Small Talk or Silence

hightower1 · 19-01-2011 04:07PM

OisinT wrote: »

With taxi men I just lie most of the time. I'll say stuff here and there, but they always ask what I do for a living. If I tell them the truth it's non-stop lol.
I just make something up on the spot.

Taximan: So what do you do for a livin?
OisinT: I,...... ehhh, .... ehhh.... drive taxis! ...... s**t

PeterIanStaker · 19-01-2011 04:15PM

I got a haircut today, and the small talk with the barber, a guy about my age was inoffensive and normal. I dont really like making small talk with some taxi drivers though, they can be tedious sometimes, - no offence to any taxi men:)

homerun_homer · 19-01-2011 04:27PM

I hate small talk. I like comfortable silences but if I'm always making the effort with a person then I'll sit happily in silence and leave it up to them.

19-01-2011 04:27PM

I don't make small talk unless they start up first, that's ok.
Usually in a taxi it's
driver: where are you from
me: dublin...

driver: oh you sound foreign

No I don't, go away!

xoxyx · 19-01-2011 04:33PM

My taxi driver yesterday:

Driver: See you said you live in Christchurch, but you don't.
Me: Um - I do. That's where my post gets posted to.
Driver: Yeah, but it's not really Christchurch is it.
Me: Well I don't live in the actual church if that's what you mean?

He spent the whole journey telling me I don't live where I live. Now I'm confused and I can't find my way home anymore.

:(:(

FreudianSlippers · 19-01-2011 04:52PM

xoxyx wrote: »

My taxi driver yesterday:

Driver: See you said you live in Christchurch, but you don't.
Me: Um - I do. That's where my post gets posted to.
Driver: Yeah, but it's not really Christchurch is it.
Me: Well I don't live in the actual church if that's what you mean?

He spent the whole journey telling me I don't live where I live. Now I'm confused and I can't find my way home anymore. :(:(

What he was really trying to say is that you live in the Liberties!

Dyr · 19-01-2011 05:02PM

I have a good ole chinwag if he wants. If I leave me phone/wallet/keys in a taxi I want the driver to be inclined to do me a good turn.

xoxyx · 19-01-2011 05:05PM

I've had the foreign thing too.

Driver: So, where ya from?
Me: Dublin.
Driver: Really? You sure?

Don't give them an inch. I swear to God if you take your eye off the ball for a second they'll turn you into a Russian living in Kerry or something.

Gottalovegreys · 19-01-2011 05:10PM

Silence all the way, especially in the hairdressers. What I learned at the hairdressers is this: its fairly hard to hear people talking sometimes, so you rely on looking at the hairdresser in the mirror.

But I wear glasses and am almost blind without them, so whenever a hairdresser tried to speak to me I couldn't hear them because I couldn't see them!

So now.

krudler · 19-01-2011 05:11PM

prefer silence, dont mind a bit of banter from taxi drivers and i never, ever ask them if they'er busy, its a saturday, they probably are, and I dont care either way. I had to laugh at the shared cab I got one night where a woman asked if he was bust and he said if one more person asked him that he was gonna drive the cab into a river

there is one cab driver i've gotten a few times that bugs the sh1t out of me, always playing rebel songs in his car stereo, but the rank he works at is the closest to the pub we frequent the most, typical "they took ur jerbs" taxi driver, blaring the Wolfe Tones out of his speakers as hes going on about how foreigners ruined the country.

admiralofthefleet · 19-01-2011 05:20PM

OisinT wrote: »

I usually prefer silence. I actually switched barbers because my guy wouldn't stop talking about sports etc.

My new guy is much better and I actually get on with him. Bit of a chat, how's it going etc. then silence. He doesn't feel the need to ramble on the entire time.

With taxi men I just lie most of the time. I'll say stuff here and there, but they always ask what I do for a living. If I tell them the truth it's non-stop lol.
I just make something up on the spot.

tell them your a tax inspector next time and keep looking at the plate and badge.
that will scare the shite out of them

AnonoBoy · 19-01-2011 05:22PM

Bambi wrote: »

I have a good ole chinwag if he wants. If I leave me phone/wallet/keys in a taxi I want the driver to be inclined to do me a good turn.

I just remember to take my stuff with me.

stovelid · 19-01-2011 05:27PM

I'm a sociable person and I'm also not 15 years-old so unless I'm overly tired or hungover, it doesn't plunge me into massive existential agony to exchange a few social niceties - however trivial - with the person cutting my hair or driving my taxi.

Red Hand · 19-01-2011 05:30PM

Is this thread small talk? If one chooses not to post in it, does that mean that they are being silent?

However, I don't want this to be uncomfortable for anybody either, especially the OP, in that I don't want them to feel that their opening remark made me want to be silent.

But if I have little small talk, then adding to this thread and not replying again could make things uncomfortable?

Erm...SILENCE!!!

Dyr · 19-01-2011 05:32PM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I just remember to take my stuff with me.

This may not always possible. Although I've never left anything behind in a taxi other than the will to live. Except this one time visiting switzerland when i left my phone in a taxi. bastard never said a word the whole drive and I never got that phone back. Which proves my point really.

Mint Sauce · 19-01-2011 05:56PM

Taxi's - Depends on mood/level of drunkness

Barbers - can count on one hand the number of times have been in a barbers/hairdressers in the last 6 or 7 years. Would have depended on level of hawtness of the person cutting (prefer women to cut it, more gentle).

toodleytoo · 19-01-2011 06:56PM

id prefer silence myself but i wouldn't just ignore somebody if they tried to make small talk...

Banjaxed82 · 19-01-2011 07:06PM

Everything I say in barbers, taxi driver is a complete fabrication. It's great craic if you can convincingly spin a yarn or two.

Taxi driver: I had Colin Farrell in the taxi last week.

Me: That's mad. I just finishing producing a film he worked on. That's funny that. Nice guy, isn't he?

.same. · 19-01-2011 07:21PM

Hairdressers= eastern europeans don't ask which country and i've been going there for 4 years.

Me~(point to head) same again
her~ O.k
Me~(hand over 15euro)Thanks,Bye
her~Bye

I reckon the older I get the more up for small take I am.

dr gonzo · 19-01-2011 07:40PM

I like chatting with the barber because the one i go to is a legend, which sounds weird but he genuinely is a funny bastard.

However i dont like talking to taxi drivers because firstly i get the distinct feeling most of the time that im supposed to entertain them with chatter and they're already getting enough off me. Secondly i have no interest in any of the areas that taxi drivers most like to discuss, namely: football, the government and racism (Not necessarily in that order).

--LOS-- · 19-01-2011 08:33PM

silence unless it's a one on one situation with someone I don't particularly want to talk to but can't help it. If someone is providing you with a service most times I cba. Can't stand hairdressers....what are you doing, are you going anywhere on holidays, what are you doing for the rest of the day, are you going to go shopping now etc. I'm not gona be rude to them but they are usually the complete opposite type of person to me and it pains me to talk to them. So I'll just talk a bit and happily read away at something.

MickShamrock · 19-01-2011 08:46PM

Silence all the way.

deathrider · 19-01-2011 08:49PM

It seems mandatory to ask a taxi driver what time he's on till. I've got to do it each and every time... Even though I hontestly couldn't care less.

Small Talk or Silence

Comments