The Ultimate Juxtaposition

Dan133269

Going through Charles De Gaulle airport yesterday I overheard a family of Gaeilgeoiri and thought how incredibly rare that must be in a foreign country, native Irish speakers. I would have said hello in Irish if I wasn't so tired and cranky from travelling.

Made me think what is the most memorable/strangest person/thing you've seen completely in the wrong place?

miamee

I was in Harrods in London at the weekend with a couple of friends...thought it was very strange that there was a memorial to Princess Diana & yer man in the shop with candles burning & a photo of each of them & the engagement ring he had bought for her.
Weird place to have it I thought...my friends didn't think so though :rolleyes:

shane86

Ive never encountered Gaelic speakers in Ireland, enevr mind abroad.


I once seen a homeless, drunk bearded old man dancing around O`Connell Street with a white iPod in the afternoon last winter. Judging by the hand movements and general socks he was giving it it seemed to be dance music God knows where he found the iPod. Honestly, yid think he was in the middle of Godskitchen the moves on him.

beans

miamee wrote:

I was in Harrods in London at the weekend ... there was a memorial to Princess Diana & yer man in the shop ...Weird place to have it I thought...my friends didn't think so though :rolleyes:

Wasn't his Daddy Mr. Harrods though? There's your explaination.

miamee

beans wrote:

Wasn't his Daddy Mr. Harrods though? There's your explaination.

Well duh I know that...but its still a memorial to his beloved son...in a shop. Surely he could find somewhere a bit more dignified than that

exCrumlinBoyo

Some years back I was traveling to Cape Town in South Africa and had just landed in the airport and going through Immigration. I was tried and screwed up with the length of the flight. When I got to the immigration window the guy who seen me was a black South African and his first words to me when she seen my passport was Conas at tu and started firing of questions to me in Irish. I was gob smacked I tell you

Dragan

miamee wrote:

Well duh I know that...but its still a memorial to his beloved son...in a shop. Surely he could find somewhere a bit more dignified than that

Shops don't come more dignified than Harrods.

Archeron

Dragan wrote:

Shops don't come more dignified than Harrods.

I dunno about that, Tommy's world of value in Northside Shopping Centre has a certain charm and dignity I've never found elsewhere.

On topic though, just before Christmas, I found a Fabergé egg in TX Maxx. It looked kind of out of place when you have a rack of last seasons tracksuit bottoms strewn all over the place, and this little solid gold egg on top. (it wasnt solid gold, but it was the initial thought that it was that made it seem a bit surreal)

connundrum

I moved into a new office over Christmas, and when setting up we were given the tour of all the features of the office.. which happened to include a motorised 7' screen, projector and surround sound! I've obviously seen them in conference rooms but never in an office?! Decent quality too

Friday will be known as DVD day from now on

FlutterinBantam

exCrumlinBoyo wrote:

Some years back I was traveling to Cape Town in South Africa and had just landed in the airport and going through Immigration. I was tried and screwed up with the length of the flight. When I got to the immigration window the guy who seen me was a black South African and his first words to me when she seen my passport was Conas at tu and started firing of questions to me in Irish. I was gob smacked I tell you

Fair play!!, whats your first language?

Rb

exCrumlinBoyo wrote:

Some years back I was traveling to Cape Town in South Africa and had just landed in the airport and going through Immigration. I was tried and screwed up with the length of the flight. When I got to the immigration window the guy who seen me was a black South African and his first words to me when she seen my passport was Conas at tu and started firing of questions to me in Irish. I was gob smacked I tell you

Thats pretty cool.

Can't recall seeing anything particularly weird though, once saw a girl playing as hooker of a mens Canadian rugby team (I say mens because it was the mens league, the rest of the team were men etc)...that was pretty odd.

miamee wrote:

Well duh I know that...but its still a memorial to his beloved son...in a shop. Surely he could find somewhere a bit more dignified than that

Ah but its the family business, which the son was an heir to. If it was the anniversary of his (and Diana's) death, personally I would have found it more odd had there been absolutely no memorial/mention of it in Harrods.

monkeyfudge

Archeron wrote:

I dunno about that, Tommy's world of value in Northside Shopping Centre has a certain charm and dignity I've never found elsewhere.

Variety World across the hall FTW!

sceptre

miamee wrote:

Well duh I know that...but its still a memorial to his beloved son...in a shop. Surely he could find somewhere a bit more dignified than that

He couldn't find somewhere more public than that. Dignity may not have entered the equation.

Dave!

sceptre wrote:

He couldn't find somewhere more public than that. Dignity may not have entered the equation.

Could probably have hired a billboard.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

On a beach in St Jean De Luz, jsut south of Biarritz..." Anto, c'mere and get some suncream on...."

me and the biz

Strolling through a Pick N' Pay supermarket Near Cape Town there earlier in the year (was fairly crowded) saw a black guy wearing a Dublin jersey. One of those unofficial ones. Was fairly bizzare and unexpected.

greine

When the family were young we used to go camping in France on holidays and we always spoke Irish among ourselves (would do so at home too), but we were in a restaurant beside a quiet British family, there were nine of us so you can imagine the racket, as we were leaving the father of the British family looked at us in annoyance and said to his family, thank God those Finnish kids are leaving! We cracked up!

Terry

i had one, but all i can think of now is the jingle "the great, great shopping centre"
that or julia roberts and lyle lovett.

faceman

About 10 years ago i was the only paddy travelling with a gang of 15 others from kenya to uganda to see mountain gorillas in bwindi. One of our stop offs was in the parents temporary ugandan home (they're ex-pats) of one of the english lads on the trip.

we put up our tents in the their garden in uganda's capital, kampala. his folks had some refreshments for us in their kitchen (tea and cake!) and my jaw nearly hit the floor when his parents (the da oddly looking like freddie mercury) were speaking fluent irish to each other! Couldnt believe it, as big as the world is!

Turns out that their son was born in the uk, but they were from the West of ireland and love the irish language. Small world as they say.

tallaght01

faceman wrote:

About 10 years ago i was the only paddy travelling with a gang of 15 others from kenya to uganda to see mountain gorillas in bwindi. One of our stop offs was in the parents temporary ugandan home (they're ex-pats) of one of the english lads on the trip.

we put up our tents in the their garden in uganda's capital, kampala. his folks had some refreshments for us in their kitchen (tea and cake!) and my jaw nearly hit the floor when his parents (the da oddly looking like freddie mercury) were speaking fluent irish to each other! Couldnt believe it, as big as the world is!

Turns out that their son was born in the uk, but they were from the West of ireland and love the irish language. Small world as they say.

That's a ****e story, ya durtburd :P

mawk

in san fransisco last summer. im sat on the train going home from work, im wearing my work uniform and not looking like a tourist, these two guys walk up and sit opposite me. one looks at me funny and turn to the other guy and starts tring to slag me off in irsh assuming im an american and dont understand.

i pretended not to understand for the whole ride as they fumbled their way through a load of **** junior cert irish attempts at making fun of me while i read a book. got to my stop and i was like gabh mo lesh sceal a chardi, sé mo stpoa, slán! or something. they looked like someone just slapped them. best train ride ever.

Red Hand

Dan133269 wrote:

Going through Charles De Gaulle airport yesterday I overheard a family of Gaeilgeoiri and thought how incredibly rare that must be in a foreign country, native Irish speakers. I would have said hello in Irish if I wasn't so tired and cranky from travelling.

Made me think what is the most memorable/strangest person/thing you've seen completely in the wrong place?

Well, I saw some Gaelgeori in Cork city one Sunday evening in the summmer, just strolling along and chatting like normal people as Gaelige (there is nothing "normal" about Gaelgeori!:D )

The Alpha male of this herd of four was wearing tweed and was bearded with long brown hair swept back off his brow like some 19th centuary thespian, suggesting he was the paterfamilias of this group. One of the women was wearing a shawl across her shoulders. I cannot remember what the other two women were wearing. Soomething bland, no doubt.

Methinks that they were let out of their holding pen in UCD for the day. In fact, I think recognised the bearded man as being a lecturer/researcher from that Uni.:)

I thought it was pretty unusual and I would've photographed them if I had had a camera.

ChRoMe

Anyone who has spent time on the Kao San Road in Bangkok I'm pretty sure will have come across a young kid 10-12 years old who goes around selling sweets. He's a good laugh and will ask you where you are from. I was with a french girl and a swedish girl. He asked the girls first and when hearing france and sweden was able to speak a few words of both of the languages. When he went to ask me I was thinking to myself that no way will he be able to do the same in irish.
But sure enough he had more Irish than he did french or swedish. I had no interest in what he was selling but bough a load of the sweets anyway I was so impressed that he knew his trade. He also has a innocent scam where for something like a bet of 20 baht will challenge you to a thumb war. I dont know how a kid with such small hands and I presume strenght managed it but before I could blink my thumb was pressed down.

A few nights later on the same street I heard someone shouting my name and it turned out to be someone I went to school with about 8 years previously. Maybe thats not so impressive as Kao San is the place where most if not all backpackers stay in Bangkok.

Heh after years of not posting done about 7 or so tonight.

MrJoeSoap

Got into a tuk-tuk in Bangkok and the guy goes "Where you going? Its a long way to Tipperary!" before later giving me his mobile phone to ring Ireland for free. The guy was clearly a legend of the highest order.

MrJoeSoap

ChRoMe wrote:

Anyone who has spent time on the Kao San Road in Bangkok I'm pretty sure will have come across a young kid 10-12 years old who goes around selling sweets. He's a good laugh and will ask you where you are from. I was with a french girl and a swedish girl. He asked the girls first and when hearing france and sweden was able to speak a few words of both of the languages. When he went to ask me I was thinking to myself that no way will he be able to do the same in irish.
But sure enough he had more Irish than he did french or swedish. I had no interest in what he was selling but bough a load of the sweets anyway I was so impressed that he knew his trade. He also has a innocent scam where for something like a bet of 20 baht will challenge you to a thumb war. I dont know how a kid with such small hands and I presume strenght managed it but before I could blink my thumb was pressed down.

A few nights later on the same street I heard someone shouting my name and it turned out to be someone I went to school with about 8 years previously. Maybe thats not so impressive as Kao San is the place where most if not all backpackers stay in Bangkok.

Heh after years of not posting done about 7 or so tonight.

Ah the Koh San Road, all the weird things that happen there just feel so normal somehow! Love that place so much!