Do you know what I really hate? I mean, really hate? Spitting! It drives me UP the f***ing wall - excuse the language, but that one really BOILS my blood What is the point in it?? Ok, so you swallowed a fly, maybe choking on something so you spit to get it out of your mouth, but I'm guessing most people would try and be discrete by leaving the room, passing it into a tissue and so forth. But what of those who do not spit so purposefully? Those who spit, because they feel like it and don't even care where they spit? Who do they think they are? I suppose my awareness has been heightened to this due to those visiting the college lately. They are from China where spitting is pretty common, so is burping, not paying attention and lots of other things that I would consider slightly odd behaviour, especially from those in authority - can you imagine Tony Blair dozing off whilst at the UN convention, hmmm... that's a possibility, so could you imagine him burping loudly and spitting all over the place? It would look wrong. But here, with these people it is not - and so I have seen things I really wish to forget. The worst of course is the spitting. In the room they are based in there is one of those big black bins for all their bits of rubbish. What it is NOT there for is for you to hock a logy and spit into it - especially when I'm about to go to lunch! Damn. The noise is unbearable; it would churn even the strongest stomach. Its not quiet or respectful, they stand their hocking to their hearts content, or maybe their mouths content. But what pushed me to write this little number was when I was waiting for the bus today. I arrived, knew I had a few moments to went to take a seat. As I approach the bench I realise the ground is glistening, and not in a good way. Splattered around the bench are spit puddles and I have to dodge nimbly around to make sure nothing attached to my body or anything I am carrying will actually touch this stuff. I make it to my seat still paranoid I may have missed one and glare at the two men who are standing there. Not one of my best moments, but dear Lord, I don't want to have to dodge spit puddles at the end of a rather busy day! I am also hungry and know there is a cheese sarnie in my bag waiting for me. So I coach myself into ignoring it, slowly remove my lunch box and start eating the sarnie. But its there, I know it is, just inches from my feet, glistening in the afternoon. So after some serious retching I give up and throw it away. So I guess my final question is - should we give up the things we love because someone else can't control their spit glands? Well, it was going to be my last thought, but I have just witnessed a totally lack of manners which makes a whole new hate factor for this writing. When did manners start costing people so much? When did it become so time consuming to open a door, let someone pass you, not rush and push in queues? It seems that mankind has lost the thing that I would count as one of the most important things of being human, manners. They are cheap and cost effective. By doing something that will cost you nothing other than two seconds of your time you actually get a little sense of happiness that you could show someone else enough respect to do something to help them out. Why do we need to shout and scream if things don't come to us when we thought they were due? Why cuss and scratch people when something happens out of their control? In my opinion (small as it may be) the world needs to slow its ass down, take some time to remember that everyone is trying to get somewhere and the universe does not always revolve around us (unless we are named Zelda). As I saw on an advert the other day, on average we start a new war every 6months. 6 months people, come on - what is this stuff about civilisation if we can't help ourselves from wanting what someone else has got and fighting over it. Understandably some of these long term wars have serious history that will take time to sort, but come on guys - why all the fighting. I think my favourite line of the advert ended with "humans suck" I don't think anyone could have said it better! So, it seems we have become heartless and manner less, where else is there to go with that already under our collective belt? We're ruining the planet with pollution and we can't remain at peace for longer than 6 months - is there any hope?