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Errogie
01-Nov-08, 10:32
Over the years I've overheard fragments of conversations or exchanges which have sometimes left me puzzled, amused or just plain intrigued. Some of these from many years back have stayed with me like the occasion I found myself sitting in the poorly sound proofed doctor's waiting room.

An elderly gent had just been taken into the sugery by his son. The old boy was obviously hard of hearing so the discussion on his weight loss was being conducted at a healthy decibel level and, O.K you're sitting there trying to read a back copy of the Field or Sporting Life but what is happening on the other side of the plasterboard is just becoming a whole lot more interesting.

So they were going through his general health, aches, pains, sleeping, bowels, the usual stuff and then they got down to his diet and it turned out that the old boy was starting his day with some very weak porridge, followed by soup at lunch time and some sort of gruel at the end of the day, a largely liquid based intake.

And then Eureka! I arrived at the answer just a fraction of a second before our general practitioner. The problem was in his mouth, to be precise his false teeth which he'd given up wearing because they'd become so uncomfortable.

I have to say that following this brilliant intuitive diagnosis I found it hard to resist the temptation to take a mid career change of direction in favour of medicine.

And then there was the occasion in about my 10th. year when the all engrossing hobby was breeding pet mice in a large tea box built into a complicated mouse city along the lines of the old hostel at Ormlie. The breeding programme was concentrated on devloping particular combinations of colours in multi coloured mice by careful selection of parents. My folks were standing at the kitchen window when I overheard my mother say to my father "Do you think we should tell him about the facts of life?" and the old man said "Don't bother I think he understands it pretty well already".

So what have other Orgers overheard which may not have been strictly meant for your ears?

Alice in Blunderland
01-Nov-08, 13:19
In Caithness you never know who is related to who and this is well worth remembering on occasion.

I walked into a group of people once at work and well all I can say is one of them was getting it of her chest how much she resented more senior member of staff for pointing out a failling in her work practice.

I have to at this point mention that my sister and I both work in the same place and we dont look much like each other and dont often see each other at work. This girl obviously didnt realise this and the person she was slagging was.......... my sister. All the other girls new we were sisters and were very uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going. I stayed ,smiled , listened for a momment and walked on after asking what I needed to know.

As you can imagine all heads then went together and I could just imagine them saying thats her sister. :eek:

Well the colour of her face next time I saw her was such a picture. :lol:


Definately not a conversation I was meant to hear and one I definately would not pass on to my sister. As for the girl in question well I think she learned very quickly that in Caithness you never know who is related to who so watch who you speak ill of in company. ;)

Welcomefamily
01-Nov-08, 15:12
This is not about overhearing but being overheard.
Many years ago I had to spend some time at a certain University in midlands area. I was at the school of Biological Science and along with about 12 other students and studying a concept called synaptic plasticity in the cardiac muscles of a frog. (This was in a time before we developed better ways of understanding such events with out animals).
It was a mid week morning after a very heavy night before having just won a leg of University challenge. It had taken most of us every effort to get to the classrom let alone walk :(. A few did not make it, the morning was a diaster, using various syringes we would have to inject the muscle with a range of chemicals to measure various effects on the heart which kept it alive. Syringes got dropped, mixed up, missed the injection site and in the end the frog died dispite efforts to give cardac massage with a little finger, but no volunteers for mouth to mouth. Just before lunch it was decided to resume the experiments the following day due to everybodies hangover.
On leaving the department, we decided to go for a pint so taking our white lab coats off we set off. In the pub we met the colleagues who had not made the frog experiment and after three or four pints our conversations started to recall all the events of the morning, the errors, the tutors reaction to the heart stopping. We were in fits of laughter when the bar man came over and asked us to leave saying that not every one finds the subject as amusing as we did, I become very aware of everybody in this very busy pub looking at us (we must have been loud) so we decided to leave still in fits of laughter and a little drunk.
Turning left out past the Medical Centre, the University Hospital and the School of Medicine. We walked still carrying our lab coats to the University Park to sit down and work out what had happened .:confused
The only thing we could think of was we had not mention the word frog once.

Rheghead
01-Nov-08, 15:22
I once got a pm from another orger on xmas eve last year. He spoke of me in the third person in quite derogatory terms even though he doesn't really know me. The pm was obviously not meant for me but was meant to be sent to a number of other of his like-minded recipients but he put my name in the addressee box(he was probably drunk). I've never mentioned this until now and I won't divulge his name just to save his blushes. I'll never forget though.[disgust]

hotrod4
01-Nov-08, 15:26
I once got a pm from another orger on xmas eve last year. He spoke of me in the third person in quite derogatory terms even though he doesn't really know me. The pm was obviously not meant for me but was meant to be sent to a number of other of his like-minded recipients but he put my name in the addressee box(he was probably drunk). I've never mentioned this until now and I won't divulge his name just to save his blushes. I'll never forget though.[disgust]

Go on spill the beans I could do with a good laugh! [lol]
P.s It wasnt me nobody saw me do it ;)

Sapphire2803
01-Nov-08, 18:21
A piece of advice.....

If you ever have to take a journey on public transport in a city, or plan to spend time sitting in any busy public place on your own.

Wear a personal stereo. Don't switch it on!
People see the headphones on you and assume you can't hear them ;) :lol:

hotrod4
01-Nov-08, 19:42
A piece of advice.....

If you ever have to take a journey on public transport in a city, or plan to spend time sitting in any busy public place on your own.

Wear a personal stereo. Don't switch it on!
People see the headphones on you and assume you can't hear them ;) :lol:

Thats wicked sapphire but I like it! :)

Bazeye
02-Nov-08, 17:34
Thats wicked sapphire but I like it! :)
WIcked but true.