Dealing with odd balls....

Doesn't matter where I go or what I do I always seem to manage to attract the odd balls. Whether I'm in London, Brighton, Phnom Penh or Lhasa the idiots who've lost their way to their village always seem to find their way to my door. The thing is that I wouldn't normally mind but recently these idiots have become quite devious and cunningly disguise themselves as reasonable people, dare I say even 'normal'.

Usually I can over look the odd strange person. Strange men I can handle, sadly because most of my exes fit into this category. It's the odd female traveller who rather worryingly turns out to resemble the strange character from single white female, who really concerns me.

I have to admit I've not come across the clingy female for quite sometime. In fact not since school. So you can imagine my surprise when I was presented with this species again when I was travelling.

At first she seemed pretty normal. Bit too over friendly perhaps but as I'm trying to stop my judgemental approach I discarded my initial thought. Note to self: always trust your instincts no matter how harsh they may seem.

At first she was great fun, liked a good laugh, on similar page to me or so it seemed. Alarm bells started to ring when she repeatedly said how alike we were....like she was looking into a mirror. Er, okay. I don't think so. She kept talking about how similar we were in attitude and outlook on life. Again, I don't think so. I would nervously laugh when she said this and tried to hide my immediate facial expression which was one of complete horror!

The all to familiar alarm bells started ringing again when she advised me on how touchy feely she was...her words not mine. She admitted her friends found it irritating which obviously begs the question of 'why continue to do it?'. It clearly hadn't occurred to her to stop though...mores the pity. She also banged on about how open she was as she had no problem with calling everyone 'darling' or 'babe'. Sorry, perhaps it's me but calling people 'darling' or 'babe' doesn't equate to being open. It just means you can't be arsed to say their names or worse still, can't remember them.

The next thing I know she's talking about going travelling with me. Now alarm bells are really ringing. I'd known her for 5 mins and she's talking about travelling with me for a few months. NOOOOOOOOOO. Again, I found myself laughing nervously and made a note to self to not mention any future plans.

Then there were the lingering stares. I'd look up from my book and she'd be staring at me. I'd catch her watching me on the bus, at dinner. It was really quite unnerving. Did I have spinach in my teeth? I'm I so odd looking at the moment that I warrant being stared at like one of the monkeys in London Zoo? No. Not at all. In fact I check my teeth meticulously after each meal and last time I looked in the mirror I wasn't looking too bad at all!

I tried to ignore it to start off with but by the end of the trip it got way too much. She really started to irritate me to the point where I couldn't even look at her. The odd squeeze of my leg, stroking my hair, trying to pick a hair off the front of my t-shirt when she could've just told me it was on there where my breast was, standing really close behind me...the list is endless...it just got really irritating to be honest. I have my personal space, please respect that thank you very much.

There was little I could do though as I was travelling with a group plus I didn't want to be horrible. I definitely didn't want to cause a scene. So I kept my mouth shut and got on with it. Don't get me wrong, she didn't ruin my trip. I just had to take a deep breath and ignore her irritating little ways for a few days. Like I said the odd balls always hide their strange ways until their feet are under the table. Then they strike. So it took me a while to see where she was really coming from. Well, 2 days. Plus I could take solace with other members of the group. So it was hardly the end of the world. Just irritating!!

By the end of the trip she was really starting to grate on my nerves. I actually caught her taking a photo of me while I sleeping. I mean really, I can't imagine anyone really wanting a record of me with my mouth open and dribbling but there you go....

Thankfully when we arrived at our last destination before we all went our separate ways. I also managed to bag a triple room with two other girls in the group. I knew this would cause trouble though. So it came as no surprise to me when she gave me the filthiest look and stropped off when I told her I was going to kip in with them. Jeeeeesus I felt like I was back at school again. If only I had the same complexion I told myself at least that would make it slightly better. But sadly no, I didn't have the school girl complexion to boot. I just had to deal with the childish outbursts of a 30 plus female who displayed slightly odd behaviour.

Since the outburst I've been able to keep my distance from her and duck the filthy looks and snide comments. That's the problem when you're travelling - if you come across a nutter you have to be very creative in terms of how you avoid them especially when you're in a small capital. You don't want cause a scene but then again at the same time you have to brace yourself for the next installment of 'how much can I annoy you today'...aren't people great?!