Things that irritate me.

So this is just some of the things I could think of that irritate me. I know their are a lot more and will add them as I think of them. I am a bit obsessive compulsive about a lot of things so a lot of these things will probably seem weird to you guys, but they just wreck my head. ARRRGH

Please obey!

People who chew with their mouths open!

I don't know why it does, but there is just something about when people are eating and they chew with their mouth open, it drives me insane. I never say anything, because I am polite and don't want to be rude. When they do it, it seems to make whatever they are eating sound so loud, especially crisps and crunchy stuff. It's just one of those sounds that goes straight through my head and irritates me. I'm sure we all have sounds that do that to us. I can't concentrate on anything I am doing or if I am listening to something when someone is eating with their mouth open. 

Empty things been put back in the fridge.

When someone finishes a carton of milk or a packet of butter and puts the damn thing back in the fridge... My God, that drives ME UP THE WALL. Like, why do that? WHY? It's so pointless, you could just go and put them in the bin, it's not that hard. It's one of the times I am glad I live at home, because it is usual my brother that does that so I can just hit him a slap and tell him to stop being a twat. I know, it's silly, but it just wrecks my head sometimes. 

Misuse of exclamation marks!

To be honest, I wouldn't call myself a grammar nazi because my grammar a lot of the time is shocking. One of the few things I know about is the use of exclamation marks. It has apparently become accepted in a lot of ares, especially in things like print media, leaflets, posters, etc. These areas pay marketing and advertising “specialists” thousands of Euro and yet they still send out ads and leaflets that have employed the use of the double exclamation mark. “The lowest prices in Galway guaranteed!!”. I have even recently seen the triple exclamation mark, but we wont go into that, because it is just insane.

Bus Drivers

Ok so, bus drivers wreck my head. Not all bus drivers, but quite a few. I was getting the bus to town yesterday and I asked the bus driver if I could get off at a stop because it was close to where I wanted to go and if I was to go all the way to town it would take me 25 minutes to get to where I was going. I asked the driver who seemed nice, initially, for a single ticket to town and if I could get off at the specific stop. His response, NO, we don't stop there. It was a frecking bus stop, all he had to do was pull in for at most 30 seconds to let me off, but no I ended up having to walk 25 minutes to get where I wanted to go. I mean, It's not hard to be nice to a customer and let him get off at the stop they wanted to!

Rude stuck up people who don't make any effort to make space on the footpath for you to walk so you end up on the road.

Stubborn people

I know this is a weird and quite long one, but it is just so annoying when it happens. I'm sure it has happened to everyone at one stage, you probably just didn't notice. I usually don't notice, but when I do, ohhh.... it puts a total damper on the rest of my day. I am in no way at all being sexist when I say this, because to be honest I can be quite chivalrous when I want to. But the worst offenders for this are women. You are walking on a narrow path and a woman is walking towards you, it would be rather simple for her to move over a bit so as ye can pass each other without one of ye having to walk on the MAIN road. But no, she keeps coming towards you and has obviously seen you and you are forced to walk onto the road because of your good nature and you don't want to be responsible for someone else getting hurt. Other people that are horrible for this are school kids. Sometimes I hate school kids, well most of the time. I always feel so old when I start talking about this, but school kids are so cheeky nowadays. You are walking down the street just minding your own business and all of a sudden you meet a group of school kids walking towards you and they make no effort to get out of the way and respect their elders. I am quite a stubborn guy, so when it happens to me with the school kids I just keep walking and plough through them. I don't care either, they must learn to respect their elders. I know it is kind of silly for this to annoy me, but it is just a simple common courtesy to be nice to others.

Just a little side note from this blog. The band in the above video are called Pugwash. They are an unbelievably talented band from Ireland. I have seen them live and chatted to all the lads after their gig, they play brilliant music and are the nicest and most gentlemanly guys I have ever met. I can't wait until play near me again cause I am definitely going to go see them. I can't put words together to describe their music style. They are a pop group and it is really coming and surreal music. The singer/song writer, Thomas Walsh is one of the greatest song writers to ever have come out of Ireland and an absolute gent is person. His voice is so soothing and you could sit around for hours doing nothing except listening to Pugwash albums. I recommend listening to some of their stuff, and sure if you don't like it that's fair enough but at least then you can't regret not listening to them and never knowing whether you like them or not.

Stupid Parents

I'm sure their are a lot of people who would say that stupid parents annoy them, but I amn't talking about your classic parent that every child has that does something stupid or gives out and annoys their child. I'm talking about the parents who kids can do absolutely no wrong. The parents who let their children scream in shops and then give out when the manager asks them to keep it down. The kind of parents who blame shops when their children get drunk and do something stupid. Recently their was a youth Disco on in Oranmore the village I live in. It was held in a nightclub that doesn't open during the week to over 18 year olds so it hosts under-age discos (STRICTLY no alcohol). I should probably point out that these children are aged between 12 and 15. And some of them were dressed less than people over 18 going into nightclubs. If I was a father, I would not let my daughter out dressed like that. Now, I'm sure a lot of us have experienced being inside a nightclub when it is extremely busy. The usual getting pushed by other people or stamped on by other people, because it is a small space and that happens.

Well anyway the club has a facebook page and their are comments from people who went to it and parents giving out about the bouncers being rough with their kids when they were being "removed" from the premises. One parent said that they were
going to be contacting the gaurds and if nothing happened from that, they would be contacting Joe Duffy on RTE 1 radio. Like, I understand that the people going to these discos are still children, but at the same time this is a professionally organised event that had top notch security and everyone was well taken care of. When it was full and people weren't been let in anymore, any parent who pulled up to drop off was told to take them home that it was full, rather than other places that just let you find that out for yourself when your parents are long gone and you are stuck there now. This parent also said god help the bouncers if they laid a hand on their daughter. I think that is utterly ridiculous, this parent allowed his daughter to go to a youth disco that is going to be full of people and trouble usually happens at discos, it's inevitable. The parent did not have the whole story, he only had his daughters and her friends sides. One can not make an objective decision or complaint without both sides of a story, that is just wrong and people should not do it because it is not fair on the hard working people who organised the disco and the bouncers whose job it is to keep these kids safe for the night.

I can't say that this persons daughter was drinking because I do not actually know, but there was definitely some of the people going in indulging in a drink or two prior to entry into a no alcohol area. It was evident in their demeanour and because some of them did it in the open away from the premesis where they could be seen by any halfwit paying attention. So there was a lot of youths removed by the bouncers and gardai for being drunk and disorderly. Parents can only go by what their child tells them, so if a child is thrown out by a bouncer for a genuine reason and their parent asks them about it, the child is going to lie through their teeth at every opportunity they get because they don't want to get into trouble. Once again do not get me wrong, not every child is going to lie and I can only speak from my own personal experiences. I was an under age drinker and if I got into trouble I would tell every lie under the sun to my parents to get myself out of trouble. I know that because of that I could be called a hypocrite by saying that children will do what they can to get out of trouble. But from what I have observed from teaching children swimming lessons and just knowing people the majority of children will always cover themselves no matter what. They do not want to get into trouble. I know a lot of the people who organised this disco because they live locally and I try to be an active member of my community. They are all people who have jobs and have taken time out to organise something for the youths of the area and other areas that want to come to the events and it just is hard to see people complaining about it and giving out that the people who organised it didn't care about their children or their safety. I have one thing to say about that, when I passed the event on my way to the shop, there was easily 400 people outside and the security staff and organisers where lining them up and keeping them off the street, but there was roudy youths in the line who were pushing and messing and causing trouble. I saw at least 10 lads get taken aside and their parents were called because they were messing and could have hurt someone.

Also I didn't see any of these parents who are complaining helping out with the event. Most of the people who were keeping the line safe and traffic moving were local parents and some of them didn't even have kids old or young enough to go to the disco. Parents were pulling up in the village, dropping the car load of kids they had off and then leaving without a second glance. In my personal opinion which to be fair is what this blog is for is that any parent that just drops their kid off and picks them up, doesn't get the bouncers side of the story shouldn't complain, because it is only teaching their children that if they blame someone else and run to mammy or daddy they can get what they want. One of the main problems in this country at the moment is that a lot of my generation (90's) and younger do not know the value of money or a hard days work. I was raised that if I wanted something I had to earn it and could not have it if I didn't. I understand where the parents are coming from at the same time because it is their child and they cannot help but believe them and worry about them. My parents are both gardai so when my brother and I were younger they worked on shifts and a lot of the time unfortunately their shifts overlapped so my brother and I had a minder but I became very protective of him and still am. He is around the same age as the youths going to the disco and I worry when he goes out and cannot sleep until he is home safe. So I can see it from their side as well, but it isn't fair to automatically blame the organisers and event staff, especially on a public website because it gives the place a reputation it does not necessarily deserve. If the allegations are true then it is a disgrace and their should be something done about it, but it doesn't mean you have to tell people not to go there again, problems can be solved and events can be improved. It just takes some constructive input and help from people.

There are other parents then who children will shout and roar in a shop and it is not a nice experience for the staff or other shoppers, but if the parent is approached and asked to get her kids to lower their voices the person who asked that is in the wrong entirely and the children are doing nothing wrong, they are just expressing themselves. Those parents are just being obnoxious towards the people in the shop because "the customer is always right" and the employees have to be courteous to all. It makes everyone's shopping experience less enjoyable and a lot of people just leave the shop which creates a loss of business for them which isn't good. Some people just need to learn that the sun does not shine out of the childs *ahem* and that the child does actually have the ability to be bold and wont know any better unless corrected and told no. I think that is enough ranting about the poor parents.


Music (Other people not caring for your opinion) Club music!
I like quite a diverse range of music genres and have a lot of songs I listen to. I will listen to all songs and if it appeals to me I will like it and listen more, but if not I wont listen and will explain to people why, sometimes in a very rude way. So I myself technically fall into this category of people that annoy me, but I usually annoy me so it's ok. I have no problem with what other people listen to as long as the do not try and force it on me, but it just annoys me when people are giving out about a song and not caring what you think or anything else. Fair enough we get it you don't like the song, don't bloody listen to it so.

Club music is usually horrible and the play half songs, so usually if they play one you like it will be stopped half way through just as you are getting in to it. And a lot of places play the same songs over and over again, every night. It's just annoying because there is a lot of music out their for them to choose from and they play the same stuff all the time. I can understand if they don't want to play older stuff, but they still have at least 11 years music to choose from.

So this has been a blog about a lot of the stuff that annoys me and gets on my last nerve. As I think of more or come across them during my day I will write them down and make another blog. Let me know what you thought of this one and how I can improve on it. Thanks :)

Stardansheill