And...

yeah

there might've been another thing, a couple of years ago, when I went back to England for the summer, also with skinheads.

you interested in them?

I dunno what it is but anyway, been to a been to a conference. And it was a lovely summer's day in July - wasn't raining again. A lovely summer's day and this was about 7 o'clock at night, so in England it stays, it stays light late into the day,

right

in the summer. And it was kind of a park like this. So we'd gone out across this park and there was a pub there so it was a traditional

there was to be a pub nearby

traditional English pub. Had a drink there, the people were very friendly - landlord

yeah, yeah

and pup's very friendly. Everybody's out on the park playing football - adults, children

mmhm

families, kicking a football around, everybody's having fun. So I thought I thought it's so nice to be back in England, you know, and this is its its lovely, I really appreciate this. So anyway, leaving the pub, we walk back

you're by yourse - who are you with?

on my own

yeah

And so I guess I'm wearing sort of similar to what I'm wearing now, I had a little backpack on my back.

you weren't acting like a weenie were you?

Well, and so there was there's a path going diagonally across the park

yeah, alright

so I had to take this bus and I was just staying in a house on the opposite side of the park so I just, coming up this pathway and the path went through a small football game that these skinheads were playing. And I thought, as I came out to where they were playing football

ooo

Shall I walk through, or shall I make a long detour and go around their game. And I thought "Well, this is a park, they have no right to, you know, play right across the pathway."

it's still light

it's still light, it's 7 o'clock - it's very bright

yeah yeah

and so, and they weren't, I didn't walk right straight through the game, you know, they were off playing somewhere on the side.

wouldn't've mattered to them, would it?

So anyway, I carried on walking across the path along the path

yeah

I thought "I'm not gonna - why should I show that I'm frightened or anything. Let me just, let me just carry on." So anyway, as I got going through where they were, I could, heard a few stones, just bouncing by my feet, right? And I thought "Ah, they're just fooling around," right? They're just playing with me. Bouncing some stones, I'd carry on walking. And as I looked and the stones got a little bit bigger and I heard them swearing, you know, one of them was kind of getting mad and shouting at me. And anyway, so I just carried on walking, in fact nothing happened, and after I'd gone through I could hear them - oh sorry, I forgot, I forgot that's right - I said these stones got bigger, and I thought "I gotta do something" you know, or otherwise this is gonna lead to trouble, I've got to show, I've got to react - they want a reaction. So let me give them a reaction. So I turn around to them, and I just said "F - off" you know, and I don't know what made me say that cos sounds like a stupid

heh heh

thing to do, you know

I couldn't think of anything worse to say

yeah,

I mean, "come beat me up, okay?"

that's right but it kind of, like, surprised them, I think they thought "This guy, you know, he looks a bit soft or something, he's not gonna say anything and we'll have a joke". And so when I turn round, I swore at them, that's what kind of stopped it. It did actually work

Euh],

they kind of laughed after that and I carried on walking - they were just having fun. Again, it was kind of like the previous experience, my heart was beating like crazy. And I thought when I got back to the place afterwards, I thought - like you said -"my god, how stupid"

yeah, but maybe it was just...?

but it an instinctive reaction. I didn't think about it, with these stones coming, I just swore at them. And, you know, it was it was not a good thing to do but it worked.