Followers
You know. The ones who follow you to continue the conversation even as you're backing away from them. The ones who have no sense of personal space or indeed, of your aversion to the conversation, who cannot read faces or hear a tone of voice.

I work with a few of them, and as a science teacher with a chatty technician, I have to be intensely rude to him just to get him to understand that I really do need to get back to the class of 30 sub-hominid howling hormone bags that I've left while I do some emergency photocopying, and don't have time to talk about the solar panel system on his leaky houseboat.

I used to live with a guy who had the same problem. He once followed me into the toilet to continue his conversation. Into the toilet. I had to push him out of the door and shut it in his face before he stopped talking. And he still got the last word THROUGH the door after I'd shut it.

Sometimes this happens with a random person in a pub. You have a short conversation at the bar, based around your lack of quick service, or the barman's difficulty with the correct change, or the recommended pint of beer. Before you know it they've sat down at your table and are regaling you with tales of their latest hobby or their new pet, or both, or sometimes their kids. In which case my question is how did they ever retain the self-awareness to shut up long enough to have sex with someone? Or did they just follow someone into the bedroom and bore them to a state of unhappy resignation?

I hasten to add these are perfectly intelligent people. They just have no concept of shutting the goddamn fuck up.
(cypherspace is not a toaster, Thu 4 Oct 2012, 22:49, 4 replies)

^this I totally agree with
I also have a colleague who doesn't understand when to shut the fuck up. I'm too polite I've realised. On Monday she spoke to me for 45 mins about the penguins in Lanzarote zoo.
( herd of chickens First part only £1.99 and comes with a free, Thu 4 Oct 2012, 23:01, closed)

tl;dr

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Thu 4 Oct 2012, 23:03, closed)

this is why I have a fear of going on a cut price cruise holiday
That kind of person and nowhere to escape.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 5 Oct 2012, 0:08, closed)

Oh yes
I once got on a coach to find that the only free seat was next to a rather pretty blonde girl. Result, I thought.

No.

After about an hour of non-stop stream-of-consciousness in-depth description of her entire life story and ex-boyfriend problems, and about half an hour of futile attempts to disengage, I decided to simply put in my earphones and pretend to be asleep.

Bitch just carried on talking! For the entire 10-hour journey!
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 5 Oct 2012, 15:35, closed)