What did I do?
So far I’ve had a variety of suggestions, and so far I can confirm that each and every single one of them skipped through my mind.
I could ask him politely and hope he, with a certain amount of embarassment, would take his feet off the seat and apologise for his behaviour.
I could have taken a more aggressive stance in the hope that he would back down. The proximity and position of his knees were the reason behind this thought. Some downward pressure would be all that is required to ‘make my point’.
I could have moved seats, I could have just ignored him.
However I, like some of you, presumed the ticket inspector would’ve mentioned something.
But she didn’t.
And the really annoying thing is that, after that, I didn’t feel I had much choice. If SHE wasn’t going to at least try and ask him to move his feet then he already has an argument to say that “well, she wasn’t bothered”.
So I spent the rest of the journey both quietly fuming and wondering why it was that I felt angry and weak and disillusioned. And for me, that’s the crux of the matter.
HIS actions, and his aggressive nature, both made me stop and wonder what his reaction would be. I decided, through fear, to take the non-confrontational route. Yet that annoyed me too. A double-whammy of disrespect and inconsideration coupled with a knock-on of making me feel … inadequate? Wrong? No, neither of those. All I know is that I end up angry and aggrieved and he probably never even knew, or cared, that his actions were having an effect on someone else.
THAT’S the kind of inconsideration I loathe.
And yes, next time I’m just gonna jump on his kneecaps.