Don't assume!

Today I made another planned visit to Belfast, I wanted to visit two contrasting areas, Sandy Row and Botanic Gardens.  But I was thrown completely off track.  At the entrance to Botanic Gardens I came across who I thought was a homeless man, asleep on a bench, see extra image!

I took some photographs, he never moved and I decided to waken him.  Slightly startled he became aware of my presence and I gave him a £2 coin, he thanked me profusely and I was amazed to find that he spoke with quite a refined accent - not what you would expect to find.

We started chatting and I learned that he was knowledgable in a number of subjects which he said he studied.  As he mentioned sociology, among a number of other subjects, I decided I would test him; I asked what he knew about Emile Durkheim, he replied instantly "he is a French Philosopher" and went on to talk about him.

A woman walking her dog joined us and she asked him if he was homeless, he replied no, he did have a house, but it's in bad repair and would need about £100k to fix it up.  He added, "if I worked as a road sweeper these past years I could have had as much as that now!"

Then the final surprise - he said that he was referenced on the internet over 140 times and he is known as Cyril Botanic.  I googled this and indeed he is there so look him up.  Apparently he does have a following, I believe his real name is Cyril Lindsay.

He is clearly an intelligent man, who suffers on one spectrum or another, he is knowledgable and I did learn an important lesson - don't make assumptions!!