I’m a grumpy old woman. Almost everything annoys me. I could write a list as long as War and Peace but in the interests of brevity, and it is the soul of wit after all, I can declare that chief among my catalogue of annoyances is nonsense... and there’s so much of it about these days.
I used to believe that everyone was born with common sense. Now, I have my doubts. When I hear people declaring their pronouns or waxing lyrical about bovine flatulence heating the planet and paying more tax to change the weather, I want to poke them in the eyes. I heard a scientist the other day describe how he planned to capture CO2, ship it to some godforsaken place, Australia I think it was, and then bury it in caverns under the sea. In the old days it'd be a straitjacket for him and straight to the asylum.
I grew up in the 70s when Snickers was Marathon, AI were just two letters of the alphabet and if the emperor were wearing no clothes there’d be people queueing up to point it out. Those heady days when we shared a common truth and agreed reality. Alas, we have entered a post-truth era, in which facts are considered subjective. Each is entitled to his own ‘truth’, his own ‘reality’. Everything is relative. There are no absolutes. Nonsense prevails and to call it out is sexist, racist, fascist, sizeist or some other ist. Small wonder the social fabric is unravelling before our eyes.
My other pet hate is slow people. People who talk slowly or walk slowly, I just can’t be doing with. Though I try to hold myself back, I can’t help but finish their sentences for them and have been known to mutter behind them on escalators attempting to awaken them to the realisation that stairs are to be climbed. I mean life’s too short, right?
There aren’t too many things that set this grumpy geriatric’s heart ablaze, but one of them is growing food, which I won’t go on about as I’ve bored you with my horticultural prowess on too many occasions. Another is courtesy, kindness and acts of selflessness.
I was in the city last weekend when, rounding a corner I almost collided with a gentleman coming in the opposite direction. In a swift motion he stepped aside creating space for me to pass and extending his arm in a sweeping gesture he said warmly
“After you madame.”
“The age of chivalry is not dead” I replied, and exchanging smiles we went on our way both better for the encounter.
I’m on an Irish off-grid group on Telegram where recently, a couple of the men volunteered assistance to an aged damsel in distress, fixing her heating free, gratis and for nothing. This group has 12,000 members, so these are not people who know each other. I tell you, it made my heart sing... a rousing rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody it was, a cappella!
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Posted in response to 
asking 'What annoys you and what energises you? Name two of each and explain.?
The images are my own