Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[zevele1]

Thank you for the tip about Dolemites.Beside this hope for you that keept thea or coffee the other morning. You just trash the day with alcool in the morning..........
Do not know if you been in Irland,but i almost have the smell of the pubs there when listening to Dolemites.Great country,mega great people
I am "best friend number one" of the phone compagny here.Because of me ,hundred and hundred people toke them,and the ISP i had at this time ,to court last summer,and they won
So they just switched me- at no extra cost- to business deal for the time until the regular one works fine again.
I have an insane 2.5 MB connection.If you ask me if i will keep it,here is the answer:$100 to ISP|PLS|$30 to phone compagny every month.....No way....

[Jazzwolf]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I thought you might like it. I've never been to Ireland but my daughter just came from there 2 weeks ago. She LOVED it! She spent 12 days in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. She said Scotland and Wales were beautiful but boring. Ireland was fantastic, she and her friends were telling me that the best thing was hearing the singing in the pubs and watching the customers come out staggering drunk and still singing. I wish I had been there.. to be able to drink a pure Guinness.. man, that must be heaven!

[Harry The Hipster]

Lovely country - and the Guinness does taste even better. Don't know if its in my head or a difference in the brewing. One thing, though - I found the smoke in the clubs quite difficult, and I've spent a lot of time in a lot of clubs over the years, so I'm pretty realistic about what to expect. One place (can't remember the name), highly recommended for the music, I was at the bar no more than 2-3 minutes, had to leave.

People are wonderful. A real talent for conversation, they can turn the most conventional incident into a story, and there's almost a musical quality to the speech, too.

Last time I was there (3|PLS| years ago), their growth rate economically was in the 7% range, and many of the young people who had emigrated were returning. Walk down Trafton Street in Dublin, the lines at the ATM went around the corner. Very prosperous, at least in the city.

The North is different, of course. It was quite cold when I got to Belfast, and I'd packed my winter running gear. Woke up around 5 AM, started to get dressed, discovered I'd brought an orange wind jacket and green tights. Not smart. Ran that day in shorts and a t-shirt.

Scotland is more taciturn. Hard to get to know the people - they're somewhat stand-offish. They can be talking in accented but understandable English, but when a non-native approaches, they lapse into an indecipherable local dialect. Beautiful country for walking and hiking. Also good local ales.

HTH

[JimH]

> A real talent for conversation, they can turn the most conventional incident into a story, and there's almost a musical quality to the speech, too.

Yeah, on NPR a year ago, there was a story about a guy who bet a friend he could hitch-hike around Ireland with a refrigerator.  He did it, but the regrigerator was downsized to an apartment model, on the condition that he visit some Irish islands.

It worked. The Irish took him in, gave him lifts, took him to pubs, bought him drinks, he wrote a book.

Nice people.

[stuwad]

>the best thing was hearing the singing in the pubs and watching the customers come out staggering drunk and still singing


Trust me, they do this in Scotland too...as someone who lives in the city centre of Edinburgh in a building with 5 pubs, one of which opens at 5am, I sure wish they wouldn't sing so hard!!!

sTu

[zevele1]

Jimh
Do you know the name of the book?

to HTH
Let me tell you the best meat i ever had in my life
My first time in US.In Nashville in a place with old people[well at this time 40 years old looks like old to me...]They had shirts with the V of the collar in metal,they had kind of tie like a rope with a badge[?],udge belt with also a big badge and cowboy boots.I was eating a tb-steak putting change in the jukebox to listen to 'my tennesse mountains'by Dolly
I man came .He had a hat in fur with a tail an lether jacket with strips.Really a David Crockett[?]look.He had a dog who looked like a wolf and fastened him to a park meter.He walked in like someone who have a big one at the wrong place..this tb steak was just fantastic
Let say you know the place and tell me they only give poor quality frozen meat.Ok,but this was the best meat of my life
The same with Guinnes,better or not there,do no know,but much better when you drink it in Irland ,in a pub

In Wales they are,well a little bit brits......
Scots are very nice people,not so open that irish,AT THE START.Cause after........
I had really great time in Edinburgh,who is a very charming and pleasant town.Sure i need few drinks to be able to understand them...the first few hours i was just lost,feeling people speak a far west language there.But after few whiskies in Sky island, in a small pub\hotel you start to understand very well....

Two countrys and they people i love:Irland and Greece

[Harry The Hipster]

WAY off topic, but that's OK, anyone who isn't interested can just hit the back button.....

Took a train from Istanbul to Thessaloniki 3 years ago. 18 hours. Turkish train like something out of Midnight Express. No fate known to mankind is sufficiently dire as to justify using the 'loo on the Turkish RR system.

In the middle of Thrace, it stops at the border (Greece won't let Turkish trains use their system), dumps you off in the middle of nowhere, your passport disappears, you sit in the sun for 2|PLS| hours wondering if this is what the rest of your life is like. Then the Greek train pulls up.

Spotless. Old woman with a broom comes through at half-hour intervals. If she sees a paper on the floor anywhere near you, she glares until you pick it up. Gives substance to the concept of evil eye.

Pulled into Thessaloniki at 1:30 AM local time, asked concierge at hotel if there was an all-night diner where we could get something to eat. He sent us down a couple of blocks, walked into a lit-up square with 10 restaurants in surrounding buildings, bands playing, crammed with people drinking, jdancing, ust getting ready for dinner. Spent 3-4 wonderful days there, sitting in the cafes facing the Aegean, drinking retsina and watching the sun dancing off the waves. People know how to live. We could learn from them.

HTH

[lee269]

Sorry to butt in, but I love the travel reminiscences - just the thing for a rainy day in London.

The book is called something like 'Round Ireland with a Fridge', by Tony (Hawkes I think). With a title like that an amazon search should be pretty easy I have it at home somewhere, and it is pretty funny as I recall.

lee269

[Harry The Hipster]

<>

After a few whiskies I have a perfect understanding of Pushtun, Urdu and every subdialect spoken south of the Zambesi. It's only English that I have difficulties with.....

HTH

[zevele1]

Iee269
Rain as well here in Tel-Aviv at this time[10.30 evening-so 8.30 for you].The only difference is that for us it is a madness from the sky,rain in the midle of May!
Some years before ,i was a londoner for allmost 3 years,and i have to say that the weather in London IS NOT worse than in Paris.Unlike that the froggys like to say.Coolder in janvier,february maybe
Thank you for the book.No Amazone.Will try to find it here first,if not i will write it down in my WHSmith notebook,and buy it in october in London.I try to be in London once a year for few weeks.We have a lot of friends there.And i like my love\hate relation with english people.
But ,if i have to spend again few years far from here,and have to chose betwen London and Paris.I do not need to think even one second:London-You have to know that i am french born and raise.................

H T H
In Greece they had the "Europe effect".The fact to be part of the europeen union was a challenge to them.And they won BIG.I know Greece since 30 years.I spent a lot of time there during my freak-out years.Harvesting tomatoes,olives,on my way to India or Egypt,or Israel,depending of the project at the time.
They been very nice people but a little bit on the messy,rought side.Well ,let say not only a little....And with the challenge of Europe,they changed in a terrific way.Even Athens who was a terrible place is now a very pleasant place.
The problem is that we do not have such good relation.People here are going few days in Rhodes,Crete but not to continental Greece.Because of it a ticket to Athens is allmost the same price than one to London.If cheaps tickets,i will go to Athens few times a year

By the way-but you do not have to answer-You move around a lot.Sometimes very close from here.You been here or,like many friends i have,never?

Listening to The Last Drive garage-psy from Tessaloniki

[lee269]

Paris sounds a lot more glamorous than London when you have to fight your way in with the millions on the train to work every day... I walk past the Houses of Parliament/Big Ben every day to work and mostly I wish all the tourists would get out of my way - I must appear in thousands of holiday photos! But I realise how lucky I am - some would travel halfway around the world to visit this city.

Amazon details:    Round Ireland with a Fridge - Tony Hawks: 264 pages new edition (6 May, 1999) Ebury Press; ISBN: 0091867770

lee269

[zevele1]

Let see if you will tell me"are you mad",like all the people in London when i say that:
London is much much much x100 safer than Paris
Are you mad,there is a lot of problems here!Ok,but go to live in Paris,you will see
On the top of it people are A LOT less agressive than in Paris,much more polite and,well, more civilised
Yes there is beautifull places in Paris,more beautifull than in London.But in London,except the very heart of the town,you have nice places everywhere.With all the trees,the small gardens,the houses.You fell more it is a lot of villages together than a big and hard town
I know there is rascism in England,but much less than in France.At this level the society is much more liberal
The problem is that there is such a hudge cultural gap between 2 countrys so close,even more now with the tunnel,that it is really difficult for both to adjust to the other.And french really do not like english people.It is not the case the other way-except for the idiots of Sun-
The years we had in London are to this day one of our best memory,really
I understand you are not living in central London,and yes,hard to say somthing good about trains and tube.We had a flat close to Holland park,the south side.A very nice part of London
Will try to find the book tomorrow.Thank you for the references

[JimH]

OK, Zevele, here's a plan.

In recognition of your hilarious and though provoking contributions to this forum, and for your creative use of the English language (which I do my best to emulate in French), I've ordered you a copy of the book from Amazon.

We've been wondering what to do for the release of version 8.0. Now I know. We're sending you this book. But we're not going to ship it.

I'm going to take it down to the bus station with your name and a little message inside the front cover ( please send details & phone to jimh @ jriver.com) and I'm going to ask somebody getting on the next eastbound bus to deliver it by hand to a person at their next destination. We'll ask them to send you a postcard and give it to somebody else who's heading your way. We'll try to keep track of where it is and post it here.

Thanks, Lee, for the name, by the way.

If anybody else wants to add to the complexity or foolishness of this scheme, don't let bashfulness get in your way.

[Harry The Hipster]

Like a chain letter. Place a note on the face of the package, asking that everyone who has helped move the book towards Zevele return to the forum, log on and add a comment to this thread: where did they get the book, from whom, how far did they carry it, who did they turn it over to, etc.

HTH

[Jazzwolf]

>>If anybody else wants to add to the complexity or foolishness of this scheme, don't let bashfulness get in your way.<<

Jim,
I just got home from work and just read this and am laughing my head off! This is the funniest thing and I agree with Harry The Hipster.. have them log on to the forum and give the details.

[zevele1]

Sounds like a GREAT meshuga plan[mad]
But not in a parcel.I do not know in US since last september,but here no-one would take a parcel.
The book has to be in a plastic bag.The kind for food in the ...fridge.I have some with a zip,very strong

What do you want:adress,phone,name-of cause-?

No time just now,will come back

[JimH]

zevele,

> But not in a parcel.

I thought we'd just give it so the next person with no package and suggest they might want to read it while they have it.

> What do you want:adress,phone,name-of cause-?

Of course.  That's all.

[Harry The Hipster]

Z's right. Been thinking about the security issue.

Security officer:  "Has anyone unknown to you asked you to carry anything on the plane for them?"

Guileless messenger:  "Well, this strange geeky-looking guy with a plastic pen protector handed me this package and asked that I give it to someone else headed in the general direction of the Middle East. Said it couldn't be mailed."


Security officer (immediately donning bomb shield): "Step this way, sir, some nice people from Intelligence would like to chat with you. And by the way, empty your pockets and spread your arms against the wall. Just a routine check."

HTH

[JimH]

Well, maybe this is a test of whether there's any common sense left in the world.  

If it's just a book and there is no package, what can they do -- search the leaves?  For what -- hidden meaning?  Subtle messages?  Love in ambush?  Surprise enlightenment?  Flashes of insight?  

I think by the time this book reaches security anywhere, it may be so dog-eared that they won't give it a second look.

[zevele1]

HTH
In this case they will be really lost at secutity:
A suspect parcel heading TO middle east ,not COMING FROM.
They did not get anything about such a situation during they very intense and complete training...You know kind of 5 hours and a half training...........
Do not know in US,but in France and England,not sure they get that long training....