Hi
I've experienced this too. I'm also in the UK. Usually, it's teenagers loitering, clearly with nothing better to do. It does make me feel quite paranoid. I used to think that if people are in company, they wouldn't notice other people but it seems odd when they still decide to stare and smirk at people who are just going about their business, almost intentionally trying to unnerve them.
I also try to avoid going in to town now and really dislike going in to shops if I'm by myself. I don't know if anyone else has experienced anything similar but recently I've had quite a few bad experiences in shops, which have almost put me off shopping altogether. I had a couple of Sales assistants put me down when I asked a simple question. Both of them were quite rude and seemed to want to belittle me. They were both women and were quite a bit older than me, which seems to be a recurring theme, as I've had this before but not usually with people of a similar age to myself. I also had an experience where I walked into a restaurant with a friend and I was standing in front of her but the waitress came over and completely blanked me and spoke to her. That annoyed me, so I spoke up and told her what we wanted but that has happened to me a few times. Sorry if I'm rambling but it's a bit of a bugbear of mine at the moment and it would really good to know if anyone else has experienced something similar.
