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29 Aug 2005, 19:08
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#1
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:alpha:
Join Date: May 2002
Location: London, UK
Posts: 7,871
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Confronting people
I'm not a very confrontational person - even when drunk. I find that most situations can be solved by just being polite and civil to people.
This experience really tested me though. I really didn't know what to do. I'm curious to see how other people would have reacted, in my place.
I was getting a train from London, back to Exeter, after my interview for the job. This was in June or July.
The train wasn't due for another half hour or so, so I bought a newspaper and one of those small packets of biscuits (Hob-Nobs).
The station was kind of busy, so I sat on a four-seater circular table, opposite another guy. The other two seats were untaken.
I put the biscuits down, my newspaper down, and made a quick phonecall to my friend to tell him when I'd be arriving roughly, and to organise plans for later that evening.
Getting off the phone, I started to read my newspaper. I opened the biscuits and munched one slowly.
I was on the second page, when I noticed some movement from the guy opposite me.
Glancing up, I saw that he had put his hand out slyly, and taken one of my biscuits. He was now chewing it, and finishing it off.
I watched him wipe his mouth, and thought to myself.
I had no idea who he was.
He was about the same size as me (although I wasn't exactly going to start a fight, so it was irrelevant how big he was).
I'd heard stories of fights being caused for less than this.
He could be violent - and it was only a biscuit, right?
By the time it took me to process "what should I do", it had moved beyond the reasonable amount of time I could do something about it.
I couldn't very well say "hey, you took one of my biscuits 2 minutes ago - why?".
I decided to pass it off - it was only a biscuit.
I took another purposefully, and moved the packet nearer to me.
About a minute after I had finished mine, he moved it back towards him - and not even slyly, this time.
My mind raced again - I wasn't even reading the newspaper now. How could someone be so blatantly cheeky?
If I made a fuss now, it would be stupid.
I'd already allowed him the one biscuit - how could I justify that, and make a big deal out of the second biscuit?
I, as I mentioned before, don't like confrontations, so I left it.
I took another biscuit and munched it.
He took another and munched it.
Now there was only one biscuit left. I was damned if he was eating my last biscuit. I just took it and ate it purposefully, trying my best not to glare at him.
About 5 minutes later, his train must have been ready to go, because he rose from the table and walked away.
I shook my head and went back to my newspaper.
5 minutes before my train was due to leave, I put on my jacket and picked up my bag.
As I picked up my newspaper, I noticed something underneath, lying innocently on the table.
It was the packet of Hob-Nobs I'd bought.
__________________
"There is no I in team, but there are two in anal fisting"
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29 Aug 2005, 19:12
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#2
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Angry Young Man
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Mister Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street
Posts: 7,518
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Re: Confronting people
i cringed, horribly at the end of that. I bet you just wanted to curl up and die. Great story though
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Believe in me, cause i don't believe in anything
And i wanna be someone, to believe, to believe in
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29 Aug 2005, 19:18
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#3
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Twisted
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Down with the sickness
Posts: 2,484
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Re: Confronting people
I'm afraid I'm not a woman to be messed with. In that situation, thinking he was eating my biscuits, I'd at the very least have made a sarcastic comment and moved table. I chased someone through the pub several weeks ago when he stole my cigarettes off the bar. I think the barstaff were rather amused. :\ I think that's the worst I have done, except for the time where I practically had to physically remove a guy from the fruit machine I was playing (I had popped to the toilet and he was playing with MY MONEY the cheeky git).
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Me
In my sleep I grind my teeth.
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29 Aug 2005, 19:42
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#4
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J to the C to the A G E
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Scúnthorpe
Posts: 5,583
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nantoz
Gods in heaven.
We are on an internet forum, every single one of us must have read the Hitchikers Guide atleast once.
And still you feel the need to post this?
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I've not read it.
There goes that theory.
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29 Aug 2005, 19:48
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#5
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Next goal wins!
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: London
Posts: 5,406
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Re: Confronting people
I've heard this exact same story before. Did it really happen?
It is a wonderfully english thing though
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bastard bastard bastard bastard
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29 Aug 2005, 19:49
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#6
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NEWSBOT
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: The enby cave!
Posts: 4,872
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by LHC
I've not read it.
There goes that theory.
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__________________
[20:27:47] <nodrog-aawy> **** i think my housemate just caught me masturbating
[11:25:32] <idimmu> you are a little piggy arent you
[13:17:00] <KaneED> i'm so closet i'm like narnia
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Pretty parks and funky scrap metal things here
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29 Aug 2005, 19:52
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#7
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:alpha:
Join Date: May 2002
Location: London, UK
Posts: 7,871
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Re: Confronting people
No it didn't happen.
One of my friends told me the story ages ago.
I wasn't aware Douglas Adams or Jeffrey Archer had told it too, though.
Oh well.
__________________
"There is no I in team, but there are two in anal fisting"
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29 Aug 2005, 21:46
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#8
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Lucky
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: -
Posts: 3,830
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Re: Confronting people
maybe you were in an advert of Hob-Nobs without knowing it!
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29 Aug 2005, 21:54
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#9
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:alpha:
Join Date: May 2002
Location: London, UK
Posts: 7,871
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue
It appears in So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, the forth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy and my personal favourite. Arthur Dent tells it to Fenchurch, possibly in a park.
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Ahh, I haven't read that one.
"The fourth book in the trilogy" - nice
__________________
"There is no I in team, but there are two in anal fisting"
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29 Aug 2005, 21:59
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#10
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no
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: in a chair
Posts: 329
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Re: Confronting people
that is an awesome story, would have been better if it wasn't copied
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29 Aug 2005, 22:06
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#11
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overtired
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 5,900
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Re: Confronting people
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29 Aug 2005, 22:34
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#12
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J to the C to the A G E
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Scúnthorpe
Posts: 5,583
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Re: Confronting people
The three versions on Snopes are told terribly.
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29 Aug 2005, 23:00
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#13
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:alpha:
Join Date: May 2002
Location: London, UK
Posts: 7,871
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by SepH
that is an awesome story, would have been better if it wasn't copied
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It wasn't copied - I wrote it all out from memory of my friend's telling of the story.
__________________
"There is no I in team, but there are two in anal fisting"
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29 Aug 2005, 23:08
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#14
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Next goal wins!
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: London
Posts: 5,406
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomkat
No it didn't happen.
One of my friends told me the story ages ago.
I wasn't aware Douglas Adams or Jeffrey Archer had told it too, though.
Oh well.
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douglas adams, that was it.
I read it in the salmon of doubt, nice little book of compilations that.
especially the bit about how great wodehouse is.
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bastard bastard bastard bastard
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29 Aug 2005, 23:21
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#15
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Made of Twigs
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,459
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Re: Confronting people
It's a very Jeffrey Archer-short-story-esque tale, but I liked it
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If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor - James
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am - Muhammad Ali
So **** y'all, all of y'all; if y'all don't like me, blow me! - Dr. Dre
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29 Aug 2005, 23:29
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#16
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Destroyer of Worlds
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 552
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Re: Confronting people
A typical response from me would be to ask the man politely if I had mistaken his packet of biscuits for mine, and if he claimed they were his, I'd have pretended to search for my packet, and said 'Nope, those are definitely mine, I think you're mistaken'. But of course in the situation above, I'd have found my biscuits while pretending to search for them, and realised that the biscuits on the table were his.
But that's just what I'm like. I'm very non-confrontational.
__________________
“In spite of the roaring of the young lions at the Union, and the screaming of the rabbits in the home of the vivisect, in spite of Keble College, and the tramways, and the sporting prints, Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one.”
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30 Aug 2005, 11:54
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#17
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I am an idiot
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,145
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarina_Joy
I'm afraid I'm not a woman to be messed with. In that situation, thinking he was eating my biscuits, I'd at the very least have made a sarcastic comment and moved table. I chased someone through the pub several weeks ago when he stole my cigarettes off the bar. I think the barstaff were rather amused. :\ I think that's the worst I have done, except for the time where I practically had to physically remove a guy from the fruit machine I was playing (I had popped to the toilet and he was playing with MY MONEY the cheeky git).
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Public houses, chasing men over stolen cigarettes and playing fruities - what a babe!
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30 Aug 2005, 11:56
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#18
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I am an idiot
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,145
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Re: Confronting people
I'd have shared the hob nobs anyway.
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30 Aug 2005, 12:25
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#19
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J to the C to the A G E
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Scúnthorpe
Posts: 5,583
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Re: Confronting people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarina_Joy
I think that's the worst I have done, except for the time where I practically had to physically remove a guy from the fruit machine I was playing (I had popped to the toilet and he was playing with MY MONEY the cheeky git).
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Why did you leave a fruit machine while you still had money in it? I'd start playing on it if someone did that.
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30 Aug 2005, 12:59
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#20
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Gone
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 14,656
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Re: Confronting people
You were the nob.
He was the hob.
IT WAS BISCUIT RAPE
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