Strange strangers
September 2, 2008 @ 11:39 pm — Tags: strangers
I dropped a friend off home ten minutes ago, and a car pulled up next to us, right by a roundabout. The passenger jumped out of the car, ran towards my window and handed me a pink geranium. He said: ‘Here, this is for you,’ then sprouted some Italian in my direction followed by a little French, then ran back to his friend’s car and they drove off smiling. I can’t figure out if I know him or not but it bemused and amused my friend and I greatly.
Other strange stranger behaviour I’ve experienced over the years:
- a man in a street in Annecy stopping me and pulling out a bottle of white wine from under his coat and a glass in his other hand and offering me a drink;
- a crazy lady at the supermarket warning my mum and I about her son or Christmas turkeys or maybe it was both: whatever it was, it took us half an hour to escape the freezer aisle;
- a man-sized donut in a Melbourne shopping centre asking me if I would consider dating a donut;
- a man on a bus telling me I was a bad person because I was Australian and the Australian prime minister was making asylum seekers stay on their ship at sea so clearly I deserved the abuse for his actions; and,
- an Irishman in London tearing his £5 note in half and giving me one half so I’d remember him (I still have it in my purse!).
It’s late and I can’t think of any more of the top of my head. Please feel free to add your own strange stranger experience(s) as comments below!
So, did you consider dating a Donut?
Can it be that I have gone through life without strange things happening? Or have I just wiped them from my memory bank?
The only France related story can think of was once when I was wealking through Bouolgne at 2am with a tool box in my hand. A police car pulled up, with three policemen inside, and asked me what I was doing. “Je suis Anglais”. At which point they looked at each other made an appropriately French gesture and drove off.
Undoubtedly being stopped by the gendarmes at 2am in Les Deux Alpes, Isere, and asked what the box I was carrying contained. Being the wrong side of a few litres of cheap wine, I struggled to explain why my mother had sent me two packet soups, four Kit Kat’s and twenty five extra strong condoms. Memorably unpleasant!
What is it about 2am??? Vince, why was your mother sending you condoms when they’re even more available in France (ie, outdoor, 24-hour vending machines) than in England? And Geoff, no, I did not consider dating the donut because I was an innocent 13-year-old kid — and VERY shy with boys!
Well, to be honest April, it was 1992 and I can’t be sure that it was actually 2am. It could have been nearer to 1.30, but as I barely knew my own name by that point in the evening, chronological accuracy was not one of my strong points. With regards to the outside vending machines, I always thought French chewing gum was decidedly suspect – now I know why!