The Mad Bull’s Blog, Version 3

So, what did I do yesterday? Well, I got my “Parent” hat on and went out with Natty to round up some back-to-school items for MBJr. Oh yeah, and ot he got one of those items of clothing that identifies him as a Jamaican! We got the little man his first pair of Clarks shoes! Everybody know say bad man wear Clarks shoes…

Later, MBJr. and I went to Rum Point with a Jamaican bredrin who works at the bank I used to work for. Yup, I do try to maintain all my links with my bredrins dem, you done know! Anyway, his wife and son were here from Jamaica for a visit so we all went to Rum Point and we had a blast. Later, Natty joined us and we went to Bayside Cafe (note: that link is really two links, hover your mouse over the links to see what they are, mah peeps.) where we dined on some irie Indian food. We had a good time.

While we were at Bayside, my bredrin gave us an interesting anecdote: Now he used to work for a big software company and he used to travel all over the world and help install and configure his company’s software at client sites. He also used to code up and implement modifications and interfaces and such delights. Something he said made me ask him if he used to talk to other passengers on the plane when he was flying all over the place. Now I used to do some travelling for my old company too, but I never usually chatted with other people on the plane, but my friend said that he did talk to other passengers and he felt he had met some very interesting people because of it too…

He told me that the best example he had ever heard of with regard to meeting interesting people on airplanes was the story of a software salesman who used to work for his old company as well. This guy, (lets call him Paddy) was one of those people who was deeply interested in only three things : his sales figures, his alcohol, and Manchester United football! He really didn’t do anything else but focus on those three things, and he was a real Man. U. fan who would fly all over the place to go to the games, so much so that when you went into his office, he had things like autographed jerseys, and stadium tickets and tons of other memorabilia framed and hanging on the walls. The story continues… it was an interesting one, my advice to you is to click the link below to continue reading it.

Anyway, one day Paddy had to fly from New York to London, then on to Dublin, which was his hometown. On that flight, he met Nicholas Cage! The funny thing was he didn’t know who Nicholas Cage was! So, he told Nicholas that he was a software salesman and that his company made banking software, and Cage only told him that he worked in the film industry. So there he was on this flight, making conversation with Nicholas, and he discovered that Cage was going all the way to Dublin too, and that he had never been there!

Since they were getting along so swimmingly, he told Cage that he would give him a check while he was in Dublin and show him around, you know, show him the sights, as it were. “As it happens,”, he told Cage, “I am supposed to go to a stag party for a good friend of mine tomorrow night, you could tag along if you like!”. He took Cage’s hotel info, and he had to comment “Wow, for an ordinary bloke, you sure are staying at a swanky hotel!”. Still, he had never heard of Nicholas Cage, so it didn’t occur to him who he was.

So on the appointed night, Paddy showed up at Cage’s hotel, but by this time, he didn’t remember Nicholas’ name properly. He went to the lobby and asked the desk clerk for Nicholas Page. The desk clerk told him that they didn’t have any Nicholas Page there. Paddy told him that Nicholas was there, and that they had shared a flight into Dublin yesterday and that he knew Nicholas was there, and he, (the desk clerk) was to look through the guest list again.

The clerk replied that they did not have a Nicholas Page there! Now, Paddy was under two juice already, so he kicked up the volume a notch and exclaimed that he was there. He began to make a bit of a fuss and demanded to see the manager. Of course, the manager came and also told him there was no Nicholas Page there. Paddy began to get on on real bad in the hotel lobby now, and eventually the manager thought to himself that maybe he should check with Nicholas Cage if he was expecting anyone. After all, even though this noisy, boisterous, half-drunk looking fellow didn’t look like he could possibly have anything to do with someone like Nicholas Cage, based on the way he was behaving, maybe Cage was who he was there to see!

The manager put a call through to Cage’s room and Cage said that he was expecting someone! So he came down and linked up with Paddy and out the two of them sauntered from the hotel! Paddy did notice that the workers in the hotel and some of the guests were looking at them in astonishment as they left, but he was a bit liquored up, so he still didn’t realise who Cage was!

The first time that he had any idea that he was hanging out with a movie star was when he and Cage walked into the stag party! He introduced Cage around to his bredrins, “Hi lads, this is a friend of mine, Nicholas Page.”, at which point one of his friends said, “Wow, where did you meet him? This is Nicholas Cage!”. Paddy said, “Don’t worry, hes alright, I met him on this flight yesterday…”. At this point his friends told him he was a movie star!

Apparently, they had a real good time the night too! In return, Nicholas Cage invited Paddy to a big movie premiere, where lots of movie stars were going to be. Can you believe it, Paddy decided to pass on the invitation! The time the premiere started clashed with a Manchester United match and of course, he just had to be there!

I guess I had better start chatting to people on airplanes, nuh true?!

Bwoy, I do have some interesting stories related to Bayside Cafe, don’t I? Remember the last one I told you?

So anyway, the debugging went well on Friday. I plan to go in to work for a bit today to do some final testing. If the web app makes it through those tests, I will move the code to the production server. I want to go to Seven Mile Beach today too, if time permits, and I also have a little plan in the making to visit Cornerpocket to shoot some pool with my pasero Amal, who is one of the consultants from Infosys who came to install some software at the bank I am now working at.

Amal is supposed to leave for India this Friday, so it will probably be the last opportunity for us to play pool. I will miss him. Truthfully, I find that I liked all the Indians who came to install and config my bank’s software. I’m sorry I didn’t hang out more with the others outside of work. They were a pretty cool bunch!

I wonder if I can get the bank to send me to India for some training or something! Amal assures me that Bangalore is a pretty hot, happening city! We shall see.

Tags: I think its interesting! //