Hmmm? Isn't it? Banana?

Things that have happened to me this month

It is taking me too long to get around to a decent post, so I shall slap some of the stuff that I have remembered down in a shortened form:

1: Weird and freaky things that have happened to me:

I was watching TV just before going out, and Batman Begins was on. "Oh, I haven't seen this" thought I, after about 20 minutes watching it. "It's a shame I am going out, I'd have liked to see the rest of this."

I end up going out with the boys (into Atlanta to explore) and arrive back at the hotel about 8 hours later. I flick the TV on after a while and start jumping channels.

Batman Begins is being re-run (not unusual on that channel) but it is in the exact place (to the word) that I turned it off at. I saw about 3 seconds of the scene I had already seen, and then the rest of the film. How weird.

-----------------------

The second thing was just now. I have my iPod playing, it has 3000 songs on random shuffle on it, through some speakers while I was having a shower. As I was finishing, a song came on that I didn't recognise.

"Is this Bjork?" I wondered to myself. As it happens, it wasn't (it was Trinity Roots) and I didn't want to listen to it, so pressed the skip button.

The iPod then (randomly?) played two Bjork songs, off different albums, back to back. How freaky is that? Not only the exact artist that I was thinking about, but two songs at a go? Pretty weird.

Maybe I'll do the lottery tonight.

2: Amusing things that have happened to me:

The two tourist information ladies in the centre for the local area talking to me (often at the same time, and vying for top volume) for ages. Then, as one of them went off to get me yet another leaflet, being told:

"The area has gone awfully downhill in the last few years, you know. It used to be much nicer. It's since the Blacks moved in, you see. I mean, (hurriedly) it's not a colour thing, but since the Blacks have moved in, it's got much worse. I think they have a different standard of living or something..."

Bless her and her deep set racism. She wasn't actually being nasty, more just accepting of the years of being told/believing that they aren't as good people as 'nice white folk'. Heh. Made me chuckle, anyway. It's not a colour thing, but it's all the black's fault. Yuhu.

---------------------

Trying to get a taxi to work on my first day. Now, the workshop is in Morrow. This is a suburb that is probably less than 10 miles from the Airport and hence also the hotel I was staying at. It's not on the moon, or anything. I needed a taxi, and was trying to ask the girl behind the desk to get one for me. The fact that most americans look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language, and refuse to use any lateral thought at all (I actually had to point at the "Tom-ah-toes" to get the women to understand me, yesterday) means this wasn't too easy:

Me: "I need to get to this place I am working at, would you please call a taxi for me while I have my breakfast?"

Her: "Yes, Sir. Where did you want to go?"

Me: "To Morrow"

Her: "Oh, you don't need it yet?"

Me: "Uh, yes, I need it for about 20 minutes time. That was why I asked you to call for one".

Her (looking confused): "Oh, You want me to call now, but you need it for tomorrow?"

Me: "No, I want to go to Morrow, and I want to go soon. I have to be there at nine" (twigging at this stage, but fascinated that this was so hard for her to understand).

Her: "Oh" (and sits there looking confused).

Me (realising that this could drag on): "Ok, do you know where Morrow is?"

Her (looking at me as if I was dumb and nearly getting a slap for it) "Of course".

Me: "Right. I need to go there. I need a taxi to get there. I need the taxi soon, as I need to be there at 9 o'clock".

Her: "Oh, ok. I'll call that for you now then, shall I?"

Me (with no faith at all and through gritted teeth) "Yes. That'd be great. Thanks.

Stupid cow. It seems that the slightest deviation from the language or accent they were expecting causes them to utterly fail to understand you. This is only one of many examples. It is almost as if when not presented with information as they expect to be given it, they just discard it without any analysis. When we go shopping with the french guys, I swear if I wasn't there, they'd have to draw everything. They struggle so much, and it is only a pronunciation issue thing, usually. If someone is obviously foreign, surely you try and understand what they mean, rather then refuse to understand at all? They just can't be arsed, it seems.

And the BEST one:

At the Portland race, we had to go a junction or two up the Interstate into Portland itself, before turning off for the circuit. A sign on the left at the entrance ramp was set up to encourage people to meet up for car sharing. It had a phone number that I swear caused many confused people, or very entertaining rides to work. Want to know what it said? I didn't get a photo, but underneath the picture of a car was this:

Car Share!
Call 69-Match.

Hilarious. Of all the numbers to pick, why the hell would you use that one? It made me laugh every morning for about 4 days...

posted by Brock @ Thursday, June 29, 2006