Comments on: Bank Holiday Sardines

By: Matt Munro

Matt Munro — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:41:29 +0000

Belive it or not I’m considered sufficiently important at work to be entitled to it, the gypsy asked for a cigarette, I initially said no, so he said he’d play me a tune for it, before I could refuse he started playing and it seemed churlish not to give him a smoke after that.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 11 May 2007 19:47:53 +0000

So what’s with the first class scenario Matt?

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 11 May 2007 19:47:14 +0000

Now the cuisine doesn’t bother me - I would have preferred to be listening into their life stories. On the Tube, I do get a bit irritated with the mobile phone users but to allay my irritation, I try to imagine the other side of the conversation - does anyone else do this or is it not PC or will no-one own up to doing it?

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:51:26 +0000

Matt, you do make me LOL. I don’t think they were Muslim. If they had been, I could have crow-barred something about multiculturalism in there too. But believe me, when the competition is a 500g bar of plain Cadbury’s chocolate, pharatas/chappatis definitely do capture the imagination of a bunch of pissed-off long-distance commuters with aching knees.

By: Matt Munro

Matt Munro — Fri, 11 May 2007 11:53:27 +0000

For gods sake Rob this Muslim love-in gets a bit tiresome - don’t you ever get fed up of being so self-conciously bloody nice about everyone all the time ? Why would chappatis catch anyones imagination anyway ? They’re hardly cutting edge world cuisine - always the thing left behind when the rest of the buffets gone.
How about this as a being nice to minorities story - I was stuck on a train once and a gypsy played me a tune on a tin whistle in exchange for a cigarette - I was in first class and it was a surreal and slightly embarrasing experience, especially as being england no one said anything until he lit the cigarette !
You’d probably love the Paris metro too where various dregs and loonies randomly board trains, read out a prepared sob story and then go through the train - sometimes playing apalling folk music on a casette player - collecting money. A bit like “steaming” on the London tube but with gallic charm rather than ethnic thuggery.

By: Shawn Micallef

Shawn Micallef — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:25:33 +0000

Do they give you your money back when this happens? Don’t you pay for a seat?

Tony Blair retires, and Britain falls.

By: Tyra

Tyra — Thu, 10 May 2007 12:14:10 +0000

Aloo kay pharatas!

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 10 May 2007 08:47:22 +0000

Actually, they were Aloo Ge Paratis if we’re going to be picky. It was an ice-cream tub full of them. At least fifteen adults got some, I reckon.

There was also a party of Australians who offered me a vodka and coke, and I had a big bar of Cadbury’s chocolate, but neither offering really caught the public’s imagination in the same way as the paratis/chappatis.

Yes, the loaves and the fishes parable captures the atmsophere perfectly.

By: Grannie Rose

Grannie Rose — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:36:18 +0000

How many chappatis and how many passengers? Was it like the loaves and fishes?

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:38:33 +0000

Absolutely. This is the future!