vendredi 20 février 2009

Terminal stupidity

I'm stood in the queue for security at CDG, on my way to Cork, Ireland.

The woman behind me is a big girl. A big, Irish girl travelling with three kids, two elderly parents and an arse the size of County Kildare. She had a voice and a half on her, and everyone in the line was party to her musings.

"Why is it always the fuzzy-wuzzies who do the security?", she said, to no-one in particular.

Her father grunted and nodded in agreement.

"I bet they put drugs into people's luggage".

Luckily, I was next through the scanner and managed to escape the woman's nasty racism and obvious lack of class.

Getting through security, I find a waiting area that is crowded. really crowded.

There are four flights - Dublin, Cork, Yerevan and Jeddah. The Saudi bunch are keeping themselves to themselves and the Armenians are busy re-packing their hand luggage. Over at the Armenian flight desk there's a guy arguing with the airline rep who says his bag can't go in the cabin.

"Why not?", he said in pigeon French. "I use this bag every day".

"But not to go on aeroplanes, Sir", the representative replied.

"I use it to do my shopping", he said. "It's a perfectly good bag".

He has a point. It is a perfectly good bag for supermarket shopping. But likewise, I can understand why the airline wouldn't want people bringing shopping caddies - for that is what it was - on the plane.

The 'bag' stood four feet high and included a handle that was fixed upright and four wheels, each a good six inches in diameter. The wheels were so big that they had tyres on them.

How he'd managed to get this far with it would be my question, but hey, maybe he'd hidden it from the check-in agents. Maybe they'd just given up trying. Maybe they realised that sometimes it's best to 'pick your battles'.

As I sit and ponder the stupidness of the situation, my reverie is broken. The big Irish girl had arrived and, with her entourage, taken the remaining seats in the area.

"Have you seen all the fucking Paki's here", she announced, again to no-one in particular. "Place smells of fucking curry".

And with one swell foop she'd convinced anyone who still needed convincing that some people should never, ever leave their trailer parks.

22 commentaires:

Henry North London 2.0 a dit…

How true that is

Anonyme a dit…

*shudder* Can someone please escort them back to their confined location and remember to lock the gate in the future?

I once had a very disturbing encounter with an Irish lady who in the waiting lounge at Dublin Airport tried to push a stuffed sheep in my hands claiming 'here, a gift from Ireland'. When I refused to take it (my parents raised me well) she started shouting 'are you racist?! are you German?!'. Unfortunately she was travelling with us to Amsterdam...

Anonyme a dit…

I have previously thought the trailer park mentality was a uniquely American affliction - glad to see every country has their version.

Anonyme a dit…

Just as well there were no little people about !

Daryl a dit…

Why is it always the loudest crassest people who get through security w/o a problem?

Ah .. my word verification is perfect: lowlid

A Lewis a dit…

Oh boy. You outta come and spend a month with me. But, it sounds like you have. I laugh and giggle more than ever. Lock 'em up and throw away the key. But then what would I laugh at????

Anonyme a dit…

she was clearly destined for cork! Are you here yet?

Anonyme a dit…

Ha , you wanna try marrying into a family like that! I reckon its all the nuclear waste in the Irish sea , it breeds a special kind of bigot

Z

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Henry, scary, but true...and all too often.

Marjolein...did the lamb have cocaine in it? is that why she wanted you to carry it?

Anon, yep, every country has it's very own trailer trash...even france.

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Big C, you know it - I once sat next to a dwarf flying from Dublin To Birmingham, but thats another story...

Daryl, who knows - and fools like me get selected for 'extra screening'...

Lewis, it's true, who WOULD we laugh at?

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Alan - I'm here - room 322! yay!

Z - the way I'm going I won't be marrying into any kind of family, he he....

Henry North London 2.0 a dit…

Dont forget to ring the Shandon bells and kiss the blarney stone and be sure to head over to midleton and get whisky tasting

cb a dit…

There are trailer parks in Ireland??

Stew a dit…

Hell is other people.

Who said that?

For a nice Irish woman try Emerald Bile: http://emeraldbile.blogspot.com

You'll like her TBNIL

Louise a dit…

They have trailer parks in Europe?

I hate people like that. Really hate them.

Once I was at an International Festival, and PC and I actually overheard someone saying, "No one is speaking English. What kind of place is this?" I think I hate a lot of people actually.

Anonyme a dit…

And these examples of pond scum are allowed to breed! It's a funny old world.

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Henry, I've done the Blarney stone and all that before - this trip is about drinking and, curiously, blogging....

Aims, but as VM says, racism happens both ways. It's not just one colour/creed/sexuality that is prone to prejudice...it's a human condition.

CB - there are, but it was kind of a figure of speech...he he

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Stew, I'll check her out...although I need to shake of this hangover first. Ireland tends to do that to a boy....

VM, you don't need an education and a wide view to know that some views are best not broadcast...surely?

Louise, the trailer park thing exists, but it was just a figure of speech, honest! The thing that worries me is that the media encourages such divisive thinking a lot of the time....don't get me started on the daily mail...

Hi Rob! And often they breed only too well. Maybe we need better TV programming to keep them in front of the television and away from the bedroom!

Louise a dit…

THE MEDIA ENCOURAGES THIS RIDICULOUS BEHAVIOR???

Maybe so they can have fights--something interesting to cover?

Yeah, don't get me started on the media. But ours is different.

Anonyme a dit…

Dear god. I wouldn't have known what to do - tempting to say something back to idiots like that but never worth it.

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Louise, the british media certainly encourages some of these viewpoints - well certain newspapers do, at least. Nasty.

12oti - hard to ignore but I was a little bit scared of her tbh...

Victor a dit…

I hope she was served a curry meal on her flight.