What caues so many ExPats to totally embelish (brag) about their past?

[norfolkandchance]

Who’s been Postived Vetted ?

[smccolley]

For me, I saw my father sacrifice everything for the family and then tell me - when I retire I will do the things I want to do. He died at 52. Well, I rebelled against that and did everything I wanted as soon as possible. Now I have collected some great memories and am happy to regale you with them at the bar. All true however so they are not so remarkable....

[JCauto]

4 hours ago, i claudius said:

 

You wont believe this but i have done it , it took quite a long time ,i have had a good life .

 

I read your book, quite excellent. Having lived since Roman times, you must have had a hell of a life. Can't wait for the sequel to Graves' book.

[JCauto]

47 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

 I started to write my life story about 4 years ago and stored it all on my hard drive. Sadly the HDD crashed a year ago and I lost the bit from 1960 to 1971 and I never restarted it again.

 

I lost a lot of the photos too.

 

I'd have a go at the hard drive restoration companies if it was something like that, which could otherwise be lost forever. You might lose a hundred bucks or so, but if it works out, you've regained priceless memories.

[Gillyflower]

Why can't you all take it as a bit of fun!  Just be amused by it!  As though you are watching a film.  All the chaps I meet are VERY cagey about their lives back in wherever it was.

[al007]

This happens wherever you go , public bar at home, Plaza New York and Mandarin Oriental Hongkong, and I have been to them all

 

Do not believe all you hear

 

And Donald is not all bad as well, he also exaggerates as Well !!!

[Gruff]

25 minutes ago, Gillyflower said:

Why can't you all take it as a bit of fun!  Just be amused by it!  As though you are watching a film.  All the chaps I meet are VERY cagey about their lives back in wherever it was.

 

Maybe an idea but also maybe that would be like laughing at something which, in my opinion, is actually quite sad. 

Edited October 3, 2017 by Gruff

[chickenslegs]

I can't help thinking that there is an amount of "embelishment" in the OP.

I would bet my Victoria Cross, US Medal of Honor, and Légion d'honneur awards that some of those encounters never happened.

[Destiny1990]

Based on the female and lb comments in soi Bukaw i dare to say that i probably am a very handsum ,rich and successful and babe magnet for the ladies kind of a type.But maybe in other streets i am just an old fat poor dude..Best is for my ego to stay most of my time in Bukaw..

[kkerry]

It is only getting worse. I was in a bar the other night and this guy wouldn't shut up about his Victoria Cross, US Medal of Honor, and Légion d'honneur so in the end I had no choice but to have my driver bring over the Rolls (the silver one, not the white one which was in for service) so I could return to the peace and quiet of my duplex penthouse at 98 Wireless. 

[chickenslegs]

11 minutes ago, kkerry said:

It is only getting worse. I was in a bar the other night and this guy wouldn't shut up about his Victoria Cross, US Medal of Honor, and Légion d'honneur so in the end I had no choice but to have my driver bring over the Rolls (the silver one, not the white one which was in for service) so I could return to the peace and quiet of my duplex penthouse at 98 Wireless. 

 

More embelishment. That was not a RR it was only a Bentley.

[al007]

24 minutes ago, kkerry said:

It is only getting worse. I was in a bar the other night and this guy wouldn't shut up about his Victoria Cross, US Medal of Honor, and Légion d'honneur so in the end I had no choice but to have my driver bring over the Rolls (the silver one, not the white one which was in for service) so I could return to the peace and quiet of my duplex penthouse at 98 Wireless. 

 

Did you have trouble finding a Rolls trained driver, do you pay by the hour or monthly regardless of hours

 

I had to send my driver to the UK to get her properly trained, she is also quite cute and wears proper uniform, if I do not watch it the skirt gets a bit short, I find paying by the month is a better deal

 

Rolls were very good when I bought the last one ( it only cost £210,000) they included a weeks chauffeuse training, she also carries a gun just in case.

[elnet1]

4 hours ago, 4737 Carlin said:

Patttaya, in particular, is a magnet for the former 'top boys' of notorious London football hooligan firms - every other bloke you meet used to run with the ICF or headhunters. There's also a fair percentage of retired SAS (Super Army Soldiers) living in Patts.

No matter how much I protested, four nigerians were convinced that I was an FBI agent. Not just any FBI agent, but the ledgendary CIA/FBI agent, bent on destroying their business of selling marijuana joints. I tried to tell them that neither the CIA or FBI would care about drugs as its the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) that would be involved with this. So I guess that it was my suave and smooth demeanor that convinced them that I was a senior agent. Signed, James Bond

[Chimp]

You never know who is telling the truth..................

[Timebandit]

They can't live with their meager accomplishments and must grossly exaggerate (lie) to feel they have made something of themselves. It isn't important for anyone else. I know of such an embarrassing <deleted> no one will talk to him now and the bar clears out upon his arrival. They are not concentrated here. They're all over the World. I turn and walk.

[Rc2702]

The worst place this happens is HK never come across so much BS than that place.

 

Theres a guy on here from HK actually and he bleats a fair bit of BS. Some yoghurt dreamer or something. 

[ericthai]

Wish I had 5B for every Special forces, Navy Seal, MI6, etc I have met in a bar in Thailand.

However I have met some real marines and Seals in BKK, they act nothing like the others I have met. 

 

[Aussieroaming]

My oldest brother once bragged to me about training the security dogs for the Sultan of Brunei, which i promptly called BS, turns out he did and i was wrong. Sometimes those bragging stories are correct or at least a reflection of the truth

[bendejo]

"What color is the boathouse in Hereford?"

I guess the lies trend with the times.  Around 15 years ago just about everyone I'd meet on the expat scene was a former Navy Seal or SAS or some sort of clandestine danger man, and he knew things he couldn't reveal but that I "just wouldn't believe" if he did.  I've since managed to avoid the Pattaya/Bkk-Sukhumvit scene, but after Bin Laden capture incident I would have thought the ex-Seal legends would have  a revival.  Sometimes they're so obvious it's entertaining, like this US kid who couldn't have been more than 22 with such a baby-faced complexion he probably had never even been caught in the rain. 

I have overheard a few ex-sports boasts, players and reporters.  Not a sports fan, so I don't know what they're talking about anyway.

 

People move to far away countries to re-invent themselves and live out their fantasies.  Not all of the fantasies are sexual.

 

These days there are laws in the US regarding lying about having served in the military.  Go to youtube and type in stolen valor and you see what I mean.

 

One brand of bs I hear way too often in LOS for it to be amusing is "I know people."  Even to the point of waiting for a bus that is running late and someone says "this is unacceptable, I know people!"  I've only heard this from Brits, maybe a few Aussies -- is this expression a British-ism?

 

Here's a challenge: post for info about an obscure topic, and there is a good chance that someone here on TVF is an expert in it.

 

 

[PerkinsCuthbert]

With an heroic, Odyssean story such as mine, what need would I have to embellish my past?

[ToddinChonburi]

A lot of mentally unhealthy expats here so not surprised by your experience,  most of the people I say hello to as I am walking just ignore me.  Lol       you must look friendly.  

[bazza73]

9 hours ago, OmarZaid said:

I think it is done out of fear ... of being insignificant, worthless and meaningless , of being and dying alone , a stranger in a strange land . . .

Someone has been reading Robert Heinlein.

[bazza73]

A search for relevance.

[inThailand]

Telling a big porky to make up for a small weenie?

[chuang]

I been to Mars and back. 

[moe666]

They meet more people who do not know them and will more than likely never see again

[toddsaed]

the point is, beats me

[Nurseynutcase]

I was chatting to friend about all the BS we hear.  Complete strangers coming up to us and telling us how wonderful their life has been, what they own, how much money they have coming in.   Then ---------------- they moan about the price of a coconut on the beach/beer in a bar etc, I am sure many of you have heard similar stories.

 

As my friend said 'it is easy to come here and re-invent yourself' - alot of people seem to do this.  Sad really.

[watcharacters]

13 hours ago, Goldbear said:

And most of the people that you are describing never ask a single question about you. It's always about them. 

 

 

Truer words could not be spoken!

[Cranky]

I found the opposite to be the case.  On the occasional visit back to Blighty I would run in to old acquaintances and be asked "So, how is Thailand?"  I would delight in telling (100% true) tales of various events only to see within seconds a look of total disbelief.  I don't bother anymore as most of the tales are simply (a) impossible to have been fabricated with my limited imagination, and (b) sound like total BS.