Couch chat with Charms

We recently ran a story listing the top 30 things which frustrate South Africans.

Boy, we’re a high-strung bunch aren’t we?

Reading through the information supplied, I was surprised at just how many of the annoyances I could related with.

Now, at most times I do consider myself a fairly patient person, that is until I’m sworn at by a taxi driver for not immediately zooming off when the traffic light turns green.

So, I sat there and ticked them off, one at a time.

Surprising, I found I related to most of them, in fact, just reading them sent waves of frustration through my blood.

Taxis, queue jumpers, load shedding, laziness, pop up adverts, yes, check, those are pretty annoying.

And, I felt I could add to the list.

How about, unfriendly staff at stores or pedestrians, who move at the pace of the iceberg which took out the Titanic, when crossing roads?

Ill-mannered children, yes those little horrors who scream, shout and talk back to their parents in the shops while the parents stand there red-faced before giving in to the demands of their three-year-old. Your child is three! What’s it going to be like when it hits puberty?

Those groups of girls who sit in a restaurant and snap away at 600 selfies per minute, all while pulling off 100 of the world’s most uncomfortable poses.

Getting an e-mail written in SMS language and then deciphering said e-mail for 45 minutes before coming to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t that important and sending it straight to the deleted folder.

Maybe a little patience goes along way, I thought.

And so began my patience trial.

On the first day I managed to make it all the way to 9.47am, when while on the way to a meeting, I was nearly t-boned by a Sandton 4×4.

The female driver looked up from her cellular phone just in time to see the stop sign she had just skipped.

Day two went slightly better. By noon, I had managed to hold onto my patience and I was impressed, then the call centre agent happened.

“No thank you, I’m not interested in taking out funeral cover, I already have cover,” I said politely.

I was shocked when the agent became argumentative before slamming the phone down.

Argh! and I was so close to completing a day of patience.

When on the third day of my trial, I hit morning mom traffic, which by the way ranks somewhere between taxis and loadshedding in my books; it brought my little test to an abrupt end.

In a perfect world, taxis would abide by the road rules, we would get the services we pay for and everyone would walk around smiling.

How much fun would that really be? We would have no complaints, no stress, no frustrations and no way of comparing one day to the next.

Ultimately, we could all do with a little less stress and frustration in our lives.

But, take them away completely? I don’t think we would know what to do.

Bring on the morning and afternoon commute and throw in a few unpleasant experiences, that’s what makes living in Gauteng a new adventure each day.