When staff at British embassies and consulates pick up the phone, they're prepared to help citizens grappling with problems from arrests to serious injuries. Playing matchmaker or untangling movie plots aren't services they provide.
Yet among calls the Foreign Office fielded this year were questions about the plot of the 1995 Mel Gibson movie
Braveheart and queries about the BBC TV show
Strictly Come Dancing. Other callers asked about vampires in Poland, Bangkok massage parlour costs, and potential marriage partners in Argentina.
The bizarre requests are culled from the more than 330,000 calls from UK citizens needing help during 2018, including almost 5000 who were arrested, more than 3400 hospitalised and thousands more seeking emergency travel documents, according to a statement on Sunday from the Foreign Office.
The man pursuing information about vampires explained that a woman he met online asked about his blood type before meeting for a first date. In the Canary Islands, a caller wanted the office to intervene when a cat urinated on his hotel room bed, while a man in New Delhi heard the British High Commission was selling vegetarian sausages and wanted to buy some.
"I can regretfully confirm that the Foreign Office isn't able to offer advice on vampires, rogue stray cats or
Strictly [
Come Dancing] contestants, and our capacity to deploy veggie sausages remains sadly lacking," a spokesman said. "But in all seriousness, getting into trouble abroad can be daunting and upsetting."
Staff will do what they can when UK citizens find themselves in an emergency away from home, according to the statement.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe...bassies-received-in-2018-20181231-p50ovh.html
But some of the other odder queries to the Foreign Office included:
- A man checking whether there were vampires in Poland because a woman he met online had asked what blood type he was before they met for their first date
- Another man requesting the Foreign Office speak to a massage parlour in Bangkok on his behalf, as he fell asleep during a massage and felt he shouldn’t have to pay for it
- A caller in New Delhi asking what time the British High Commission opened, as he’d heard it sold vegetarian sausages and he wanted to buy some
- A person in Italy asking the embassy to help arrange their wedding, recommend a florist, and get them tickets to see the Pope
- A man in Kuwait asking if any Foreign Office staff wanted to adopt his puppies
- A caller asking for a list of women in Argentina whom he might be able to marry
- A man asking where he should send a 5ft piece of wood that he had found on a beach that he thought may be from a British warship from the 1700s.
