Farewell Jack!

I am very sorry to hear of the passing of Jack B., a charming old gentleman from Ireland I met through this blog. I liked him a lot.

He wrote to me once telling me that, judging by my blog, I lived in a "beautiful world where everyone smiles." and noted that "wherever you go in the world, and you go to places I've never heard of, everyone smiles at you." and wanted to know how I managed this "great accomplishment."

I thought at the time "Say WOT???" because I've never noticed I'm some great smilee ... but since he mentioned it, I've started to notice, and yes, he's right!  People do smile at me alot.

How to I manage this great accomplishment?  I really have no idea.

Although I guess it could be what Mr Soshitty said to me in Cambodia!  You may recall our friend/stalker in Siem Reap who followed us around for days, just standing off in the distance watching us and grinning his face off.  When I asked him why he said it was because I was funny. And when I got all snitty, "Funny good, not funny bad." were his exact words!

And that was pretty much what that gang of tea-drinking gentlemen in Taiwan told me as well.  I told you the story about getting lost looking for the artist village in Taipei but I never mentioned how, during the three hours I kept trudging those stupid streets, I kept passing the same 'cha chan teng' - a little hole-in-the-wall cafe - full of hostile old 'non-English speaking' men who initially glared at me and refused to answer any questions ... but each time I found myself back there again - and they could see I was so clearly taken aback by such an accident - they started to grin ... and the fifth time I found myself back there, well, it was like the funniest thing they'd ever seen.  Gales of side-slapping laughter.  Good natured laughter, I should add, which was very kind of them!

Six time, well, they called me in, gave me a cup of green tea and, suddenly all English-speakers, asked what I was trying to find - Sun Yat-Sen's house, because it was slap in the middle of the artist village - and then to see my map so they could show me where I should go.

Seventh time I accidentally find myself back there again, and, well, they were weak-kneed with laughter, sure, but also a lot pity for such a directionally-challenged fool that a whole gang of them physically marched me to where I could actually see Sun Yat-Sen's house across the road.

As you know, I arrived too late to go in and that's when they hailed me a taxi and, grinning hugely, told me to go straight back to my hotel because they didn't want to have me wandering around in the dark trying to find my way to anyplace else.  And then, when I got into the taxi, they thanked me for giving them such a hilarious afternoon.

So I think that could well be the reason why people all over the world smile at me:  I'm a heady combination of BENIGN and STUPID, and that's something that translates every place on the planet.

So I would really like to thank Jack B. from Ireland for spotting this.  It's nice to know I live in a nicer world than most people do; a world where everyone is amused, benign and kind-to-idiots.

And also, Jack B. from Ireland, R.I.P.