Three Truths and a Lie.

... is still the wrong answer.

Long story. I was travelling with this Polish lady, who was a little confused about her country's political affiliiations. Poland had just joined NATO, but she thought it was now in the EU. So she didnt get a visum for Albania before she left home (in America).*

Now we arrived at Tirana Airport on a UN World Food Program flight. It flew down from Rome to Pristina, Kosovo, and Tirana two times a week, back then. (It crashed into the Kosovo mountains some two months later, no survivors. It was a pretty old plane. On our flight someone had to stand because an overhead panel over his seat came down).

Arriving at Tirana and finding she didnt have the right papers, the Albanians refused to let her in. We were too late with offering a bribe, I guess. A colleague we met in Rome went to get help at the office, but when they came back they couldnt sway the officials either (by then it had gone up a rank or two, and gotten to be something of an honor question). Thing is, next WFP flight back to Rome would only be in a few days. Not much going in air traffic there at the time, otherwise.

I stayed with my friend, and together with this Arab family and some Gypsies we were escorted to a kind of bunker out on the airport field, with no windows and no door but a guard outside, and inside only a stone table screwed into the floor. The guard was nice, though. He let us outside to smoke (but not the others).

Meanwhile an Albanian colleague outside was doing the rounds and calling "contacts" in ministries to see if he could get (or cash in) a favour. Late in the evening suddenly we were escorted out of the jail and airport again, with all respects, and a policeman drove us into town in his policecar. It was a wondrous sight, the car-radio blasting out modern pop while outside chickens and donkeys (or the like) sped out of the way. They didnt do adresses in Tirana - that is, noone knew streetnames, not the policeman either, and there were no street signs, so he had to stop all the time to ask passers-by whether they knew the shoestore and cafe we knew were close to where we had to be.

*By ways of post-script, at the time of course I didnt know the true story of my Polish friend's visum. She insisted and argued with everyone that the Polish embassy had ensured her, that ... <grins>. She only fessed up to me much later ... she was a dear ;-).

I was born the same day as prince charles heir to the throne of England and my mother received a card of congratulations from buckingham palace.


I've been married for 35 years.

I'm a Lancastrian by birth.

As a child I had a walk on part in the Sir John Mills film, Whistle Down the Wind (starring his daughter Hayley)

I'm guessing that the last one is the lie.

I'm with mac. #4 is nimh's fabrication...

Your'e good,

mac and sophia, I didn't think anyone would get that right, my mum did get a card from buck palace, as did every mom in britain that gave birth on that day.

However there was a slight untruth told in there which was: I WAS an extra in whistle down the wind, but when the film came out everything we had done (my school friends and I) had been cut out of it, we were twelve ish years old, you can imagine our disappointment.

If it wasn't for John mills the sob, today I would be chums with michael caine -at least.

Wrong again :-).

When I was an exchange student in St Petersburg, I was sitting at some cafe near the Peter and Paul Fortress when two guys accosted me. Nothing special, when you're a foreigner you get approached, stimes good, stimes bad. But I wasnt looking "proper" at the time - long hair, fake leather trousers with laces down the sides, that kinda thing. These guys told me they were Afghan, asked me if I was a hippie. I said I wasnt, they were dumbfounded about why, then, I looked like that, then decided I must be a "pederast", and started giving some real aggro, in the end threatening that they'd have to kill me if I were a pederast. In the end I bought them a drink, invited them to a party I was (not) going to give, and they calmed down, left me alone.

I guess I should stop being vain and just come out with the truth, huh?

(Actually, part of why I was drawing this out was to help Sofia keep the thread "bumped up", and lure more people (like Kev) in <grin>).



was also true. My mother and I were travelling in Botswana. We got the train from Zimbabwe to Francistown, Botswana, and then wanted to travel on by bus to Maun, to see the Okavanga delta. But at the bus station different people told us the bus to Maun "had just left", the next one being in three days time, "was leaving in the afternoon" and "was going tomorrow". So when there was a bus that went down the 100 miles to Nata, on one-thirds of the way, we took it.

Nata turned out to be a settlement of traditional round mud huts, and a gas station. Only thing to come by at the gas station were small pick-up trucks ("bakkies"), loaded with migrant workers (at least thats what I assumed the black women were). Not knowing where to stay in Nata or on what day any bus would come, we hopped a ride in one of them for the 200-mile trip through the desert and savannah (?) to Maun. It was absolutely ******* beautiful, and included a gorgeous sunset.

The ride was a tough one, though, and when we disembarked at Maun's Holiday Inn, we looked like cowboys, covered from head to toe in white dust - and I quickly discovered that the thing hurting me was my ass bleeding from the bumps and thumps of the ride. <grins>

So the lie was number 2. <grins> No time to explain that one, though.

1. Was voted most talented in HighSchool
2. Never graduated college
3. Was chosen to be on The $100,000 That Tune, but chickened out and never went on
4. Was a contestant on Jeopardy and lost

fealola, I'm guessing #3 is the lie.

It's hard to believe, but #3 is not a lie!

[snipped]

Meanwhile, I also seem to have gone a little overboard in my zest for telling those #1-4 stories - but I'd personally love to see y'all tell the same kinda stories that go with yours! Fealola I'd guess #1 or 2, cause its usually the most unexpected ones (like your 3 and 4) that are true - cause you wouldnt have made them up! :-)

Sorry Nimh and sorry me. #1 and #2 and #3 are true. #4 is the Lie! (The story of my Report Card life.) "She's smart and has potential but she doesn't apply herself!"

yeh, i know that one!

I would love it if we all felt comfortable sharing our background stories on our truths and lies. And, the thread is open to any related personal stuff.

Happy for the sharing.

Feolola-- I had the same sentence written on my report cards. I was in the 'Gifted Program' at school, but my grades were horrible. They hadn't yet figured out ADD. Back then, they called it "The Bad Seed...."

1. My most recent celebrity encounter was with Lauren Bacall.

2. I've been on the TV news three times.

3. I was elected to political office when I was 21 years old.

4. My cousin Robert was one of the designers of the lunar landing module.

I'm guessing #3, Roberta.

1. I had dinner with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

2. A rhino nearly tipped our range rover over in South Africa.

3. I streaked at an Aggies/LongHorns game

4. Tended to a pair of asian tapirs for a period of six months.

Wenchilina--

#1 is your fib. (?)

Roberta--

#2?

Mac and Sofia, One of you is right.