“One guy, seeing that I was hungry, insisted on buying me a huge lunch and when I thanked him for his kindness, he simply said, 'Pass it on.' I liked this selfless concept - repay me by rewarding someone else entirely with a generous dollop of goodwill.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“I was beginning to understand how the Irish mentality worked. The more foolish, illogical or surreal one's actions were perceived t be (and mine surely fell into one of these categories), the wider the arms of hospitality were opened in salutation.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“One of the more tiring aspects of hitchhiking is a need to be sociable and make conversation with whoever is driving you. It would be considered poor form to accept a ride, hop into the passenger seat and then simply to crash out until you reached your destination. How I longed to do just that, but instead I chatted merrily away, energy ebbing from me with each sentence, until Chris dropped me at the address of the lady who had offered me free B&B.
One of the more tiring aspect of accepting an offer of free accommodation is a need to be sociable and make conversation with whoever had offered it to you. It would be considered poor form to turn up, dumb your bags, crawl into your bedroom and order an early morning alarm call. How I longed to do just that, but instead I chatted merrily away to Marjorie, energy ebbing from me with each sentence, until the tea was drunk, the cake was eaten and I finally plucked up the courage to mention just how exhausted I was. I apologised and said that I simply had to grab a couple of hours sleep, and Marjorie understandingly showed me to my room.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“The behaviour of the English people I had run into was making it very difficult to nail down a theory that the reason my trip so far had been such a bizarre success, was that Irish people were crazy. One Englishman had spent a morning on the telephone trying to organise a helicopter to take me out to an island, when a boat was leaving only a few yards away, and here was another, making a two-hour round trip for no reason other than to lend a helping hand. Two of the more eccentric pieces of behaviour hadn't been performed by the Irish, but by my fellow countrymen. However, both Andy and Tony had embraced wholeheartedly a love of the Irish way of living life.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Running twenty-six miles is no fun.
I think it was possibly an American who came up with the adage 'if it ain't hurting, it ain't working'. It would be nice to think that shortly after he uttered those words someone smacked him in the mouth by way of demonstrating how well it was working for him.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“SAIORSE
From Saiorse, a name of Irish origin,
Meaning 'freedom'
Faces problems head on
Admired for its originality, dedicated to worthy causes
A kind and generous fridge
It always stands firm for its principles
It does not have to get its own way always
Others think it is an extremely clever fridge
From Matt Molloys Pub
May 20th 1997”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“How do you manage for money?’ I asked.
I was given two simultaneous replies of ‘We get by’ from Ian and ‘Don’t ask’ from Neil. I favoured Ian’s reply because it had less-sinister connotations. ‘Don’t ask’ left open the possibility that they raised funds by selling hitch-hikers into slavery. I changed the subject.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“What followed was a great treat for me. This was Irish traditional music as I had hoped to see and hear it, spontaneous and from the heart, and not produced for the sake of the tourist industry. As I sat there with my pint in my hand, enjoying the jigs and the reels, I watched the joy in the player’s faces and in those around them who tapped their feet and applauded enthusiastically. Music the joybringer. No question of being paid, or any requirement to perform for a certain amount of time. Just play for as long as it makes you feel good. This was self expression, not performance. Someone would begin playing a tune and the fellow musicians would listen to it once through, hear how it went and join in when they felt comfortable, until, on its last run through, it was being played with gusto by the entire ensemble. This process provided each piece with the dynamic of a natural crescendo which could almost have been orchestrated.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Stella explained that when he had arrived, because of his English accent, she had assumed that he was me, and had asked where his fridge was. She didn't tell me what his reply was, and we can only hazard a guess, but I was impressed that he had been prepared to stay the night. It is surely a brave man who goes ahead and checks into an establishment where the first question is 'Where's your fridge?'. Especially if, as he had done, you had arrived by motorcycle.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Size isn't important', he quipped.
I have never adhered to this view. As far as I'm concerned, people who say size isn't important, aren't big enough to admit that they're wrong”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“There are two words I don't want to find myself uttering as an old man, and they are "If Only.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“I was in a hurry, because packing is something which you always do at the last minute. Anyone who packs two days before departure should seek counseling.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Taking coffee in a tea-room always brings me a certain amount of extra pleasure in that I feel I'm beating the system. It's like having spaghetti in a pizza house, chicken in a steakhouse, or having a neck massage in a Bangkok massage parlor.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Heavy lifting is good for the soul but bad for the back, and tends to interfere with lolling about.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“My gameplan is not to have a gameplan.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“I was born into the wrong generation. How I would have loved to have been a dashing young man in the 1930s and 1940s when dance bands and orchestras played at dancehalls, and you could hold your partner close and whisper sweet nothings as you waltzed into her heart.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“I'm against the death penalty. I believe that it is a mistake to show that killing people is wrong by killing people. However I'm not against the random killing of people who snore.”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Terrific idea. Two days of advice on how to cope with married life from a body of people who have never been married, and don't indulge in any sexual activity. (Now don't scoff - it's true, they don't.)”
― Tony Hawks, quote from Round Ireland with a Fridge
“Contre la médisance il n'est point de rempart.”
― Molière, quote from Tartuffe
“and at one point they had heard what had sounded mighty like a musket shot which, although not very near, might or might not have been fired in their direction but, they decided, probably had been. Harry clung to this adventure, such as it was, all the more tenaciously when he found that because of his sprained wrist he had missed an adventure at Captainganj. Those of his peers who had escaped with life and limb from the Captainganj parade ground did not seem to be thinking of it as an adventure, those who had managed to escape unhurt were now looking tired and shocked. And they seemed to be having trouble telling Harry what it had been like. Each of them simply had two or three terrible scenes printed on his mind: an Englishwoman trying to say something to him with her throat cut, or a comrade spinning down into a whirl-pool of hacking sepoys, something of that sort. To make things worse, one kept finding oneself about to say something to a friend who was not there to hear it any more. It was hard to make any sense out of what had happened, and after a while they gave up trying. Of the score of subalterns who had managed to escape, the majority had never seen a dead person before . . . a dead English person, anyway . . . one occasionally bumped into a dead native here and there but that was not quite the same. Strangely enough, they listened quite enviously to Harry talking about the musket shot which had “almost definitely” been fired at himself and Fleury. They wished they had had an adventure too, instead of their involuntary glimpse of the abattoir. It”
― J.G. Farrell, quote from The Siege of Krishnapur
“I have yet to be reunited with my fortune, and I’m now missing a chunk of hair from my spat with the nanny.”
― Jen Turano, quote from A Change of Fortune
“The kind of friend who helps you remember which way is up. And who reminds you that sometimes that's the only direction you can go.”
― Nina Lane, quote from Arouse
“Governments like it that way. They want their people to see war as a drama of opposites, good and evil, “them” and “us,” victory or defeat. But war is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.”
― Robert Fisk, quote from The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
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