My Top 10 Irritants (Top no-nos with essentially zero tolerance)

1. People who yak yak yak non-stop into your ears. Essentially, there is no way to find the 'full stop' for you to intercept the conversation and you just have to bear with it till the speaker stops. This is really tiring.

2. People standing in the middle of the path you are walking when there are other places for them to shift their butts too.

3. People who stroll in front of you in a narrow path; or walk in twos or threes in a row, thus blocking the path. I wonder when they will look behind to realise they are hogging!

4. A wet kitchen - I still do not understand why some folks let the water drip off their hands to the floor when they can at least wipe off the wetness. The person who steps on the water will leave their wonderful foot prints, together with the dirt, all over the house.

5. Oily surfaces or floors - I can tolerate dust to some extent (and wet surfaces) but am very irked by oily places. Washed utensils that are still oily is also not acceptable. Some households have got oily table cloths (used to wipe off oils from tables, etc) that are not washed properly.

6. Finding the slippers meant for the bathroom/toilet outside it, at least at my home. Why can't people just leave what is meant for thetoilet inside the toilet??

7. Screaming kids - This can be in the form of a bunch of playing kids, or kids who are simply naughty. Whichever form it is, my whole body will tense up when I encounter such situations. Even one horrendous screaming child can cause my tension to accelerate. Even while writing this paragraph, I could feel my ears narrowing.

8. People following too closely behind me making me the road hogger. I will always walk to the side to get rid of the irritant behind.

9. People who distributes flyers. We are getting more and more of such people sticking out their hands in your paths. It is really very very very....and very irritating! Get off my way!

10. People trying to rush up trains and buses even when they are not crowded! Simply cannot understand. Crowded, they rush. Not crowded, also rush.

13 Dec 2008 (9.00pm)