I've written elsewhere on this blog about those little minuscule things that make life miserable. Those things that are rather like the bit of grit in your shoe which makes walking uncomfortable. Those little niggles that cause upset. You might refer to them as niggles.
One such would be, when you order a cup of tea and instead of it being made in a pot you get a mug or cup of boiled water with a teabag on a bit of string either already in it or you have to dip it into the water yourself. An American idea, I believe. Just not really very good service in my opinion. We had this when we went into a Wetherspoon's pub when we were in Salisbury recently (Wetherspoon's pubs are generally very good, but on this occasion, this was a real let-down.) this is how we had our tea presented to us. Is it much of an effort to have a decent pot of tea made with probably two teabags? Rather than several mugs of hot water? Then to add insult to injury, the milk was in those really awful little plastic containers with foil caps that are incredibly difficult to peel off. The white liquid inside is supposed to represent 'milk' but is more like thin white emulsion paint. Or that is the consistency of the liquid. Not that I've tasted emulsion paint, but you get my meaning. The jug of milk provided for the customer to put into my mug of tea was empty on this occasion and it took some considerable time for me to get a staff member to replenish the jug. The final mug of tea was so disgusting I couldn't drink it. It tasted awful. The milk is definitely not from a cow, or else the tea is made in a metal pot. You get a really nasty metallic taste, which is unpleasant, to say the least.
Other niggles? Having DVDs and CDs wrapped in cellophane, which is virtually impossible to remove because there is no tab or that strip of coloured paper which is supposed to aid release of the product inside. Why do these things have to be so over-wrapped? Some manufacturers would say, to make sure you receive the item in pristine condition. Fair enough, but do make it easier to remove. Then the products which arrive with a sticker on them, usually with a bar code on, which, when you come to wash it, is virtually impossible to remove without leaving a nasty residue on the item, which, even after several efforts at washing, still remains. This is most annoying on books or other paper items when you can't obviously wash it to remove the sticky residue. And after a while, anything else which comes near the item sticks to this nasty gooey mess.
It seems packaging of quite a few products causes all manner of problems. Toothpaste tubes which always have a tiny bit of toothpaste in them when they are almost empty and you can't quite manage to squeeze out. This has probably been solved with those stand-up pumps which are far better and there is never any toothpaste left when they are empty. Also, tubes which are made of plastic and not metal, which I presume the old style tubes, which don't have any left at the end of their useful life.
Then there's the annoyance caused by parking machines, plenty of which are to be found round and about Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre. You put your coinage into the machine and to the correct value and there is always one which refuses to work and falls through and comes out of another slot. You continue to load the coins in, but still, the machine refuses to work. Usually, it's a £1 coin and these confounded machines DON'T GIVE CHANGE! Which is more than annoying. Why not? Is it too difficult to create a coin-operated machine which prints out tickets to give change? Just an excuse for the local Council to make even further cash out of parking your car.
For now, that's all the niggles I can find, but I'm sure I'll find some more and when I do come across any I'll mention on this blog.
Other niggles? Having DVDs and CDs wrapped in cellophane, which is virtually impossible to remove because there is no tab or that strip of coloured paper which is supposed to aid release of the product inside. Why do these things have to be so over-wrapped? Some manufacturers would say, to make sure you receive the item in pristine condition. Fair enough, but do make it easier to remove. Then the products which arrive with a sticker on them, usually with a bar code on, which, when you come to wash it, is virtually impossible to remove without leaving a nasty residue on the item, which, even after several efforts at washing, still remains. This is most annoying on books or other paper items when you can't obviously wash it to remove the sticky residue. And after a while, anything else which comes near the item sticks to this nasty gooey mess.
It seems packaging of quite a few products causes all manner of problems. Toothpaste tubes which always have a tiny bit of toothpaste in them when they are almost empty and you can't quite manage to squeeze out. This has probably been solved with those stand-up pumps which are far better and there is never any toothpaste left when they are empty. Also, tubes which are made of plastic and not metal, which I presume the old style tubes, which don't have any left at the end of their useful life.
Then there's the annoyance caused by parking machines, plenty of which are to be found round and about Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre. You put your coinage into the machine and to the correct value and there is always one which refuses to work and falls through and comes out of another slot. You continue to load the coins in, but still, the machine refuses to work. Usually, it's a £1 coin and these confounded machines DON'T GIVE CHANGE! Which is more than annoying. Why not? Is it too difficult to create a coin-operated machine which prints out tickets to give change? Just an excuse for the local Council to make even further cash out of parking your car.
For now, that's all the niggles I can find, but I'm sure I'll find some more and when I do come across any I'll mention on this blog.
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