Blogging Challenge Day 22: Rant About Something

Pffft, this is an easy one - most of my posts are already rants!

Many things piss me off and I get annoyed about so many things you'd wonder why I hadn't run for Prime Minister yet. Mostly though I get annoyed about things and people that don't do what they're supposed to do:

* Politicians asleep in Parliament when you or I would get fired for being asleep at work. They don't even give a shit that they're on TV and being paid a ton of money to represent us. It should be an honour to serve the people but they're just out for what they can get. 

* Governments spying on us and lying to the very people they're supposed to be helping. The US Government in particular being outraged that one of their citizens doing his civil and moral duty by whistle blowing the fact they were spying on all sorts of people including the European Union Offices. Sneakly hypocritical bastards.

* Incompetent and reckless bankers fucking it all up, not getting penalised in any way and STILL refusing to help the people that bailed them out financially despite being told by the Government that they need to. This one particularly disgusts me. It's always regular people that have to pay for highly-paid 'experts' not doing their job properly - big businesses get away with paying little or no tax but woe betide you or I if we didn't pay our taxes. The Government chase and penalise the wrong people and try to save money by cutting all the things we actually need - like the NHS.

* People going into hospitals or care homes and being neglected by the very people paid to help and care for them. I have a friend who's a newly-qualified doctor and the stories she tells me are heartbreaking and would make you so full of rage... like the story of a female patient telling her she was in pain, my doctor friend spotting she had an infection that any nurse should have seen had she been washing the patent, giving the nurses a prescription - for the pharmacy in the same building - and the nurses taking 2 days to go and get it. 

My friend made herself very unpopular by screaming "I can't do everything; get your fucking fat arses down to the pharmacy and do your jobs instead of spending your day sitting at the nurses station eating chocolates and chatting you lazy cows." She was furious. This is one of her nicer stories and not involving people dying because of incompetence and lack of care.

* Companies where you call up and get someone in a call centre who doesn't care about your problem. A person who is penalised if they don't wrap the call up in 3 minutes (like I know gold card members of a certain bank are given - and they pay for a premium service for God's sake) and someone who isn't even allowed to talk to you like a human being in case they admit culpability so they have stock answers such as "I'm sorry you feel that way" instead of "I'm sorry our shoddy useless product and poor customer service has forced you to feel that way". Grrrrr!

So I get annoyed about people, groups, and companies who are paid to do something but don't  do it properly or at all. They're not fit for purpose and should be fired. The most infuriating and depressing thing is that if you cut off one greedy incompetent head, another one just grows in its place.

It's Not a Question of Opinion Actually

I think I've realised why I'm single and I have to say that I really don't mind.   

I've got a newish friend who I've been meeting for coffee now and again over the past few months. I met him through some other friends and we seem to get on well (no romance ideas by the way), and the other day he mentioned that he hadn't seen the 2009 JJ Abrams Star Trek remake yet. Obviously I was shocked. As a proud Trekker I felt it my duty to remedy the situation immediately so I invited him round to watch the film. So far so good.

So he came over and it all started off nicely enough. we watched the film and all was well. But then we started talking about current events and this was when the trouble began.

Obviously Britain's vilest dictator had just popped her clogs so this was one of the topics of discussion. Now, I'm ok with a difference of opinion but when you get to the point when you disagree so vehemently that you just want to punch the other person in the face it's best you stop and simply agree to disagree. Well that's what I asked for anyway. 

Let me first also mention that I really hate people that 'play devils advocate' just for the sake of it. Apart from La Tarzane who can do no wrong and advocates for a living, just have an effing opinion will you? I hate it when people try to play devil's advocate just because they think my little mind has never considered the other side of a story. No, I've considered it and I've formulated an opinion thank you. This is how it works when you spend some of your life thinking about things.

What pissed me off wasn't that we disagreed over politics, it was that I told him I wanted to drop the subject as I was getting angry and that we'd fall out if he continued, and he just carried on. If you know me you can imagine how I felt about that; let's just say it did not go down well. What also didn't help is that earlier we'd been discussing horse racing and I said I had a very high success rate of picking winning horses. I'd worked at a racecourse and I knew what all the data on the race card meant - plus I just had a flipping good rate of picking winners. So this was not simply my opinion, but a statement of fact.

But oh no - he disagreed with my experience and the evidence I provided. He said that if it was that easy then everyone would be picking winners. I explained that it wasn't easy but outlined my process and said I actually did quite well using this elimination method. But still he poo-pooed me. Unbelievable. And this is exactly one of the reasons why I left my ex boyfriend. Neither of them could get their head around the concept that I wasn't asking their opinion, I was stating a fact. You can discuss my reasoning of course, but to actually call it into question or dismiss it is like prodding a tiger with a stick. 

None of my female friends feel the need to debate or question my opinions unsolicited. Yes,

they might ask why I feel a certain way but they never question its validity, and if I say I want to drop a subject then they do. It has only ever been male friends or boyfriends who think they have the right to call into question how I feel. It wasn't up for debate and their opinion was not required nor requested - and yet they continued to feel the need to do this even when met by resistance and then hostility.

And would you believe, the next day the idiot had the gall to email me a link to some political data to enforce his opinion even after I told him that I didn't want to talk about it any more. Incredible. Just like my ex, it didn't matter what I wanted, he had to push the matter. I did not take at all well to this and I won't repeat what I emailed back.

It just amazes me that people do this. If I get to the point where I'm warning a person to back off then I really mean it, I'm not just saying it for a laugh. I did this with my ex on occasion and told him he would not like the results if he continued with a certain line of behaviour. He ignored this quite open and honest warning, carried on doing it, I ended up leaving him, and he was baffled at why that happened. If I tell someone that something really annoys me and they keep on doing it then they're clearly a dunce and shouldn't be surprised at the results.

I've never really understood why people do this yet at the same time I don't really care. A friend recently mentioned that he'd noticed that I've never seemed interested in working out people's motives and I replied that was because I didn't see a point to it. I've never felt a need to and you'll never fully know why people do things (they don't often know themselves) so it'll ever only be speculation which is a waste of time. Plus it's their job to work out why they do things not mine; I'm not a psychiatrist nor do I want to be one. I'm only interested in the effect of their actions on me if I'm honest!

And this I believe may be the reason why I'm single. I won't allow anyone to tread on or question my opinions or feelings on a subject and it's always boyfriends (or potential boyfriends) who seem to think that I don't mean what I say or know my own mind. Well this trait is very fixed in me; it's one of the main threads of my character and is never going to be otherwise. People can debate a subject with me but they're not welcome to debate the way I feel about it. And woe betide the person that pushes the issue once I've told them to stop. 

Rant over - I'm off to get my roots done and have coffee with people who don't question me. Have a lovely weekend!

It's Not Just About a Beanbag

I've just returned from my ex boyfriend's house after what was a lovely evening ended in a row and me storming off. I think the argument started being about one thing and ended up being about another.

A while back we took a rocking chair and a lovely soft cream beanbag that I owned over to his Mum's for safekeeping as the flat was getting a bit cramped. Now that I have moved out and asked for the beanbag back it seems to have disappeared. It's not so much that it's gone, it's the lack of concern that has angered me.

His Mum has had a vague look and can't find it, she says she doesn't know where it is and hasn't given it to anyone. And that appears to be it. It seems to be a case of "oh we've lost your stuff but never mind". Nobody has apologised or has even given me the opportunity to graciously say "oh, that's ok,  don't worry, these things happen". 

My ex said it was just a beanbag and that "sometimes things just get lost". But things don't just get lost - it must be bloody somewhere. I don't have many possessions and I'm the only person who's even tried to locate the damned thing (I emailed his family to find out if anyone had seen it). Surely his Mum should have done that? I pointed out to my ex that if "someone must have it" then perhaps 'someone' should email all his Mums's friends to find out who. It's the lack of concern or ownership of the problem that I'm annoyed about.

I know it's just a stupid replaceable beanbag but it was mine and I don't lose my things because I take care of them. I rarely lend things and I don't surround myself with tonnes of possessions either. It wasn't expensive but I liked it and wanted to keep it. Whether someone else thinks I should care about it isn't up for debate.

As I walked home I realised I was annoyed about other things I'd lost. I'd also lost my favourite ring while I lived there - I'd had this ring since I was 18 years old and I bought it with my own money. It was the first piece of jewellery I bought and it was quite expensive for an 18 year old. It span round and was so unusual that strangers used to remark on it. I'd had this ring for over 23 years and I loved it dearly. The last time we both saw it, it was on the shelf in the kitchen. My suspicion was that his 16 year old daughter had taken it (all teenagers nick things, I didn't care if she'd taken it I just wanted it back) but when asked she said she hadn't. 

I kind of hoped she had as at least I would have gotten it back. But now it's gone and I'm gutted. I feel bare without it and it sounds silly but I had it so long that I felt it reflected who I was. I had debated long and hard about buying it and it was so expensive (for me) that I kept putting it back but always came back to try it on week after week. One day I asked the seller why nobody else had bought it; she said that lots of people tried it on but that it only seemed to fit me.

I realised that lately I have not only lost my ring, I have also lost my home, my relationship and my cat. And on the walk home I realised that I felt furious about it. I feel from the bottom of my heart that I truly put everything in to that relationship and he was the one who let it slide into ruin. I finally found someone I wanted to make it work with and I put in the effort and he didn't. He was the one who went out drinking the night I moved in, he was the one who had problems and wouldn't see anyone about them, he was the one who pushed me away so he could see the TV, he was the one who stopped trying. And I ended up losing everything I wanted because you can't make a relationship work on your own.

I'd never understood or wanted to try hard to make things work in a relationship before, and I finally did and he didn't bother. I saw it sliding at so many points and tried to talk to him about it but to no avail. I tried to point out that all these little things would add up to it going to shit and he did nothing to stop it happening. I spoke to him about my concerns and he didn't care. He even has form for this - this is how all his relationships end and he's such a dick that he doesn't ever learn and change.

So I think the stupid beanbag represents just one more thing that I've lost without anyone caring that it has gone or taking any care to prevent it. And that's why I'm pissed off.

Ten Down ? To Go

Brighton: Still worth it?

I have now been to see 10 properties in 6 days - this flat hunt is proving harder than I thought! Brighton is now not worth the money in my opinion. It's a case of Emperors New Clothes and the price of the properties are outweighing the benefits of living here. Brighton has gotten too big for its boots and believes it's own hype.

I have seen some of the tiniest one-bedroom flats you could imagine and they cost £800 a month. And they are the cheap ones! What a disgrace. None of them would even fit my client's dining room table. And they wonder why people don't sit down to eat any more - because they can't even get a table in their bloody flats is why!

If I had to move again on my own I could not afford to live here any more. Yes it's a city, yes it's quite near to London, and yes it's by the sea, but we're an island for God's sake - there's a lot of bloody towns by the sea here! I have seen some ok places a bit further out but even they are expensive. And I can't imagine the prices going downwards in the future can you?

When I first started this blog I lived with a friend in her 2-bed house. I went to see her yesterday as she's expecting another baby and she told me they'd just accepted an offer and were moving out of town so they could have a proper garden (proper means grass not a tiny concrete space) she said that I was one of her few friends left in Brighton as the others had been priced out or moved to get a better life and a bigger home.

Another friend has moved 25 mins train journey away as she split up with her boyfriend and couldn't get anything in town she could afford. She now pays £700 per month for a lovely 2 bedroom flat where she works from home - but she had to move 15 miles away. The problem is that, as freelancers, agencies want you to pay 6 months rent up front so she had to cash in her savings bonds and now has nothing left. Who has that kind of money? It's ridiculous.

Nobody can get on the housing ladder in the UK without help and, because I'm a freelancer, I have to give 3 years financial records to prove to the banks (that I helped bail out) that I could afford their mortgage. So people here are being charged a fortune in rent which means they can't save the money to put down a deposit for a more permanent home. The flats here are all converted houses so you often have noisy neighbours. I personally have moved around 16 times in 20 years.

What a nightmare. I should be able to find somewhere for £800 out of town a bit to live in but I can only afford it as my client will be paying half. I'm going to use the opportunity to save like a sod so I can make sure I'm not ever left in this situation again. He might not be a client for ever so I need to make sure I'm ok. Ideally he'd buy a flat in the area and let me rent it haha! 

I'm not even sure if I can take Dillinger with me as most of the properties don't have access for him to get out and all the landlords say no pets anyway. They won't know that I'll be living in the flat let alone a cat as well. The whole thing is proving a bit stressful now and it's only been a week.

Bucket Of Vitriol To Go Please

I can't believe how hard it is to get a decent cup of coffee any more. When I go to a coffee shop (which is never Starbucks by the way - greedy corporate bastards selling shit produce) I just want a regular cup of coffee; I want my beverage to be hot, made properly, with good beans and a nice finish. I do not want a whole effing bucket of the stuff.

Apart from an espresso; which should not be half a mug by the way, the smallest cup I can find lately needs 2 hands to lift it - I'm not making a day of it, I just want to pay for the cup size I want, drink it and leave. I also don't need 900 calories of the stuff thanks and I expect you all to be able to actually spell espresso and cappuccino because if you can't spell it, I aint drinking it.

Cheers for the suggestion, but I don't want to pay for a large cup and drink half, well only if I can pay half that is. I'm also refusing to say primo, venti, assimo, regular, skinny or any other stupid words designed to kill my soul. If I want a white coffee then that's what I'll be asking for and expect to get; I don't think I should be explaining myself.  A black coffee may be an Americano to you, but it's an friggin coffee without milk to me. 

In Italy, a cappuccino is a children's drink really; they only drink it before 11am and then they drink proper, small espressos with a perfect layer of crema on the top - so they can savour the rich flavour and enjoy it for what it is. They do not stick all kinds of shit in it and serve it in an empty dustbin - Christ, no wonder everyone's fat.

This madness simply has to stop because it's getting out of hand; you all know my feelings of wrath towards self-service checkouts (you work here not me, so hop to it lady) and now I've begun an irrational loathing of cashiers telling me to enter my pin number as if I can't read the display on the card holder - I can SEE what it says and here I am doing it you idiot!  GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Deep breath. Rant over. As you were.

Bastard of a Day

I'm going to be blunt here - I have had a bastard of a day.

Because I have a banging headache I am just going to bullet point each rubbish thing and then be done with it.

• I didn't get to bed until gone 3 as I was helping with the election count (I'll do a post about that tomorrow as it was pretty good fun and doesn't fit under the shitty umbrella) I had a very late job come in yesterday so I only had around 5 hours sleep.

• I wake up with a fucker of a headache, take 2 Anadin and get down to some work so I can have it done by the time I go out on my second date.

• At some point mid-morning, it becomes clear that most of the country are Tory-voting Satanists.

• I leave the house to meet the date, run for the bus and the arsehole drives straight past.

• I get to the venue, except it's not the right venue and so I traipse round half of Brighton and turn up late - The 'Made in Brighton' film is then actually about the Polish resistance in WWII rather than local short films.

• We have a pleasant drink and lunch, then after walking with me halfway back declares that he's met someone with whom he'd like to take things further - that person was not me.

• I get home and my head is killing me, one of my neighbours kids decides she will then scoot up and down outside the house for 40 minutes shouting wildly to her sister. I could kill her.

• I check Twitter and see that a friend has invited me to see a film; I decide it would be nice to go as it might cheer me up. I then walk down there only to find it is sold out; so they have tickets and I don't. I buy a slice of cake and come home.

Upon my return, my landlady's girlfriend said "oh well, you never know what's around the corner" I agreed, it could easily be a bus.

And I still have an effing headache!

Language Nazi Makes a Stand

Right. That's it. I can't bear it any more. I need to rant.

If one more grown adult sends me a text, email or tweet with a fucking emoticon, the words LMAO, PMSL, LOL or any of these wanky symbol faces :-0 ;-) I am going to punch their stupid faces in.

My skin crawls when I see these symbols and I start to think less of the person sending it. I know it's extreme but I can't help it. I also think that people who think they're 'down with the kids' and write in text speak are lazy, illiterate retards who can't be bothered to learn the English language - I see this kind of shit on Facebook all the time and I've had enough.

I absolutely despise Facebook; I joined it a few years ago out of interest when I had 10 days off work with a bad back, and I use it to keep in contact with people I know who live out of Brighton. But all I see are adults posting vapid, badly-spelt unpunctuated comments, tending pretend crops and sending pointless imaginary drinks. Yesterday, a relative of mine posted "Dinner on an it smells lush yumyum so hungry now x" and I just wanted to kick her face off. She had NINE comments! The banality of it both really angers and depresses me.

The dumbing-down of everything (thanks Simon Cowell you greedy, soul-sucking, parasitic twat) is making the World a poorer place in my opinion; I sometimes read a bit of celebrity gossip and have a shallow side like everyone, but you have to have limits Goddamit! I'll even use a waving emoticon sometimes on Skype when I'm going because they're relatively inoffensive and I use them sparingly; but when they're in every bloody text, my blood starts to boil and I'm clouded by hatred.

When I mention that I hate these faces and abbreviations, I always get a spate of them sent to me because it's clearly the funniest thing since organised religion. People seem to think that you can't tell how a message was meant if there isn't some stupid face in it - so just use an exclamation mark or the words 'haha' and hope that your friend is smart enough to work it out for themselves! It may be irrational to some, but I've reached breaking point and something has to be done before I actually smash someone's face in shouting "you're not LYFAO now are you, you knob!!!!"

Rant over.

What, So Now I Work Here?

I fucking despise self-serve checkouts. Not satisfied with taking our money, charging over inflated prices and laying out the shop in a such a way that you can't find anything; we now have to work there for free as well!

They seem to have sprung up in most of the main supermarkets so I'm finding it increasingly hard to avoid using them. I say to myself "it'll be fine; you're a sensible, intelligent girl, you'll breeze through that in a jiffy; it surely can't be as stressful as last time" - but no, it always takes twice as long, they suddenly can't recognise a bloody bar code or a reward card; you're pissing around with your purse, trying to pack the bag correctly and work out where the receipt or change is going to spring from - and all under the watchful gaze of a bored shop assistant who is paid to watch you struggle!

This afternoon I reached a new low and demeaned myself by actually shouting at one - I had only just rocked up to it and the voice of a harpie started repeating that there was an "unexpected item in the baggage area". The only thing hanging in the baggage area was a carrier bag - you know, that item they put there that they expect you to use for bagging up your shopping. I ruffled the bag a couple of times but she still couldn't work out what was going on and continued to repeat that there was an 'unexpected item' so I then loudly shouted "WHAT, LIKE A BAG?!?!"

Amazingly this seemed to solve the problem; she then decided that it was indeed one of their own carrier bags and let me proceed with my transaction ending with "please take your shopping" ...thanks for the tip lady, I was just about to walk off and leave my shopping because I only come here for relaxation and a laugh. Go on, tell me again to take my change because I thought I'd just leave that too.

I have to admit that I was still so full of rage when I lef the store that I had to put Classic FM on as soon as I got home... I feel angry just reliving the experience again actually.

But Then That's Just Me

I know everyone is different, but in some ways I have such completely opposing opinions to the general populous that I know exactly why I'm single.

* Cooking; I actively dislike it and feel sulky and enraged that it has to be done - I prepare food instead.

* I'm not that keen on children. All they do it twat around all day and they rarely have anything interesting to say.

* Rain is great. Lying in bed and hearing it gurgle down the drains or pitter patter on my brolly.

* I've never liked one single song by The Who, David Bowie or Pink Floyd. I also don't get Monty Python - love the films, but the series just isn't funny.

* Big fan of clouds - floating water.. amazing! If a cloud only appeared once every 10 years then we'd think it was incredible. People should marvel at clouds more.

* I quite like white, misty days where everything is hazy, atmospheric and ethereal. It's be awful if it was just hot and sunny every day - boring.

* Retiring to the countryside, buying a cute little farmhouse, some chickens and poncing about in a Cath Kidson pinny baking cakes would be my idea of hell - I'd be bored in 2 days... and so would you.

* I'm quite morbid I find graveyards peaceful, though-provoking and interesting. I like to read books on Hollywood Deaths and Black Box recordings occasionally (and I know others that do too) people don't like to think about death, but if you were one day going to live in Australia, wouldn't you wonder what it was like there?

* I distrust quiche. Do you eat it hot? Do you eat it cold? what the fuck is it? It has an identity crisis and I'm not going near it until it sorts its shit out.

* Lavender - nasty stuff. Everyone loves lavender it appears; but not me... it stinks.

* Nicolas Cage; I like him but everyone else seems to think he's a tosser.

* Herbal teas - what's that all about? I actually gagged the first time I smelt peppermint tea; in my opinion most of them smell nice but just taste of slightly flavoured water.

* I don't like lemon in my iced water. I either want lemon or I want water; don't give me a glass of water with a hint of lemon - I don't appreciate the teasing.

* On the subject of drinks, if I ask for a Coke, I don't want a Pepsi or some other inferior brand - If I wanted a glass of pretend Coke I would have asked for a cola. Also, don't fill my glass with  loads of ice; I worked in a bar, I know your game.

*I hate the feel of sunglasses on my face. The bridge of my nose gets all sweaty and I don't like it.

* People in Brighton are always complaining about the seagulls. We live by the sea people - it's like living underwater and complaining there's too many fish. Seagulls get my vote over sweaty, hairy-backed tourists any day.