... So I'm reading James Valentine's book The Form Guide and in his intro he goes on about how he hates both manners & etiquette, how he believes both are just rules to judge people by, basically a class indicator. I don't happen to agree. Etiquette, yes, very class-ist, but manners are different, I think, manners are about making people feel basically comfortable, a few basic rules to so we can all get along. Pretty much be nice to each other, rather than make sure you use the right fork.
Anyhoo, there's a few bits in there about behaviour in public, flossing, sniffing and public toe nail filing. I'm basically of the mind that, if you do it in your bathroom at home, don't do it in public.
Which brings me to this morning, on the train. The woman sitting opposite me did her full make up, on the train. Foundation, complicated eye stuff, cheeks, lips the whole shebang. I was gobsmacked, it took ages.
I'll be honest here, I don't like seeing this, I think it's bathroom activity. I mean, slap on a little lippy, retouch the eyelashes, but jeebers, not the full face. I was seriously tempted to "accidentally" bump her - but then again, I learned a new trick making eyelids look pretty that I'm going to try tomorrow (but in the privacy of my own bathroom).
Speaking of vanity. As I was walking up Pitt St, I noticed a sign advertising a pedicure and manicure for $49! BARGAIN people, a pedicure alone will set you back $40 in the CBD, so I booked in, took an early mark off work (4:30, the decadence of it) and now I have beautiful buffed fingernails and gorgeous bright red toenails. And the chair, the bliss of it, it was almost human in it's massaging skills, all up and down and round and round. I have got to find a way of getting one of those into the Brown-Mouse house.
Wednesday, April 18
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8 comments:
I completely agree with you... if the activity belongs in the bathroom, it isn't something to be done in public, ever!
Putting on make up, shaving, flossing, fishing out or putting in contact lenses... seeing any of those is enough to ruin breakfast.
People do all manner of things while travelling though. I frequently see men shaving whilst driving, and will admit to having tried it once myself. I even saw a woman scoffing a bowl of cerial whilst driving, and while I appreciated her highly developed co-ordination and balance and her ability to multi-task, I definitely didn't want to be in he car in front of her.
I'm glad you agree, sometimes I think I'm just being over sensitive but really, there are some things you just don't need to share with strangers.
yer dmm - i quite agree. i believe there is a phenomena known as too much information fatigue (i just made it up) and we all catch it, like a cold. so we go to bed for a few days, sleep, have baths with fragrant candles, read good books, and avoid the too much information.
after a few days, the fatigue is gone. just like a cold :)
chester - did i tell you about the time i was driving my car, while reading a magazine, sending text messages on my mobile, drinking a drink, and eating a sandwich?
it was a long time ago. i was much younger and much sillier then.
kind of.
CAW U R Norty! (but quite clever too). I'll tell you what, if I COULD take an actual BATH, my happiness would be such that I would be in danger of exploding - gawd I'm tired of 4 minute showers.
hey have you ever read any of Emily Posts' etiquette tips? oh my. they are seriously funny, engaging and so terribly, terribly twee.
on the bath thing: hmm. perhaps your next investment could be in a claw footed bathing apparatus??
Ohh, a big bath, mmm, that would require the purchase of a house with a bathroom bigger than a tissue box. I'm actually investigating the possibility of one of those square deep japanese baths, that would be bliss on toast.
I'm a great believer in mannners. There's just no reason to be rude. The world has enough badness in it, that we don't need to pile on the rudeness. It is the proverbial insult that is added to injury.
I often have what I refer to as "little chats" with defendants or opposing counsel about being civil. Thankfully, they always end well, and we are all that more polite, and things go much more smoothly and less stressfully after that. I mean, already we're attorneys, and in court all the time, why make a dodgy situation worse?
Besides, wasn't one of Hannibal Lecter's criteria for eating people that they had been rude? I completely get that. Not the eating part, the killing of rude people part.
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