h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Blimey, LHG *and* Parrfers This is more joy than a Gosho can take. I may faint dead away! Yes, yes I think I will *Faints* ::THUD:: ©®

Told you

Reminds me of a friend I had from Glasgow, I knew him for years, as each year, a few times, he'd go stay in a hotel, the bar of which we regularly used. Over many years, we met him, and talked. I never understood a single word he said... ever... He was perminantly drunk, which probably didn't help, but he seemed nice enough... I often wonder what it was we actually talked to him about... as the conversation was a bit one sided... He'd 'say' stuff... we'd sort of nod, say 'eh he', and 'yes', 'right', and 'OK', etc... It sort of seemed to make sense at teh time...

Mind, it was that* sort of bar, where things in it, always seemd to make sense, at the time... in teh bar, but didn't ever really make any kind of sense afterwards, or 'outside' the bar... There was 'lurch', the barman... and before him Dan the man, and Sam the man, Dan the man was a fisherman... SAm was a DJ, or chef, yeh, both I think... then there was the bloke in lycra... he was almost odd, even for that bar... then there was the time we got held up at gun point... only there wasn't a gun... but the boys in blue, with firearms were called out... that was an almost odd evening by the starndards of the bar.... then there was the Karaikoi cowboy... he was a cowboy..l on a bike, and sang on kariaki night then there was steady eddie, but he actually could* sing... and before them, there was the other* lot who used to go there... and others beside... They closed it... and turned it into a pharmacy... which always seemed a strange... thing... Lurch is meant to still be trapped inside, according to local rumour...
Anyhow, then we never saw the Glasgow guy again, or his freaky weird strange companion... We think* they were both Ex-army... but it was hard to tell as we didn't understand a word they said...

err. which... was... nope... sorry I've no idea where that was going at all

Funny you should mention conversations with bus drivers, Parrfers. I was on the last bus home Thursday night and by the time it got to my stop I was the last person on it. I'd seen the driver many times before but never said more than hello, or thank you to him. That's not something that happens much on London Transport.

Any road up. As I'm getting off he says to me "You're English aren't you?" Yes, I replied, and then we had a ten-minute discussion, while the bus was idling at the stop, on the merits of Mike Leigh films all because he'd recently seen Happy Go Lucky (which I haven't), and we delved into other works by Mike Leigh such High Hopes, Vera Drake, Sex and Lies, and Naked

Funny you should say that...
In London last september for the first time this millenia and I was surprised at the number of strangers I got into conversations with.
Bus stops, Train stations, even elevators...sorry, Lifts.

My sister gave a one-word explanation : "Olympics"

Apparently, hosting the Games and especially the Paralympics had given rise to a surge in chattiness amongst the residents of the Boroughs, everybody being jolly pleased with the way things had gone despite what Mitt Romney said would happen.

Perhaps this effect was not confined to London and has indeed spread out as far as Last Bustop-in-the-marsh or wherever it is you live.

I hope it continues, the whole planet could do with us being a bit more sociable.

alec.

Last Bustop-in-the-marsh With your permission I may well use that at various and sundry times, even though I'm a long way from the end of the line. I believe I'm considered south central in estate agent speak. Probably why my bloody rent has gone through the roof these past few years

One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Austin was that people actually say hello and goodbye (or thank you) to the bus driver. I wasn't used to that at all but now I couldn't imagine not doing it. Probably get kicked off for being the bus nutter if I did it on a number 25 to Victoria People also have conversations with the driver, as he or she is driving, which I sometimes find a little unnerving giving that more than a few of them seem to be lacking in concentration. I'd say it's about once a week that a driver goes sailing straight past the stop and has to slam the anchors on after I (or someone else) has rung the bell to get off.

People converse at the supermarket checkout too. That was pretty rare when I used to shop at Sainsburys.

I think it is the internet that has increased the global chattiness in lines and queues and etc etc
Popping into a conversation, like I am doing here, is pretty common on the internet
and people are getting used to it and without thinking actually partaking in similar behaviour in "Real Life."

I think it is Wonderful

but you still need to know when to draw the line
or is it "where"?

Not entirely original on my part Gosho.
Much Binding-in-the-Marsh was an old Kenneth Horne/Richard Murdoch radio show about an unimportant RAF base a long way from Central Command.
Found a sample episode here :
http://www.otrcat.com/much-binding-in-the-marsh-p-1635.html

alec.

Last bus-stop in the Marsh was the village where I was born! well... just about

There is, or at least seems to be, a sure-fire way to increase peoples chattyness to one... Wearing hats... seriously... People tend to comment on it, and then conversation can ensue ... I mean like proper hats... Bowler or trilby most useually
Having said which, Its been a long while since I had a random conversation with someone on a bus, or a train If anything used to get it more often in the late 90's and early 00's Or maybe I just use trains and buses less than I once did Or... people don't want to talk to me... and are avoiding me.. yeh... I@ve turned into the bus nutter haven't i? Someone shoudl have told me

Yep, I know of Much Binding, Alex. Kenneth Horne and Stinker Murdoch if I remember rightly. I never heard it, far too young but I've heard mention of it and excerpts over the years on the wireless. And I've seen some old Frost on Sunday shows from the early 70s where they got Murdoch to team up with Sam Costa (Horne was dead by then ) to sing the theme tune (tiddle-im-pom-pom) and insert some topical content from the week's news.

I have to say, although the team of writers on the Frost shows was quite stellar (Barry Cryer, Esmond and Larbey, Davod Nobbs, Dick Vosburgh, Neil Shand and others) some of the jokes were just bloody awful.

It's quite unusual to take a bus journey here *without* someone talking to you, and it's often that person who you least want to talk to you - the person who talks just for for the sake of talking The person who has little of any conversational worth to say but somehow manages to keep saying stuff anyway.

I have a cunning plan though I don't have an mp3 player but I do have a pair of earbuds, and I'll sometimes put them in my ears and tuck the jack plug into my shirt pocket to make it look as if I'm listening to something. They'll usually leave you alone when you do that

Maybe I should just get an mp3 player and start listening to In Our Time

I heard an episode of Much Binding on Radio 4 Extra very recently.

I have to say that saying thanks to the bus driver is pretty normal here, but then I'm not an urban sophisticate like you, Goshers!
Something rather less usual that does happen quite often on the number 93, my regular conveyance, is the driver getting a spontaneous round of applause from those passengers new to the route. Anyone familiar with the A379 (possibly the least-appropriately classified A-road in England) will understand that the service is a two-and-a-half hour masterclass in creative double-decker driving.

Ho yus, I'm very sfisticated doncha know Specially after a couple of jars of the local firewater

I always say thank you to bus drivers, checkout peeps etc

One of my favorite games is trying to get the grumpy stressed looking ones to smile!

I like to play that* game on teh underground.... but, apparently smiling wildly as I do at people on teh tube, doesn't always get a smile in return, it does rather just tend to make them move away very slowely into the next compartment/carage

Me too. Nice having a carriage to yourself isn't it

Hoh yus!

I recall one epic early afternoon, with Roymondo and I, still half hungover, still half drunk, bounding through the tube, in search of breakfast.... well, beer... and we saw all these unhappy, sad looking people, on the tube... so we kept telling them to 'cheer up', and 'stay happy', and even gave them a few bursts of a couple of old war tunes/song.... can't quite recall which ones though We managed to really annoy everyone, on the tube that day... they really did all look so misserable though we ended up with the carage to ourselfs, a couple of times, that day

So it is true - I do know the people on the tubes