N is for Niggles

So today I'm going to write about niggles. I'm not talking huge great injustices here, but the illogical things that irritate me, that nobody else cares about, but that drive me insane :). They don't make sense, they are often unfair, but I just can't help it, they irritate me! :P

Hiccups (both in myself and in other people) - now these are a totally involuntary reaction, a spasm of the diaphragm, and hence, if I think about it in a sensible way, there is really absolutely nothing to get annoyed about. Being irked about hiccups is like being irked about breathing, but I have no control over this reaction. Sit me in a room with someone who has hiccups for more than 30s, or indeed, leave me with my own involuntary reaction for the same amount of time and I will want to scratch that person's eyes out (and yes, that includes my own eyes o.O). I try very, very hard to ignore hiccups, it's better for my blood pressure that way, but there is something about the squeaky little noise that grates right into my brain and...oof!

While we're on the subject of bodily reactions - sneezing - not the little atchoos into a handkerchief, those
are fine, but loud, obnoxious booms that cut right through my head. Sneeze more quietly! If the rest of us can manage to be quiet, there is no need for a sonorous foghorn sound, especially if you're going to do it more than once! So there! :P

Okay, let's move swiftly on from bodily functions before I burst a blood vessel! ;P

I borrowed this from
http://daveberta.ca,
because it is so appropriate :)

Rudeness, more specifically, people who flout social rules, really, really wind me up. I'm a Brit, we queue as a matter of habit, in the supermarket, to get on the bus, to get into the cinema. We are orderly and polite (generally) and everything happens nice and smoothly. So when someone decides that queuing isn't for them, by golly is there some stony glaring going on from those of us obeying the rules. The only problem is, being Britishly polite, it takes an awful lot for one of us to speak up and tell the person they're doing it wrong. The most they'll normally get is a polite cough. BUT, by golly, when that convention-flouter is gone, the entire queue will be sharing their disdain with each other - there's nothing like snubbing etiquette to get a bunch of British strangers talking like old friends! ;)

Pigeons - yes, you heard me, those stupid birds that wander around parks a lot ::grinds teeth:: I'm not scared of them and they're rather tasty in game pie, but alive they are just the densest and most annoying birds around. I like birds. I find crows and jackdaws remarkably intelligent and fun to watch when they're in the garden. I also love sparrows and have a soft spot for black birds. But the coo-cooing and the tiny head on such a large body of pigeons and their cousins the doves of all types just make me want to learn to shoot and not clay pigeons.

::Takes a breath.::

I think maybe I'll stop there. I said my niggles were illogical, didn't I? So, do you have any odd niggles that just don't make sense?


P.S. Check out other folk doing the A to Z April Challenge.

And if you want to see my other posts:

Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles A to Z Challenge Posts

View more lists from Sophie Duncan