My Top Ten Worst Gripes in Life!

I thought today we will change the pace a bit and do away with the current affairs type important issues and rant a bit and list the top ten worst gripes I have about anything and everything in life. I like to complain and abuse and what better way to do it than on my blog. Well here they are, my top ten worst gripes in life:

1. Idiots Jumping Queues: This has got to be one of my worst gripes in life. Imagine queueing up for a long time and suddenly a person who thinks that the universal laws of life do not apply to them and just jumps your queue. How aggravating is that but surprisingly many accept it as a part of life, but not me! I will go out of my way to refuse a car that I know is deliberately jumping my queue. I will give a person an unhealthy stare and tell them off, if they've jump queue in a supermarket, like I once told a woman who jumped right in front of me. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that because she had been waiting too long in her line, she had the 'right' to jump to another line that was faster. I told her she was a lunatic and asked her to get back to her line. The rest of the folks behind us just smiled and gave me an approving look.
2. Bad Drivers: This one kills me especially when I'm in a hurry. People who know me well, know I can get a bit impatient, especially on the road, but I tell you some of these bad drivers are worse bad drivers than I am impatient. I'm talking about drivers who talk on their mobile phones while their cars sway left and right at 30km/h, drivers that do not signal and think the people behind them are mind readers, drivers that go too slow, drivers who speed up when you're trying to overtake them, drivers who back into parking spots when there is a long queue of cars behind them, drivers who do not remain in their lanes, and as mentioned in gripe number one, drivers who jump queues. I've had it up to here with bad drivers!
3. People who complain too much. They would complain about anything and everything, big or small. My water is too cold, too hot, my airplane seat is not an aisle seat, it's not a window seat, my food came with the wrong type of noodle etc etc. and their complaining never aim to get their grouse fixed but eminates from a love of complaining and feeling better by making the recepient feel bad. What these chronic complainers do not realise is that life is short and every moment spent complaining is a moment of their precious life lost.
4. Budget Airlines: I've included this because I have used budget airlines a few times and unfortunately more times than not my experience has been horrible. No doubts, the prices are cheap but you'll find yourself paying for it in other ways. We got our flights changed for no apparent reason but suspected it was because they could not fill their flights and cancelled one of the three flights that day. This caused us to miss a day's itenerary and a hotel booking. I tried to call and email them but they were not contactable/ reacheable. Once my money was taken, there was no way of getting any service after that. You couldn't talk to them and you wouldn't get a reason as to why they stuffed up your holiday and guess what, they covered themselves well in their terms and conditions of sale. So you're stuffed and there is no recourse available. Budget airlines tickets are not flexible, once bought not refundable or changeable. Tickets are point to point which means that if you had a connecting flight and your budget airline flight to that destination is delayed, you'll then miss your connecting flight and there is nothing you can do about it. This means you may have to stay overnight for your connecting flight in case of any delays (which is quite common with budget airlines) and you will incur additional costs like hotels, taxi, food and your time! Another scam I encountered on the budget airline website was an offer of insurance where if you clicked on 'cancel' as opposed to 'ok' you would have accepted to buy the insurance unknowingly. By reading the notes properly, it said if you clicked 'cancel' it means you want the insurance. Now this is an outright scam! (which I fell for). I can guarantee you will pay in so many different ways with these budget airlines. As far as I'm concerened, its not cheap, as you are paying for what it's worth. You're paying a lower price because the product is a lower quality but they advertise it as cheap, which it is not.
5. On Sale Items that are Expired: This one happened to me a few times in the grocery shops. You see some items 'on offer' and you purchase them thinking you have just bought a bargain just to find out that you have to eat all the instant noodles by the same afternoon! I like instant noodles but eating 5 packs in the one afternoon is even beyond me! Of course this also applies to buying cars (that are lemons), electrical items etc. etc. I think the premise is that no one likes being taken for a ride. Anyway look out for those 'bargains' especially in those smaller type shops. The saying 'There's No free lunch' has never been truer in this instance.
6. Frustration with my Telco: Once you sign up with a Telco, more often than not they lock you in for a period of 12 or 24 months and if you decide to leave will have to 'buy out' your contract for the remaining period. This condition of locking people in for long periods of time reeks of unfairness but what do you do when most of the Telcos impose the same terms and the industry competition watchdog do nothing. Their strategy is to lock you in and if you don't like the service after that, you're stuffed. You can call their 'customer service' people but they are there only to frustrate you. They read from a pre-prepared script and have no sincerety whatsoever to genuinely help solve your problem. If you had a serious technical problem that the Telco knew about, they will pretend that they didn't know and play the charade by leading you to nowhere, asking you to 'try' this and try that, asking you to take some 'data' and call them back next week, passing your problem to the 'technical experts' who will then call you back, but they won't, telling you they will send your 'report' to be 'analysed', saying they will send a technician over to your area's exchange etc. etc. I once had a problem with a 24 month mobile broadband contract which was just not working (literally). It took me months of wasting my time complaining to the Telco before I was fed up and took it to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman who ruled in my favour. I felt very strongly that the Telco knew that their product was just no good and were using delaying tactics in the hope I would give up and accept the fault. From now on, any future problems will be referred straight to the TIO and i won't be wasting my time with the Telco.
7. Overcharged Bill: This happens to me and many other people, many of whom do not even realise it. What's worse is if this was done deliberately, which of course is very hard to prove, but if it happens to you in the same shop, relatively frequently, then you can pretty much conclude that there was a high chance it was deliberate! Unfortunately, most time when I find out I've been overcharged it's normally too late as I have long left the shop and most times already back home. It's not about the money but the principle. Nobody likes to be cheated!
8. Rude People in the Service Industry: When you go out to have a meal, you normally want the outing to be a pleasant one, but service staff nowadays have just lost the passion for their work. It shows when they are rude, they're abrupt, they think they are doing you a favour by waiting on you, they get your order wrong and they get upset when you bring it up with them. I'm not sure if they realise that the customers are paying their wages! If they don't like to deal with people, then shouldn't be working in the service industry.
9. Selfish People Not Giving Up their Seats for the Elderly: Its easy to give up your seat to the elderly, handicapped or pregnant women, however, if you see how some of these people 'hang on' to their seats (on buses, trains etc.) you would think it was a massive sacrifice to do so. What is the big deal to have to stand up for 10-20 minutes so that a much more needy person could sit down? Is it so absurd to expect them to do so?
10. Women who Want Total Equality to Prove a Point: Now when a woman wants to be totally equal to a man, what does this mean? Does she want to open the car door for the man? Does she want to foot the dinner bill everytime they go out? Does she want to carry the heavy grocery bags? I'm not a sexist but let's face it, man and women are created differently, genetically and to a certain extend socially and that's just a part of life. Women need to accept that and excel in what they are good at and not compete with men. Some women have to compete with men in the men's domain to 'prove' to people that they are just as good. Unfortunately, in a large sample over a longer period of time, history has told us that it's just not achievable, no matter how much these women want to believe they are equal. If you take the best men's basketball team on the planet and the best women's basketball team on the planet, I'll bet my bottom dollar that the women's basketball team will never in a hundred years be able to beat the men's team. Men's dominance in the workforce, has never been challenged in hundred years of history, though women have made some inroads in the last 30 years. The natural balance of life though may be showing us a plateau of this progression. I'm afraid that's just a part of life. Men and women are created unequal. A man cannot breast feed, so if he wanted to be 'equal' here, it's just not possible. Enough said, before I get myself further into trouble, but I hope you get my point. We want men to be the best they can and women to be the best they can too but neither have to compete in the other's traditional domain of dominance to prove anything to anyone.

So there you go, my top ten worst gripes in life in no particular order. Have a good day!