Yet, I’m on the avoid list in my own country with women at least…
What triggered this off is I was talking to a friend I know of, a lady I know from college and is currently elsewhere and spoke about my experiences. I mentioned that I find it difficult to get a date – well attention as well, but I didn’t mention that, unless you are J and sit opposite me saying nothing and her friends know my name.
This is the weird bit, a lot from memory as in recent times, I’ve not gone far from my home land, but when I do travel, my popularity and in some cases, a lot of those that aren’t native to the UK do take an interest. I don’t know if it is because I am one of the 1.5% natural redheads, but still. It gets better.
So when I was younger, my mum (also a redhead) used to go travelling with me on holidays and we went to Malta, the trouble is, the number of redheads further south even though I’m actually ginger is quite rare, so I got A LOT of attention with my hair. Apparently, the locals kept rubbing my hair for good luck which as I am quite tall, they still would now given half a chance I guess. So there is that.
Now, I went on a school day trip and I never said this to a teacher at the time as I disregarded it but I was 15 in about 2001, in Dieppe in France, got temporarily separated from my group and I wasn’t that well, but recovering. Got a Crêpe from a stall, went to catch up with my group and felt something rather warm against my backside, thinking “what the hell”? Looked around and there is an older French lady that decided that she would put her hand on it which really surprised me, of course after that, I didn’t go abroad for many years (broke, student, struggling to get jobs, I’ll have to talk about that another time and how I ended up going on benefits and coming off them – I’m embarrassed about it).
So, I ended up goi
ng abroad with someone I knew from school, we started going initially Dublin in June 2022, here’s a photo to enjoy (one of the rare ones on my blog.) I’ve adjusted it so the colours come out better as it was shot on an Apple iPhone XS Max.
And on the way back (it was a day trip), I did managed to take this photo and it was shot at 22:20 on the 21/06/2022 between Dublin and Liverpool, so somewhere over the Irish Sea on a Boeing 737 Max8.
So, that was my first trip to Dublin, the photo I didn’t explain what happened, more over, the train that it happened on. What happened?
Apart from my friend having a massive meltdown because his phone wouldn’t work and wouldn’t let me reason at the time as I tried to offer him my phone as mine worked (which worked after he calmed down eventually), I was going to get a spare SIM for him – oh and lesson learnt, TAKE A SPARE PHONE with you. Just a cheap one, you never know when you need it, especially if it has interchangeable SIM cards as you can get a local sim and keep using a phone for the time being. I was thinking for if my phone got nicked, but now its more for communication. Anyway..
Well… my friend and myself went on the DART system, we sampled the best EMU’s that Irish Rail had to offer. So went between Greystones and Howth which was OK, we got our flight back. Got between Dun Laoghaire station to Howth and used the Howth branch (which goes past Sutton – no not Sutton, Surrey!). During this trip through the northern part of Dublin, 3 young ladies got on and kept themselves to themselves, then they wanted to get off at Killbarrick and the unit as we discovered had on one set, a set of doors locked out at the southern end that confused a lot of passengers. So I point out to these young ladies that its out of use, from what I remember, they were thankful, got a kiss blown and some other interesting flirtatious stuff with a lady passenger next to us laughing and my friend was like “You’ve pulled.” The worst bit is, their ages, think nearer to 13-16 and you’ll be right. After that, I kept a wide berth, I prefer someone nearer to my own age, thank you very much! (Not the first time that has happened, a 16 year old asked me out when I was 20 and they got the “no” from me as they were too young.)
Later, I went through Dublin into Northern Ireland via Belfast, didn’t really have much trouble, visited Derry~LondonDerry without any issues and came back without issues, although I worked with a NI lady who I felt was suspect as I tried to work her out later. Especially when I had things left on my desk like a smiley face and a “”Hello”.
Then I went to Dublin in November 2023 again via Rosslaire (we stayed in Wrexford first, as the shot to the left shows – oh there is a railway down there somewhere). Nothing wrong with that, I don’t mind Dublin, has some interesting highlights which include the River Liffey and some parts are quite nice. We stayed in a newly built Premiere Inn which was nowhere near the LUAS tram system. Its in an area of Dublin that looked like it had serious amount of deprovision and they are giving it some serious investment now. To get to the hotel, you had to go through after I looked it up an area called “The Liberties”, which is an area to avoid. Ok during the day but by night? A whole different story.
F
irst night, I got stopped 3 times. Once by 2 ladies blocking my way, they didn’t stop my friend, no it was me, “Excuse me, have you got a euro?”, “Sorry, I don’t and I’m not from around here either” and left it at that. The fact there were 2 women, one older and one younger, the younger one asking, gets me suspect and it was just me they targeted. So I got stopped further down with the same question with a similar response and again, I was the only one stopped. A beggar further down asked, but I ignored them.
The next night, guess what? I got stopped and had a lot of attention. I’m quite wary as I carry a bit more interesting stuff that an opportunist would find interesting and most wouldn’t take on me due to my height and size anyway, although my way with dealing matters is not to out do their strength but to out smart them – you win a battle much easier that way.
So I got stopped for euros a few times but then there was this lady that suddenly latched on to me metaphorically. I got followed, she was talking about something random and to be honest, I was concentrating where I was going rather than listening to her blabbering. Got an art of talking really fast and what I got, she wanted to get a jar of coffee, but doesn’t know if she’s got the right amount of money going to Tesco’s just round the corner. She needs someone to go in with her – from what I understand. I really couldn’t get any heads or tails of it, so said nothing, focused on my friend and my destination. She must of been talking for a good 5 minutes until I said “I’m sorry to say, I don’t carry cash and I am not from around here”, their response was “why didn’t you tell me earlier?”. I should of said nothing and kept going really but by this time, she was 250yards or so from her comfort zone so if I kept going, she would of been closer to a mile. “I’m sorry, are you lost? Tram is that way, good night.”
If you wondering why I was sceptical, this is my take, they possibly trying to lure you into a shop to buy some expensive stuff for them, so it won’t just be cheap coffee but more and more stuff.
Other than that, I’ve not been back since, but I wrote about someone and her friends. Yesterday (13/12/2024), I got on my usual train, got on a different coach, i.e. to the front, someone different in front of me from what I understand (more like an asian lady I think), I didn’t recognise them but I am sure I got a few looks and the usual nothing said and no earphones this time. The table opposite me had one person on it. Got off the train at Waterloo, following the commuters, looked left and got freaked out! It looked like the lady that had been opposite me previously who was walking with me, despite getting off the train long after me.