts of teenage baggage which by the time they are in their 20’s may well have worn off and become a more controlled and polite person. Sadly it sounds like your finger gardener is the finished article and short of a spell of national service to work it out of him, we will probably all be treading, slipping or sitting in his unsavoury deposits for the forseeable future! I feel for you Terry – a hideous experience!!!
2 willis // May 11, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Disgusting! But at least he didn’t wipe it under the seat!
3 Joy // May 11, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Well, my first reaction when reading this was yuk! All I can say in response to is this again is……yuk!
I would of had to plunge my head in a newspaper and not watch, just in case I needed a brown paper bag!
Yes, we do make judgements and we also make assumptions….very dangerous things!
Warning…be careful who you shake hands with, however, I guess it could have been worse, we could be Eskimo’s and have to rub noses instead!
4 W Fisher // May 11, 2010 at 7:19 pm
The thing that gets my dander up in such situations is the person who snorts (not sniffs, but snorts) like a pig (with apologies to pigs) to manoeuvre a degree of phlegm from one part of the nasal cavity to the throat or from the throat to the mouth. Truly truly stomach churning for those in close proximity – or is it just me that finds this utterly revolting.
I imagine it would be I who would be considered bad mannered to offer them a tissue or to insist that they sit/stand elsewhere?
5 Martyn Regan // May 11, 2010 at 11:00 pm
I think you should get out there more, at least 50% of the adult population you are moaning about if studied in public for long enough will display habits that are truly disturbing.
Its the way this countries parents raise their offspring that is the root of the problem.
6 toyota camry // Aug 6, 2010 at 7:26 am
Being a blogger is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.