People Watching

[barry1010]

Can someone explain this to me because I just don't understand it.
Some people like to sit outside pubs and cafes and 'people watch' whilst enjoying their drinks.

Are they judging the people passing by, rating them out of 10 for fashion sense, chubbiness? Laughing at people who seem different?

I love to sit at a busy harbour watching the birds (feathered variety), the boats and those doing water sports. I could sit there for hours taking in the sights and sounds, so very different from my home. But watching strangers walking by? No.

[Bazile]

Isn't it fun then, wondering who have they come as today ?

[jackthehat]

If you don't understand it, then there really isn't any meaningful way I can explain it to you.

It's something I have always done and get plenty of opportunities to do oop here on sunny days.
I also like to construct their meals from the contents of the baskets of the shoppers ahead of me.... :o)

[Mamyalynne]

People watching can take many forms, it can serve to feed the imagination as demonstrated by writers like Alan Bennett - 'is that couple married?', 'to each other?' or 'a clandestine affair ?'for example.

If you add in snippets of overheard conversations then you get more material, as demonstrated by someone like Victoria Wood.

Of course you don't need to be gathering material for fiction but just keeping your imagination alive.

[The Builder]

In some of the country pubs that I go to in my area, there's a popular pastime known as “nookie-watch.”
Being a few miles out of the city, they're often used for anonymous dallying.

A couple sits quietly in the corner.
If they lean back without eye-contact or conversation, they're obviously married.
If they lean in, smile a lot, being a tad over-attentive, then they're on a date.
If he has a clean shirt, then it's a first date.
If they appear a little over-excited and constantly look at their phones, then they are with someone else's husband/wife.

[bookbinder]

https://www.wikihow.com/Begin-People-Watching

[barry1010]

Thanks for explaining but it's not something I could do.

[Canary42]

So, if we want Barry to watch us, we need to indulge in water sports ;-)

[theprof]

On the UK canal network, the archaic word Gongoozler is used by those on narrowboats to describe idle and inquisitive people who stand near locks and on the towpaths standing and staring.

It seems to have originated from canal workers' slang many years ago.

[bookbinder]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongoozler

[Mamyalynne]

I see it purely as an extension of the age old term 'watching the World go by' - like lying on the lawn in the sun as a child and wondering who the people were on the planes going overhead.

Were they going somewhere nice or were they sad to be leaving.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Barry -I'm intrigued as to what you do sitting at a kerbside cafe? Stare at the ground, read the paper?

I people watch all the time: Look at the state of that........oh he/she looks smart.........how can she be that slim and eat a pastie that size......all sorts of comments and observations to be made.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Mamy I still do that lol! Our farm is on the air route to places like Ibiza and Majorca, and I think North America too. The planes are very high up but you can still see them -its been very quiet for the last year though.

[Prudie]

It's something I've always done, mainly on holiday abroad and there is nothing malicious in it. It happens naturally rather than something I've developed and my opinions are as much in admiration as they are negative. I particularly like to look at women's shoes or outfits, often in envy but equally to wonder what they were thinking when they bought that dress or chose to wear that today! I find myself doing it without meaning to.

[Mamyalynne]

Yes, we'd lie making daisy chains and guessing what they were planning on their journey, humans are naturally curious and equally inventive.

Thank goodness.

[MartinMillar]

I think people watching is a good and bad thing, it’s fine as long as your not saying‘Jesus look at the *** on that’

[barry1010]

I'm a gongoozler and that is the name of a canalside coffee bar near me. When I go to a cafe for a coffee it takes but a few minutes to drink it, I don't hang about.
I can spend hours leaning on a field gate or sitting canalside or under a tree in the countryside. Not if I'm surrounded by people, though

[piggynose]

I always thought people watching seemed a tad sinister.
Mind you i have had my fair share of watching the fair sex sunning themselves on the beach.

[Barsel]

If I'm walking about then I never noticed anyone, even people I know.
If I'm sitting idle somewhere then yes, I do look at people and think things about them and if I'm with someone else, would probably discuss some people.
I'm sure if I saw someone very eccentrically dressed, I would probably say something like, Oh my goodness or Oh dear.
The builder seems to have got it all sussed out. :-)

[Barsel]

naughty little piggy!

[barry1010]

I very rarely go to coffee shops or cafes, I really cannot tolerate the noise of the coffee machines or the scraping of chairs on the wooden floor. I'd rather buy a bottle of water