Quote of the Week – Showing Concern

Quote

Overheard on the 7:30am train from Rotterdam to Amsterdam on a snowy December Monday morning.
NS Train Conductor
(Talking in to her radio)
“I think we ran over something. Did you feel it?”
NS Train Driver
(On the other end of the radio)
“Na. That was just the track.”

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

13 Responses

  1. Aledys Ver says:

    How come you overheard this conversation? Where you in the driver’s cabin or was the train on auto pilot while driver and conductor were playing cards in the passenger car? :D

  2. Invader_Stu says:

    Aledys Ver – I forgot to add that it was a conversation over a radio that I over heard :)

  3. Julia says:

    This is why it’s good not to know the language. I would have thought they were talking about some highly technical issue.

  4. Jules says:

    Hmm…maybe it wasn’t a bad thing that the buses weren’t running this morning…

  5. Invader Stu says:

    Julia – Same here. I had it translated for me by my wife.

    Jules – Maybe the train hit the bus. I would not put it passed them to not notice.

  6. Wezz6400 says:

    If a train hits a bus you’ll notice. The train wins, but unlike cars busses put up quite a fight. A fighting bus does not go unnoticed.

  7. Invader_Stu says:

    Wezz6400 – You sound like a man who has but this theory to the test.

  8. Anita says:

    Scary.

  9. VallyP says:

    That what’s known as de-railing someone’s argument :)

  10. Invader_Stu says:

    Anita – No kidding

    VallyP – That joke needs a drum roll :p

  11. dragonlady says:

    At least your trains were running, unlike ours. Mind you our buses were running ,if a bit slow.

  12. Anneke says:

    *badum-tish* (for the joke)

    Also, it’s not like drivers won’t stop after they’ve hit something. Anyways, an merry christmas and a happy new year to you!

  13. Invader Stu says:

    Dragonlady – Oh yes, we were lucky in that way.

    Anneke – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too

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