Spatial awareness (or lack thereof)

Two rather annoying forms of this disrupted my life today. Firstly, the -quite frankly- ridiculously small size of the pair of trousers I decided to wear. They made even most docile and simple, yet somehow (as I discovered) essential movements, near enough impossible, unless I was prepared to give innocent passers-by an untoward and frankly inappropriate view of my behind. The material of said trousers, is somewhere in-between a pair of leggings, jeans, tights and bin-bag. Awfully tight, awfully shiny, and really, I have to admit, a size too small. You can imagine how these things do not bode well for a day of vigorous walking in the cold. This, I take full responsibility for. My second complaint, however, I shall not. I’m sure you have all entered a gym changing room at some point in your life (if not, I am sure you can picture it, at the very least). There are over two hundred lockers in the female changing rooms at the gym I attend, and PLENTY of space to cater for everyone. So why, I am forced to ask, do fellow gym users insist on changing RIGHT NEXT TO ME? This is not the first time this has happened. Frequently there are at least two whole benches (big enough even for the larger members of the gym) completely free, yet, for example, today I returned from the showers to find someone had put their belongings right next to my gym bag, so extremely close that firstly I questioned if it was in fact where I had been changing at all. When I had established that they WERE my possessions, and my new friend was practically changing IN my gym bag, I was forced to shuffle down the bench. To me, there is no logic in this. On entering the changing rooms, I immediately cast my eye over the room, locate as quickly as possible the emptiest space, furthest away from anyone else, and get changed as fast as humanly possible. I do not walk into the changing room, locate the nearest bag, and start removing my clothes/modesty RIGHT NEXT TO IT. Yesterday, someone was so close to my bag that her things didn’t even fit next to mine and she ended up leaving a bag on the floor at the end of the bench. Might I just point out that, unsurprisingly, there were vast, unoccupied quantities of bench on the other side of me. I’ll let you know when I discover why changing next to me is so appealing…