Monday, August 06, 2007

Happens in Helsinki

In the meantime when T Fox was trying to remember what happened during the fifth day, she overheard this conversation in the metro.

Little longhaired, bit chubby girl, around age of 9, wearing shiny fake jewellery, pink dress and white socks sits on the metro with a woman who clearly isn't her closest relative.

Little longhaired girl: Did you watch The Serrano Family at the morning?
Woman: No I didn't. Isn't it for grown-ups? And haven't you been at the summer cabin?
Little longhaired girl: Yes. We've got a new plasma screen in the cabin. And I've got my own telly. My little brother got one too, because he screamed so much and got on everybody's nerves.

Woman: Oh. Haven't you been riding your new bike at all?
Little longhaired girl: No. I have never ridden a bicycle. I might hurt myself. I have tried my father's exercise bicycle once, though.
Woman: Oh. [long silence] Do you often travel by metro?
Little longhaired girl: Yes, quite often. Twice actually. We went to the shopping centre with my mother. She bought me a jacket. And new bra.
Woman: Oh. A new jacket.

Little longhaired girl: Do you want to look at my photos? [shows some photos of a black Labrador Retriever via her shiny new mobile. I look at them too, I think. Sorry, little longhaired girl. I just like to watch other people's photos.]
Woman: Who's dog is this?
Little longhaired girl: She is my aunt's dog. She's so nice. I could punch her straight into the face and she wouldn't say a thing.

I concentrate again on my paper. It tells me about a kleptomaniac Finnish squirrel who steals Kinder Surprise eggs.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha! Wonderful! I've met the gent who wrote that piece for Spiegel. (They're here in Berlin, the Spiegel crowd.) He's awfully nice, so enjoy the article even more. Still, it's very unFinnish to steal.

Taiga the Fox said...

Great :) Tell him that the article was definitely the best one written about the naughty unFinnish squirrel.

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

From your thieving Finnish squirrel, to a shoplifting Scottish seagull (complete with blurry mobile phone video). The Daily Mail claims it prefers Chilli flavour; the BBC says cheese; probably it's just whatever's nearest the door at beak-level.

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Hmm, if this is a trend, that's sort of alarming...


Which reminds me, a seagull stole half my tuna sandwich a couple of weeks ago. I was just sitting there, sandwich in hand, thinking, "Do I really want this whole sandwich? Maybe I'll just have..." Then, whoosh!

Taiga the Fox said...

Maybe it was working for Weight Watchers? The South Beach Diet Seagull?

Sopwith-Camel said...

Perhaps you should travel around all day on the Metro and put together a book full of overheard snippets. I laughed at the little girl's final comment.

I bet you you were just waiting for her to say that her mother's new bra was making noises?

Taiga the Fox said...

Oh, what a fine idea. [If I hadn't the hot office work. It's + 28 C at the moment in Helsinki]

And oh no, the new bra was for the little longhaired girl, not for her mother!