Only In Aber Moments: Number Seven

Posted by Mister JTA on July 23rd, 2005 | 4 comments

OK. Background. We’re walking back from the flat, and I’m damn drunk, and explaining to Ruth how the Miss Marple tapes I’ve got read by Joan Hickson are great (because Paul had played the Miss Marple theme) and from there we get onto the Red Dwarf tapes read by Chris Barrie, and thence to my Allo Allo tapes read by, er, yon bloke who played Rene.

And that’s when things went weird, because a bloke with long brown hair in a sweet full-length greatcoat followed the Aber Principle: “I may butt into this conversation, and nobody will mind,” and he did so thusly:

Bloke: Excuse me – you mentioned Allo Allo?
JTA: Yeah?
Bloke: Well it’s just that the bloke who played, er, Colonel Von Strohm went to my school, just as a random claim to fame, there…
JTA: Cool! Er, where’s that, then?
Bloke: Er, Monmouth.
JTA: Not, er, Habs Monmouth?
Bloke: Yeah, it was.
JTA: With green blazers?
Bloke: No, that was Habs [somewhere]. We had blue blazers, which was pretty cool. Like business suits. How come?
JTA: O, er, I’m from Adams’ Grammar in Shropshire. We’re Habs with maroon blazers, which are naff. And then Blue in the VIth form. And my mate Statto from school is now at Oxford with Chloe Beech from Habs Monmouth.
Bloke: O, right. I used to go out with Chloe.
JTA: ?
Bloke: Er, yeah, I’m Owen.
Ruth: Hah, that’s my brother’s name. I’m Ruth, and this is JTA.
Bloke Who Is Called Owen: [shaking hands] Well that’s a neat co-incidence, isn’t it? And all from random comedy.
JTA: Just a bit!
Owen: Just shows you, really, doesn’t it? Comedy is the key to life!
JTA: Well that’s certainly true!
Owen: Ah, well go carefully! I’ll say hi next time I see you!

And off we went…

Pretty much the coolest thing that’s happened to me in years, that was, and all because Aber is sufficiently Bohemian that you can butt in on other people’s conversations to say “That bloke went to my school!”

Beautiful stuff. Feeling incredibly happy, atm, which is probably a deadly mix of amusingly extreme co-incidence and absinthe, but I’m hoping for a cup of tea, soon, and I think I may yet be sobering up…

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

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Comments

  1. On July 23, 2005 Jon says:

    That is incredibly cool.

    –Jon

  2. On July 25, 2005 Statto says:

    I’ll have to ask Chloë about that…just got back after almost a week in Monmouth.

    Bizarre.

  3. On November 07, 2006 Chloe says:

    hey jta,
    i was just googling my name (as you do at 2 in the morning when you’re meant to be writing an essay), and i found this. right after some adverts for a range of furniture called “chloe” made out of beech wood from argos, a plump 12 year old from stafford who seems to win a lot of horse-riding competitions and some trippy poetry i wrote when i was about 15, and there it was. that’s awesome. statto did tell me at the time, but i had sort of forgotten. is owen’s hair actually long now? that seems weird. do you have any idea what he’s actually doing nowadays, i haven’t seen him for about 5 years. also, i love the fact that at one point in the coversation you describe you say “?”, on its own, without any more words. that’s an awsome thing to say, i’ll have to make an effort to say it more often.
    see you soon,
    chloe
    xx

  4. On November 13, 2006 Mister JTA says:

    Heh.

    I’ve only ever seen him that once, actually, but I’m fairly sure he had longish hair, at least for a bloke.

    Hope the essay got finished somewhere within a fortnight of the hand-in date. Always worked for me!