The Thompsons Excellent Adventure : ASSumptions, judgements and a slice of culture !!

Over the last thirty years there have been many moments where I’ve been told and sometimes screamed at between gritted teeth not to judge a book by its cover. These little lessons have come in many forms, some of the earliest I remember are on the playground when my mom and dad would tell me not to judge the other kids just because they were different, different came in many forms. The rich kids, the poor kids, there were the kids of Indian decent and of course the black kids all of whom we were taught to treat the same and respect the same. As I remember, I was told a good few times. It seems I was a judgemental bloke right from my early days. (I see Candice nodding profusely in agreement at this sentiment).

A bit later on at school, when I was around the age of ten, I misjudged a new kid that came to our school in the middle of the school year. I was at a small school in a small town and my view of city kids was that they were all gangsters, wore leather jackets and had many girlfriends. I couldn't have been more wrong. This Kid and I ended up being great friends and to this day we still keep in touch.

A few years later these lessons all came in very handy when I was working at my first job as a young truck sales apprentice. I had been sitting at my desk with my feet up staring into the sky, planning my weekend, and I suppose waiting for something to happen when I noticed a middle aged man walking down the road toward my office. The alley way was long so I had a few minutes to thoroughly judge this man quite severely. He was wearing a white shirt that was dirty and full of holes. His pants were threadbare and he had old leather sandals on his feet. An old round fishing hat finished off the ensemble

Now for those that aren't familiar with any form of automotive retail, we get these people we like to call tyre kickers, these are the people that have nothing better to do with their days than to completely waste some hapless sales persons' time, they don't want to buy anything they are just bored and looking for a bit of time away from the wives. Now this man seemed to fit into that category so I automatically assumed he was going to waste my valuable daydreaming time. When I walked out to greet him those little playground lessons came to the forefront of my mind, so I made the decision to not judge him solely on what I had seen,but to give him the chance he deserved ,In the end that turned out to be a great decision. He was in fact a very wealthy local business man who owned an up an coming football side, it was for that very same football team that he ended up purchasing the bus for. Brian and I are still in touch and see each other at least once or twice a year.

Fast forward a good few years and a few thousand kilometres, and I'm sitting as the odd man out at a dinner table in England. Completely out of my depth for a good many reasons, chief amongst these, a glaringly obvious difference in my cultural background, and the fact that I have what I've only just realised (I'm just realising a lot lately) is literally the worst of all the English accents that there are.

The South African accent is without contest the the worst English accent in the world. I googled it to see if I was the only one who thought so, well, I wasn't. According to an unmentioned website
( because im a cheapskate and refuse to pay for content), the reason the South African accent wasn't, and for the foreseeable future wont, be included in any list of great accents is because its and I quote verbatim " The most diabolical accent known to man." and " People cringe at the sound of a South African accent." But enough of that, there is enough material for me to do an entire post about that later.

After spending the better part of ten exasperating minutes trying to explain to the young Thai waitress, who can’t speak a word of English, that I have a rather large allergy to shellfish and that my food should in no way, shape or form be prepared anywhere near the stuff I eventually give up and decide that a few glasses of wine should improve my chances of survival if I somehow didn't manage to get my point across. I carry on chatting to the young black chap next to me , and after a few minutes get told by one of the other guys at our table that "I must feel utterly uncomfortable sat between two blacks". Now this was funny because well it was meant to be, everyone laughed, and I mean everyone. What stuck with me was the next comment made by the other chap I was sitting next to. He said, and I quote “I’m surprised that comment didn't come from the South African!!" Now, I find it completely ridiculous that you could accuse someone of being a racist, by being racist initially. The fact that I'm a white South African does not make me a racist. You assuming and then judging me as a racist just because I am a white

South African makes, you, a racist!

Now Candice suffered, and I use that word very lightly, because it's more of an annoyance than hurtful, a similar incident. She was at a Sainsbury’s, again in England, in the checkout line when a woman asked her if she was South African, I assume she had heard her greeting the cashier when Candice said yes she in fact was, the old wrinkly bird responded with

“Well you're an inherently racist bunch, aren’t you?"

Now I suppose the last fifty years of news coming from the Dark Continent has not been great. It has to a large extent been very one sided and wildly exaggerated by whichever faction has held the majority or not. But need I remind the Brits how they and theirs suppressed and oppressed the boers, scots, Irish, Indians, and Americans, for centuries or has that been conveniently forgotten about?

As I stated above these two occurrences happened in England, fortunately the Irish are a lot less judgemental and don’t assume unnecessarily and incorrectly that you are what the news and your history has claimed you to be That’s why assumptions can be so dangerous hence the saying

Assume makes an ass out of u and me.

I think mostly the Irish understand what it’s like to be judged and persecuted for who you are and what you believe in. On Easter Sunday we took a train ride to Dublin to take part in the 1916 uprising centenary celebrations. This was the uprising that led to the abolishment of more than 100 years of British rule and religious persecution against the Catholics. A celebration that showcased the strength of their will to be governed by people of their choosing, of their culture and the joy they have in life. It was truly a wonderful experience for the whole family.

I can’t leave out the moment where after some epic subway sandwiches eaten on the Famous Connely street station concourse we boarded the train for home. It was packed full of folks on their way home from the day’s activities so Candice and Tayla went to the only available seat about ten rows back from the standing only area we were in. About fifteen minutes and a few stops later after the crowd had thinned out, I notice the guy Candice is sitting next to shaking his head, and is quite clearly agitated. So I make my way over to see what’s wrong and I notice that the day’s exertions have clearly taken their toll on my two girls. Tayla is fast asleep in wifeys lap and she in turn is asleep, mouth wide open, with her head on the poor guys shoulder. I was almost apoplectic with laughter after waking Candice up and seeing the look on her face once id told her what she was doing. That poor chap will have a lifelong story to tell about the very dodgy South Africans he had to share a train with, one that I’m sure will be told every Easter for the next hundred years.

In closing there have been many world renowned authors’ poets and scholars that have come from Ireland one of which was William buttler Yeats and his saying

“There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't yet met"

Shows the human values of decency, generosity and trust which underpin Irish life something they are consistently defined by.

GT
Below you will see a small selection of the photos we took that day.
We welcome all comments it can only help to improve the content,

Below: Front View of the Custom House a Neoclassical building used as a government office, designed by James Gandon and completed in 1791