Friday, February 29, 2008

Not a very well planned walk

So apparently, some hippy freeconomist that wants to scrap money, decided to walk from Bristol to India with no money and rely on the kindness of strangers but had to stop at Calais because he didn't speak French. Whilst I can't stop laughing at the guy for thinking that everyone would understand him, it's the bit on the BBC website that says the following that I am bemused by.
He now plans to walk around the coast of Britain instead, learning French as he goes, so he can try again next year.
He is aware that France does not share a border with India right? Should we tell him? Via email maybe? Think he uses it? Or should we just wait until next year for the story about how he got to Germany and turned around again? We get to laugh again too if we do that!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Titter ye not, Dizzy. This country has always had a soft spot for lovable eccentrics aka raving lunatics.

kinglear said...

Who paid for his ferry over to calais? And back because I bet the ferry companies didn't give them to him for free.

Anonymous said...

trumpeter, the guy isn't an eccentric or even a raving lunatic. Just an ignoramus who is a sad indictment of the crummy education foisted on our children.

I heard Steve Berry (another fucking ignoramus) sounding off on Five Live about how no one needs to learn a foreign language as most people speak English nowadays.

Has he ever been to France or Germany? I work in Northern France and have had to learn to speak French otherwise I would starve to death.

JuliaM said...

"He is aware that France does not share a border with India right? Should we tell him? Via email maybe? Think he uses it?"

Oh, better than that! He has a blog...! Check out Mr Eugenides' site for details.

Ttony said...

No. Next time, he walks around France learning German. Then next time he walks around Poland learining Polish. And we never see him again.

Anonymous said...

so walking round the British Coast will enable him to learn French!! I reckon he'll turn back just outside Porthmadog - they certainly don't speak English there and while in Fraserburgh or Peterheid, they may officially speak English, but even someone like me born and brought up in Scotland is struggling.
The word "numpty" comes to mind

Anonymous said...

This clown should be totally ignored or told to get a job. Walking around living on other people's money / sitting at home in front of the plasma with a beer and a bag of crisps supplied by other people's money. What's the difference?

dreamingspire said...

I well remember an episode from the 1960s. A truck from Bulgaria arrived in Manchester to pick up some engineering equipment (yes, we did trade with them in those days). We learned later that the truck had brought eggs to the UK. The driver spoke no English but had found his way to our site. It was necessary to explain to the driver some essential things to ensure that the equipment was safely transported, and this was solved because the driver spoke the lingua franca of the eastern block, namely Russian. An eastern European couple working in the factory helped - he spoke English and his native tongue, and she spoke Russian and the same native tongue but curiously extremely poor English. Thus was communication established.

jailhouselawyer said...

The same thought struck me that he would need to learn more than French for the next trip.

Why he was mistaken for a freeloading beggar...isn't that what some one is who puts his hand out and expects something for nothing? I didn't notice him offering to work for his fare...

Anonymous said...

I don't want to sound too radical but maybe he could get someone to donate him some phrasebooks.