Things that Annoy You

[WhitecapTiger]

TV Celebrity news/gossip updates. Crazily grinning "presenters" with quirky regional accents telling us about insignificant "celebs" - take your pick of so called A list to Z list celebs - and what they'll be doing in the next few days.

Darkened room, gloves off, nothing punished for 2 minutes.....

[BJ.]

Christmas circular letters.

Mrs Beej gets one every year from an old school friend who has lived in Germany for nigh on 30 years. The last time the pair of them actually met was at said friend's wedding sometime back in the late 70s. However, this does not stop her sending out the annual inane letter telling us what her two sons are doing (we've never met them!), how her husband's job is going or how much snow they've had.

This last time, milady decided enough was enough. She composed the most tedious letter listing all the local minutiae she could think of, e.g. how a friend's Newfie had qualified for Cruft's, the bad chest cold our great nephew had got, how a couple of friends had finally decided to get married etc etc. She then made a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of the letter to ensure it looked suitably tatty and included it in with the greetings card. For the first time in nearly 40 years I'm looking forward to Christmas to see if we get another circular from Germany.

[Kinoulton]

The circular letters are mind numbing. If they were written by people with wit, or had done something interesting like cycling up Mount Fuji then I could see the point. But it's usually "Daniel has passed his driving test and is looking forward to University." Wow.

Similarly Christmas cards. Now I like Christmas and some of its traditions, and I can see how in the days when travel was harder, and we had a super postal service, it would be nice to pop a pretty Christmas card in the post to reach some distant friend or relative that you weren't going to see.

But I have completely opted out now. The person at the next desk plops one onto your desk. The next door neighbour walks 5 yards to shove one through your letterbox. Why? Sometimes people walk into a pub and hand Christmas cards out to other customers who they see three times a week.

[BJ.]

Something I forgot to mention regarding our annual circular letter. Why the hell does she feel it necessary to punctuate every other sentence with an exclamation mark? It's nearly as bad as the numpties who think by using half a dozen question or exclamation marks it makes their question or statement more important.

[DickyP]

I always knew I was strange - I quite like getting most of the circular type letters I get. Having spent many years in the Army it is a pleasant way of keep-fit in touch with good friends who have settled worldwide since leaving, even if much of the content is asinine. Without this residual contact I'd never have had the impulse to visit friends as widely scattered as Gibraltar, Vancouver Island, Malta, Cyprus, USA, Turkey, and deepest Surrey.

And what's wrong with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!

[BJ.]

And what's wrong with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!

For starters, they shouldn't be used to punctuate a question! Also, I tend to find the number of exclamation/question marks used is inversely proportional to the importance of the question or statement.

[DickyP]

And what's wrong with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!

For starters, they shouldn't be used to punctuate a question! Also, I tend to find the number of exclamation/question marks used is inversely proportional to the importance of the question or statement.

Absolutely correct in the case of my usage above, of course: it's actually one of my pet hates as well. Always feel it is a pity there is not an analogous yawn mark to indicate the opposite. Pity that the inverted exclamation mark ¡ already has a use.

Perhaps we should also encourage the use of the interobang which combines the exclamation and question marks '‽' not to mention the French irony mark '؟'.

[Rizzo]

I send a typed circular letter with some of my Christmas cards, a couple of years ago I put a handwritten note into the card itself saying if people preferred not to have a letter could they let me know (by phone, email, letter or other methods) - and I have to say that no one said they didn't want the letter, in fact several contacted me and said please continue it...one friend said she loved getting it as she liked the chatty newsy way I wrote it.

I have also in recent years stopped giving Christmas cards at work - I give a donation to Rainbows instead.

[BJ.]

My gripe with the circular is twofold. One, it is impersonal, i.e. it's usually typed out except for the name of the addressee at the top which is normally scrawled in biro. Two, and this refers in particular to the one we get from Germany, it's full of information about people I don't know, have never met and, to put it simply, don't give a toss about. If it wasn't for the letter, I wouldn't know they even existed. As I said, it's 30+ years since Mrs Beej last met her friend which was also the first and last time she met her husband. Therefore, my wife doesn't know her friend's husband, doesn't know their children and, like me, doesn't care what they're up to.

[BJ.]

I'm told by my colleagues that it'd be even worse if you listened to a conversation between Swiss and Canadian French speakers.

It depends where in Canada you speak French. A couple of years back, we were holidaying over there and we had no problems speaking our European French in Quebec City but Montreal was a different story. We were at the coffee bar in a museum and I asked the young woman behind the counter for deux cafés, s'il vous plaît. She looked at me as if I was speaking Klingon or something similar so I repeated my order in a slower and more measured tone. Again it didn't register with her. I even pointed to the menu on the wall behind her where, at the top of the list, was the magic word café. She called over her colleague (a woman in her mid-30s) who instantly understood what I was asking for. After that, I refused to speak French in Montreal. If anyone spoke to me in French, my reply was, "You have two official languages in this country and I'm using the English one!"

[Kinoulton]

1) I worked for two multinational companies that had French and Canadian offices , and the French hated the French Canadians.

2) One writer (it may have been Bill Bryson) said he refused to use exclamation marks because it was telling the reader you'd just written something amazing, when really it was up to the reader to decide.

[DickyP]

... She looked at me as if I was speaking Klingon or something similar....

Well almost as many people speak Klingon as French these days.

[Kinoulton]

I'll try not to be grumpy, but whilst the occassional person on a "talent show" is likeable and has clearly put in some graft, the majority have their delusions pumped up beyond belief by the likes of Cowell.

Last night I watched "Later Live" and it was raw and brilliant. Jack White performed his socks off, The Chieftans performaned with a group of women from America, and every single act was exciting, because they knew they had three minutes on live TV and damned well needed to entertain.

No stupid dancers, no one saying "I want everyone to know how much I want this", no one singing 18 notes, just proper artists that people pay money to see, singing one single note that could grip your soul.

You get this craft by doing pubs, bars and clubs, occassionally dying on your a**e, but bouncing back having learned the lesson.

[tigerburnie]

Kinny,you need some headphones , a darkened room,Spotify and a rugby or fishing forum full of like minded souls on a saturday night, or go down to the pub.It works for me.........then return in time for Jools' show.

[Kinoulton]

Jack White, when just getting famous, did a demo at a simple guitar shop to help the shop sell guitars and he blew everyone away.

I spoke to someone who was there.

He is like Elvis and Keith Moon rolled into one. A nutter who can enteratin a whole lot of people.

I don't care if Amy from Croydon is 14, made the song "her own" and has the backing of her grandma. If her singing is no different to anyone else's I'm not wasting my cash on her, and neither will anyone else.