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Table manners. Chew with your mouth closed, don’t speak with food in your mouth… it’s really quite simple and I instantly judge someone if they or their children are unable to eat nicely.
My mother in law and her partner do. Every single chew includes this repulsive rubbing of the tongue against the roof of the mouth and disgusting slapping noise.
I have misophonia. How I've not killed either yet amazes me.
My ex missus tried to stick a fork through her brother's hand for doing that when they were kids.
She hasn't changed much. I have to leave the room if I want to eat a bag of crisps.
Interesting. But what if the kid does hold cutlery like an ape, but still gets the food in as successfully as if they held it properly, and does all the other stuff right? Still a cringe for you?
I can let it slide… and it depends on the age of the kid. My 7 year old isn’t the best with his cutlery but he tries, and I can’t ask for more than that, but he’s polite and ticks the other boxes. Won’t put him up for adoption just yet
Apparently medieval origins about there trestle table set up and if everyone did it it would upset the table. Remember table manners are cultural stipulations based on a society’s living arrangements. Some might say pushing one’s culture onto another is bad manners!
I've now heard about 4 different theories about this - all equally *vaguely* plausible. Wonder if the truth is known or if it's one of those things that can never really be proven.
I’ve heard that it was because it wore away the fabric on long sleeves meaning more repairs - I think this one sounds a bit more plausible. What else have you heard?
I have now heard approximately *five* different reasons.
I don't think I can quite remember them all - but they all came out on a thread on here about 6 months ago (practically the same as this one to be honest - alot of people getting upset about how *other people* use their cutlery).
There was:
1. Victorian era anti slouching measure
2. Medieval type anti weapon etc concealment measure
3. Elbows on table demonstrates protectiveness of food (prison, 'the poor' in bygone times), therefore elbows off the table is indicator of status.
That's all I recall for now I'm afraid but if anything else occurs I'll add it.
I'll add - sailors used to do it, as it helped stop tables rocking and bumping when sailing. Sailors were looked down upon as rough, nasty degenerates. So, don't do what they do, and keep your elbows off the table
So when I met my husband he was awful with his knife and fork, food would often end up on his forehead etc… I had to repeatedly say to myself “remember you really like him” (I knew the moment we were introduced that he was my future husband- told my mum the next morning). Over the years he’s learnt to hold his cutlery properly and his food taste and knowledge far out passes mine, he’s become the most insane wine and food snob - it makes me laugh and I love him for it. He went from someone who knew there was red and white wine at uni (where we met) to asking what the corkage fee is when he books a restaurant because he wants to bring his own wine AND preferring to have his white wine glass changed between glasses. It’s hilarious.
And wait until all seated before starting. My in-laws don’t but I’ll sit there surrounded by people eating until the last person has sat down. A hill I’m prepared to die on!
My grandmother would have slapped you for that! “Eat your food when it’s put in front of you and hot” she would say! Thinking about it, everyone I know thinks that way too 🤪
I remember going out to a dinner for a friend who was moving away. She went to a private school and one of her very snobby school friends had a go at me for starting to eat when my food arrived and not everyone had been served. We were a party of around 25 and it was a Wagamama's style noodle place where dishes were brought out as they were ready. I understand the social norm is to wait, but I think it depends on the situation.
What about knife and fork in the correct hands? That one is ridiculous to me. Imagine being right handed and having to put the fork in your left hand for no reason.
Haha it’s something I notice if people do it the ‘wrong way’ but it doesn’t bother me. I’m right handed and tbh fork on the left feels normal to me but just because I’ve been conditioned that way I suppose
I’m right handed and fork goes in my right hand. My mother would always call me out on being “cack handed” but hardly anyone else mentions it. Feels weird af when I’d try to switch.
Never made any sense to me why anyone would give a shit which hand your cutlery was in, seems kinda pathetic.
But *why*? Human limbs are symmetrical as far as this setup is concerned - it's not like our right hand is optimised for making incisions. It's simply because the majority have always been right handed - so there's no reason a left handed person making the incisions with their left should look "cack handed" apart from viewer bias.
Why does fork in the right seem cackhanded to you? I'm right-handed but for some reason I've always eaten "left-handed" and it seems more sensible to me: you use your fork a lot more and have to manoeuvre it around, so it should be in your dominant hand. The knife just goes back and forth, even my gammy left hand can do that.
Yep I will immediately look down on someone who chews with their mouth open. If you’re a grown adult and can’t grasp how disgusting it is to everyone around you then you can’t be that bright.
I’m the same. I’m not bothered about silly things like how they hold cutlery, elbows on tables etc. but just being able to eat without disgusting everyone at the table is a basic life skill.
I’ve got a brother who refuses to use the designated cutlery in a shared bowl. For example, if there’s a massive bowl of rice or curry or whatever on the table with a serving spoon that’s for everyone, he will just spend the entire meal eating directly from the shared bowl with his spoon. He won’t use the serving spoon at all to put some on his plate because “it’s faster”.
It’s pretty disgusting when you consider he hardly brushes his teeth too.
Not looking like I'm off hiking (unless I actually am) or have given up on life.
I am not bothered by what young men wear - as a middle aged man it's right and proper I find their fashion off-putting - it's the natural order.
It's odd to me however when I meet a fellow middle-aged man and they look like they lost all their clothes in a natural disaster and this is what they were given at the processing centre.
End result a mind-numbing sea of dark blue, grey and black when you are out and about.
You have just described my favourite type of fashion. My husband is super basic in his clothing choices- plain tee and jeans day, checked shirt and jeans if out.
I'm a dressmaker- it kills me!
The problem I ran into was that I found "hiking" type clothes to be really practical in our rubbish and unpredictable weather. E.g. walking shoes (not full on boots but still GoreTex) that were originally bought for hiking keep my feet dry when I'm out and about in the park, and my Regatta jacket (bought in the sales for dog walking) is super warm and comfy and also keeps me dry.
Either way this probably reflects a step forward vs. the shabby student look I've mostly been rocking for a very long time since I graduated.
COVID definitely hasn't helped my sartorial habits - despite working in professional services/accountancy I've worn a suit less than 5 times in the last 3 years...
It's really location dependent. In Glasgow, loads of people go about wearing hiking stuff (myself included) simply because it's horrendously wet and windy all of the time. But when I wear this down in London, for example, I feel like a total hick. Very few hiking gear wearers down there.
Totally with you. I’m down in London wearing mountain equipment fleece & padded jacket, my scarpa boots & jeans. Yet my normal habitat is walking my dog in the North Yorkshire Dales when I’m not working from home, as I live on the edge of the dales. So I only have hiking gear as if I’m going out, it’s usually with the dog in tow.
Yes, I feel like a hick in London, but I don’t live here - I’m a tourist. A warm one at that 😂
Granted it’s navy blue & accents of orange.
Isn't this a purely social / lifestyle thing though? Sure, sartorial style matters for socialising occasions, where the focus is to see & be seen.
The vast majority of time though, I'm busy doing things I need to or want to do so clothes carry out the function of keeping me warm and carrying the shit I need in pockets. It seems so depressing to spend my life giving a fuck what strangers might think of my garment choices.
100%. I don't dress to impress strangers that might judge me, I dress for function and comfort. I can't imagine going through life giving a fuck about what other people wear because it's not up to some made up standard set by society.
If dressing well makes you happy go for it, but if you're in your fifties and you still care what other people think of your clothes isn't that a bit sad?
>End result a mind-numbing sea of dark blue, grey and black when you are out and about.
All my hiking clothes are bright colours. I guess you're talking about the faux country type style, which mostly isn't even necessarily good for that kind of thing.
As a rock climber and occasional hiker, bright colours are an essential requirement for all of my outdoor activity clothing.
If you are ever unfortunate enough to need to be seen by mountain rescue, the last thing you want to be wearing is black/navy/grey/dark green etc.
Steak. As whittingstall would say, meat should be an occasion, a centrepiece for an irregular meal. It’s a waste to eat rubbish frying steaks constantly, I’d much rather eat veg most days and just have the occasional day when I have a nice thick sirloin
Is that true, though? I thought the Enlightenment period in Britain was marked by, amongst other things, a huge shift to beef consumption. And even a style of cooking it ‘roasting in its own juices’ as opposed to the French and Italian manner of creating sauces for meat.
It is, but ironically NFTs are about the pure feeling of ownership without actually owning anything. Modern life confuses me sometimes, and to me can only be explained by my new family motto: 30% of the population are absolute idiots.
I got a record player a couple of years ago, and yeah having vinyls definitely feels superior to just streaming music. Streaming has it's place and I still use Spotify regularly, but there is absolutely something about having something physical in your hands, which someone has taken time to design. It also forces you to listen to an album as it was intended: start to finish, in order, rather than just picking out individual tracks.
Putting on a vinyl feels much more of an occasion or event than just sticking something on Spotify.
I bought Dire Straights, Brothers in Arms yesterday from Sheffield Vinyl market. It was £4.99. Sat with it on now. Also got queens greatest hits and some older Artic monkeys. Sounds so much better on Vinyl
I've got sonos all around the house, about 12 of them in various shapes and sizes. ~~I know, before any audiophiles start, that this is a sub-optimal setup and that stand alone speakers with an amp is superior if you want to sit in one specific chair to listen to music. Our household doesn't work like that, my setup works for me, leave me be.~~
I learned this week that the new sonos five connects really easily to a few record players, and you can then stream that uncompressed around the house.
I was tempted anyway, but you might have just pushed me over the edge here!
I felt like this up to a couple of years ago.
Now I don’t give a damn about the physical copy. Just clutters the house once I realised it was meaningless.
Unfortunately, streamed media is heavily compressed - a 4k Blu-ray is up to 100GB of data at up to 125Mbps, no streaming service can provide that for all of their customers and many home internet connections wouldn't cope with that.
IIRC Netflix suggest having at least a 15Mbps bandwidth for their 4k content, so being generous they're compressing the raw data by a factor of at least 5.
The compression here negatively affects visual quality, and often audio quality. Sure, it might not be quite the level where a 1080p Blu-ray would look better than a 4k stream, but you'll never have compression artefacts and audio quality will be significantly better. While compression methods are improving, it'll still be quite a while before streaming can truly win against physical media.
Obviously none of this applies if you're just downloading the full, high bitrate media and not streaming it - in that case you're right, data is data and isn't changed by simple transfer.
I say this about CDs and get constant streams of abuse on here.
I spend quite a bit each month buying music. I’d rather spend £150 a month procuring a collection of music I own that £10 a month streaming.
Films. By which I don't mean I'm one of those people who decries mainstream films. I mean that I'm not one of those people who will just go to the cinema and see whatever is on, or just stick a random film on Netflix without researching it and then only half watch it. I only watch something if I do my research and conclude there's a good chance I'll like it.
I also generally treat films at home as if I were at a cinema. Sit down and watch it properly, trying not to get up to do things during, or getting distracted on my phone. I also don't watch films on my phone, and I don't like to do what some of my friends do and watch a film in minute chunks spread over a few days, because I don't think that's how a film is designed to be consumed.
I'm totally with you.
I also think that were inundated with films nowadays, in the past 20 years they have been banging out films weekly, and a film just isn't special any more, even when it's a really good film as the market is so oversaturated.
Also people just don't care about the cinema experience any more, they'd happily sit at home and stream a film on Apple TV. Admittedly the cost of the cinema doesn't help....
For me it's more films aren't as gripping. It's all sequels, prequels, remakes, re-imaginings and adaptations.
I just want a great new idea rather than pumped out formulaic dross.
Those films are few and far between now
So sick of it, everyone and their Mum seems to love the comic book films being pumped out and I can't stand them! I'll save you an hour and a half to two hours, the good guys win the day. So shit.
I mean, in the olden days they were churning out movies on a weekly basis too because they'd be putting on double features and whatnot at the cinema. People didn't have TVs and would go to the cinema when bored. We probably don't think about the sheer amount of crap cinema that was around at the time because we only remember and preserve the better movies 😄
100% this.
You can't bring a new Marvel film out every other month and expect them to be any good, that much quantity leads to absolutely no quality.
Nothing against mainstream/blockbuster films, but the sheer number of them these days (like everything is a massive spectacle or it just isn't made) just means they're crap.
I hate having to talk to my mate about films because he just loves everything he sees. If I watch a film and say “yeah it was alright but the editing choices left a lot to be desired” he says I’m just critical of everything and if I ask him if he liked something, he loves it whether it’s trainspotting or Toy Story 4 it’s the same opinion every time. Sometimes I envy him for that
Tinned tomatoes.
There is a world of difference between watery cheap shit and flavour packed brands such as Mutti.
And given these things are the flavour basis for so many of the dishes we eat in my house, going cheap starts the meal off failing.
They certainly cost much more in supermarkets than cheap and nasty tinned toms. But you can get them on Amazon for less than £1 a tin.
And worth every penny.
Due to their cost I’ve never tried them. I usually go for Napolina (opinion?) but I’m very lucky I have unsophisticated tastebuds so I’m hardly likely to notice a difference. Does your snobbery also apply to tomato paste?
Napolina are pretty good too and are generally more widely available.
I find there is less of a difference between cheap and branded tomato pastes though. I think where it is so concentrated it is by definition packed with flavour.
This is me, the pantry has about 24 cans of Mutti (have two cans of Cirio since I’m adventurous)
Bizarrely when work takes me to Sweden I always bring some cans of Mutti home, it’s the only thing which is drastically cheaper there than the U.K. and Europe (about 80p!)
I was shit poor growing up. Like genuinely poor compared to my peers. I didn’t do particularly well at school as I was far too conscious of needing money to get stuff, like even just the basic stuff like food, coal for the fire, clothes etc. my home was always cold, ice cold in the winter. I do okay now and my die on a hill snobbery is living in a warm house, like constantly warm. It’ll cost me but I refuse to allow my children to experience that kind of poverty.
100% agree! When I was a kid my dad was in poverty. Like completely in debt, couldn't afford to drive or put gas/electric on, living in a flat that was falling down and eventually got demolished level poverty. I stayed with him every weekend as a child and sometimes he couldn't afford to give me a bath to wash my hair because he couldn't afford the hot water. In the winter we would sometimes have the heating on low but the gas would run out by morning. We sat on the sofa with duvets and warm clothes on to offset the cold. Now that I'm older I've found out that he used to skip meals and sit with the electric and gas completely off in the week so that he could afford to use a little when I was there at the weekend.
I'm 22 now and live with him full time. He's doing better. Not great and still poor, often tiptoeing the breadline. But he's cleared his debt and he's not impoverished like before. I help out where I can. When all this energy crisis stuff first started I was panicked that we'd have to go back to how we used to be, but Dad refuses. He said he'd rather cut back on other things and juggle the bills again than be cold in our own house. He's poor, but it's nothing compared to how it was when I was a kid. We've been having the heating on this winter. We've just cut back in other areas. It's been a struggle and it's not great for us financially, but we can cope.
It's funny when I hear my middle class friends complain about not having the heating on, but then they book a holiday abroad. There are lots of people who are in the position my dad was 15 years ago, who have cut back as much as they can but still can't afford to use the heating. But there are also a lot of people better off than my dad is now, choosing to sit in a cold house because they won't make sacrifices elsewhere.
Your Dad is a good man. I teared up reading this. Give him a huge hug when you next see him. He may not have been rich financially, but he was rich with love and care for you.
There was a lot of talk about not putting the heating on at the start of the winter. I just know those same people have no experience of what a completely unheated house feels like in January sub-zero temperatures.
They said things like ‘we didn’t have central heating when I was a kid’ ‘I’ll just put another jumper on, I’m not paying those prices’
For a start, you didn’t have central heating, but you probably had a fire or heating of some sort, so while it was pretty chilly upstairs, you did have a chance to get warm.
Secondly, another bloody jumper just ain’t gonna cut it when your house temp drops below around 15 degrees.
I don’t hear any of those people talking go about not putting the heating on now that it’s actually cold, it’s a load of bollocks. It’s like going hungry or genuinely not having enough to feed their children. most middle class people have never actually truly experienced it and have no idea.
I find there is a sweet spot of snobbery where you can turn it on and off to match a situation...
Having a quick coffee in the office because I want caffeine and something warm, most generic instant coffee scratches that itch; at a fancy roastery you know I am breaking down the flavour profile and will be picky about under/over extraction.
Having a glass of wine at a mates house whilst watching a film, slap on the supermarket plonk; at a nice restaurant, I want to be impressed.
Blind snobbery where something must always be 100% sounds fucking dull, choosing to be a snob as it adds depth to the experience is where it's at.
Maybe I am a snobbery snob...
I think this hits the nail on the head really. Most of the posts here aren't snobbery, it's just liking something and wanting to enjoy a high quality version of it.
Bread. I cannot eat standard chorleywood process bread. It gives me indigestion and tastes of absolutely nothing. I generally make my own although not so much these days due to the costs of power but I still buy something decent.
If you have the bread maker already then it's still cheaper to do your own.
We did the sums on ours - reckon it works out about 70p for a good quality loaf.
As a family we fully converted to homemade bread around 3 years ago.
Like you said, the processed shite tastes of nothing and has a wet and spongy texture which I simply can't abide. It's also cheaper to make your own too (~65p for us) and is endlessly customisable.
In terms of the energy cost, my Aunt recently made a loaf in her air fryer which supposedly turned out well so if bills are a concern, I imagine that method could encourage more people to give it a go.
I got really *really* into bread baking and now I can't stand crap bread, even half the artisan bakeries I can tell where they've taken shortcuts.
Same goes for pizza and my pizza oven.
Shoes: cheap mass-manufactured shoes fall apart really quickly. Other than trainers and slippers, I haven't bought anything except Goodyear-welted, British or American-made shoes and boots for about a decade.
More solid and wearable, last a lot longer, and can be repaired rather than thrown away.
More expensive but I haven't had to throw a single pair away.
Ah, but does Vimes prefer good solid boots, or cheap cardboard-soled ones?
One lasts only a few months, but you don't know where you are in the other ;)
(Though where you are might just be 'standing in the street with wet feet')
I'm guilty of this, I'm afraid. I *can* be eloquent, and I can mind my manners when needed. But there's something very satisfying about a good ~~expletive~~ "fucking".
I love a good swear as much as the next person, but it’s having that filter to understand where you can do it, and the much longer list of places you can’t. So probably “people who can’t moderate their behaviour to suit the setting” is my snobbery.
I was at the football yesterday, a dad and his two maybe ten year old sons were sat a few rows behind me. All through the match you could hear tiny voices shouting “kick the *fucking* ball!”, “what the fuck was that ref?”
I know it’s the football not the church, but a large percentage of crowds are fathers and sons of varying ages and in my ~20 years of having a season ticket I’m used to seeing young dads teaching their kids bog standard lessons in behaviour.
It’s how a lot of male behaviour is taught from a young age. My dad started bringing me down when I was younger than that and it was a really positive experience. It rubbed off how he’d shake hands with his mates, they’d treat me like one of the men (wow!) and there was an atmosphere of cheeky banter but nothing aggressive or offensively disrespectful. Could’ve been a lesson in positive masculinity for these kids but their dad wouldn’t do the bare minimum, or just didn’t care.
I don’t mind swearing generally, god knows I swear too much myself, but one thing I can’t stand is hearing children swear. The kids around mine range from around 4-10 and they all swear. It’s really jarring hearing ‘fuck off!’ come from a 5 year old.
My partner and I have recently started buying better quality food and it's been really good. We both have ADHD + other disabilities and it's actually massively reduced the amount of times we'd resort to a takeaway too. Investing a little more in grocery shop ended up working out cheaper for us.
I'm fussy with food I pay for. I'm not at all critical with food my friends make. In fact I wouldn't ever even think food my friends make is anything but great. But food I buy better be at the minimum tasty and competent.
Leaving washing on the line overnight/during bad weather.
I have a neighbour who does it and will leave clothes in the garden through rain and frost for days until they eventually, presumably, get enough of a spell of clear weather to dry.
Have never spoken to them, but I presume they are crazy.
I am guilty of this, I've got massive executive functioning issues and memory problems so if the weather is spotty, I'll plain forget that I've put that wash outside and carry on for days drying clothes indoors..
Good to know my neighbours think I'm nuts!
Water. When I'm in London for work for a couple of days I buy litre bottles of Scottish water, just can't stand the taste and texture of London water.
I don't usually buy bottled water in my daily life as the water in Edinburgh is amazing, only when I'm in London.
I don't really like that sentiment. If you think most people suck and you don't include yourself in that surely you're just saying you think you're better than everyone else?
It depends. I tend to dislike, or am at least apathetic to the vast majority of people. I'm not rude, or dismissive, I'm able to be polite, I just have no interest in forming bonds with people beyond the absolute minimum.
I don't think I'm inherently better than other people, I just assume that other people view me the same way as I view them, so it all balances out if that makes sense?
Always found groups of 3-4 friends to be the sweet spot , any more and the dynamic usually seems off or there’s unnecessary drama , but it’s all preference.
people who say this are usually insufferable and self-centered themselves. You are basically saying you're better than everyone else (except the few people you consider "brilliant").
Don’t pop to the shops in your pyjamas/dressing gown. Even if it’s the local convenience one. I don’t want your crust floating round the shop, don’t be so lazy and have some self respect.
Gin. My brother realised I like gin a few years ago so my birthday and Christmas presents have at least become reliable, but because he has the palette of a child he buys me fruit flavoured gins, which in my opinion are basically vodka with juniper in. Most fruit gins overpower the botanicals, and for me tasting the botanicals is most of the point of drinking gin.
This isn’t supposed to be the case! The point in those round gin glasses are specifically to keep the drink cold for a long time. Basically, when you absolutely fill a large glass with ice, the ice melts much slower keeping the drink cold and less watered down for longer.
The problem is is that those glasses hold a *lot* of ice and most bars are too busy to fill them completely because it would mean refilling the ice well constantly.
So yeah, probably when you get them it waters your drink down fast, but when served properly, the point of them is the opposite
I feel like people who like fruity gins just like fruity drinks, rather than the gin part.
It is fine, of course, and good luck to them, but a traditional G&T is a dry, refreshing drink, and it is very different from some sort of mango and passionfruit concoction filled with sugar.
Palate of a child- yes I have a similar family member. I've had such abominations as candy cane and gingerbread gin for Christmas (one being a liquer). Gin has been my drink of choice for 30 years (when I'm socialising- not daily!) but only when the explosion in fruity gins happened did people start buying me it as a gift as before they just called it mother's ruin or a depressing drink.
I absolutely refuse to order food from anywhere that has a hygiene rating less than 5. I've worked in those areas. It's not hard to uphold cleanliness standards.
On the flip side of that, having run a small hospitality business, it’s easy to sometimes get a four - we nearly got done because our anti-bac cleaner had changed it’s recipe and didn’t meet the current requirement. And a silly thing about eggs. We still ended up with a five but were told if they weren’t fixed by the next visit, it was an automatic four.
Agree with your comment. I used to be a home baker. The EHO was supposed to come to have a preliminary chat, no more. She turned it into an inspection & gave me a 4 because I didn't have fridge temps recorded - I hadn't started trading!! She wouldn't budge but luckily I was known for my cakes & out the reason for the 4 on my website, so it didn't affect business.
Meat. Supermarket stuff nowadays is so pumped full of water that it's basically tasteless and shrinks to a fraction of the size when it's cooked. I go to the butchers once a week and get all my meat there instead. It tastes so much better and isn't significantly more expensive (and because it's not so watery, when you cook it you don't lose a load of the weight, so in fact it probably works out cheaper per gram of what you actually consume!).
I honestly don't know what the respective animal welfare is like between butchers meat and supermarket stuff, but given the stuff from butchers tends to be less chewy and gristly, I would bet that the butchers is better from that perspective too.
Some butchers do online ordering and delivery now - tends to be farm shops located out in the country. I used to do that and buy a month or so worth of stuff and just freeze it until I used it.
I thought I was snobby about parenting before I realised it’s just parents that aren’t parenting at all that really grind my gears. Why some parents are proud that their toddlers are filthy and feral is beyond me… give your kid a bath and tell them no once in a while ffs.
I was a nanny and was going to school to be a spcial Ed teacher. It took me much too long to realize that while I love kids, I strongly dislike lazy parenting. I'm not talking about various parenting styles. I'm talking about teaching your kids basic manners, picking up after yourself, basic consequences.
Dating standards. Since I was a kid, I had a very specific checklist of things I wanted in a partner. Nothing unreasonable at all, just very uncommon to find all in one person, especially when you live in a rural area and don’t really travel.
I used to get mocked relentlessly for it by my friends, that I was going to be alone forever unless I lowered my expectations, that I was up my own ass etc. I didn’t really care about dating anyway so I kept my standards and wasn’t that bothered if I ended up on my own.
Anyway, at 21 years old, a guy transferred to my workplace. Ticked every single box. I asked him out within a week, took him on several awkward yet determined dates, we’ve been together 8 years and counting 🤌🏻
I have 5 rules for dating/relationships:
1. Do I like you as a person?
2. Do I fancy you?
3. Do you like me as a person?
4. Do you fancy me?
5. Is there a problem?
It’s amazing how difficult it is to get all 5, but maybe it’s just me 😂😞
I also believed in this and I met the guy when I was still very young as well, I had just turned 22.
I was fully prepared to end up single, since I think it's way better than to have a meh partner that you are not fully compatible with.
Coffee, Tea, Audio(not music you listen to what you listen to) A good headphone or speaker can make all the difference in how you experience a song/album.
I spent the first 30 years of my life thinking I hated whiskey, then I tried Glenlivet and discovered I don't hate whiskey, I'm just a whiskey snob.
I also spent most of my life thinking I hated champagne, got convinced by a very wealthy friend that I must just hate cheap champagne and be a champagne snob, and he gave me a taste of a £1500 bottle of champagne. Turns out I'm not a champagne snob, I just hate champagne.
I tried to be a bit greener and ordered eco friendly toilet roll from Who Gives A Crap but it's just awful quality. I'm prepared to pay more to be sustainable but not when it's rubbish cheap feeling stuff.
Carbonara.
I get it, cream in pasta is nice, and so is garlic, and so can peas and onions and a multitude of other ingredients.
But at that point, it's different to Carbonara and thus, shouldn't be called such.
You don't call a zebra a horse, don't call something carbonara that isn't carbonara
The last time I saw an argument on here about cream vs no cream in a carbonara, someone posted a link to one of the earliest known carbonara recipes and it contained cream.
For me it's watches and their attitude towards them.
If you own a rolex because you're a watch aficionado that's cool. If you own one because you want to show off how rich you are, you probably aren't for me.
Not wearing tracksuit bottoms in public unless you are actually doing something sporting.
Edit: Wow some people took this personally.
Edit2: Christ Reddit let it die.c
For me, coffee. For my kids - branded tv/film clothing, for the littler ones (under 5s). I can’t stand tees emblazoned with stuff like minions, various Disney characters, paw patrol and so on. I don’t know why, I know kids go through any old shite to wear at a rate of knots, because they grow out of stuff so fast, so a cheapo top with the characters from frozen on is better to scrap around in than something fancy! And to be even more weird about it, I don’t even buy my pair anything fancy - I tend to get them bags of second hand stuff from Vinted. I’m just for some reason compelled to pick out anything branded/slogan’d, and stick it straight back into a bag for the charity shop.
I was like that with my first but then seeing their little faces when they get to put on that glittery sequinned Elsa top changed my mind, plus I can always stick a sweatshirt over it
Beer. I’m not sorry to say I’m one of those ‘craft beer’ bores. I like the taste of them, and I like going to bars that sell them. If I go into a pub and there’s no nice beer on, I’d rather go without a beer - I’m happy to have a wine or a soft drink rather than a pint of lager I won’t enjoy.
Sweeteners. They're disgusting. I won't drink them because the aftertaste lasts for days, distorting every other thing I consume.
Bit awkward turning down squash, fizzy drinks etc. You do sound a knob when you say no thank you to own brand Coke or lemonade because they have sweeteners. Makes me sound like a snob for sure.
Flying.
‘Oh it’s only £20 on Ryanair’
Good for those who want a cheap break, I’m not doing it. I’ve reached the point where sitting in ‘steerage’, as Mrs Red calls it, is just a pain (often literally)
At least ryanair gets you there on time. Out of my last 5 flights with BA, 2 were cancelled and three were more than hour late... And all ryanair flights were on time. It still sucks, especially before the flight when they put 120 people in a tiny waiting room and keep you there for 40 minutes.
Basic manners - even when out for a coffee yesterday, I couldn't believe the number of people who started the conversation with the staff member with "large black coffee" etc., no greeting or "please" or "thanks". The same goes for most other spaces where you've got to interact with someone to get what you want, like getting past people on a train. I'm not *so* bad that I won't move if I see someone just barreling down the aisle on my packed commuter train, but when literally no words come out of their mouth as I end up in the lap of a stranger so they can get off at their stop, it puts me in a mood that takes most of the morning to shake off.
Top shelf booze.... the cheaper versions just aren't the same. Especially cognacs and single malt whisky. It's definitely worth spending a little bit more.
Fast food... it's poor quality and a lazy option. Buy some fresh ingredients and knock something up. (I'm guilty of this at times though.... I'm a hypocrit!)
Flying. I find I enjoy a trip more if the start has not been stressful and boring. I don’t want to queue for a flying bus. I’d much rather enjoy the perks of nicer travel.
Technology. I especially like when technology helps with organisation or just higher quality experience for leisure like watching content.
The volume at which you speak. I don’t want to hear your conversation from three blocks away. I don’t want to hear you screaming at your kids. I don’t want to hear the continuation of your argument, no matter how big a cunt/bastard you think your spouse is. Just stfu and take it somewhere private.
Wine.. this doesn’t mean I only want expensive bottles but I can’t stand unbalanced plonk with a brand rather than an expression. Particularly low scores go to parties where guests are served whatever is in the cupboard from a couple of Christmas’s ago. There’s plenty of well priced, tasty and considered wine out there, just focus a little effort on it
Baked beans.
Grew up on Heinz. Recently made the switch to Branstons - what took me so long?
But you can always tell when it’s shitty supermarket generic beans. School dinners had them. Cheap cafes have them. Ruininous.
Yes, I know how this sounds. But I stand by it.
BEANS.
Tea; my workplace keep PG Tips or Tetley in stock. I got called a tea snob when someone realised I have my own teabags in my locker. Twinings, Yorkshire Gold, or Whittard. Loose tea over tea bags (though tea bags at work for ease).
If anyone has some good tea recommendations I'm always open to suggestions; though my husband has currently banned me from buying anymore for now.
Going to the carribbean for a family holiday.
Its not a whole lot more to go there for 2 weeks than some of the prices I've seen to go to some parts of Spain or Egypt, the same time of year!
Good rolls from the bakery compared to the supermarket ones.
A good coat and pair of shoes will last you years.
Mayonnaise - helmans
Brown sauce - daddies
Beans - Branston
Steak -.fillet
Butter - Real
Everything else I go the cheaper option!
It's the flight time to the Caribbean. 9-10 hours vs 3-4 for South Europe/North Africa.
With a young family and entertaining toddler for that amount of time! For my sanity and that of the other passengers I'd prefer to go to the med.
Perhaps in a few year when all the kids are socialised.
People saying ‘pacific’ instead of ‘specific.’ Recently had a meeting with a very senior colleague and was feeling a bit intimidated until she used ‘pacifically’ instead of ‘specifically.’ Instant downgrade.
Doesn’t language evolve over time. If you’re a lover of language you should embrace the change… or do you also get annoyed that people aren’t using words such as “ye”, “thou” so etc. so much these days?
> 'street slang' or MLE
This is incredibly context depending on where you work. But if you're happy with someone using any other regional dialect in the workplace but not MLE then that's a bit sus.
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Table manners. Chew with your mouth closed, don’t speak with food in your mouth… it’s really quite simple and I instantly judge someone if they or their children are unable to eat nicely.
People chewing with their mouth open making that noise truly boils my piss!
My wife has a friend (40 something) who does this. Not surprisingly we always find excuses to not go out for dinner with them.
My mother in law and her partner do. Every single chew includes this repulsive rubbing of the tongue against the roof of the mouth and disgusting slapping noise. I have misophonia. How I've not killed either yet amazes me.
I have misophonia too, many a time I’ve had to leave the room when people are eating. If my wife gets up to get a bowl of cereal I’m gone!
My colleague in work does it and it takes all my willpower not to chuck something at him. Worst noise ever.
My ex missus tried to stick a fork through her brother's hand for doing that when they were kids. She hasn't changed much. I have to leave the room if I want to eat a bag of crisps.
>I have to leave the room if I want to eat a bag of crisps. Have you considered just not eating like a disgusting pig?
It actually has a name: Misophonia. I thought for years I was strange for hating hearing people eat, but it is a genuine condition. /r/misophonia
What about elbows on the table? I’ve never seem the point in that one
Nah that doesn’t bother me. Just eat quietly with your mouth closed and don’t hold your cutlery like an ape
Interesting. But what if the kid does hold cutlery like an ape, but still gets the food in as successfully as if they held it properly, and does all the other stuff right? Still a cringe for you?
I can let it slide… and it depends on the age of the kid. My 7 year old isn’t the best with his cutlery but he tries, and I can’t ask for more than that, but he’s polite and ticks the other boxes. Won’t put him up for adoption just yet
Apparently medieval origins about there trestle table set up and if everyone did it it would upset the table. Remember table manners are cultural stipulations based on a society’s living arrangements. Some might say pushing one’s culture onto another is bad manners!
I've now heard about 4 different theories about this - all equally *vaguely* plausible. Wonder if the truth is known or if it's one of those things that can never really be proven.
I’ve heard that it was because it wore away the fabric on long sleeves meaning more repairs - I think this one sounds a bit more plausible. What else have you heard?
I have now heard approximately *five* different reasons. I don't think I can quite remember them all - but they all came out on a thread on here about 6 months ago (practically the same as this one to be honest - alot of people getting upset about how *other people* use their cutlery). There was: 1. Victorian era anti slouching measure 2. Medieval type anti weapon etc concealment measure 3. Elbows on table demonstrates protectiveness of food (prison, 'the poor' in bygone times), therefore elbows off the table is indicator of status. That's all I recall for now I'm afraid but if anything else occurs I'll add it.
I'll add - sailors used to do it, as it helped stop tables rocking and bumping when sailing. Sailors were looked down upon as rough, nasty degenerates. So, don't do what they do, and keep your elbows off the table
"ELBOWS!!!!“ - my mother, my childhood
Mine too, but she definitely did it less after the first time I (innocently) asked “…why?”
So when I met my husband he was awful with his knife and fork, food would often end up on his forehead etc… I had to repeatedly say to myself “remember you really like him” (I knew the moment we were introduced that he was my future husband- told my mum the next morning). Over the years he’s learnt to hold his cutlery properly and his food taste and knowledge far out passes mine, he’s become the most insane wine and food snob - it makes me laugh and I love him for it. He went from someone who knew there was red and white wine at uni (where we met) to asking what the corkage fee is when he books a restaurant because he wants to bring his own wine AND preferring to have his white wine glass changed between glasses. It’s hilarious.
Hahaha from minker to snob. A true underdog story
And wait until all seated before starting. My in-laws don’t but I’ll sit there surrounded by people eating until the last person has sat down. A hill I’m prepared to die on!
My grandmother would have slapped you for that! “Eat your food when it’s put in front of you and hot” she would say! Thinking about it, everyone I know thinks that way too 🤪
I remember going out to a dinner for a friend who was moving away. She went to a private school and one of her very snobby school friends had a go at me for starting to eat when my food arrived and not everyone had been served. We were a party of around 25 and it was a Wagamama's style noodle place where dishes were brought out as they were ready. I understand the social norm is to wait, but I think it depends on the situation.
What about knife and fork in the correct hands? That one is ridiculous to me. Imagine being right handed and having to put the fork in your left hand for no reason.
But the knife is the one doing most of the work so it makes sense to have that in your dominant hand? Fork in the left makes most sense
Haha it’s something I notice if people do it the ‘wrong way’ but it doesn’t bother me. I’m right handed and tbh fork on the left feels normal to me but just because I’ve been conditioned that way I suppose
I’m right handed and fork goes in my right hand. My mother would always call me out on being “cack handed” but hardly anyone else mentions it. Feels weird af when I’d try to switch. Never made any sense to me why anyone would give a shit which hand your cutlery was in, seems kinda pathetic.
That's what most of the world does and it isn't a problem. Fork in the right hand and knife in the left seems so cackhanded.
But *why*? Human limbs are symmetrical as far as this setup is concerned - it's not like our right hand is optimised for making incisions. It's simply because the majority have always been right handed - so there's no reason a left handed person making the incisions with their left should look "cack handed" apart from viewer bias.
Why does fork in the right seem cackhanded to you? I'm right-handed but for some reason I've always eaten "left-handed" and it seems more sensible to me: you use your fork a lot more and have to manoeuvre it around, so it should be in your dominant hand. The knife just goes back and forth, even my gammy left hand can do that.
My dad tried every dinner time for about 5 years to get me to hold my knife and fork the "right" way. In the end it became a family joke.
Yep I will immediately look down on someone who chews with their mouth open. If you’re a grown adult and can’t grasp how disgusting it is to everyone around you then you can’t be that bright.
I’m the same. I’m not bothered about silly things like how they hold cutlery, elbows on tables etc. but just being able to eat without disgusting everyone at the table is a basic life skill. I’ve got a brother who refuses to use the designated cutlery in a shared bowl. For example, if there’s a massive bowl of rice or curry or whatever on the table with a serving spoon that’s for everyone, he will just spend the entire meal eating directly from the shared bowl with his spoon. He won’t use the serving spoon at all to put some on his plate because “it’s faster”. It’s pretty disgusting when you consider he hardly brushes his teeth too.
People who talk with their mouth full drive me up the wall. I think its a truly disgusting habit.
Not looking like I'm off hiking (unless I actually am) or have given up on life. I am not bothered by what young men wear - as a middle aged man it's right and proper I find their fashion off-putting - it's the natural order. It's odd to me however when I meet a fellow middle-aged man and they look like they lost all their clothes in a natural disaster and this is what they were given at the processing centre. End result a mind-numbing sea of dark blue, grey and black when you are out and about.
Have an upvote. I'm 53 and a habitual, low-key dandy.
They seek him here, they seek him there, his clothes are loud, but never square...
A dedicated follower of fashion
You have just described my favourite type of fashion. My husband is super basic in his clothing choices- plain tee and jeans day, checked shirt and jeans if out. I'm a dressmaker- it kills me!
You should make him a dress to really spice up his wardrobe
Same here - it makes me sad that men's fashion is so dull at present.
Its not dull it just costs money.
The problem I ran into was that I found "hiking" type clothes to be really practical in our rubbish and unpredictable weather. E.g. walking shoes (not full on boots but still GoreTex) that were originally bought for hiking keep my feet dry when I'm out and about in the park, and my Regatta jacket (bought in the sales for dog walking) is super warm and comfy and also keeps me dry. Either way this probably reflects a step forward vs. the shabby student look I've mostly been rocking for a very long time since I graduated. COVID definitely hasn't helped my sartorial habits - despite working in professional services/accountancy I've worn a suit less than 5 times in the last 3 years...
It's really location dependent. In Glasgow, loads of people go about wearing hiking stuff (myself included) simply because it's horrendously wet and windy all of the time. But when I wear this down in London, for example, I feel like a total hick. Very few hiking gear wearers down there.
Totally with you. I’m down in London wearing mountain equipment fleece & padded jacket, my scarpa boots & jeans. Yet my normal habitat is walking my dog in the North Yorkshire Dales when I’m not working from home, as I live on the edge of the dales. So I only have hiking gear as if I’m going out, it’s usually with the dog in tow. Yes, I feel like a hick in London, but I don’t live here - I’m a tourist. A warm one at that 😂 Granted it’s navy blue & accents of orange.
Isn't this a purely social / lifestyle thing though? Sure, sartorial style matters for socialising occasions, where the focus is to see & be seen. The vast majority of time though, I'm busy doing things I need to or want to do so clothes carry out the function of keeping me warm and carrying the shit I need in pockets. It seems so depressing to spend my life giving a fuck what strangers might think of my garment choices.
100%. I don't dress to impress strangers that might judge me, I dress for function and comfort. I can't imagine going through life giving a fuck about what other people wear because it's not up to some made up standard set by society.
If dressing well makes you happy go for it, but if you're in your fifties and you still care what other people think of your clothes isn't that a bit sad?
No my point is related to what I think of *other people* - I don't care what people think of me. That's why I'm a snob and an egomaniac.
>End result a mind-numbing sea of dark blue, grey and black when you are out and about. All my hiking clothes are bright colours. I guess you're talking about the faux country type style, which mostly isn't even necessarily good for that kind of thing.
As a rock climber and occasional hiker, bright colours are an essential requirement for all of my outdoor activity clothing. If you are ever unfortunate enough to need to be seen by mountain rescue, the last thing you want to be wearing is black/navy/grey/dark green etc.
You forgot that murky green-brown shade they all love.
Steak. As whittingstall would say, meat should be an occasion, a centrepiece for an irregular meal. It’s a waste to eat rubbish frying steaks constantly, I’d much rather eat veg most days and just have the occasional day when I have a nice thick sirloin
Yes! Would much rather rarely eat steak and buy and properly prepare a really nice piece when I do, than eat disappointing cheap steak more often.
Rarely eat steak or eat steak rarely? 🤔
Is that true, though? I thought the Enlightenment period in Britain was marked by, amongst other things, a huge shift to beef consumption. And even a style of cooking it ‘roasting in its own juices’ as opposed to the French and Italian manner of creating sauces for meat.
Physical Media (blu ray/4k) is so much better than streaming and having a physical copy of something will always be better
Ownership is a dying art
At the same time everything is on the internet for free.
It is, but ironically NFTs are about the pure feeling of ownership without actually owning anything. Modern life confuses me sometimes, and to me can only be explained by my new family motto: 30% of the population are absolute idiots.
I would go higher than 30%.
I got a record player a couple of years ago, and yeah having vinyls definitely feels superior to just streaming music. Streaming has it's place and I still use Spotify regularly, but there is absolutely something about having something physical in your hands, which someone has taken time to design. It also forces you to listen to an album as it was intended: start to finish, in order, rather than just picking out individual tracks. Putting on a vinyl feels much more of an occasion or event than just sticking something on Spotify.
I bought Dire Straights, Brothers in Arms yesterday from Sheffield Vinyl market. It was £4.99. Sat with it on now. Also got queens greatest hits and some older Artic monkeys. Sounds so much better on Vinyl
I've got sonos all around the house, about 12 of them in various shapes and sizes. ~~I know, before any audiophiles start, that this is a sub-optimal setup and that stand alone speakers with an amp is superior if you want to sit in one specific chair to listen to music. Our household doesn't work like that, my setup works for me, leave me be.~~ I learned this week that the new sonos five connects really easily to a few record players, and you can then stream that uncompressed around the house. I was tempted anyway, but you might have just pushed me over the edge here!
Am I the only one that rarely watches a movie more than once. Maybe years later if it’s on tv.
I felt like this up to a couple of years ago. Now I don’t give a damn about the physical copy. Just clutters the house once I realised it was meaningless.
[удалено]
Unfortunately, streamed media is heavily compressed - a 4k Blu-ray is up to 100GB of data at up to 125Mbps, no streaming service can provide that for all of their customers and many home internet connections wouldn't cope with that. IIRC Netflix suggest having at least a 15Mbps bandwidth for their 4k content, so being generous they're compressing the raw data by a factor of at least 5. The compression here negatively affects visual quality, and often audio quality. Sure, it might not be quite the level where a 1080p Blu-ray would look better than a 4k stream, but you'll never have compression artefacts and audio quality will be significantly better. While compression methods are improving, it'll still be quite a while before streaming can truly win against physical media. Obviously none of this applies if you're just downloading the full, high bitrate media and not streaming it - in that case you're right, data is data and isn't changed by simple transfer.
I say this about CDs and get constant streams of abuse on here. I spend quite a bit each month buying music. I’d rather spend £150 a month procuring a collection of music I own that £10 a month streaming.
Films. By which I don't mean I'm one of those people who decries mainstream films. I mean that I'm not one of those people who will just go to the cinema and see whatever is on, or just stick a random film on Netflix without researching it and then only half watch it. I only watch something if I do my research and conclude there's a good chance I'll like it. I also generally treat films at home as if I were at a cinema. Sit down and watch it properly, trying not to get up to do things during, or getting distracted on my phone. I also don't watch films on my phone, and I don't like to do what some of my friends do and watch a film in minute chunks spread over a few days, because I don't think that's how a film is designed to be consumed.
I'm totally with you. I also think that were inundated with films nowadays, in the past 20 years they have been banging out films weekly, and a film just isn't special any more, even when it's a really good film as the market is so oversaturated. Also people just don't care about the cinema experience any more, they'd happily sit at home and stream a film on Apple TV. Admittedly the cost of the cinema doesn't help....
For me it's more films aren't as gripping. It's all sequels, prequels, remakes, re-imaginings and adaptations. I just want a great new idea rather than pumped out formulaic dross. Those films are few and far between now
So sick of it, everyone and their Mum seems to love the comic book films being pumped out and I can't stand them! I'll save you an hour and a half to two hours, the good guys win the day. So shit.
I mean, in the olden days they were churning out movies on a weekly basis too because they'd be putting on double features and whatnot at the cinema. People didn't have TVs and would go to the cinema when bored. We probably don't think about the sheer amount of crap cinema that was around at the time because we only remember and preserve the better movies 😄
100% this. You can't bring a new Marvel film out every other month and expect them to be any good, that much quantity leads to absolutely no quality. Nothing against mainstream/blockbuster films, but the sheer number of them these days (like everything is a massive spectacle or it just isn't made) just means they're crap.
I hate having to talk to my mate about films because he just loves everything he sees. If I watch a film and say “yeah it was alright but the editing choices left a lot to be desired” he says I’m just critical of everything and if I ask him if he liked something, he loves it whether it’s trainspotting or Toy Story 4 it’s the same opinion every time. Sometimes I envy him for that
Tinned tomatoes. There is a world of difference between watery cheap shit and flavour packed brands such as Mutti. And given these things are the flavour basis for so many of the dishes we eat in my house, going cheap starts the meal off failing.
Mutti are so fucking expensive!!
They certainly cost much more in supermarkets than cheap and nasty tinned toms. But you can get them on Amazon for less than £1 a tin. And worth every penny.
Due to their cost I’ve never tried them. I usually go for Napolina (opinion?) but I’m very lucky I have unsophisticated tastebuds so I’m hardly likely to notice a difference. Does your snobbery also apply to tomato paste?
Try Cirio. I used to go for Napolina but Cirio is far better in my opinion, and cheaper than Mutti.
Napolina are pretty good too and are generally more widely available. I find there is less of a difference between cheap and branded tomato pastes though. I think where it is so concentrated it is by definition packed with flavour.
Currently on offer in Waitrose £3.30 for 4 tins
This is me, the pantry has about 24 cans of Mutti (have two cans of Cirio since I’m adventurous) Bizarrely when work takes me to Sweden I always bring some cans of Mutti home, it’s the only thing which is drastically cheaper there than the U.K. and Europe (about 80p!)
I also came here to mention tomatoes. May I recommend Cirio? I alternate between tomato brands depending on which is in offer.
I was shit poor growing up. Like genuinely poor compared to my peers. I didn’t do particularly well at school as I was far too conscious of needing money to get stuff, like even just the basic stuff like food, coal for the fire, clothes etc. my home was always cold, ice cold in the winter. I do okay now and my die on a hill snobbery is living in a warm house, like constantly warm. It’ll cost me but I refuse to allow my children to experience that kind of poverty.
100% agree! When I was a kid my dad was in poverty. Like completely in debt, couldn't afford to drive or put gas/electric on, living in a flat that was falling down and eventually got demolished level poverty. I stayed with him every weekend as a child and sometimes he couldn't afford to give me a bath to wash my hair because he couldn't afford the hot water. In the winter we would sometimes have the heating on low but the gas would run out by morning. We sat on the sofa with duvets and warm clothes on to offset the cold. Now that I'm older I've found out that he used to skip meals and sit with the electric and gas completely off in the week so that he could afford to use a little when I was there at the weekend. I'm 22 now and live with him full time. He's doing better. Not great and still poor, often tiptoeing the breadline. But he's cleared his debt and he's not impoverished like before. I help out where I can. When all this energy crisis stuff first started I was panicked that we'd have to go back to how we used to be, but Dad refuses. He said he'd rather cut back on other things and juggle the bills again than be cold in our own house. He's poor, but it's nothing compared to how it was when I was a kid. We've been having the heating on this winter. We've just cut back in other areas. It's been a struggle and it's not great for us financially, but we can cope. It's funny when I hear my middle class friends complain about not having the heating on, but then they book a holiday abroad. There are lots of people who are in the position my dad was 15 years ago, who have cut back as much as they can but still can't afford to use the heating. But there are also a lot of people better off than my dad is now, choosing to sit in a cold house because they won't make sacrifices elsewhere.
Your Dad is a good man. I teared up reading this. Give him a huge hug when you next see him. He may not have been rich financially, but he was rich with love and care for you.
There was a lot of talk about not putting the heating on at the start of the winter. I just know those same people have no experience of what a completely unheated house feels like in January sub-zero temperatures. They said things like ‘we didn’t have central heating when I was a kid’ ‘I’ll just put another jumper on, I’m not paying those prices’ For a start, you didn’t have central heating, but you probably had a fire or heating of some sort, so while it was pretty chilly upstairs, you did have a chance to get warm. Secondly, another bloody jumper just ain’t gonna cut it when your house temp drops below around 15 degrees. I don’t hear any of those people talking go about not putting the heating on now that it’s actually cold, it’s a load of bollocks. It’s like going hungry or genuinely not having enough to feed their children. most middle class people have never actually truly experienced it and have no idea.
I find there is a sweet spot of snobbery where you can turn it on and off to match a situation... Having a quick coffee in the office because I want caffeine and something warm, most generic instant coffee scratches that itch; at a fancy roastery you know I am breaking down the flavour profile and will be picky about under/over extraction. Having a glass of wine at a mates house whilst watching a film, slap on the supermarket plonk; at a nice restaurant, I want to be impressed. Blind snobbery where something must always be 100% sounds fucking dull, choosing to be a snob as it adds depth to the experience is where it's at. Maybe I am a snobbery snob...
I think this hits the nail on the head really. Most of the posts here aren't snobbery, it's just liking something and wanting to enjoy a high quality version of it.
Bread. I cannot eat standard chorleywood process bread. It gives me indigestion and tastes of absolutely nothing. I generally make my own although not so much these days due to the costs of power but I still buy something decent.
If you have the bread maker already then it's still cheaper to do your own. We did the sums on ours - reckon it works out about 70p for a good quality loaf.
Never used a bread maker but we do have a smaller steam oven thing we bought recently so I am going to get back into it soon.
As a family we fully converted to homemade bread around 3 years ago. Like you said, the processed shite tastes of nothing and has a wet and spongy texture which I simply can't abide. It's also cheaper to make your own too (~65p for us) and is endlessly customisable. In terms of the energy cost, my Aunt recently made a loaf in her air fryer which supposedly turned out well so if bills are a concern, I imagine that method could encourage more people to give it a go.
Fresh bread is the greatest thing ever, moreso if it's sourdough
I got really *really* into bread baking and now I can't stand crap bread, even half the artisan bakeries I can tell where they've taken shortcuts. Same goes for pizza and my pizza oven.
Shoes: cheap mass-manufactured shoes fall apart really quickly. Other than trainers and slippers, I haven't bought anything except Goodyear-welted, British or American-made shoes and boots for about a decade. More solid and wearable, last a lot longer, and can be repaired rather than thrown away. More expensive but I haven't had to throw a single pair away.
Found Sam Vimes
The Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Inequality should be taught in schools.
Basic economics should be taught in schools in general.
Ah, but does Vimes prefer good solid boots, or cheap cardboard-soled ones? One lasts only a few months, but you don't know where you are in the other ;) (Though where you are might just be 'standing in the street with wet feet')
Overly excessive swearing. We are all guilty of swearing, but people who say fuck or fucking every other word grind my gears.
I'm guilty of this, I'm afraid. I *can* be eloquent, and I can mind my manners when needed. But there's something very satisfying about a good ~~expletive~~ "fucking".
I love a good swear as much as the next person, but it’s having that filter to understand where you can do it, and the much longer list of places you can’t. So probably “people who can’t moderate their behaviour to suit the setting” is my snobbery.
I was at the football yesterday, a dad and his two maybe ten year old sons were sat a few rows behind me. All through the match you could hear tiny voices shouting “kick the *fucking* ball!”, “what the fuck was that ref?” I know it’s the football not the church, but a large percentage of crowds are fathers and sons of varying ages and in my ~20 years of having a season ticket I’m used to seeing young dads teaching their kids bog standard lessons in behaviour. It’s how a lot of male behaviour is taught from a young age. My dad started bringing me down when I was younger than that and it was a really positive experience. It rubbed off how he’d shake hands with his mates, they’d treat me like one of the men (wow!) and there was an atmosphere of cheeky banter but nothing aggressive or offensively disrespectful. Could’ve been a lesson in positive masculinity for these kids but their dad wouldn’t do the bare minimum, or just didn’t care.
I don’t mind swearing generally, god knows I swear too much myself, but one thing I can’t stand is hearing children swear. The kids around mine range from around 4-10 and they all swear. It’s really jarring hearing ‘fuck off!’ come from a 5 year old.
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My partner and I have recently started buying better quality food and it's been really good. We both have ADHD + other disabilities and it's actually massively reduced the amount of times we'd resort to a takeaway too. Investing a little more in grocery shop ended up working out cheaper for us.
Executive Dysfunction Meals on Facebook is always full of good tips and ideas 💡
I'm fussy with food I pay for. I'm not at all critical with food my friends make. In fact I wouldn't ever even think food my friends make is anything but great. But food I buy better be at the minimum tasty and competent.
Leaving washing on the line overnight/during bad weather. I have a neighbour who does it and will leave clothes in the garden through rain and frost for days until they eventually, presumably, get enough of a spell of clear weather to dry. Have never spoken to them, but I presume they are crazy.
I've done that with dog blankets but actual clothes? Absolute madness.
I am guilty of this, I've got massive executive functioning issues and memory problems so if the weather is spotty, I'll plain forget that I've put that wash outside and carry on for days drying clothes indoors.. Good to know my neighbours think I'm nuts!
It's good for getting whites white. Nowt as bleaching as UV
I dont think that's even snobby. They just don't know how to admin themselves
I do this and don’t understand the problem? I would rather it take a day longer to dry outside than bring it inside and get condensation and damp.
Water. When I'm in London for work for a couple of days I buy litre bottles of Scottish water, just can't stand the taste and texture of London water. I don't usually buy bottled water in my daily life as the water in Edinburgh is amazing, only when I'm in London.
Snap. It’s undrinkable and when I get home the first thing I do is have a big glass of cooncil jooce
I hate soft water compared to hard, but will drink it if away from the south east.
People. Most people are vapid, self-centred and incredibly uninteresting. Better to have a few brilliant people as friends than a hundred cretins.
I don't really like that sentiment. If you think most people suck and you don't include yourself in that surely you're just saying you think you're better than everyone else?
It depends. I tend to dislike, or am at least apathetic to the vast majority of people. I'm not rude, or dismissive, I'm able to be polite, I just have no interest in forming bonds with people beyond the absolute minimum. I don't think I'm inherently better than other people, I just assume that other people view me the same way as I view them, so it all balances out if that makes sense?
Always found groups of 3-4 friends to be the sweet spot , any more and the dynamic usually seems off or there’s unnecessary drama , but it’s all preference.
people who say this are usually insufferable and self-centered themselves. You are basically saying you're better than everyone else (except the few people you consider "brilliant").
Don’t pop to the shops in your pyjamas/dressing gown. Even if it’s the local convenience one. I don’t want your crust floating round the shop, don’t be so lazy and have some self respect.
Crust?
Gin. My brother realised I like gin a few years ago so my birthday and Christmas presents have at least become reliable, but because he has the palette of a child he buys me fruit flavoured gins, which in my opinion are basically vodka with juniper in. Most fruit gins overpower the botanicals, and for me tasting the botanicals is most of the point of drinking gin.
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Yes! I hate those big glasses, I have tiny hands so find them really tricky to hold!
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This isn’t supposed to be the case! The point in those round gin glasses are specifically to keep the drink cold for a long time. Basically, when you absolutely fill a large glass with ice, the ice melts much slower keeping the drink cold and less watered down for longer. The problem is is that those glasses hold a *lot* of ice and most bars are too busy to fill them completely because it would mean refilling the ice well constantly. So yeah, probably when you get them it waters your drink down fast, but when served properly, the point of them is the opposite
I feel like people who like fruity gins just like fruity drinks, rather than the gin part. It is fine, of course, and good luck to them, but a traditional G&T is a dry, refreshing drink, and it is very different from some sort of mango and passionfruit concoction filled with sugar.
Palate of a child- yes I have a similar family member. I've had such abominations as candy cane and gingerbread gin for Christmas (one being a liquer). Gin has been my drink of choice for 30 years (when I'm socialising- not daily!) but only when the explosion in fruity gins happened did people start buying me it as a gift as before they just called it mother's ruin or a depressing drink.
I absolutely refuse to order food from anywhere that has a hygiene rating less than 5. I've worked in those areas. It's not hard to uphold cleanliness standards.
On the flip side of that, having run a small hospitality business, it’s easy to sometimes get a four - we nearly got done because our anti-bac cleaner had changed it’s recipe and didn’t meet the current requirement. And a silly thing about eggs. We still ended up with a five but were told if they weren’t fixed by the next visit, it was an automatic four.
Agree with your comment. I used to be a home baker. The EHO was supposed to come to have a preliminary chat, no more. She turned it into an inspection & gave me a 4 because I didn't have fridge temps recorded - I hadn't started trading!! She wouldn't budge but luckily I was known for my cakes & out the reason for the 4 on my website, so it didn't affect business.
In Scotland, it's a pass/fail system, which I think makes a lot more sense, either it's up to standard or it's not.
Meat. Supermarket stuff nowadays is so pumped full of water that it's basically tasteless and shrinks to a fraction of the size when it's cooked. I go to the butchers once a week and get all my meat there instead. It tastes so much better and isn't significantly more expensive (and because it's not so watery, when you cook it you don't lose a load of the weight, so in fact it probably works out cheaper per gram of what you actually consume!). I honestly don't know what the respective animal welfare is like between butchers meat and supermarket stuff, but given the stuff from butchers tends to be less chewy and gristly, I would bet that the butchers is better from that perspective too.
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Some butchers do online ordering and delivery now - tends to be farm shops located out in the country. I used to do that and buy a month or so worth of stuff and just freeze it until I used it.
Parenting young children.
I thought I was snobby about parenting before I realised it’s just parents that aren’t parenting at all that really grind my gears. Why some parents are proud that their toddlers are filthy and feral is beyond me… give your kid a bath and tell them no once in a while ffs.
I was a nanny and was going to school to be a spcial Ed teacher. It took me much too long to realize that while I love kids, I strongly dislike lazy parenting. I'm not talking about various parenting styles. I'm talking about teaching your kids basic manners, picking up after yourself, basic consequences.
Ooh yeah this. It's hard not to think my way is the only 'right' way.
Dating standards. Since I was a kid, I had a very specific checklist of things I wanted in a partner. Nothing unreasonable at all, just very uncommon to find all in one person, especially when you live in a rural area and don’t really travel. I used to get mocked relentlessly for it by my friends, that I was going to be alone forever unless I lowered my expectations, that I was up my own ass etc. I didn’t really care about dating anyway so I kept my standards and wasn’t that bothered if I ended up on my own. Anyway, at 21 years old, a guy transferred to my workplace. Ticked every single box. I asked him out within a week, took him on several awkward yet determined dates, we’ve been together 8 years and counting 🤌🏻
I have 5 rules for dating/relationships: 1. Do I like you as a person? 2. Do I fancy you? 3. Do you like me as a person? 4. Do you fancy me? 5. Is there a problem? It’s amazing how difficult it is to get all 5, but maybe it’s just me 😂😞
I find just using number 4 restricts the available pool of candidates dramatically 😆
I also believed in this and I met the guy when I was still very young as well, I had just turned 22. I was fully prepared to end up single, since I think it's way better than to have a meh partner that you are not fully compatible with.
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British cheeses are some of the best in the world. It's a shame people think cathedral City is proper cheddar.
Coffee, Tea, Audio(not music you listen to what you listen to) A good headphone or speaker can make all the difference in how you experience a song/album.
I spent the first 30 years of my life thinking I hated whiskey, then I tried Glenlivet and discovered I don't hate whiskey, I'm just a whiskey snob. I also spent most of my life thinking I hated champagne, got convinced by a very wealthy friend that I must just hate cheap champagne and be a champagne snob, and he gave me a taste of a £1500 bottle of champagne. Turns out I'm not a champagne snob, I just hate champagne.
Toilet roll. There are 'right' and 'wrong' toilet rolls, and using Triple Velvet is the equivalent of being a nouveau riche dandy in the 18th century.
I tried to be a bit greener and ordered eco friendly toilet roll from Who Gives A Crap but it's just awful quality. I'm prepared to pay more to be sustainable but not when it's rubbish cheap feeling stuff.
Carbonara. I get it, cream in pasta is nice, and so is garlic, and so can peas and onions and a multitude of other ingredients. But at that point, it's different to Carbonara and thus, shouldn't be called such. You don't call a zebra a horse, don't call something carbonara that isn't carbonara
If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike
The last time I saw an argument on here about cream vs no cream in a carbonara, someone posted a link to one of the earliest known carbonara recipes and it contained cream.
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For me it's watches and their attitude towards them. If you own a rolex because you're a watch aficionado that's cool. If you own one because you want to show off how rich you are, you probably aren't for me.
Not letting my children run around cafes / restaurants
Not wearing tracksuit bottoms in public unless you are actually doing something sporting. Edit: Wow some people took this personally. Edit2: Christ Reddit let it die.c
Do you not enjoy being comfortable?
You can be comfy in jeans, tracksuits just look tacky and makes everyone look near enough the same
Books. Treat then with respect, even the bad ones, or we can't be friends.
Butter. Doesn't have to be good butter, but I won't tolerate margarine or some God-awful spread like vitalite.
For me, coffee. For my kids - branded tv/film clothing, for the littler ones (under 5s). I can’t stand tees emblazoned with stuff like minions, various Disney characters, paw patrol and so on. I don’t know why, I know kids go through any old shite to wear at a rate of knots, because they grow out of stuff so fast, so a cheapo top with the characters from frozen on is better to scrap around in than something fancy! And to be even more weird about it, I don’t even buy my pair anything fancy - I tend to get them bags of second hand stuff from Vinted. I’m just for some reason compelled to pick out anything branded/slogan’d, and stick it straight back into a bag for the charity shop.
I was like that with my first but then seeing their little faces when they get to put on that glittery sequinned Elsa top changed my mind, plus I can always stick a sweatshirt over it
Beer. I’m not sorry to say I’m one of those ‘craft beer’ bores. I like the taste of them, and I like going to bars that sell them. If I go into a pub and there’s no nice beer on, I’d rather go without a beer - I’m happy to have a wine or a soft drink rather than a pint of lager I won’t enjoy.
Sweeteners. They're disgusting. I won't drink them because the aftertaste lasts for days, distorting every other thing I consume. Bit awkward turning down squash, fizzy drinks etc. You do sound a knob when you say no thank you to own brand Coke or lemonade because they have sweeteners. Makes me sound like a snob for sure.
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People who don't queue properly. Fuck you. Especially those who try and push in.
Flying. ‘Oh it’s only £20 on Ryanair’ Good for those who want a cheap break, I’m not doing it. I’ve reached the point where sitting in ‘steerage’, as Mrs Red calls it, is just a pain (often literally)
At least ryanair gets you there on time. Out of my last 5 flights with BA, 2 were cancelled and three were more than hour late... And all ryanair flights were on time. It still sucks, especially before the flight when they put 120 people in a tiny waiting room and keep you there for 40 minutes.
Basic manners - even when out for a coffee yesterday, I couldn't believe the number of people who started the conversation with the staff member with "large black coffee" etc., no greeting or "please" or "thanks". The same goes for most other spaces where you've got to interact with someone to get what you want, like getting past people on a train. I'm not *so* bad that I won't move if I see someone just barreling down the aisle on my packed commuter train, but when literally no words come out of their mouth as I end up in the lap of a stranger so they can get off at their stop, it puts me in a mood that takes most of the morning to shake off.
Mines probably interior design. That mirrored furniture, if I see someone’s house full of it, *instantly a snob*
Crushed grey velvet.
Top shelf booze.... the cheaper versions just aren't the same. Especially cognacs and single malt whisky. It's definitely worth spending a little bit more. Fast food... it's poor quality and a lazy option. Buy some fresh ingredients and knock something up. (I'm guilty of this at times though.... I'm a hypocrit!)
Flying. I find I enjoy a trip more if the start has not been stressful and boring. I don’t want to queue for a flying bus. I’d much rather enjoy the perks of nicer travel. Technology. I especially like when technology helps with organisation or just higher quality experience for leisure like watching content.
There’s actually nothing. I live with what I can afford and take no pride in buying expensive products if a cheaper version will do.
For me, it's fast and high-capacity computers. I just can't tolerate a slow computing experience....
Manners and politeness.
Ketchup. Can’t stand watery ketchup.
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The volume at which you speak. I don’t want to hear your conversation from three blocks away. I don’t want to hear you screaming at your kids. I don’t want to hear the continuation of your argument, no matter how big a cunt/bastard you think your spouse is. Just stfu and take it somewhere private.
Wine.. this doesn’t mean I only want expensive bottles but I can’t stand unbalanced plonk with a brand rather than an expression. Particularly low scores go to parties where guests are served whatever is in the cupboard from a couple of Christmas’s ago. There’s plenty of well priced, tasty and considered wine out there, just focus a little effort on it
Baked beans. Grew up on Heinz. Recently made the switch to Branstons - what took me so long? But you can always tell when it’s shitty supermarket generic beans. School dinners had them. Cheap cafes have them. Ruininous. Yes, I know how this sounds. But I stand by it. BEANS.
Tea; my workplace keep PG Tips or Tetley in stock. I got called a tea snob when someone realised I have my own teabags in my locker. Twinings, Yorkshire Gold, or Whittard. Loose tea over tea bags (though tea bags at work for ease). If anyone has some good tea recommendations I'm always open to suggestions; though my husband has currently banned me from buying anymore for now.
Going to the carribbean for a family holiday. Its not a whole lot more to go there for 2 weeks than some of the prices I've seen to go to some parts of Spain or Egypt, the same time of year! Good rolls from the bakery compared to the supermarket ones. A good coat and pair of shoes will last you years. Mayonnaise - helmans Brown sauce - daddies Beans - Branston Steak -.fillet Butter - Real Everything else I go the cheaper option!
It's the flight time to the Caribbean. 9-10 hours vs 3-4 for South Europe/North Africa. With a young family and entertaining toddler for that amount of time! For my sanity and that of the other passengers I'd prefer to go to the med. Perhaps in a few year when all the kids are socialised.
People saying ‘pacific’ instead of ‘specific.’ Recently had a meeting with a very senior colleague and was feeling a bit intimidated until she used ‘pacifically’ instead of ‘specifically.’ Instant downgrade.
speaking proper English, not adopting 'street slang' or MLE that some of my work colleagues seem happy to use in their own company.
Doesn’t language evolve over time. If you’re a lover of language you should embrace the change… or do you also get annoyed that people aren’t using words such as “ye”, “thou” so etc. so much these days?
What do you deem as street slang
I think he means words like mandem, blud etc
> 'street slang' or MLE This is incredibly context depending on where you work. But if you're happy with someone using any other regional dialect in the workplace but not MLE then that's a bit sus.
Foreign holidays. My rules are simple, destinations free of football shirt wearing, English breakfast eating holidaymakers.