Y'know what really grinds my gears?

[Jim_Campbell]

Fucking Christmas.

;-)

Cheers

Jim

[The Legendary Shark]

What really grinds my gears is being asked to be at a factory in Birmingham for a rush job at 6am on a Boxing Day morning and still sitting here waiting to be loaded at gone 9am. I could've had another 3 or 4 hours in bed, dagnabbit.

[radiator]

People who ask you to take your shoes off when you visit their house. As with the tightwad thing earlier, why go out of your way to make your friends and family feel uncomfortable? Is it really that important?

[JamesC]

I don't mind the shoes off thing. It's never been that way in my house but if people want to keep their carpets clean it's fine by me. If I'm being invited into someone's home and most likely being provided with food, drink and good company then taking off my shoes so that their carpets stay clean isn't too much to ask.

[The Legendary Shark]

Get your own back - turn up with dirty socks and clean shoes! :-D

[Richmond Clements]

People who ask you to take your shoes off when you visit their house. As with the tightwad thing earlier, why go out of your way to make your friends and family feel uncomfortable? Is it really that important?

The shoes off thing can be cultural though. Swedes do it, for example.

[Old Tankie]

Cultural, my arse!  I'm not Swedish and I wouldn't wear my outdoor shoes indoors, that's what slippers are for!  I think it's more of a "keep the dog crap and human sick off the carpet" thing!  I've got no problem taking my shoes off when I'm a guest in someone else's house.  It's the ones that come in our house and don't that I get the hump with!  Perhaps that's why we don't get many visitors!! 

[Mattofthespurs]

I don't mind taking my shoes off in the slightest. It their house and they are the ones that have to live there.
I don't make my guests take off their shoes but most of my guests offer to anyway, which is nice.

[Hawkmumbler]

Ditto. It's good manners.

[M.I.K.]

...and damn near essential in some rural areas if you don't wish to have everything slathered in mud and/or numerous varieties of excrement.

[radiator]

I don't mind the shoes off thing. It's never been that way in my house but if people want to keep their carpets clean it's fine by me. If I'm being invited into someone's home and most likely being provided with food, drink and good company then taking off my shoes so that their carpets stay clean isn't too much to ask.

Its not the taking off of the shoes itselft that bothers me, i would do it out of poiliteness unprompted, its when they ask you to do so as soon as you set foot inside. It comes across to me as fussy and a little pushy. If thats the impression you want to project onto guests thats up to you i suppose.

My sister does this - she's even put up a sad little sign about it - and she doesn't even have carpets in her house. Madness.

[The Legendary Shark]

Yeah, it's not taking your shoes off that bugs me, it's this inability to deal with dirt that some people have that wees me off. You know, the people who give you a drink and then go mad when you don't ask for a coaster, as if you've not just set a glass of whiskey on their polished coffee table but a lump of raw plutonium wrapped in shit.
.
In those places I simply don't go in or don't visit at all.

[Grugz]

its like those houses that home small...no scratch that, any children that is spotless

[Dandontdare]

its like those houses that home small...no scratch that, any children that is spotless

Whist at a friend's house last Summer, another friend with a couple of children (about 6 & 8) came round. The hostess asked if the kids wanted to play in the garden whilst we chatted. Mum was horrified - turns out they are NEVER allowed to play in ANY garden, even their own, because "they might get dirty". I weep for those kids.

[ZenArcade]

What ever happened: The guest's wish is the hosts command. Z