Regional Differences

[eFestivals]

Having said that, a quick hello or a brief comment on how shit the weather is or the football if it's relevant is always nice. Just don't carry the conversation on for more than 2 mins.

For me, that's the problem. Two seconds I'm happy to do, but i don't want to have to stop what i'm trying to do to strike up even a brief convo i've no interest in having.

[russycarps]

Piss heads in the boozer are the worst. I'm good at non-commital one word grunts that usually means they get bored and move on to someone else but r lass fills any awkward silence with questions. Then whinges that she always gets stuck with them!

Cyrilst

you're a southerner in a northerners body....

[feral chile]

I do that with the parking permits still in london! Oh crap I bet people think I'm a nutter....

or Welsh....

[feral chile]

Piss heads in the boozer are the worst. I'm good at non-commital one word grunts that usually means they get bored and move on to someone else but r lass fills any awkward silence with questions. Then whinges that she always gets stuck with them!

Cyrilst

I can't handle conversations when I'm drunk anyway, especially convoluted ones. Or those ones where people get maudlin, as I tend to get lively and giggly. And much less sympathetic and more impatient than sober.

[russycarps]

fuck you c**t-face. *

*I consider this less insulting than what you've just said to me.

That's fine. In london that's what we say to each other instead of "hello"

[feral chile]

I thought most people did this. That's why the robbing bastard private car parks make you put your reg no into ticket machine

It was a bit of a culture shock living in inner city Cardiff where people didn't tend to do things like this.

[russycarps]

Seriously though, the missus is terrible.

In a pub after a festival, drunken (absolutely trolleyed) Lancashire teenage army person asks for a light and sits next to four of us. He'd "lost" his mates (I reckon they'd left him) and didn't know where the camp site was (just round the corner) and asked if he could walk round with us. He started talking about Iraq and Afghanistan. 3 of us just ignored him, with the odd "really" or "no" while we carried on our own conversation. She actively engaged in conversation so we left her to it.

Then there was a long silence. He was drunkenly just staring into his pint. She went "so, do you think we should have withdrawn from Iraq?" 3 of us at the same time under our breath, "for fuck's sake."

We got him back to the camp-site (I'm not a totally heartless person) and disappeared to our tent. (I'm convinced he would have tried to come over and bore us all for a few more hours if we hadn't lost him once in the camp-site).

that is horrendous. Your missus is an utter liability!

[russycarps]

Tell me about it. Then I get "can't believe you left me with him" or somesuch. She was leathered and isn't normally THAT bad, but bad enough.

In contrast, back at the campsite her sister nipped to the loo. when she came out of the toilet block, he was there

and saaid, "I was talking to some people at the pub and they walked me back. I can't find them. She said "good luck" and ran off.

R lass would have brought him back with her, I'm sure.

what festival was this? I want to ensure I never ever go to it!

[LondonTom]

Other month I was having my hair cut and the woman was telling me all about how her mother-in-law had dementia and was in a care home and all the neglect and the legal battles her husband was having with the home. I won't go back there again. I just sat in silence, occasionally going "oh."

Agreed, nothing worse than being traped by a hairdressers chair of tourture as they try and make small talk with you. Gawd! "Going somewhere special?" Nah just cut my hair so I can get it looking somewhat aceptable for work in about 2 minutes of a morning and preferably in silence unless you find some abnormality with my hair you need to ask about

[grumpyhack]

I find it odd the number of people who've said they don't want to engage with strangers, yet one of the joys oft proclaimed about Glasto is the joy of just chatting to randoms.

I live half way up a mountain about 25 minutes out of Cardiff in a spot where there are four houses relatively close together. We all have keys to each other's houses just in case there might be a problem.

On hairdressers;when I went in for my pre-Glasto shearing the other day Sian who cuts my hair said: "I like your new kitchen - really nice colours." At first I was a bit perplexed till she explained that when Mrs GH had gone in for a hair do she'd shown her pictures on her phone.

After that the chat was largely about Glasto and who I'd be seeing. Nowt wrong with that surely.

Edited June 20, 2014 by grumpyhack

[russycarps]

everyone at glastonbury is cool though, whereas everyone in the real world is a dick

[russycarps]

You wouldn't ever travel this far North for it mate. You've probably never heard of it.

It's bingley.

I have heard of it. Though I peeked at this years headliners and would probably not attend.

I used to go to solfest every year, thats a proper northern festival!

[eFestivals]

I find it odd the number of people who've said they don't want to engage with strangers

No, it's not that, not that at all.

It's the expectation those strangers have that I want to engage with them.

Just because I don't want to it doesn't mean I'm rude or snooty or unfriendly, it just means i want to be doing something else right now.

(I am often rude, but that's something else entirely ).

Edited June 20, 2014 by eFestivals

[feral chile]

I find it odd the number of people who've said they don't want to engage with strangers, yet one of the joys oft proclaimed about Glasto is the joy of just chatting to randoms.

I live half way up a mountain about 25 minutes out of Cardiff in a spot where there are four houses relatively close together. We all have keys to each other's houses just in case there might be a problem.

On hairdressers;when I went in for my pre-Glasto shearing the other day Sian who cuts my hair said: "I like your new kitchen - really nice colours." At first I was a bit perplexed till she explained that when Mrs GH had gone in for a hair do she'd shown her pictures on her phone.

After that the chat was largely about Glasto and who I'd be seeing. Nowt wrong with that surely.

yes, when I first moved to Cardiff I felt really intimidated and was pretty shy to start with. Then my mum came to stay, to help out after my baby was born. And after that, the lady in the corner shop, who I'd seen every day for a year with just the usual handing over of coins and polite thank you's, asked after me, my family, and everyone I'd ever known, as my mother had passed on my life story, and probably that of every person in the Valleys that she knew. She probably knew more about my background than my husband!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

He thinks you are shagging his wife...

They are both OAP's. Could it be possible that he actually thinks I might be shagging his wife? Maybe. It's not like paranoia can't be ruled out when you are older - he says brushing what he thinks is a fruit bat off his shoulder!*

I have another theory. I think you are right in that the bloke is insane with rage at me because he 'knows' (ie. in his own mind) that I've rear gunned his wife. However, he can't say fuck all and involve the law because he is a Nazi war criminal and doesn't want to take the risk. I think I've got him by the bollocks.

I've just had a moment of clarity in that here's only one way to test out my Nazi theory - when he walks out of his house for the first time later this morning, I'm just going to walk over to him and grab his nuts. If he, in turn, nuts me in the head then I'll know that my Nazi theory is wildly inaccurate and that it's time to go back to the drawing board. And the A&E unit. If, however, he doesn't say a word, but tries to communicate his displeasure with his eyes and by quivering ever so slightly, then I'll know full well that he is indeed a Nazi. It's the only conclusion to draw.

[crazyguy]

pretty much, yeah - cos it's mainly the nutters who'll do that. You might well find that people move away from you, not wanting to get involved in a convo with a nutter.

Are they more understanding if you've got a northern accent?

Also something I've always wondered, I live in the north by the way, I don't often talk to strangers for no good reason going about my daily business unless they talk to me; but on occasion something will happen and both me and the person nearby will laugh or smirk, as soon as eye contact is made I say something to break the silence and tend to have a little convo with them, would this be acceptable in London?

(Also the stereotype that northerners are all in your face overly friendly types being touted in this thread is bollocks.)

[midnight]

Yes, I think that would be perfectly acceptable in London and has happened to me lots of times here, even on the tube. But I've only been living in London for a mere 22 years, so what do I know?

[Jackmypie]

everyone at glastonbury is cool though, whereas everyone in the real world is a dick

Realest post I've ever read!

[LondonTom]

but on occasion something will happen and both me and the person nearby will laugh or smirk, as soon as eye contact is made I say something to break the silence and tend to have a little convo with them, would this be acceptable in London?

The mistake you made here is making eye contact, it is a well known fact you only make eye contact with a stranger if you wish to fight someone in London

[eFestivals]

The mistake you made here is making eye contact, it is a well known fact you only make eye contact with a stranger if you wish to fight someone in London

Or shag them.

[feral chile]

so what do you do in lifts then? do you break the awkward silence or get freaked if someone else does?

[Essex_George]

so what do you do in lifts then? do you break the awkward silence or get freaked if someone else does?

Depends on how you plan to break the silence

[feral chile]

well the only lift I use is in work, so it's easy to have a collective moan about whatever work change is happening this 5 minutes. A young workmate of mine, who fancied another staff member, used to fantasize about being alone in the lift with her. I did suggest that being trapped in an enclosed space with an amorous male might not elicit the best seduction response in the world, despite what TV might suggest.

Edited July 4, 2014 by feral chile

[russycarps]

so what do you do in lifts then? do you break the awkward silence or get freaked if someone else does?

my god, you never ever EVER speak in lifts!

[feral chile]

I'm starting to seriously worry about what people make of me now. I feel compelled to break any silence because it feels hostile, and I smile a lot, at randoms as well as people I know. I haven't noticed people backing away nervously.

it works well over the phone though - I got told my customer would pray to Allah for a long and healthy life for me, and several customers passed on their good wishes. (maybe this is the first indication that the government is tampering with water supplies to produce a chemically induced bonhomie in an effort to avoid austerity resistance...)