Will we be tangoed?

I'm with Gaga. It needs a simple comment on weather/bus delay/whatever. The reaction let's you take it from there, usually chat

I haven’t seen anything on the news or local news on the weather about a dust storm.

but at moment the wind is howling down the chimney, and battering the windows.
It came
It blew
It went
as swiftly as it came!!

Gagagran that's my philosophy as well. Had some fascinating chats with total strangers over the years.

Sorry Gabby, what do you mean?

Gabriella as long as I can read and understand what I'm reading I'm happy, but I couldn't resist 'correcting the corrector' !! if that makes sense

My dear old Dad, a hugely friendly chap all his life, was absolutely bereft after my Mother died.

Fiercely independent, he wanted to stay in the house where they had spent the majority of their 60 years together.

We saw him as often as we could.. living 200 miles away.

He took to shopping every day... and sometimes, until we phoned in the evening... the strangers he met whilst he was out were the only people he had spoken to that day.

Please spare a thought for chatty old men in shop queues.

Your short, friendly conversation could easily be the highlight of their day !

My DH talks to everyone! Checkout assistants, people in queue- everyone & anyone. For some reason they all seem to talk back to him too. Then he comes home & tells me all about it. TBH I'm not that interested.
We don't go shopping together anymore. I will occasionally speak to someone in a long queue & always engage with checkout person but not a long conversation for the sake of others behind me.
Having said that before Christmas the queue for stamps at local post office was out the door & I had to post a card to Greece so I did spend a long time chatting to a very nice woman - who by the time we got to front of queue had decided to come to try our WI so it was a good result.

I'm quite happy to talk to anyone when I'm out and about - much to my family's embarrassment! They often ask me ' who was that?' and roll their eyes when I say I have no idea! But as I tell them, I enjoy chatting to real people - I don't complain when their only form of communication is on their mobiles, often with people they have never met! It's not nice when you are completely blanked, but it doesn't put me off.

My 12 year old DGD doesn’t so much talk to strangers, she interviews them! For instance at the checkout while DD loads the shopping, DGD will ask the cashier, how are you? Do you like your job? Have you been Working here long? Did you have to do any special training for it? Etc., etc.

My DD & OH are both at ease chatting to strangers, but I am very reserved. It’s rare for me to strike up a conversation although I will respond to others if necessary.

mcem. 'correct in its' forecast'.

Someone needs to belt up...and I'm not talking about car seats.
I'm reporting you and you know who you are.

I've had a look online and, as far as I can tell, the dust storm was the one brought up from Africa last week by the warm winds.

It was sandy coloured rather than red so it looks as if I'll have to go for the expensive lowlights after all.

Even when an 8 hour flight away from home, she could start chatting to someone from a completely different culture and find out that their sister's best friend's son was living in the next road in SW London.
Oh yes - it's amazing the coincidences you find even in remote places - someone has an auntie or cousin or uncle who just happens to live a short distance from us in the UK (whom they've never met!).

You just have to find a " chatting partner " on a long-haul flight, not annoyingly mind you as nobody likes a pest if they don't feel like chatting.
Only on one trip did I come across a surly blighter ( business class ) and I knew as soon as I said good morning and got no reply that I was in for a longer haul than I'd anticipated. He just glugged his whisky and never stopped typing ! He was English as I made a downward glance at his " work ".

However what a pleasant surprise on my return when my " companion " who'd boarded at Sydney was a female lawyer on her way to London attending a case and between us we finished the Express crossword. It cut the journey clean in half.

I'll talk to anyone, but not annoyingly as I test the water first.

witzend I am quite chatty & happy to chat to most people..especiallt if trapped on a journey. I have a friend, mid 70s, who is always discovering connections to people and places when he engages at length, as he frequently does, with strangers!

Blueshappire, you made me think of my lovely chatty Mil. Even when an 8 hour flight away from home, she could start chatting to someone from a completely different culture and find out that their sister's best friend's son was living in the next road in SW London. ? As I once witnessed when she was staying with us in the Middle East.
FiL was the complete opposite!!

I don't know about a dust storm, but, at the moment in Northumberland, it's snowing!

I talk to everybody and anybody.
Just yesterday morning, I had to ring Virgin as my broadband kept cutting in and out. After the usual rigmarole of passwords, I can't remember and tapping one for this and two for that, the computer tested the system and decided that I needed to speak to a human being.
I was on the phone for ages, the young man had me unplugging, plugging back in and tested and retested but I was more interested in where he was speaking from: India madam, me: "where in India"? New Delhi, the Capitol. I had a lovely conversation about the weather over there and then told him about our recent heat wave. etc. etc. We both became quite giggly!
I put the phone down and Dd rings and says I'd been engaged for ages, I told her I'd been chatting to a lovely young man in New Delhi.
I felt her roll her eyes over the phone as she asked how I always end up in conversation with random people.
I told her I was becoming a mad old bat.
She told me, "I don't think so, you've always been like that" .
Don't quite know how to take that! ?

Not checked the car,
but at moment the wind is howling down the chimney, and battering the windows.

My dearly beloved great aunt would talk to anyone and everyone about just about anything. I`m a bit more reticent, but will respond if anyone speaks to me. Daughter 3 is very like my great aunt in that she`ll start up a conversation with anyone. When we were in London the other week, daughter 2 remarked jokingly about how her sister would talk to anyone, because she isn`t like that, but Dawn laughed and said she likes talking to people.

It is more unusual in this part of the country not to pass the time of day with strangers than to shy away from talking to them. It can catch you out, though. While out walking recently, we met a man and exchanged the usual niceties and passed the time of day and he turned out to be an expert on everything from the territorial habits of buzzards to minutiae of local history, and we barely got a word in edgewise! I learned a lot though!

Last week I was in a Ikea and had stopped to look at a swivel chair, a middle aged lady & I assume her daughter (early twenties) stopped, mother sat down in chair talking about the chair, I made a remark and they completely blanked me out, not even a smile to acknowledge that I had spoken. Was I too old, too intrusive or not worth talking too? In contrast a few minutes later I gently stopped a toddler going at full tilt, father grabbed him, swung him up in his arms and with a big smile thanked me. I said I had a grandson just the same and we exchanged a few words about how active that are and into everything at that age. Two very different encounters, needless to say the second one made me feel a lot better.

I was discussing with the hairdresser just last week whether or not to have lowlights - this could save me a fortune if true!!
Incidentally, my car has been covered in a thin layer of dust courtesy of the warm winds which came up from Africa last week - however it was a rather unbecoming greyish sandy colour.

Yes, I talk to people in queues etc. DH wanders away or says 'I'll wait in the car'. I think he just doesn't like queuing.

I do remember years ago the Sirocco ( red dust ) which blew our way as it was noticeable on white vehicles. I thought this only happened in summer months when the winds came from the Mediterranean ?

Elderly man started chatting to me at the bus stop yesterday, but I've seen him there before several times, and it's quite usual for him. He tells me he goes to Sainsbury's cafe every day for his lunch; I expect it's company for him.
My late DM would strike up a conversation with anyone and within 10 minutes they would know her life history.
I too do not wish to be tangoed, as I paid a lot of money this week to get my hair coloured and cut!