Almost Strangers... on a Train
You've always wanted to act out your Jesse and Celine meet aboard train fantasy but the fear of rejection has kept you in check... or it may simply be that you're willing to park the Ipod and engage in intellectual debate or brush up on your French skills. But what if the person next to you is really dull or unwilling to converse?
If you are traveling within France, then a new passenger-matching service available in certain TGV routes might be the answer to your problems. As I read (with some amazement) in today's online Telegraph:
For a surcharge of £1, you can arrange to sit next to other passengers with similar interests. Fancy discussing the finer points of Freud, Wittgenstein or the socio-economic impact of the Kama Sutra on rural society? Or how about a game of cards, a serious chat about football or a Sudoku challenge? All possibilities save one are available to passengers who log on to www.idtgvandco.com and surf profiles of other passengers already booked on their train.
Will it catch on? Well, if it does the idea could soon spread over to planes, bars and - why not - supermarkets and bank queues... but no talking about the weather or you're out of the game!
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3 comments:
That leaves no room for chance :-(
As Caetano would say :
Quem é você, qual o seu nome
Conta pra mim, diz como eu te encontro
Mas deixa ao destino, deixa ao acaso
Quem sabe eu te encontro de noite no Baixo*
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Chance also plays a big part on the second Jesse and Celine movie.
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*
Who are you, what's your name
Tell, how do I find you
but leave it to fate, leave it to chance
maybe I meet you at the Baixo
Dear NH,
maybe I am an anti-social, but I hate engaging on small talk with anyone in planes, trains... Amazing how people just start talking to you without having anything interesting to say. The worse for me was to catch buses in Rio... every single time, I'd have and old lady next to me to talk about how things had changed, how skirts were too short and so on...
That is why I love the anti-sociality that my ipod gives me!! I'd much rather listen to one of those brilliant BBC podcasts.
But I wouldn't refuse talking to Jesse...
Roberto,
Sadly it seems this train leaves no room for chance - but it may get 2 people engaging in interesting discussion whereas before they might not even have been aware of each other?
D,
Perhaps they should equally work on matching the profiles of those who just want the quiet trip? Like you, I can think of nothing worse than flying long haul next to a chatterbox
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