Some people just really annoy me...

Was walking Eddie this morning. Because he has been so tired lately and not motivated for much of a walk, recent morning walks have just been on the pavement rather than his usual park run with toys. So, today we head up the street and walk through the cut that leads from our street to Long Nuke Road from where we intend to head to the small rec ground.

Half way through the cut, Eddie stops to sniff. A woman walking past tells me that he is not allowed to poo there. I look at Eddie who is still sniffing. He is standing on all four legs, he is not cocking his leg nor is he squatting. He is just sniffing. I tell her that he is not pooing and even if he did it is a) not against the law and b) would be picked up afterwards in full concordance with the law. She repeats that he is not allowed to poo in the cut, he has to do it out on the street because 'kids play there'. I point out that the cut is a public path, maintained by the local council, and not her own personal property over which she has any jurisdiction. I also point out that kids play in the street as well, where it is (according to her) perfectly ok for him to poo.

Remember, at this point, Eddie is not even looking like he is about to poo or even pee. He is just standing, sniffing at a hedge. He does this sometimes, just appreciates the greenery without considering anything pertaining to the toilet.

She maintains that it is 'filthy' and is not allowed and I should not let him stop in the cut because he will poo and I won't pick it up. This is in defiance of all the evidence that

a) there is no law to say he is not allowed to poo there so long as I pick it up
b) she has no legal jurisdiction over the area in question as it is not her proprty (and if it were her property, I would ask her to do something about the overgrown hedges that are currently almost blocking it and also the litter...)
c) Eddie is not in anyway looking like he is ever going to even think about pooing there (he never has - he usually prefers nice, clean grass which is soft and comfortable to squat over)
d) In all my years of living in this street, I have never seen a kid playing in that cut. Most of them play in the rec ground or on the street.

I asked her to apologise for her accusations of filthiness, which she refused to do. I gave her a large piece of my mind regarding the ludicrousness of her logical argument which she continued to ignore, maintaining her position vehemently.

And did I point out here that she had no reason to complain about him pooing in the cut because he was not doing so and never has done in the past?

Feeling really annoyed now....

And another one....

Just had a phone call from a 'no claim no fee' so called law firm. They don't tell me who they are calling from until I ask. I tell them that we are on the telephone preference list and therefore should not get any cold calls for sales purposes. I ask them to remove us from their contact list and never call again.

Instead of the usual reponse this gets, which is a polite apology and hanging up, he claims that this is not a cold call nor a sales call. Instead he is 'trying to help people by letting them make personal injury claims'.

Hmmm, so let me see if I have this right...

Calling someone in the middle of lunchtime who has had no prior contact with your company in the past nor even expressed any form of interest in the service you offer through any means is apparently not a cold call? Odd definition.

And, calling someone in order to offer them a service which ultimately will profit your company is not a 'sales call'.

Ok, the definition of the latter may be open to interpretation (the person you call may not be paying directly...) but it is the sort of interpretation and weasly rules lawyering that annoys the hell out of me.

In the end I had to resort to threatening him with the legal omsbudsman if they rang again and hanging up in order to stop him repeatingly trying to justify why he was able to call us because it was not a 'cold call'.

I wonder if it is possible to change the tone that people who ring you listen to while waiting for you to answer the phone to a message which says 'unless you are a friend or a company with a legitimate reason to call due to our prior dealings with you please fuck off and leave us alone. We never deal with companies who call us on the phone or knock on our door. If we want your service, we will contact you when we need it.'

Is it national fuckwit day today or something?

I may have to join a religion so that I can make a complaint to god about the way the universe is working at the moment...