Subscribe...

Thursday 11 December 2008

You know how to whistle don't you......

I'm a whistler. I love few things more than a satisfying tuneful whistle whilst I bob along listening to whatever it is the old iPod has randomly selected to fill my ears with. I whistle because my singing is awful, not that stops me very often. But whistling is more preferable and less likely to cause outrage on the bus, my voice being awful enough to cause outrage. But after Wednesday's shenanigans in town I may have to give up whistling as well. It was all just a misunderstanding but it left me red faced and forced me to unplug my headphones and wander with nothing but my own thoughts for company. Scary moments I can tell you.

cheeky santa plays a sad trombone
just for you.....


I was bobbing along listening to The National whistling away and somewhat unaware of my general surroundings, as you do when you are having a footloose and fancy free afternoon. When I whistle with the iPod on I tend to just whistle to selected parts of the tune. If you were listening to me whistle you would have no clue as to what I was listening to. After a while I found myself in the queue in Boots the Chemist. The queue was long and people were budging and bodging in that extra special way they like to at christmas time. Oh yes the atmosphere was just "special". Tis the season to be jolly, apparently.

The chap in front of me was a large specimen of manliness and he didn't appear to be enjoying the intricacies of the Boots queueing system. He huffed and he puffed and he appeared to be trying to make the people in front of him move quicker with his eyes. Needless this wasn't working for him. I was in no hurry so I just whistled away the time and shuffled forward as the the queue snaked it's way closer to the tills. Yer man was getting more and more tense, I could see him huffing and lipread his muttered swearing. I'm not sure my whistling was helping him much. I was fucking positive it wasn't helping when he turned round sharply and said, well I didn't get it first time as I had my headphones on. But he helpfully repeated it.

"Did you just fucking wolf whistle at me, mate?", he seethed through gritted teeth.

"Me?"

"Aye fucking you, you wee fat...."

"Woah, I've no idea what you're on about. I was whistling to the iPod." I said this more forcefully than I would normally when faced with a 6 foot oaf as Boots is crawling with security guards.

"Well knock it fucking off", says he and he stuffed his shave cream and hand wipes(?) onto the nearest shelf and stormed off pushing past people in the queue. Charming I'm sure. I did decide to switch the old iPod off though, just in case he came back. That's the second time I've done that. It was all frightfully embarrassing.

Still not as embarrassing as the woman who demanded to speak to the Glorious Leader on Friday night. Bear in mind this happened at about half seven on a Friday night in December. That's prime time. Whilst the gravy wasn't hitting the fan it was perilously close. All the waiter chums were deep into to turkey town by this point. It would be safe to say these turkeys were moving quicker in death than they ever managed in life. They had reached their little turkey destinies and the chef hadn't let them down.

All was well so it was with some surprise that we found out that somebody was demanding to speak to him. He doesn't like facing punters with no knowledge of what their problem is as he cant trot out any of his prepared lines. Off he fearlessly tottled leaving us to fret that we had done something wrong. Had someone noticed that gravy spill on their coat? Did table six hear my opinion of her haircut, not good by the way - looked like a skunk, a skunk I tells ye! Whatever it was we didn't know, which left us unable to get out stories straight. We would have to wing it.

He arrived back ten minutes later seething with passive aggressive rage. Sometimes I just wish he would join me in the darkside and let the rage out. Lovely lovely rage. This is what he told the huddled group of waiter chums.

"Yes madam how can I help?"

She stood there with her arms out stretched and looking all around the room. "Help me? Look?"

"Eh, at what?", says the coffee drinker-in-chief.

"LOOK!"

"At what?" He has a tremendous ability to stay calm.

"There's no one dancing" said she and pointed at all the people not dancing but seemingly having a good time.

"Okay and ...?"

"Make them dance", insisted the crazy woman.

"Make them dance? How should I make them dance?", enquired the boss. Now see I would have reached for the stabbing fork right at that point. Make them dance? Get away and shake yerself. A Sad Trombone moment if ever there was one.

There then ensued, an apparently, lively discussion about how it was the bosses fault that people weren't dancing and that it was his responsibility to make them dance as it was ruining her night. I mean what do you do faced with that sort of nonsense? He dismissed her out of hand, what else could you do? She advised him to "go to business school". Ouch, bet he like that.It's just a result she didn't approach me first. God bless the band they really do try but you cant please all the people all the time. Maybe they should try their hand or lips at a bit of whistling, that seems to get people moving!

Mentalists the both of them, the man in Boots the Chemist I mean. Not the boss. Okay maybe the boss too.

19 People trying to get Manuel's attention:

Megan McGurk said...

People are ticking bombs this time of year, aren't they, Manuel?

I was once trapped at an airport gate with a bunch of dudes going to a barbershop quartet conference. After the fourth jaunty tune, I flipped out and screamed at them to shut the fuck up.
They gave me the same wary reaction.

Manuel said...

medbh: hahahahahahaha seriously you have to write that story up! There was a guy on saturday night who lost it bad, tears and shouting and swearing. He punched his boss and got arrested. Poor guy. It was the whole xmas thing that set him off...not so jovial....

savannah said...

that's what happens when people forget it's a birthday party, not a shopping holiday! (hehehehe)

(ok, i had a really funny remark, but then i thought better, i mean, me not being a celebrant and all yanno?)

xoxoxo

Manuel said...

savannah: love it....but you go ahead and post what you want.....

purplegirl said...

DANCE, BITCHES, DANCE!!!

Native Minnow said...

STOP WHISTLING AT ME!!!

The Mistress said...

Sad trombone made my day.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it is the time of year. A lot of people I served tonight couldn't wait to pay their bill.I would drop the bill and do something quick and lo and behold they were walking away to find anyone to pay their bill. Christ don't they have two minutes.I hate that stuff. Real class of society people too, yeah right!

Nil Zed said...

it's that time of year when people are determined to have fun, dammit!

Manuel, check out notalwaysright.com. If there is any day your own selection of idiots doesn't give you enough cause for drink, this is an ample back up supply.

Anonymous said...

So that was YOU behind me in boots!

Ah, the dreaded office party is tomorrow night Manuel - please make it go away.
Can I borrow your stabbing fork?

Unknown said...

It must be a race memory Titanic sort of thing. The ship is going down with all hands so get ye whistling and dancing.

Manuel said...

purplegirl: precisely....

minnow: you wish

mj: it is so so good eh?

steve: oh yeah it's a fun time of the year eh

nil zed: i just did and it's quality....

sheepo: you bloody wish! Staff party eh...anywhere nice? are you going to deanes?

conan: my ship wont go down....not yet...

Unknown said...

You got dangerously close to quoting Dido just there...

Anonymous said...

Make them dance...hehehe...you should have started doing a jig or something. That would have thrown everyone off.

Anonymous said...

gosh everyone seems to be in bad form of late must be the xmas pressure getting to them. it must be so,ehting to do with the full moon or something.

Mind you i had the same experience last night in work. Someone decided to put on frosty the snowman on repeat on the ipod and to say the least when it came to serving one of my tables i nearly got stabbed with a fork and other mear objects. have to say that i am not so fond of frosty anymore.

Jenny said...

My BIL works for a crisis clinic and the number of phone calls to their hotline DOUBLES between Thanskgiving and New Year's.

Anonymous said...

Waiter, waiter, a moment please of your precious time. Sir, I am forever in your debt for that sad trombone which I immediately added to one’s favourites. We are very pleased. But, desist with the pursing of lips and those National chaps, and dance man, dance for the little people you know. Away with you now.

Megan McGurk said...

Punched his boss?
Now that's an Xmas party!

Anonymous said...

成人電影,情色,本土自拍, 情色聊天室, 寄情築園小遊戲, AV女優,成人電影,情色,本土自拍, A片下載, 日本A片, 麗的色遊戲, 色色網, ,嘟嘟情人色網, 色情網站, 成人網站, 正妹牆, 正妹百人斬, aio,伊莉, 伊莉討論區, 成人遊戲, 成人影城,
ut聊天室, 免費A片, AV女優, 美女視訊, 情色交友, 免費AV, 色情網站, 辣妹視訊, 美女交友, 色情影片 成人影片, 成人網站, A片,H漫, 18成人, 成人圖片, 成人漫畫, 情色網,
美女交友, 嘟嘟成人網, 成人貼圖, 成人電影, A片, 豆豆聊天室, 聊天室, UT聊天室, 尋夢園聊天室, 男同志聊天室, UT男同志聊天室, 聊天室尋夢園, 080聊天室, 080苗栗人聊天室, 6K聊天室, 女同志聊天室, 小高聊天室, 情色論壇, 色情網站, 成人網站, 成人論壇, 免費A片, 上班族聊天室, 成人聊天室, 成人小說, 微風成人區, 色美媚部落格, 成人文章, 成人圖片區, 免費成人影片, 成人論壇,
日本A片, 愛情公寓, 情色, 舊情人, 情色貼圖, 情色文學, 情色交友, 色情聊天室, 色情小說, 一葉情貼圖片區, 情色小說, 色情, 色情遊戲, 情色視訊, 情色電影, aio交友愛情館, 色情a片, 一夜情, 辣妹視訊, 視訊聊天室, 免費視訊聊天, 免費視訊, 視訊, 視訊美女, 美女視訊, 視訊交友, 視訊聊天, 免費視訊聊天室, 情人視訊網影音視訊聊天室, 視訊交友90739, 成人影片, 成人交友, 本土自拍, 免費A片下載, 性愛,
成人交友, 嘟嘟成人網, 成人電影, 成人, 成人貼圖, 成人小說, 成人文章, 成人圖片區, 免費成人影片, 成人遊戲, 微風成人, 愛情公寓, 情色, 情色貼圖, 情色文學, 做愛, 色情聊天室, 色情小說, 一葉情貼圖片區, 情色小說, 色情, 寄情築園小遊戲, 色情遊戲情色視訊, 情色電影, aio交友愛情館, 言情小說, 愛情小說, 色情A片, 情色論壇, 色情影片, 視訊聊天室, 免費視訊聊天, 免費視訊, 視訊美女, 視訊交友, 視訊聊天, 免費視訊聊天室, a片下載, aV, av片, A漫, av dvd, av成人網, 聊天室, 成人論壇, 本土自拍, 自拍, A片,成人電影,情色,本土自拍,