What's your greatest personal Bond-like experience?
The Domino Effect
Posts: 3,638MI6 Agent
We all like to think we're a bit James Bond at times, but what's your greatest Bond-like moment?
I am fortunate enough to have travelled a fair bit and therefore there have been quite a few moments that I have slipped into my Bond persona at airports and hotels or in exotic locations....at least inside my own head! A few pinch-me Bond-like moments that spring to mind for me have been:
- First Class in Qantas from Sydney to LA when the cabin attendant asked "Sir" whether I wanted the Dom or the Cristal (and then desperately trying to feign non-chalance and reply 'Have you no Bollinger, my good man?').
- 'Rap-jumping': Abseiling face-first horizontally down the outside of an 8-storey building in Melbourne, Australia - while instructed by an ex-Australian SAS trooper. (And no, I didn't manage to present a stoic Bond-like face: I was screaming too much).
- Attending a conference in Asia that was thought to be a target for terrorists...and noticing police sharpshooters on the roof of the conference centre, a Navy gunship bobbing off the beach of the hotel and being driven into town with all the roads blocked and a police escort.
- Seeing Dame Judi Dench at Heathrow...even if she did look less like M and more like a fashionable grandmother in her trenchcoat, reading glasses and a small purse on her arm!
What are your favourite personal Bond-like experiences?
I am fortunate enough to have travelled a fair bit and therefore there have been quite a few moments that I have slipped into my Bond persona at airports and hotels or in exotic locations....at least inside my own head! A few pinch-me Bond-like moments that spring to mind for me have been:
- First Class in Qantas from Sydney to LA when the cabin attendant asked "Sir" whether I wanted the Dom or the Cristal (and then desperately trying to feign non-chalance and reply 'Have you no Bollinger, my good man?').
- 'Rap-jumping': Abseiling face-first horizontally down the outside of an 8-storey building in Melbourne, Australia - while instructed by an ex-Australian SAS trooper. (And no, I didn't manage to present a stoic Bond-like face: I was screaming too much).
- Attending a conference in Asia that was thought to be a target for terrorists...and noticing police sharpshooters on the roof of the conference centre, a Navy gunship bobbing off the beach of the hotel and being driven into town with all the roads blocked and a police escort.
- Seeing Dame Judi Dench at Heathrow...even if she did look less like M and more like a fashionable grandmother in her trenchcoat, reading glasses and a small purse on her arm!
What are your favourite personal Bond-like experiences?
Comments
-Sitting in the drivers seat of an Aston Martin DBS in the showroom
-Ordering a Medium Dry Vodka Martini at the local wine bar for New Years
-Vacationing in San Francisco and driving across the Golden Gate Bridge
Banging Eva Green at a hotel on the shores of Lake Como in Italy... ah, hang on now I think of it that "may" have been a dream I had.
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Oscar Wilde
I like the way you think.
I've also driven across the GGB.
I've been on the Lefty O'Doul Bridge (it might have been called the 3rd Street bridge during filming of AVTAK)
I've been through Silicon Valley.
-i was facing a friend at tennis who was obviously cheating, even though he wouldn't admit to it, i showed him a thing or two, and won.
-number 1 being an avid skier and skiing down a very steep hill, one were the instructors prescribe you to do the 's' like movements to slow your self down. wanting a thrill i went strait down the middle bending very low, it was probably the fastest ive ever gone on foot, of course i tried it a couple more times after that.
-i dont no what my parents were intending for me to do as a future job but i've been skiing, skating, swimming, diving, climbing, shooting, played most sports, and was an avid [runner since nine months old] excluding running, all the rest ive been doing since i was 5.
~ Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
That lying little tramp. She told me she was staying in to wash her hair X-(
That said, I have been up in the Eiffel Tower. I've been supersonic (won DCM Airman of the Quarter back in '84 and got to fly in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle)...flew loops, rolls, got to steer the aircraft (only joystick, no rudder pedals), saw the Grand Canyon in late afternoon from an altitude of 18,000 feet...and didn't puke B-) Because I'm 6'4", they had to go to another squadron to find a flight/G-suit that would fit me...
I've seen a couple of high stakes card games in Vegas. Rode up the exterior elevator used by Connery in DAF (it was on the side of the old Mint Hotel).
Perhaps my favourite was the long weekend I spent in Palma, on the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean in May 1981. Two nights of clubbing, a two-day hookup with a Danish chick named Elizabeth (whom I never saw again)...and champagne from room service...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
One time while waterskiing, I came dangerously close to a patch of rocks. I released the tow-rope and had the boat come around... they informed me that I was practically skiing over the rocks, and that any kind of spill would have been brutal.
I said "Wha?" or something along the lines of that. Very Bondian, I know.
1) The Spy Who Loved Me 2) On Her Majesty's Secret Service 3) GoldenEye 4) Casino Royale 5) Goldfinger
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Sadly, the closest I have come was a visit to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It genuinely looks like it belongs in a Bond film.
To follow Loeff...
Wandering around the chilly streets and squares of Prague one autumn night with Nara Simisova, a Russian I met in a club - no, not that sort of club! - and taking her back to the Yasmin Hotel for a very James Bond experience.....
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The other one, was when I was living in Jordan – in the Middle East, my father was the Military Attaché - and my best friend was the Ambassadors daughter. We went out to a party, and had a little too much to drink, ended up getting a lift back to the Ambassadors Residence - and rather drunkenly fell out of the car - a Police Car pulled up and started asking questions - luckily we used our "diplomatic immunity" to get out of that one*
*although we were both bricking it, as all of this was filmed on the residence security camera's - and the residence security guards were involved.....however, nothing was found out. Not funny, and NOT clever
The pace then slowed but I continued to follow him at a safe distance. He continued to move east into, as Elvis would say, the Ghetto.". I tried talking him out of dropping the fence piece but he played the race card and said I wanted to beat him up because he was black. I told him that was ridiculous and he finally agreed to drop the piece at which time I re-commenced my chase. By this time we had entered a pretty seedy part of town. I followed him into an alley and over a fence. After I flipped over the fence and tumbled forward I saw the guy with his hands in the air. There was a guy in front of him with a gun pointed to his head and he was screaming "FREEZE OR I"LL BLOW YOUR F&%#@*!G HEAD OFF. I moved to the side as I was now directly behind his target. This gentleman then identified himself as a police officer. He put the guy in cuffs and then turned to me and asked, "What did he do?"
The police officer had been on his way to work when he saw me in the chase and decided something was wrong and decided to join in. Lucky for me that he did as I really did not want to go any further east than where I was when he joined the party.
Now that I look back on it, this reminds me of the opening chase scene in Casino Royale...with me being Bond and the thief being Mollaka. I only wish I had been wearing my Madagascar shirt and PO to really look the part. Parkour seems to have existed back then...circa 1987. Haha.
Almost forgot this one...A few years later, sometime in the early 90's Ringo Starr's All-Star Band was appearing at Summerfest in Milwaukee. (in addition to the spy themed Safe House, Summerfest is one of our greatest treasures.) Summerfest is the largest annual music festival in the world. Anyway, I was hanging out at the Miller Oasis about to watch Ringo and his gang and who walks right in front of me? One of my favorite Bond girls of all time - Barbara Bach. She was incognito...wearing a black baseball cap and sunglasses. She was about 45 or so at the time and still gorgeous (she's 62 now and still gorgeous).
This happened so quickly I didn't have any time to say anything to her. She had several security people with her as she moved through the crowd so I am sure they would have been prevented me from having any interaction with her anyway. They ushered her to a VIP viewing area that was above the grounds. Later that evening I went to a food vendor directly below the VIP area. I looked up and saw her surveying the crowd. I waved and got her attention. She waved back. That was it. No conversation. But one hell of a thrill for me. To this day, she is the only Bond girl I have ever seen in person.
Who's this Ringo guy anyway?
I just updated my post to include my Barbara Bach story. Ya gotta read that one too. Probably not as good as the chase story but I got a kick out of it.
- Driving fast on very narrow and far from straight roads, with a wall-like cliff on one side of the road and a sharp dropp into the fjord on the other (a daily occurance for many years of my life)
So...I somehow ended up in the stockrooms with my trusty camera, taking photos of the storerooms packed from wall to wall and floor to ceiling with computer equipment. Certain computer files were accessed, showing IIRC three million dollars in computer equipment being stored with another $1.2 million in computers being shipped to us.
This info was transmitted to the State Senate sub-committee overseeing my agency. There was a lot of heated phone calls that night. Bottom line was that the new computers were returned, the agency kepts its doors open, and 5,000 employees got their paychecks. It's the thing I'm most proud of in my life. -{
Had vodka martinis in some nice settings (skyscraper bars, beachside) so maybe that counts a little.
But my favorite story is not really Bond-like experience, but more like Bond impersonation. I was at the Newport Aquarium near Cincinnati with my wife, when to my great surprise we came upon a tank containing a lionfish. Look familiar?
After checking the nameplate to make sure I was correct, I turned to my wife and said: "Ah yes, Pterois volitans. Other fish avoid it. Those dorsal spines are laden with venom. Handsome but deadly."
She looked at me confusedly, wondering both how I knew all this and why I was speaking in such a stilted manner. Later, over a martini, I told her the answer to both questions, and she just smiled and rolled her eyes. She's used to this sort of thing.
My second experience would have be when my grandfather showed me the Walther PPK that he had owned for a time( He has since sold it.) Getting to hold it was unlike any other feeling in the world, it was even a blued model with the brown plastic grips like in the early films. Lastly visiting London in 2002 and getting to see many filming locations as well as Ian Fleming's former home was incredible. I had never felt closer to walking in 007's footsteps that trip.
Having drinks & dinner at the Ocean Club.
Scuba diving on the reef from Thunderball.
Winning at cards in Monte Carlo.
Being stopped and asked for 'papers' in Red Square.
Celebrating New Years on a train to Moscow.
Being served duck and champagne in first class on the way to Buenos Aires.
Racing through the Everglades on an airboat.
Getting 'comped' a suite at Bellagio, Las Vegas.
Having coffee at an outdoor cafe in Paris.
Landing an airplane after a complete hydraulic failure (no Flaps, no breaks, no steering on the ground).
...to name a few
My that time employer (this happened 3-5 years ago) was tasked with investigating importtax- / copyrightfraud. I stayed at the best hotel in town (northern part of Finland so the over all quality of that hotel was nothing spectacular, I'm sad to say). I had calling cards in that name, as well as email and phone. It was easy to convince the hotel to book the room with the false name even though it is not quite legal in finland, since I would pay a certain ministry contract price when cheking out.
After office hours, drinking a martini, stirred not shaken (it was gin this time) at the hotel bar and then enjoying a meal of grilled flounder and a glass of good white wine while dressed in blue suit, white shirt and black tie (not knitted).
What was missing was scantily clad beautifull women
-Mr Arlington Beech
How was the duck? The one time I tried it, it was very greasy. X-(
BTW: You shudda added to your list: Living in Miami Beach, where the Goldfinger story begins. -{
It was surprisingly good! My wife had the seared sea scallops. Not too shabby for airline food
Yeah, should've added Miami Beach..doh! Though now I mostly associate the beach with the USA show "Burn Notice". We've made it a point to find/go to all the locations we see on the show.
M: "Jealous husbands. Outraged chefs. Humiliated tailors. The list is endless!"