10 days* of talking with strangers - the Chit Chat Challenge

Rob Walker's The Art of Noticing is one of my favourite newsletters. It encourages us to look intently, ask questions, and observe the world around us. Now he has teamed up with the Iridescent Ordinary newsletter for the Chit Chat Challenge. 

For the next 10 days, between 23 April and 2 May, the challenge is to have a conversation with a stranger - to say hello, to ask a question, to make a connection. 

I'm no stranger to speaking to strangers in public. I did 3 projects where I approached people in London and asked them to draw maps (Draw the World, EuroRevision, crowdsourced continents). So, this seems like a fun challenge for me.

I'm going to add an update to this blog each day, reporting on what conversations I do or do not have. I'll be travelling for at least some of the days during this challenge, which should make for an interesting element.

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Thursday

Soon after arriving in Basel, I walked along the promenade by the Rhine River, where there were lots of people enjoying a sunny evening. People were reading, having a drink, picnicking, listening to music, playing cards, drawing, playing table tennis. Some were even swimming. These were the kinds of activities that I did not want to interrupt. At one point, I sat on a bench next to a man who was reading. I was just about to ask him a question, until I noticed he was only three pages from the end of his book.

The chat:

I sat on a bench, and asked the guy sitting next to me where the border was. Across the river was Switzerland and were we in Germany now or still Switzerland? He explained that the border is a little bit further up the river and further away from the city. Then he gave me some recommendations about museums to visit in Basel and a bakery, where you can buy a coffee and a chocolate croissant. You can sit by the river, eating it and feel like a king!

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Friday

As I looked around the Basel Historical Museum, a young French-speaking guy asked me a question about a model of the city. Answering his question, I pointed out an 800-year-old painting of the city. 

The museum's labels are in German, so we spoke about which languages we could speak. When I mentioned Irish, he lit up, asking if I knew Peaky Blinders and the actor (Cillian Murphy). I replied that Cillian is from the same city as me and has the same surname - he could be my cousin. The guy then spoke about something from TikTok about Irish people meeting British people, standing with their hands by their sides and not wanting to shake hands with the queen. I've no idea what that is, if it's real, from Peaky Blinders or TikTok or what!  

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Saturday and Sunday - no chats :(

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Monday

A small chat today. I was in a store. The two women working there were talking to each other in a language I didn't recognise. When I was paying, I asked (in German) what language she was speaking. 'German,' she replied, looking confused. 'Ah, with your colleague?' 'Oh, Hungarian'. Which is why I didn't recognise it! I paid and then said egészségére in Hungarian, one of the handful of words I know. (I thought it was thank you, but it's cheers) She smiled!

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Tuesday

The closest I got to a chat today was to lend a pen to a train conductor who needed one.

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Wednesday

I spoke to a couple while looking at a baroque altar in a museum. They encouraged me to read the interactive sign, but didn't speak a lot of English (and my German failed me in the moment), so not a very long chat.

Later, as I was checking out of my hotel, I noticed a small bag left hanging from a chair in the lobby. I pointed it out to the man working there, and he ran off to find the guest in the nearby train station. He came back a few minutes later, saying he'd found him. A productive and helpful chat :)

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Thursday

A brief chat with a receptionist as I checked into a hotel. The desk she worked behind was very wide, and she was quite short - so we had a little chat about that, how she stepped out from behind the desk to help people.

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Friday

A brief chat about a membership card I have, as I visited a museum. It has a sticker with yellow text on a silver background that makes it hard to read.

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Saturday - nothing! :(

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Observations

Today's digital technology means you don't need to ask people questions. The answer is seconds away. We can also have 'conversations' with groups of friends that are far away, at the touch of a button. We can send things we see to people who are maybe on the other side of the world, and enjoy their reactions. That's really cool in some ways, while also maybe taking us out of the moment, the time and place.

It struck me that you have to find the right moment to initiate a chat. And that I didn't really want to disturb someone and impose myself on them.

*maybe - let's see how I get on! 

A random trip from Amsterdam

I read and wrote about a book on Experimental Travel in 2011 with great ideas to do some of the experiments. And then, I never did any of them! Until now, more than a decade later.

I took a random trip from Amsterdam Centraal - using random number generators to determine my journey.

My instructions were:

• Go to Amsterdam Centraal. Use a random number to choose a platform.
  
  
• Then, use a random number between 1 and 120 to choose how long to stay on the train. Get off at the next stop.
  
  
• Random number 1 and 60. Walk for that long, with random left / right turns
  

Today I started at the train station. Using the random number generator to choose the platform brought me to two platforms that are not currently in use. The third try brought me to the train that just goes to the airport. So instead, I jumped on the train on the adjoining platform which was leaving at that time.

Then, I used the random number generator to work out the duration I should stay on the train = 60 minutes. I'd get off at the next stop after that, which was Anna Paulowna (after 63 minutes).

This was actually a bit exciting for me, as Anna Paulowna is a Dutch town I've not yet visited. Looking it up later, I learn it's named after Anna Paulownapolder, the reclaimed land on which the town is built. That land is named for Anna Paulowna, the Russian wife of Dutch King William II.

The train went through the flat landscapes of Noord Holland, passing fields with cows and sheep and occasional glimpses of tulip fields in full bloom.

Arriving there, I saw: 

- A street festooned with Dutch flags on each home

- A boat and a convertible sportscar for sale

- Three Buddhist monks in bright yellow robes eating ice-creams

- A flower festival in full swing. The 'Bloemendagen' (Flower Days) are in their 70th year

- Two people cycling around, dressed as the two Dutch kissing figures

- Floral tributes to musical acts like Freddie Mercury and, eh, Taylor Swift

- A lovely flower garden with tulips and daffodils. Some varieties were named after cultural figures like Judith Leyster or Giuseppe Verdi or places like Brazil, Île-de-France or Monte Carlo.

After walking around for around an hour, I made my way back to the train station through very residential neighbourhoods, happy to have seen these flowers. A very pleasing random trip! 

Circle Lines | London

London's Circle Line is one of the oldest in the world but these days Ye Olde Circle Line isn't even a circle - it's a loop with a bit hanging off the end going to Hammersmith. 

After 11 years living in London, I never actually sat on the Circle Line from end to end. So, on a trip there last week, I got on at Embankment and went anti-clockwise. 

Here's what I saw.

- Three tired and very glum-faced people, a mother and two daughters, all wrapped up in scarfs.

- A woman adjusting her socks and saying to the man beside her: "I've gotta pull my socks up, figuratively". "Literally", he corrects her.

- A woman with a lilac bob.

- A woman holding a handbag with an embroidered elephant.

- A young guy with bleach blonde hair and a bridge piercing looking intently at his phone, and clenching his jaw.

- People looking upto the tube maps above them as if seeking divine inspiration.

- "I do miss a little bit us walking around in the outside. That was awesome, that was top tier."

- "She was like 'don't worry I have a guy for you' and I was in shock."

- "I sat there with a wry smile on my face, sipping out of my pumpkin."

- A bearded man dressed all in black, sitting with his arms folded the whole time.

- A woman putting on her makeup from a bright orange compact.

- A boy excitedly telling a story about someone pointing out someone's red coat.

- Two boys passing a phone to one another without saying a word.

- A man singing the word Padd‐ing-ton and saying "smashed it!"

- A man getting stuck in the closing doors and saying sorry to everyone.

- People talking in French, Greek, Portuguese and Spanish.

Circle Lines | Vienna

Vienna Laengenfeldgasse, Herbert Ortner, Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA

Vienna does not have a circle line. But with some quick U‐Bahn changes, it's possible to do a loop. 

You could do a tiny, small, medium or large loop. I took the medium option, on the U4 and U6 lines. I started and ended at the central Karlsplatz station.

The whole trip took about 30 minutes, in grey carriages with bright red chairs and bright yellow poles and handles. 

Here's who I saw:

- Quite a few older people with scooters

- A lot - a lot! - of people wearing grey: a boy in a tracksuit, a man in grey denim jeans + jacket, a woman with slacks and jumper (and a wine t-shirt)

- A young boy dragging his younger brother onto the train, play slapping each other and laughing a lot

- Three young men with a tent folded into a dark green bag, repeatedly banging their hands on it

- A young woman speaking into her phone: 'Nei-ne-ne-nei-ne-nei entschuldigung, sorry!'

- A little dog in a check coat popping its head over its seat

- A blonde English woman shaking her head saying, 'It's so stupid, no one asked for that'.

- A man in a moss green coat, white baseball hat and circular glasses dozing off

- A woman with a disappointed look on her face, rubbing her forehead and eyes

- A man with a black sweatshirt holding a light blue coffee cup and cake box

- A young girl wearing pink, shouting and knocking the back of her legs against a vent in the train. Eventually, she became quiet by tapping her mother's head.

- A man in a long beige coat and beige trousers, as if to match the beige cardboard box he's carrying. Maybe to compensate, his friend has long, bright red hair.

Circle Lines | Madrid Metro Line 6

I was in Madrid earlier this year, and decided to resume a blog series idea - riding a circular metro line.

Madrid's circular line - Línea 6 Circular - goes through 28 stations. I started and ended at the cavernous Principe Pio.

Madrid metro trains have no internal doors, so you can see all along the carriages. At Laguna station, the doors of the train opened on both sides. Never seen that before!

And here's who I saw:

- A man sleeping, a woman sniffling

- A woman speaking on her phone about this and that, ending the call with a low aaaaahhhhh

- A man in a flat-cap dashing along the platform

- A woman carrying toilet rolls laughing heartily with her companion.

- A man on crutches, watching cartoons on his phone

- A woman singing a song into a karaoke microphone, and everyone ignoring her.

- A man selling lollipops from a small green plastic basket. His blue back-pack had the words 'Kings of Europe' written on it.

- A young man on his phone - I was standing up, so could see the screen: he looked at memes, then nail cosmetics tutorials and then started playing chess

- A very tall young man, dressed in monochrome, untangling his white earphones

Overheard: Derby charity shop

I'm in a charity shop in Derby, paying at the till for my purchase. The shop assistant is speaking to me, while she talks to her friend.

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There's only me and Carol 'ere. We're waiting for Elvis... That's £3 duck.

Did ya enjoy yer burgers last night?

I tuk meself off ta bed!

Why?

Ya can't get round 'er dining room, she's got a bag on!... You have a lovely day duck!

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Paris drainpipe chat

 As I was taking a photo of this pretty drainpipe in Paris, a little old lady was watching me. 

She called me over and, in French, told me all about the architect and the buildings' balconies. We had a nice little chat. I say 'little' as all I could say back was, "oui, tres bonne!"

Dublin: St Stephen's Green

I visited Dublin a few months ago. I hadn't been to Dublin for more than 12 years (my trips back to Ireland take me to Cork instead).

Dublin felt like an invigorated city to me, lively and exciting. My visit coincided with excellent sunny weather (rare for Ireland), so I took the opportunity to sit in the sun and people-watch.

I wandered around and sat in Stephen's Green for an afternoon, one of the main garden squares in the centre of Dublin.

I saw and heard the following microcosms of Dublin:

• Lots of teenage girls queuing up to meet a boyband with no name that hadn't made any music.
  
• Two young guys talking about women (and magpies) with every sentence filled with swearwords.
  
• A woman saying to another, "You were gone up like a tomato!"
  
• A young woman playing the ukelele (badly) to raise money for a charity trip to Uganda. An older woman passed her, commenting with a disdainful Dublin drawl, "Don't give up yer day job!"
  
• 3 young women having a picnic. One had (evidently) just married. They were catching up, in the most insincere tones I've maybe ever heard. Cork accents, like.
  
  "Hoooow's married life?"
  "Noooo different"
  "So, how was the wedding?"
  "Great!"
  "Did you have a great time?"
  "Great time!"
  "Wassss it fabliss?"
  "Fabulous!"
  "And you'd definitely go back?"
  "Definitely go back!"
  "And how was the hotel?"
  "Beautiful!"
  "And the food?"
  "Out of this world!"

Circle Lines | Glasgow Subway

Deep in the cold and damp of Saturday morning in January in Scotland, I took a trip on the Glasgow subway - a one-line railway which loops around the city.

But while Glasgow is a mainly grey city architecture-wise, its subway was a more colourful experience 

The train itself: three cute bright orange carriages - like an oversized Berocca tube - bolting, barrelling, zipping through the tunnels.

A woman (who looks like Hayley from Coronation Street) wearing bright turquoise coat, a man in a bright orange hi-vis vest, a station with pastel pink walls, a girl with a bright pink bobble hat, coat and shopping bag, a man with a bright red scarf, a lady's bright purple handbag, a bright green hat, and a cerise beret.

And then there was the colourful scenes all around me:

• Someone telling a long story to her mother about Amy and Lindsay and the job they both applied for.
  
• An old lady rolling her shopping trolley onto the carriage with a sigh.
  
• A woman entering and grimacing, "Something smells, doesn't it man? They should put air freshener."
  
• A woman asking her child, "Did you bring toilet roll? No? We'll need to get hankies."
  
• A police officer asking a little girl, "Have you been to the shops? Did you buy any knick knacks?"
  
• A teenage girl admonishing her little sister, "Stop acting so smart!"
  
• Someone saying," Every time the council's used it makes the case complex."
  
• A man loosing his footing, tripping on top of another man, says "Aye, we're close now!"

Circle Lines | On the Loop in Chicago

Chicago's L train doesn't actually have a circular line, but a group of lines which come together in a circle line effect in a part of the city called The Loop.

So with a few strategic station changes, it's the next best thing.

I rode around, amid lots of people on their phones, and saw and heard:

• A middle-aged woman speaking into a walkie-talkie: "OK, I'm on!"
• A young Woman pulling on a baseball cap like armour
• A woman pursing her lips and momentarily bopping in her seat twirling her hands around
• Two girls with bright pink coats, with white, blue and red beads braided into their hair.
• "It's going be alright. It is going be all right," says a woman into her phone.
• A boy in a purple hoodie looks derisively at a woman's bright pink phone holder.
• Young woman cheerfully declaring, "I noticed it! I noticed it!"
• A middle-aged lady with resplendent red accessories (shoes, spectacles, handbag and shoulder bag) intently reading the Bloomingdales' catalogue.
• A woman sketches a large drawing with dashed lines and arrows into her sketchbook.
• A doleful man slumped against the train wall while carrying a book of torts and laws.
• A woman wearing a bright peach and yellow blouse chewing and popping luminous green gum
• A cheeky young boy propping his feet up on a seat between two men, both of whom studiously ignore him and his feet.

Circle Lines | Yamanote Line, Tokyo

Sometimes when I'm travelling, I like to simply sit on a train and watch people near me, places passing by. And what better way to do this than on a circular, loop line.

I like to think that a circular line brings you a 360° view of a place (it's not always the case, but it's a nice idea).

This is the first in a semi-regular series of posts on circular travelling -so if there's a circular loop line where I am, I'll get on board!

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Years ago when I visited Tokyo, I spent a few hours travelling around on the Yamanote line.

It's a circular line travelling through most of the major stations in Tokyo, including Ginza, Shibuya and Shinjuku.

As I sat on the train, I took notes of sights I saw and sounds I heard and revelled in the people-watching.

I saw:

• Green stripes on platform to show where to stand
• A girl with purple and gold bag and gold shoes
• The five people opposite me lined up, all asleep
• A chorus of polyphonic music greeted us at every station
• Outside offices, and lots of them
• Huge concrete faceless skyscraper structures at Akihabara
• A MUJI warehouse
• A pyramid covered in sparkling lights at Yurakucho
• Passengers reading books with non-descriptmd plain covers: beige or plain white, some with very simple patterns.
• The station Mamamatsucho pronunced differently in English and Japanese
• The monorail to Haneda airport flying over the metro line 
• A tiny dog in a woman's handbag. She's been on the train for 6 stops ago, before I had noticed
• Nobody else seems to noticed the dog
• A grown man reading a comic, showing the words "Here's the world War 1 flying ace returning to the aerodrome"
• Lots of snorting and sniffing sounds
• At Ebisu station, the man next to me sleeps and slumps against me
• A guy whispering into his phone
• As the train continues around, the dog starts to bark lightly. The woman holds its mouth.
• The man next to me then notices the dog and pets it
• A poster in station declares: "Never stop the explaining!"
• At Osuka station, a man tucks his (dry) umbrella into his trousers. It's half genius, half weird.

Rio de Janeiro streets

Rio de Janeiro does not have one main shopping street - unlike Buenos Aires or Istanbul.

While it might seem like Rio's beaches are the hub of all energy, there is still lots of life and activity to please people-watchers in Rio.  As I walked around the city, here's what I saw...

• A poodle wearing four bright blue socks
  
• A thin hipster-ish man wearing skinny jeans and a smock shirt playing a picalillo in middle of traffic
  
• A middle-aged man fainting on the street, with people crowding around trying to help
  
• A young dude working the door of a restaurant checking out every guy that passed him by
  
• A mother calming her truculent little boy, saying "tranqui, tranqui!"
  
• A good-looking man walking along a busy street wearing only a skimpy sunga. Only in Rio!
  
• A young teenage boy pleading through tears and wails with a shop security guard
  
• A tiny old lady clutching her phone to her face and conspiratorially covering her mouth
  
• Guys carrying used drinks cans in fishing nets, a modern update on a traditional economy.
  
• A man selling books in the middle of traffic while wearing a bright grass green suit and carrying a huge sign. 

Bustling Buenos Aires

Every city has its zones: the political quarter, business quarter, entertainment district.

One of the first things I'll do in a new city is head for the main shopping street to watch the comings and goings.

In Buenos Aires, that main street is the Calle Florida, which has been partly pedestrianised for more than a hundred years.

As I walked along, here's what I saw.

• A man furiously spraying the air with an aerosol
  
• A woman with a full head brace
  
• People positioned every few yards along the street saying "cambi cambi cambio" in every manner of refrain.
  
• Adverts for the McTriple, meat-obsessed Argentina's answer to the Big Mac (three burgers in one)
  
• A woman carrying a 7 foot tall lampstand and shade wrapped entirely in bright lime green plastic
  
• A man playfully tussling his girlfriend's long blonde hair, so much so that it ends up splayed across the ice cream cone she's eating.
  
• A group of Orthodox Jews handing out boxes of Channukah lights
  
• A blonde woman in a bright baby blue dress walking two pink painted poodles
  
• A woman walking hand-in-hand with her two young daughters, all three of them wearing the same sparkly silver shoes
  
• A big burly black man carrying 15 flashy handbags on one arm.
  
• A man power-walking to work wearing a  tracksuit, football shirt and carrying a formal leather briefcase 

Voices from Fifth Avenue

One evening, in New York, I started walking from Central Park to my hotel on West 48th Street. It was a short walk of 11 blocks. I walked along Fifth Avenue and became intrigued by all the voices passing me by. So much so, that I stayed walking for a lot longer, listening, listening, listening.

I heard short snippets of conversations, people passing - some zipping, some sauntering, some on their phones.


I've already got that ...... You've got to go for it when you can ...... I dunno ...... Pretty sure he just drives around ...... Are you excited? I don't think it's open ...... See the grid, Lady Gaga walked out there at midnight ...... T-Mobile's good for the most part ...... I've never been to the top of New York ...... I'll take it back with me, I'll take it back with me ...... You want me to come with you when you get your licence? ...... I mean what's the purpose of that? To make sure everyone knows how to do everything - is that it? ...... Thank you for helping. I know that's the last thing you wanna do ...... And whoever they're with, they're not right ...... So I don't intend to lose it ...... But they never actually do it ...... "Oh because of the cut?" "They cut the pay?" "Yeah" ...... We hadda sweet-talk one of the security guards ...... I'm so slow, everything's so slow ...... I told him I'd buy him a ...... There's nothing to do; it's like there's always something to do ...... Hot as hell. Tall, big old man's man ...... Confidence and cockiness are just totally different ...... I think she's tired ...... He's such a dawg, he's such a this, such a that ...... I didn't wanna go ...... I typically work at home ...... I was, like, so hoping she would call me out ...... I need to get some basic pants ...... I was teaching and the kids were sitting ...... It wouldn't have happened and it wouldn't have been fine ...... None of them will get married ...... Are New York girls like that too? ...... My boyfriend, when he comes to pick me up, he walks from 34th ...... Right. Where are you working? ...... So come for anything and everything, you can sleep over ...... When I was sitting in the precinct ...... The one at the bottom has pistachios ...... Two days off! I have a big job ...... No, I step on it and it moves ...... I'm just walking around a lot cos I'm playing cards in a couple of hours ...... I wish we could call Maurice  ...... What kind of food are you in the mood for? ...... That, like, makes me crazy ...... Help me out today! ...... Gourmet doesn't have to be expensive to be gourmet ...... We're going to walk to 50th and here we are ...... Yay give me a hug!

In a New York moment

The last time I went to New York, I looked up a lot and took hundreds of photographs of skyscrapers.

This time around, I looked more to street level and listened at all the teeming life around me on the streets of Manhattan.

A woman on a bus re-telling her love life story to a stranger, specifically her second husband: "He was strong and tall and handsome and shit so I had to marry him."

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A young Asian-American man sitting in a park answers his phone: "Hey, I'm good. I'm sitting in Union Square writing in my journal, I've had a soy latte and I'm enjoying this beautiful fall day in New York."

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On the subway, a labourer with hard hat and clothes stained with paint and cement wearing three large rings on one hand, one silver and chunky, one like Darth Vader's head, one polka-dot and glittering.

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Two men in Central Park discussing where to park their cart.

"I'll go in the middle lane."
"But you can't clog up the middle lane"
"I will!"
"Well, you're funny as hell!"

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A man outside a courthouse trying to be restrained, but jumping up and down shaking his fists above his head saying "yeeeeaah man I can't believe I got that lucky!!"

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Two fire engines and a police car trundle along 9th Avenue with their sirens set to a low plaintive wail (like you'd imagine a banshee to have), prompting a dog to howl with them, prompting its owner to straddle the dog and try to calm him, prompting a German couple to look and enthuse "beautiful dog".

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An elderly woman with her little granddaughter are transfixed watching a man play a Chinese musical instrument. A wobbly old dude cones along and starts doing a silly dance. It's all taken in good humour. (He'd get a slap in London.)

What people talk about in the USA

I'm off on my travels next week, to the USA. I'm taking in Long Island (the Hamptons!), New York City, Niagara Falls, the rather random city of Adrian, Michigan and Chicago.

Last time I went to New York, I loved the people-watching, seeing those glorious travel moments.

This time I think my ears will be attuned to hear more than three examples.

In anticipation, I've been looking at one of my favourite phrases to search on twitter: "people talk about in" - seeing what people talk about in certain places. It almost always seems to be America.

All people talk about in LA is their health. All people talk about in New York is their rent.
— Phoebe Lovatt (@PhoebeLovatt) July 3, 2014

1. Brunch 24 Things People In NYC Love To Talk About http://t.co/Vj69TpWgyx via @mkruvant
— BuzzFeed Travel (@buzzfeedtravel) June 21, 2014

What people talk about in Texas: Falling asleep while driving. You never hear this in the East.
— tom ricks (@tomricks1) March 6, 2014

I swear all people talk about in Nebraska is corn
— Gitau (@wildboyfrazier) February 16, 2014

All people talk about in Northern Michigan is the weather and other people
— Alexa JP (@lexajp) January 26, 2014

Things that people in LA like to talk about: 1. Traffic 2. Freeways 3. Alternate freeway routes that could have been taken
— Julian Bialowas (@julianbialowas) November 29, 2013

From what I've overheard, most of what people talk about in San Luis Obispo is either San Francisco or Los Angeles.
— Alex Volberding (@avolberding) July 26, 2013

Things people talk about in utah: The weather, church, turning eighteen, and missions. #cool
— jewelysa ☪ (@jewelysamarie) April 12, 2012

Here's hoping I'll be able to tweet my own version of these.

Romania | London

I went last weekend to Saint Dunstans in the West - a church on Fleet Street - to take a photo of its statue of Elizabeth I. I've read that it is the oldest outdoor statue in London, which is pretty impressive.

While there, I looked inside and found some kind of baptism ceremony happening.

There were signs outside the church advertising Romanian church services, so I'm assuming it was a Romanian tradition.

Around 30 people were gathered in front of the altar, dressed up in bright colours: lots of green and yellow. Some of the women wore scarves as veils. One man carried a candle with a large lacy pink pompom attached.

Three priests recited prayers and hymns. One priest then cut some hair from the babies' heads after which the babies were presented  in front of religious paintings. Proud parents cooed, filmed and took photos.

After the short ceremony, a large silver baptism font and some religious icon paintings were taken away while everyone drank fizzy wine from paper cups.

During the ceremony, a man arrived - quite clearly a tourist. He took a photo of the ceremony. I hope he is a foreign tourist, and goes back home telling everyone that this is what happens in London, England. For it is. Behind doors - open and closed - there are communities coming together in so many fascinating ways.

Germany + Greece

I saw this tweet recently:

Someone just used an emoji in a pretty serious work email. It was a middle aged German. Such informality! It's like they've become Greeks.

— Jorge (@ChocoLlama) April 14, 2014

It reminded me of another encounter I saw between German and Greek cultures.

While in Greece, we visited  the local travel agency to book some tickets.

A spry sprightly middle aged women worked there, Mrs Papanagiotou. She had dark brown curled hair tightly cropped and sat at her little desk with a light cardigan hanging from her shoulders.

One day when we called she was sitting outside, animatedly chatting and drinking coffee with a neighbour.

We mentioned that she seemed to be having a lovely time, an easy summer life. "But I'm a little worried," she said, would she be affected by the recent Angela Merkel led German bail out the Greek economy?

"No, no, I don't want to be a German woman, sitting in an office and never speaking!," she said as she crossed her cardigan in a certain fashion.

Slow train in Belgium

On a public holiday, I took a very slow train between Bruges and Ghent.

The train slowly glided through a seemingly flat, featureless landscape. 

But as it went along, its slow pace and quiet carriages allowed me to enjoy the following sights and sounds. 

• The only noise being the chug of the train, the heating turning on and off and faint digital device buzzes and blips.
  
• The conductor moving through the carriages and saying "schcifft!" to every passenger.
  
• A single bright green row of lettuces in a field of purple cabbages.
  
• Cylindrical silage bales wrapped in black and white plastic like bullseye humbugs.
  
• Huge flocks of white birds scattering as the train trundled past.
  
• A convoy of trucks with the company name Lekkerland (Tasty land) emblazoned on them.

Nottingham

I went to Nottingham the weekend before last. The weather was awful while I was there, rain rain and more rain.

As a result, my memories of there are mainly grey, so I made a virtue of that for this picture.

Because it was raining, I spent most of my time dashing between shops where I overheard these gems. This first one reminds me so much of this Victoria Wood sketch.

Two elderly women and a middle-aged man are chatting in a charity shop, at the counter.

Woman 1: "It'll be one of the lads from the priory. There's always young men at the priory."
The man confirms it is one of these lads.
Woman 1: "Is it Mark? Or Rob?"
Man: "...eh...it's got a K....eh, Karl?"
Woman 1: "Cole?! Kyle?! Oh Karl... oh yes, he's a nice lad. Doesn't say much... well, I suppose he does to you..."
Then, the first woman abruptly changes the subject and says to the second woman: "Now she said she didn't like it strapless!"

---

Meanwhile, it was anything but a quiet day out. I saw:

• A fist-and-kicking fight break out on the tube (at 7am on a Saturday morning!). Dramatic.
• A French guy in tears, slumped on floor of St Pancras Station.
• A young woman on the train momentarily losing her tickets and bursting into tears
• A woman chastising her child in a shopping centre, telling her, "You're a wicked little girl!"
• A man crouched in the foetal position in a Nottingham phone box.