Ann Richard writes in the Noosa News (http://www.noosanews.com.au/news/excuse-me-i-dont-want-to-listen-to-you/2601731/)

"THERE you are sitting in a big chair being treated like a princess with someone kneeling before you attending to your feet - not the most attractive part of the body - and you ignore the attendant completely while you talk loudly on your mobile phone...

Your conversation might be interesting to you but it is boring to everyone else in earshot and who can't escape.

Would you have a mobile phone conversation while the doctor was examining you? (Admittedly it might be distracting if he was inspecting a certain area...you know.)

Why not take a phone call on the massage table? That would work well for the ambience.

The dentist? (It might be a bit difficult but I bet a dedicated phone culprit would give it go.)

All I know is if you do speak up to someone you think is rude in public, you are almost certain to be told where to stick your opinion.

I once did timidly berate someone for leaving a shopping trolley behind a car rather than walk the couple of metres to the collection bay.

I was offended by the thoughtlessness of it so I dared to speak up nervously. "Are you going to leave that there? The owner of that car will have to take it back," I said with a shaky but determined voice.

"Well you move it then," came the angry reply along with a finger gesture a lady like me should never be subjected to.

This article got me thinking about all the rude and inconsiderate behaviour I/we encounter everyday. I've got plenty of pet peeves, what are yours?

for what it's worth...

A few of my pet peeves include people who block up the grocery isles or entrance to the store while chatting with friends; dog walkers with long leashes spreading out across the whole footpath; cue jumpers on Saturday mornings at Aldi; seeing people without shoes or a shirt wondering through a shopping mall; people that use swear words loudly in public; drivers that can't manage to park between the lines; healthy able bodied adults that park in the designated handicap spaces; and worst of all, greedy surfers who seem to think no one else in the water is waiting for a wave.

I won't get started on kid's behaviour these days other than to say, I'm starting think 'manners' must be a foreign concept in many households. If the parents have no manners, it's no wonder their children don't.

On phones,

I was once descending in a lift in a building in Sydney that was frequented by lawyers.
I was discussing building maintenance with the Maintenance Supervisor when a lawyer's phone rang, he answered it and then turned to us and said rather crossly "I'm trying to talk on the phone".
The Supervisor immediately pressed the button for the next floor and as the doors opened invited the lawyer to continue his phone call outside the lift as he was disrupting our conversation.

Yes I can get annoyed at a group of people blocking a main thoroughfare in the shopping center, but otherwise, in my country town, we don't have much rudeness.

I was starting to get annoyed when the car in front of me the stopped to let a pedestrian cross in the middle of the block the other day. My first thought was, "silly bugger, they could cause an accident". After a few seconds I realised other cars were not close enough to have a problem, & it was nice to live near a town where such courtesy still happened.

I even had an opportunity the other day to help a fellow citizen with her courtesy. I was waiting for someone in front of the hospital, where we park nose or tail in to the curb. Another car had parked fairly close to me. There was just enough room for a lady, & I use the term loosely, to show considerable driving skill to nose in between us.

She got in, but there was no way she or her passenger could open their doors without hitting my, or the other car. I quietly mentioned this to her, & she told me so what, they are only so & so cars & she didn't care. She suddenly appeared to care, when she saw me photographing the cars & their situation. She drove off.

It can take some time to educate some of our recent tree change city folk to our more respectful ways, but they either learn or leave. Fortunately this was my only such encounter in 22 years. Country life is mostly fine.

I now live in a large country town, where I thought I could get away from the franticly rude city driving I was previously caught up in.

Now I am caught behind people who don't seem to know the road rules of a roundabout, and sit there waiting for ages. Or I stop and wait for pedestrians to cross on a busy road, and they don't acknowledge you.

I haven't noticed many bad manners from young people in our town, but certainly elderly men or women at shopping centres have no manners at times, when they push in front of you when you are choosing fruit or veges, or don't apologize for banging into you with their trolleys.
I hate how many of the elderly customers treat the checkout staff too. They rudely interrupt the staff while they are serving others, or loudly berate them for some item they were 'sure' was on special, but were charged too much.

Suse,

Sounds as if you ended up in a town with a lot of elderly retirees from the city!!