[capetonianm]

King Abdullah’s father, King Hussein, was a keen radio amateur and a friend of mine used to speak to him ‘on the air’ from time to time. Apparently he was a most engaging character.

I watched an interview on Al-Jazeera a couple of days ago with King Abdullah. He and his father have kept relative peace and prosperity in their country for almost 70 years, no mean feat. Great men, both of them.

As an aside, the somewhat derogatory slang English word ‘bint’ for a woman derives from Arabic ‘daughter of’ which I believe is used in Arab high familes, e.g. Soraya bint Husain

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Sami

[fatbear]

Like several posters i would struggle to recognise a celebrity and if I did I would respect their privacy. I did though recognise Bob Geldof in the row opposite on a flight from Madrid, and Ian Hislop was once in the row behind me on a flight from Berlin. When I lived in the Netherlands I would often see Dutch footballers playing in England on flights to/from Amsterdam. I once stood behind Gus Poyet in the passport control queue in T5 ( as a Brighton supporter I spotted our ex-manager ! ), and once checked in behind Jonathan Ross. My niece was delighted when we booked a business class flight for her to Prague and two members of Depeche Mode were in the row behind.

Following on from WillW’s comments, I was getting ready to get-off a BA flight in Antigua and it was the first day of a West Indies v Australia test match on the island, when a guy barged past a few passengers and started talking cricket to me. He eventually realised I wasn’t Duncan Fletcher, the England cricket coach, and scuttled back a couple of rows ! I did actually go and watch the next day’s play but fortunately didn’t bump into this guy !

When a teenage Andy Murray reached his first ATP tour final and narrowly lost to Roger Federer, his next tournament was a low-key event on the Challenger Tour in Mons, Belgium.I was living in Belgium at the time and rather than go to the pub as usual on a Friday evening, I was able to persuade the wife to drive the 30 mins from where we lived to watch the Tennis- the tickets were 8 Euro each. Murray was facing Belgian Number 1 Xavier Malisse and we were probably the only people in the 2,500 crowd supporting him. Half way first the first set, the youg guy sitting in front of us, turned and said “Excuse me, are you Andy Murray’s parents ?”.

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Sami

[capetonianm]

Mention of a test match triggers me to tell a story against myself.

In February we went to Barbados. Standing in the jetway we got chatting to the couple in front of us who said:
“Are you going out for the test?”
I had no idea what they meant and must have looked blank and my wife, who knows more about sport than I ever will, said : “Cricket”
“Oh, no,” I said, “who’s playing?”
There was much embarrassment since apparently it could only possibly have been England and the West Indies!
Like I must know!

Also reminds me I sat next to Rory McIlroy’s parents on a flight to Dublin once, in row 1 of an Aer Lingus flight. Very quiet and unassuming and I’d heard the cabin crew address them by name but it was only when we disembarked and someone met them at the aircraft door that the penny dropped.

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Sami

[canucklad]

Like capetonianm, reading other peoples recollections have triggered some more of mine, a few from way back

Waiting to board a CP flight back home to Vancouver at Schiphol in 1978- Opposite gate, a KL flight arrived with much fuss from Buenos Aires . The (cheated in the final) Dutch team disembarked to a big welcome.

Staying with football, stayed in the same Minsk hotel as the Scotland team , along with the SFA entourage and media pack —Too many stories (Vodka induced) to mention and probably more forgotten in a drunken haze!!

Whilst I was showing some visiting colleagues around my work, I accidently knocked this unassuming and pleasant chap well and truly on to his backside.
I profusely apologised , which he accepted with good grace and a smile. The 4 ladies I was showing around were aghast and had a look of total disbelief at what had just happened !
“You’ve no idea who that was ?” ringing in my ear , with the normal riposte of “nope” . Back in Scotland I related the incident to my girlfriend.
On Sunday morning, both of us watching TV , my girlfriend pointed out a very well-known TV presenter to me, “yep that’s him” I confirmed
His pleasantness to me earlier in the week, defying his on screen persona

What a fun thread and a reminder to us all, just how lucky we are to be in a position to actually be able to relate such tales

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Sami

[Mark]

Macaulay culkin from home alone fame, LHR-JFK upper deck with VS.
Bette Midler old Concorde room T4,sat on sofa next to me.
STING on first Concorde flight back to JFK after the AF crash,nice guy.
Robbie William’s Upper club house T3.
SRB,Michael Douglas JFK club house.

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Sami

[AllOverTheGaff]

You’d have to be a bit of a Formula One nut to know all of the below but coming back from Osaka via Dubai I checked in next to Max Chilton who, sadly, was the team-mate of Jules Bianchi who’d been involved in a very serious accident at the Japanese Grand Prix. As we walked in through security I chatted with him about Jules and if there was any update.

Onto the plane into 1st and I was sat opposite David Coulthard, in front of me was Christian Horner (Red Bull boss), opposite him was Maurizio Arrivabene and (Ferrari boss), un-sighted by me until we stood up to leave was that race winner (and eventual champion of that season) Nico Rosberg was in 1A. (I was 2K on EK) Behind him was Franz Tost (Toro Rosso boss). I had been chatting with Coulthard for quite a bit of the flight (I know him) and when we got off he would lead all of those F1 personnel the wrong way as I went the right way, I ended up in the 1st lounge at the C gates at DXB and in behind me walked Nico Rosberg.

I chatted with him for quite some time about the presidential debate as well as his win in Suzuka, he was a really nice chap and really really smart! (I actually watched his father win the title for Williams in 1982.)

If you aren’t an F1 enthusiast, I suspect most of the names above will mean little to you!

Rgds.
AOTG.

2 users thanked author for this post.

BA789, Sami

[Sami]

Capetonianm, I’m very impressed with your quite accurate portrayal of His Majesty King Hussein. Jordan has indeed been an oasis of peace, tolerance and co-existence in a very volatile region. And Jordanians are probably one of the most hospitable people on this planet.

[K1ngston]

I was once flying Virgin back from SFO and the flight was delayed and when asked why the FA told me we were waiting for Sarah Ferguson who was hanging back from boarding the flight as she was on the phone! I asked why didn’t someone hurry her up and she said that they were not allowed!! I had the pleasure to fly Concorde a couple of times and the flight from LHR had Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks on the flight, both were delightful and were happy to chat with everyone.

On another flight from SFO I flew with Gary Linneker who had been presenting on one of the American Golf tournaments there, we were the only two in First Class and he was very entertaining and we shared a glass or 3 of Champagne.

In all if you respect the “celebrity” they are generally very pleasant back and as I am related to a British Comedian (First Cousin) he once told me that his popularity and success is down to the General Public so abusing them or not engaging with them is counter productive, I witnessed first hand after a show in London he signed autographs for 1 hour with his fans and smiled and engaged with them and they treated him with the love and respect his fame had bought him.

[jsn55]

Would someone please give me instructions in how to ‘like’ someone’s post? All I see is the ability to: reply, report, quote. Some of your posts are just TOO GOOD!

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BA789

[first_class_please]

Just above ‘reply, report, quote’ in the gray box, to the very right is a light THANKS.
I only found it a couple of days ago, not very prominent.

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jsn55, DavidSmith2

[Susi80]

I had the chef Raymond Blanc sitting in the row next to me (NOT business!) and we had a delay, turns out the delay happened cause he had lost his wallet and it took a while to be found in Dublin’s airport 😉

[jsn55]

THIS is hilarious. What do engineers think when they put pale grey type on a paler grey background?? And WHY do they want to do this? Thank you so much!

[nevereconomy]

On flights cannot really remember anyone, other than a well known porn star LAX-ORD. Lounges – Diana Ross, Sir Roger Moore and his very elegant wife couple of times as GVA flight leaves around the same time as my PHL, many years ago in HKG Elton John and his group, in Fukuoka airport Richard Branson – heaven knows what he was doing there!

[esselle]

[postquote quote=987715][/postquote]

Forgive me, but how were you able to identify a well know porn star?

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Swissdiver, K1ngston, jsn55, Sami

[AnthonyDunn]

The only vaguely celeb experiences I have had was sitting next to the principal conductor of the Lyon Opera on one flight and ending up discussing Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartok) with him: utterly fascinating.

Otherwise, I sat next to Ben Affleck on a flight back from Helsinki to LHR a couple of years back. Knew the face but just could not place him at the time. He was engrossed in something he was watching on his iPad and I didn’t think that there was any reason to disturb this.

I really don’t do celebrity culture.

[Author]

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