Tuesday 17 October 2017

#284 Bothering strangers in London to ask them questions part 2

I stood leaning against a clock, watching the passers-by. There were plenty of them. It was five o'clock and the buildings had started emptying. I sized up each commuter. Which of them looked like they wanted attention? It was only the second time I'd undertaken the "ask a stranger" exercise and I was already bored of it. Still, it was good practice in case I ever became homeless.

Two men spotted me and headed my way. One wore a white T-shirt. The other was carrying a camera. "Could we ask how you feel about the weather?" they asked me. "It's crazy" I told them "I've never seen anything like it. I've lived here a good few years and it's never been like this before." I meant it. An hour earlier, the sky had suddenly turned a dark mustard colour. Apparently sand had blown over from the Sahara, courtesy of hurricane Ophelia. Thanks Ophelia.

"Can you help me?" I asked them "I'm meant to request a favour from a stranger as part of an exercise". "You could borrow someone's pen" said White T-Shirt. "Do you have one?" I asked him. "I meant that's what you could ask someone". "I wanted to ask you" I said, in a slightly parental tone. "Well... you might appear on TV" he tried "that's kind of cool". "That was you asking me for a favour" I told him, now almost snarling. "How about a selfie?" I reasoned. "Ok" he said "but it has to include Gary as well".

Me, White T-Shirt, Gary

5 comments

Fizzfan said...

Well that sounded like an interesting little interlude. Wonder what the TV reference was?
Do you think you’re benefitting from your exercises?

Funny you should mention the sky phenomena........I was driving back from my Mums yesterday around 6pm and became aware of the weirdness of the lighting effects while the sun was setting. The sky was very grey ahead of me but the sun was extremely bright and very orange to the side. It created an strange effect where all the trees looked very dark below but their canopies were almost illuminated in a very brightly lit orange glow. It was quite lovely and a bit eerie.

Profound Familiarity said...

People keep asking me if I'm benefiting from things soon after I've done them. Can you ask me again in two years' time please? :)

I guess the sky's back to normal today although I haven't actually checked.

Running on empty said...

Love this post! You look great! Nice guys.

Profound Familiarity said...

Aww bless you Cath

Fizzfan said...

Have you seen Alan Brennan’s social media rant about the Hurricane? I want more news coverage like that!