If some of you haven’t heard the term ‘pet hate’, it simply means “a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as being particularly annoying to them, normally to a greater degree than others may find it”. It can start off quite light‐heartedly like people being late or hairy ears, those can be a pet hates or it can be: Walking down the street and people just randomly shoving past you and actually looking back at you without apologising; screaming children in need from their ignorant mothers who are just gassing off in the street to their “friend” who they spoken to about five times a year; people biting their nails on the train right in front of you and they do it right down to their cuticles; sub species of humans called ‘Chavs’; morbidly obese people eating McDonalds; people holding cutlery like cave‐men; people standing and chatting in the doorway… Okay, the list goes on for what I have found are peoples pet hates and trust me there is oh so much. (No offence if your one of the above but sorry to say, you are considered a pet hate). There is so much you can find about how tolerant some people are. I even found someone’s pet hate to be “summer”. Summer?! Personally my favourite season of the year, but everyone is different I suppose. The pet hate that stems off of summer which more people can relate to would probably most likely be peoples odor around that time of year. There is nothing worse than being stuck to some smelly bastard who absolutely stonks, and it just happens to be around 6pm on the underground tube… yes, I would rather be covered in maggots and leeches than bare the smell of that wretched human. Dis‐gus‐ting. Anyway. You can get really carried away (as you can tell) once you start listing all the things that constantly piss you off. You start to sound like some right grumpy old human when you really aren’t.

What makes us so intolerable though? I heard somewhere that the heat can actually make a person violent due to something stimulating more angry cells in the brain or something or other. I don’t know the exact facts but just Google it. Point is, there must be something that triggers us to instantly make our blood boil and ruin our day. Me myself would like to think was; polite, happy‐go‐lucky, charming, blah blah blah, but even I have that side to me where I could murder someone. As soon as that stranger whom I shall never see or speak to again (I hope) pisses me off with that major constant annoyance ‐ do I instantly want to kill that person. Don’t worry, I do control myself and am not some crazy lunatic murderer. It’s just inside rage. I just can’t help it. Like road rage, swearing instantly becomes your new soul mate... I don’t even want to get started on bad drivers. A friend of mine absolutely detests hiccupping. I know right. That I find rather amusing as when I sit there and my first hiccup makes an entrance; he simply gives me ‘that look’. Second hiccup he politely says, “Okay can you hold your breath for like 10mins” in monotone, and Thirdly “CAN YOU JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP?!”

I found another one where someone hates that whistling sound people make out of their nose when they breath. That is a brilliant one. Makes me laugh every time I think about that type of person I have come across before. Don’t you just also hate it when it is human peak time in the underground and you see about 11 people trying their best to squeeze every molecule of their body onto that tube train, and sometimes it is that somebody’s head that always gets caught in‐between the door and they look so pissed off because people cant move up anymore. But hello?! You only have yourself to blame love. The next train is in like one minute and you prefer to look like a complete pratt just to get to your destination one minute earlier!? Oh god. It’s ridiculous. Well I hope you get the main idea anyway. What a great way to let it all out. Rant about the things that piss you off. So c’mon. Get it all off your chest and spill the bean sprouts. Enlighten the readers and tell us: What are your pet hates?

Written by Cathy Clavero-Prescott

Illustration by Johoro