by Ruth Woodhouse

Created on: October 21, 2007   Last Updated: December 31, 2007

I expect most of us have a number of things that get on our nerves. In fact many of them may be quite trivial - but as an excellent proverb I remember reading years ago says, it's not the mountain ahead that wears a person down but the grain of sand in their shoe! I am listing here a lot of the big and small things that "get on my goat" as my mother would have put it. On the whole I'm actually a pretty agreeable person and I don't want to sound like a whinger in this article. There are many good things I appreciate in life and in order to balance things out, I intend to do another article with a long list of many positive things I value too!

Anyway, here's my list of peeves. Some matter more than others. I've included a few small pet peeves for a laugh - I'm sure there are others who will relate to them.

STUPID TV COMMERCIALS

It really annoys me big time when I'm subjected to shallow advertising where some "dolly-on-a-stick" is going on about how mortifying and unfair it is to find wrinkles and lines that weren't there yesterday, blah blah blah! These ads are so dramatic and shallow - especially considering the truly heartbreaking issues people countless people like me face daily. There is one commercial where the actress says, "You know what's so unfair?" and then goes on to talk about such woes as I've mentioned here. I can't help but respond by saying, "Come and spend some time with a little girl who can't even walk, run, play, talk, laugh, eat or do any of the things other kids can do - then you'll know what's really unfair!"

Many ads about vanity issues like that irritate me. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against advertising beauty products, etc - it's the way they rave on that I find irksome.

OUTRAGEOUS BANK FEES

When I was a kid banks provided genuine service. They seemed satisfied with the profits they made without charging people fees for everything they did for them. These days they just seem to look for every way they can add to their already massive profits by hitting the average bank account holder with fees for everything imaginable. In fact, the people who can least afford to pay such fees probably cop the most. What's more, if you complain they will send out a fat booklet outlining all their fees - for you to read in your abundant spare time. Don't worry about the environmental cost of all these booklets that are being sent out - or the cost to the bank of producing them and mailing them - which could be saved so that they might charge us less

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