Kids: How to embarrass your dad on the bus ;-)

[cal125]

I witnessed a masterclass in the above on the number 8 a couple of weeks ago. This is priceless

Already shared it with my homies, you know who you are, but it's too good not to share with the rest of you as well.

Coming into town from sunny Moredun, I was in one upstairs front seat and the other was occupied by a very lively child of about 7; her dad was sitting behind her. As we travelled along Gilmerton Road she kept singing Ticket To Ride; fair enough if only she'd known more than a quarter of the words. This her father could cope with; an occasional "shush" when the decibel count went above a certain level kept things pretty much under control.

Then we came to the junction where the bus turns onto Lady Road at Cameron Toll, opening up a view which I have to admit like many residents of scenic cities I often take for granted. Sometimes it takes the perspective of a non-resident to make us look at the familiar in a new way and I'm sure many others on the bus, upstairs and down, had similar thoughts as she shouted out: "Oh my GOD! You're SO right! Arthur's Seat DOES look like a bum!"

What could her poor dad say except "Of course, that's not actually why it's called Arthur's SEAT." I thought in the circumstances he handled it with great aplomb. I had just gotten up and turned around to get off as I was going to Sainsbury's and the look on his face said it all.

[muz]

;D

[Huw Amai]

Thanks. Cal - it made me laugh.

A snippet to make you laugh as well. Last Summer I went came into Edinburgh, I got off on North Bridge and walk down past the Balmoral, I heard this conversation between two Americans " Wait a mo honey while I take a picture of Big Ben" !!!.

[cal125]

good one, they must have had one powerful zoom lens!

[doonhamer]

I managed to embarrass my parents on (at least) 2 occasions but to be fair, being teachers and thinking they were enriching my education, they maybe kind of had it coming.
Occasion one was when I was 4 and my mother encouraged me to watch a documentary by Gerald Durrell in Africa. It had something to do with tribes and the chief of this tribe was a - how shall I put it tactfully and politically correctly - let's just say a gentleman of more than generous proportions and of a dark skin pigmentation. Cut to a few weeks/months down the line on a tram in Blackpool - the one and only time I've been there - and the conductor is - well, a dead ringer to this guy I've seen on TV. Four year old brain doesn't process the finer points of diplomacy so I alert mother eagerly with the immortal words "Look Mummy, there's a chief!"
Roughly four years later we're on holiday again - moral of the story, when you've got articulate kids, go self-catering - and I announce, in the middle of a hotel lounge (where we were all holed up thanks to a thunderstorm) "Mummy, what's a virgin?"
I'm still due my "Conversation Stopper of the Year award, 1971".
Mother's reply? "Why do you want to know?" - perfect turnaround to awkward questions.
The reason was a total anticlimax - I'd been reading about Elizabeth I and she was referred to as the Virgin Queen.

[mrs sixx]

Conversation heard the other day by two gents on the bus - "I went to school with Alistair Darling you know - yes, he was useless at Maths even then!". A few other passengers found this amusing too.
I'm guilty of showing up the parents in the 70s - Love Thy Neighbour was to blame & there was a growing Asian population in Leith at the time. I said it only once to the guy in the shop as we were leaving. Ahem.
Non pc 70s sitcoms were not to blame for my mothers loose tongue on another occasion when i asked very loudly as she was being served at the butchers "Mummy - is that the man you can't stand?"
Oh, & in a playpark during a proper summer in 1978 i threw my ice cream cone at a woman giving her wee dog a row & shouted at her 3 times "dozy bugger". PETA should've recruited me!

[cal125]

love it re Alistair Darling! I can just picture the other passengers chuckling away. Brilliant.