Interesting people you shared a journey with
Discussion
Just thought this might be a fun subject, where you took a journey on public transport and ended up chatting with someone unexpected and interesting..
I have a couple that spring to mind, the first one my memory was triggered by the recent Boxing discussions.
I jumped on a train from Stafford to London having booked a seat in first class, plonked myself down in the allocated seat to find myself sat next to a very pretty young lady.
We did the usual hello greats then settled into the boredom of a train journey, young lady got a phone call followed by some chap giving her a dirty look and tutting, we were in a quiet carriage, so that was against the law. We just looked at each other and laughed, I pointed out the quiet sign and suggested she pop out the carriage to take the call.
Once that was over she popped back in her seat and we started to chat about what our journey was for, the usual stuff you can chat about. She was travelling from Liverpool to meet her boyfriend who was a professional boxer, we chatted about her modelling and I mentioned 20 years earlier when I was early 20's I had a friend who was a professional model and how it was amazing what you can do with makeup. That gave her a good laugh. We spent the rest of the journey just chatting away, a genuinely nice friendly lady with a great sense of humour.
On arriving in London we said the usual nice to meet you, hope your boyfriend does well in his next fight, that kind of thing and off we went on our journeys. The young lady turned out to be Rachael Cordingley, the then girlfriend and now wife of Carl Froch.
The other was a flight I took on my way back from Taiwan, the main flight was from Hong Kong to London, not something to look forward to in economy class. I get to my seat to find in the next seat was a man mountain of a bloke, seriously massive. He was so wide on the shoulders we couldn't sit side by side with the seats at the same level. This ridiculous situation broke the ice and we had a laugh about it.
I asked him if he played rugby as he looked like a chap from New Zealand, he said he was and he was just heading back after visiting his wife and kids who were back in New Zealand, he was playing in Northern Ireland for Ulster. We got chatting about his future plans and how he was looking to move to mainland UK and was looking at one of the major teams, so we chatted about the area as I knew it a little, talked about cars as that's my thing, just a nice chat with a good bloke.
On landing this chap said see ya and bounded off at Mach 3 for his next flight, quite a sight to see such a big bloke walk so fast!
I thought I would look him up on the internet a few weeks later, turns out I was sat next to world championship winning all black John Afoa, he signed for Gloucester shortly after that journey on the highest paid deal in British rugby. You couldn't meet a nicer bloke.
I have a couple that spring to mind, the first one my memory was triggered by the recent Boxing discussions.
I jumped on a train from Stafford to London having booked a seat in first class, plonked myself down in the allocated seat to find myself sat next to a very pretty young lady.
We did the usual hello greats then settled into the boredom of a train journey, young lady got a phone call followed by some chap giving her a dirty look and tutting, we were in a quiet carriage, so that was against the law. We just looked at each other and laughed, I pointed out the quiet sign and suggested she pop out the carriage to take the call.
Once that was over she popped back in her seat and we started to chat about what our journey was for, the usual stuff you can chat about. She was travelling from Liverpool to meet her boyfriend who was a professional boxer, we chatted about her modelling and I mentioned 20 years earlier when I was early 20's I had a friend who was a professional model and how it was amazing what you can do with makeup. That gave her a good laugh. We spent the rest of the journey just chatting away, a genuinely nice friendly lady with a great sense of humour.
On arriving in London we said the usual nice to meet you, hope your boyfriend does well in his next fight, that kind of thing and off we went on our journeys. The young lady turned out to be Rachael Cordingley, the then girlfriend and now wife of Carl Froch.
The other was a flight I took on my way back from Taiwan, the main flight was from Hong Kong to London, not something to look forward to in economy class. I get to my seat to find in the next seat was a man mountain of a bloke, seriously massive. He was so wide on the shoulders we couldn't sit side by side with the seats at the same level. This ridiculous situation broke the ice and we had a laugh about it.
I asked him if he played rugby as he looked like a chap from New Zealand, he said he was and he was just heading back after visiting his wife and kids who were back in New Zealand, he was playing in Northern Ireland for Ulster. We got chatting about his future plans and how he was looking to move to mainland UK and was looking at one of the major teams, so we chatted about the area as I knew it a little, talked about cars as that's my thing, just a nice chat with a good bloke.
On landing this chap said see ya and bounded off at Mach 3 for his next flight, quite a sight to see such a big bloke walk so fast!
I thought I would look him up on the internet a few weeks later, turns out I was sat next to world championship winning all black John Afoa, he signed for Gloucester shortly after that journey on the highest paid deal in British rugby. You couldn't meet a nicer bloke.
Ended up sat on the train from
Kings Cross to Newcastle with the irratating guy from the windows adverts ... I say you buy 1, ya get one free, ya buy 1 ya get one free!!
He was an ok guy but he was a tad annoying and left a slip of paper with my (female) colleague with his number on to call him ... she never did
Kings Cross to Newcastle with the irratating guy from the windows adverts ... I say you buy 1, ya get one free, ya buy 1 ya get one free!!
He was an ok guy but he was a tad annoying and left a slip of paper with my (female) colleague with his number on to call him ... she never did
I went to the national motor museum, on the way back to the car there was a man studying a bus timetable, he asked for help and i looked at the time table with him. It was late in the afternoon and the last bus had gone. He was a german and had no idea on how to get back to his southampton hotel, it wasnt exactly on my way but I wasnt doing anything else, I gave him a lift.
It turned out he was the son of one of the Generals who plotted to kill Hitler at the end of WW2, they had failed and his father was executed, the family left germany with nothing, in a big hurry. the country was still divided in those that thought Hitler was the best thing ever and others who wanted the war stopped.
My home town was York and I had just bought a copy of a tourists guide to York printed in 1890, I gave him the book and hoped he enjoyed it. A few weeks later he sent me a book, in German, and printed soon after the war as to what life was like in Germany in WW2.
It turned out he was the son of one of the Generals who plotted to kill Hitler at the end of WW2, they had failed and his father was executed, the family left germany with nothing, in a big hurry. the country was still divided in those that thought Hitler was the best thing ever and others who wanted the war stopped.
My home town was York and I had just bought a copy of a tourists guide to York printed in 1890, I gave him the book and hoped he enjoyed it. A few weeks later he sent me a book, in German, and printed soon after the war as to what life was like in Germany in WW2.
Sat on an emirates flight to Singapore back in the early 90's, I had been chatting about rugby and motorsports to the fella sat beside me for a while, he was into his cars and Group B Rally so we got on well. Shortly after, I was watching the sports channel on the very early version of the AVOD they had then. It covered part of a Middle Eastern Rally which had been on the previous month, I took interest in the section they had on the Mistubishi team at the time who were running VR4's.
When the podium shot was on, the guy who was the co driver looked familiar, he should have been, he was the guy sat right next to me. I looked across and he said "yep, it's me", and my mate is up there, pointing to business class. He was a good lad, but the driver was an a
hole, it was quite funny watching him get the cold shoulder from the trolley dollies as he fancied himself and tried to chat them up when he came down to the economy section half pissed.
Another time, I was coming back to the UK on a Gulf Air flight out of Muscat via Bahrain and managed to get a biz class upgrade. When the Bahrain pax came on board, a very sophisticated tall, leggy blonde lady sat next to me. She obviously had expensive tastes , sporting a lot of gold and a rolex. I tried to make small talk, she looked me up and down, smiled, put on her Sony Walkman and ignored me for the entire duration fo the flight. Interesting only from the point of view that she was carrying an inordinate amount of cash in her carry on bag, which I suspect were her ahem..."earnings".
When the podium shot was on, the guy who was the co driver looked familiar, he should have been, he was the guy sat right next to me. I looked across and he said "yep, it's me", and my mate is up there, pointing to business class. He was a good lad, but the driver was an a
hole, it was quite funny watching him get the cold shoulder from the trolley dollies as he fancied himself and tried to chat them up when he came down to the economy section half pissed.Another time, I was coming back to the UK on a Gulf Air flight out of Muscat via Bahrain and managed to get a biz class upgrade. When the Bahrain pax came on board, a very sophisticated tall, leggy blonde lady sat next to me. She obviously had expensive tastes , sporting a lot of gold and a rolex. I tried to make small talk, she looked me up and down, smiled, put on her Sony Walkman and ignored me for the entire duration fo the flight. Interesting only from the point of view that she was carrying an inordinate amount of cash in her carry on bag, which I suspect were her ahem..."earnings".
I was sat next to an Asian woman with a small child on a flight from Bristol to Inverness. She was running away from her abusive husband her controlling family. She was really calm about the entire thing and very matter of fact, she had a friend she was meeting in Inverness and she was more or less going into hiding.
Another that springs to mind is the hitchhiker I gave a lift to. Turned out he was homeless but happy, didn't want to find a new life yet or somewhere to live and was more than happy just travelling around and meeting new people. He'd been very successful at some point and was very well spoken.
Both changed my life in a good way and made me realise things are rarely as bad as you think they are.
Another that springs to mind is the hitchhiker I gave a lift to. Turned out he was homeless but happy, didn't want to find a new life yet or somewhere to live and was more than happy just travelling around and meeting new people. He'd been very successful at some point and was very well spoken.
Both changed my life in a good way and made me realise things are rarely as bad as you think they are.
When I was 17 I was travelling cross-country back to my new accommodation, having moved out the year before. I was travelling with my dad, the first time he'd visited my place.
He wandered off to buy me a beer - we were travelling off-peak, I think it was 10pm on a Saturday. While he wandered off I walked the carriage to go for a pee and saw the only other occupant was a female reading a book, sitting directly opposite us. We shared a quick smile.
She was reading a very popular book that had been released only a few days previous, and I had already finished it. Long story short, I asked her how she was finding it, and we got talking. Spent half an hour in conversation - my old man came back, saw us, and then fked off to the other end of the carriage. I got the woman's number and a peck on the cheek.
As it turns out, she was from quite a famous girl band. She never messaged me back but never mind.
I also met the CEO of one of the largest UK companies on a flight. We were flying business class but had an aircraft substitution, which meant we were sat alongside each other rather than having personal cabins as normal. The chap was a very interesting guy, a lot of stories to tell and could drink for England. I decided to call it quits after two steaks and six pints, when I woke up 4 hours later he was tapping away on his laptop with an empty glass too. If I'd not have known, I'd have said he was pretty much sober after all of that.
I've also accidentally met a WWE wrestler on a plane. Travelling internally in the US and I remember three enormous blokes sitting in the seats next to me (USG policy meant I had to travel first or business - I didn't complain). Didn't pay them much attention but after 45 minutes in the air, two young kids burst through the curtain and shouted "JOHN CENA!!! WE LOVE YOU! PLEASE CAN WE TAKE A SELFIE!!"
Mr Cena didn't mind, and after the kids were quickly ushered out and the cabin secured, I popped by on my way to the loo and caught his eye. I said, "so you're John Cena, eh? Nice to see you in person." He did his little trademark wave and offered a handshake. I shook his hand and wished him the best in his future ventures. He asked for my name, continued the handshake, and thanked me for my discretion. What I didn't tell him was that I was sat in a two-seat grouping with a rather talkative and very attractive young lady. The flight was pretty rough and I was quite happy to have an attractive blonde American asking if she could hold my arm when the turbulence got choppy. fk me, I've never been more thankful for a rough flight.
He wandered off to buy me a beer - we were travelling off-peak, I think it was 10pm on a Saturday. While he wandered off I walked the carriage to go for a pee and saw the only other occupant was a female reading a book, sitting directly opposite us. We shared a quick smile.
She was reading a very popular book that had been released only a few days previous, and I had already finished it. Long story short, I asked her how she was finding it, and we got talking. Spent half an hour in conversation - my old man came back, saw us, and then f
ked off to the other end of the carriage. I got the woman's number and a peck on the cheek.As it turns out, she was from quite a famous girl band. She never messaged me back but never mind.
I also met the CEO of one of the largest UK companies on a flight. We were flying business class but had an aircraft substitution, which meant we were sat alongside each other rather than having personal cabins as normal. The chap was a very interesting guy, a lot of stories to tell and could drink for England. I decided to call it quits after two steaks and six pints, when I woke up 4 hours later he was tapping away on his laptop with an empty glass too. If I'd not have known, I'd have said he was pretty much sober after all of that.
I've also accidentally met a WWE wrestler on a plane. Travelling internally in the US and I remember three enormous blokes sitting in the seats next to me (USG policy meant I had to travel first or business - I didn't complain). Didn't pay them much attention but after 45 minutes in the air, two young kids burst through the curtain and shouted "JOHN CENA!!! WE LOVE YOU! PLEASE CAN WE TAKE A SELFIE!!"
Mr Cena didn't mind, and after the kids were quickly ushered out and the cabin secured, I popped by on my way to the loo and caught his eye. I said, "so you're John Cena, eh? Nice to see you in person." He did his little trademark wave and offered a handshake. I shook his hand and wished him the best in his future ventures. He asked for my name, continued the handshake, and thanked me for my discretion. What I didn't tell him was that I was sat in a two-seat grouping with a rather talkative and very attractive young lady. The flight was pretty rough and I was quite happy to have an attractive blonde American asking if she could hold my arm when the turbulence got choppy. f
k me, I've never been more thankful for a rough flight.Other than being sat next to a few z listers and Bob Geldof who ordered 1/4 of a egg sandwich and a diet coke on the east coast train, The one that I found most interesting was a short flight from Amsterdam back to the UK, a elderly gent full of life and with a massive smile sat down next to me, and said "what a week!"
He proceeded to tell me he was 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment and had helped liberate Arnheim "after one hell of a scrap" and he had spent the week as honoured guest of a nearby town to commemorate those who didn't come back and to give thanks to the servicemen. He said the hospitality of the dutch was overwhelming he couldn't pay for a pint in any pub and he was struck when a little girl said to him, thank you, I am here because you saved my grandparents life.
It was humbling to be in his company, reminding me of my own grandfather and his military service and making me realise the sheer unimportance of the corporate BS politics that was going on with work at the time.
Its probably one of the only occasions I wished a flight was delayed.
He proceeded to tell me he was 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment and had helped liberate Arnheim "after one hell of a scrap" and he had spent the week as honoured guest of a nearby town to commemorate those who didn't come back and to give thanks to the servicemen. He said the hospitality of the dutch was overwhelming he couldn't pay for a pint in any pub and he was struck when a little girl said to him, thank you, I am here because you saved my grandparents life.
It was humbling to be in his company, reminding me of my own grandfather and his military service and making me realise the sheer unimportance of the corporate BS politics that was going on with work at the time.
Its probably one of the only occasions I wished a flight was delayed.
alorotom said:
Ended up sat on the train from
Kings Cross to Newcastle with the irratating guy from the windows adverts ... I say you buy 1, ya get one free, ya buy 1 ya get one free!!
He was an ok guy but he was a tad annoying and left a slip of paper with my (female) colleague with his number on to call him ... she never did
Surely everyone knows his number? its 0800 106 107. I SAID 0800 106 107!!!!!Kings Cross to Newcastle with the irratating guy from the windows adverts ... I say you buy 1, ya get one free, ya buy 1 ya get one free!!
He was an ok guy but he was a tad annoying and left a slip of paper with my (female) colleague with his number on to call him ... she never did
ight, I'll tell you an anecdote. In 1974 I was catching the London train from Crewe station. It was very crowded; I found myself in a last-minute rush for the one remaining seat beside a tall, good-looking man with collar-length hair, it was the seventies; buckaroo! I looked up and saw it was none other than Peter Purves, it was the height of his Blue Peter career. He said, "You jammy bd" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh.
d" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh.
DMN said:
ight, I'll tell you an anecdote. In 1974 I was catching the London train from Crewe station. It was very crowded; I found myself in a last-minute rush for the one remaining seat beside a tall, good-looking man with collar-length hair, it was the seventies; buckaroo! I looked up and saw it was none other than Peter Purves, it was the height of his Blue Peter career. He said, "You jammy bd" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh.
Classic. d" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh.DMN said:
ight, I'll tell you an anecdote. In 1974 I was catching the London train from Crewe station. It was very crowded; I found myself in a last-minute rush for the one remaining seat beside a tall, good-looking man with collar-length hair, it was the seventies; buckaroo! I looked up and saw it was none other than Peter Purves, it was the height of his Blue Peter career. He said, "You jammy bd" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh.
NOW F@CK OFF!!d" and quick as a flash, I replied, "Don't be blue, Peter!" Needless to say, I had the last laugh.I've spoke to quite a few interesting passengers in my 30 years of driving a taxi, but one that sticks out most was a job from the local train station to a religious retreat in the North Wales countryside a couple of years ago.
Two nuns who as well as being sisters were sibling sisters, whilst chatting to them I noticed their accent and asked where they had travelled from, the reply was Argentina but they were of German descent. They moved to Argentina as the war was ending as their father was a high ranking Nazi official, no names were offered or requested by them or myself, they were 7 & 5 at that time.
Their mother was also a respected member of the Nazi party, one of the sisters said she was given a doll by Hitler on her 5th birthday in 1943.
Following their fathers death in 1954 their mother disclosed to them who their father was within the Nazi party and what their father actually did during the war and gave them information as to what role she took. The girls as they were then approaching their late teens and both after some discussion turned to religion and a life of service to atone for their parents deeds.
Obviously the chat was a little longer but I couldn't help but admire them for making such a life changing decision at such a young age and I hoped they felt that they had repaid for their parents misdeeds whatever they may have been.
Two nuns who as well as being sisters were sibling sisters, whilst chatting to them I noticed their accent and asked where they had travelled from, the reply was Argentina but they were of German descent. They moved to Argentina as the war was ending as their father was a high ranking Nazi official, no names were offered or requested by them or myself, they were 7 & 5 at that time.
Their mother was also a respected member of the Nazi party, one of the sisters said she was given a doll by Hitler on her 5th birthday in 1943.
Following their fathers death in 1954 their mother disclosed to them who their father was within the Nazi party and what their father actually did during the war and gave them information as to what role she took. The girls as they were then approaching their late teens and both after some discussion turned to religion and a life of service to atone for their parents deeds.
Obviously the chat was a little longer but I couldn't help but admire them for making such a life changing decision at such a young age and I hoped they felt that they had repaid for their parents misdeeds whatever they may have been.
Shared a taxi with Bonnie Langford, I was about 17, she was about 15. We chatted pleasantly and she was actually very beautiful. About 10 yrs later she nearly ran me over in St Martin's Lane, had to literally dive out of the way as she came flying down the road at double the speed limit, so she obviously bore a grudge over something I'd said to her.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff