Arms Dealers. I Think.
Woah.
There are two arms dealers sitting behind me at a table of a posh hotel. I’m sitting here because I’m two hours early for a meeting and I want to get some work done. I headed for the cafe bar area which is quieter and set away from the main restaurant where people are having breakfast. Which is the perfect place to discuss weapons systems.
It’s kind of cool. She’s South African and he’s from France. It sounds like he’s interviewing her for a job, because she’s talking about how much she has travelled (China and Middle East) and he’s talking about defence contracts under review. I think maybe I should smoke them both.
“Ah was imprissed with the Im-Icks Fahv Sivin,” she hisses.
“Of course,” he says.
Why do foreign people seem to say “of course” a lot? Maybe they have lots of phrases that mean “of course” that they use in a variety of circumstances but when they speak English they have to make do with the one phrase. In French you have tout a fait and bien sur and exacte they all mean the same thing. Anyway, foreigners seem to say it a lot. They also say “fishes”. (giggle). Feeeesh-ez.
Turns out the Five Seven is a getting a lot of interest in China.
I wonder if the old man drinking orange juice at the bar is the Five Seven. He adjusts a button on his shirt.
I am early for a meeting drinking strong French coffee and eating very sweet pastries and I am wired. Not in the sense that Five Seven might be wired, but in that I expect to crash in about fourty five minutes unless I can keep up the sugar and caffeine intake throughout the morning.
“Zat seestem will be used for Terminal Five,” he says.
Oh bollocks, they could be in the aviation business. French. West London. Lots of international contracts. Makes more sense. My life’s hectic enough, I guess.
Unless Terminal Five is a plan to take out the five biggest cities in South-east Asia.
Five Seven sinks his orange juice and sends a text message.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:48 am
See, this is exactly what I’m talking about. You get all that from a couple of people with funny accents in a restaurant.
Were they there this morning? I wish they’d focus their attention on Terminal 1 first (only when there are no people in it, of course).
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:35 am
It’s so not fair, the most interesting conversations I hear in cafe’s tend to be about how to split the bill or whether the waitress should get a tip or not because the soup was cold.
Then again - you’ve been reading Gompert again haven’t you Cliff?
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:34 am
Russians say “of course” more than most. This is because they’re translating the word “konyechno”, which is used to indicate agreement more emphatically than your standard “yes”, rather like the somewhat archaic German “jawohl”.
However, the trouble with using “of course” instead “yes indeed” or “absolutely” is that it can end up sounding like a mild rebuke, i.e. “any reasonable person would agree with what you’ve just said/asked, so there was scarcely any point in saying/asking it in the first place”.
Which can make Russians sound a little abrupt.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
It’s cliff’s secret life that he can’t tell us about because then he’d have to hunt us all down and kill us.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Ed - I wouldn’t do that. I need the traffic.
Thanks Wendy
Emom - never heard of him -any good?
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:39 pm
What are you worried about traffic for? You ride the bus!
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Totally hilarious.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I agree Mike - it does sound a little abrupt, but I know it’s not. Also - I didn’t know that - thanks alot for the konyechno thing. The French, come to think of it, say “mais oui”, which is both emphatic and friendly. “Mais non” is the opposite, which sounds a little forceful.
Thanks Kathryn. You’ll be pleased to know I’m OK.
Ed - of course.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Emom - never heard of him -any good?
I think you have Cliff
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heads-We-Win-Cognitive-Counterinsurgency/dp/0833040219/ref=sr_1_1/026-4658250-6803622?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187948404&sr=8-1
August 25th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Cliff… she was talking cars to that bloke, Sven. The Mazda MX-5.
More than likely, in that case they were hairdressers. Terminal Five is probably the name of an upmarket salon somewhere. Run by a chap called Heath Row, or something similar I would think. The guy at the bar drinking orange juice was simply a guy at the bar drinking orange juice. It happens.
Either that or they were arms dealers. Of course.
August 25th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Thanks Gargoyle - and welcome. Sven? But he was French. The plot thickens. No one drinks orange juice at hotel bars. I’m not buying it.
And emom - that’s effing* amazing. Your reference was too subtle for me. Not only are paying attention, but you know more about what I’m talking about that I do and you remember it. For everyone else less enthralled by this site (ie, almost everyone), here’s the post this relates to.
*fucking
August 27th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
A car? Hairdressers? Nonsense. An MX57 is a timer that can be used with exposives.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
You are fucking* kidding me.
It says Protected by 500mA hazardous area fuse
I am out of here.
*fucking!
August 27th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Okay, now I’m tittering again.
I know this is the most pointless comment ever, but your 2nd *explanation was possibly even funnier than the first.
You rock.