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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Victory,

Great story! That certainly was creepy. When I imagine that happening at my house, I also imagine that my heart would be racing at the thought of a rodent tumbling out of my bags all of a sudden. How you managed to go back to bed to sleep some more is certainly admirable!

By the way, what's 'surgical spirit'? I'm a Yank, so maybe that's why I don't know what it is...
 
It got really windy round these parts the last couple of days...do you have draughts coming in under doors that might rustle bags?
 
Number one cat Chico comes in and wakes me up every morning 10 minuets before my alarm goes off, even after the clocks change, he's never been caught out. He's been doing it years and the only explanation I can think of is that some one else's alarm near me goes off just before mine which he can hear but I can't, still pretty impressive.
 
It's what you'd call 'rubbing alcohol'.
Some people here are using it in lieu of hand sanitizer (which is now impossible to get). In fact, rubbing alcohol is also scarce now. Same with you folks?

I'd like to also mention here that I wish for you and everyone in this message forum to remain healthy and sane during lock-down days!
 
I don't think most people look up to notice. Some great architecture and oddities above street level and if you look you see nobody else is looking up!

Or you'd bump into me also looking up! We we're taught by our history teacher to do this 'sides modern shop fronts are so boring! Seen lot's of intriquing architecural, carvings, oddly positioned windows etc and some splendid chimneys but never knowingly any ghosts. I live in hope.

Sollywos x
 
Two weeks ago I heard from a friend the price of scrap metal was very low and scrapyards were no longer buying scrap from small independents, only to be expected at this time. Today I had a walk and noticed a big scrapyard near me which all year has had a massive pile of scrap steel, ( tens of thousands of tons ), had less than 1/4 of the scrap pile left and was loading lots of trucks up with the scrap. This scrapyard is on a big river and in the past I've only ever seen the scrap leaving on ships, and I've never seen it with so little scrap. I had a look at scrap metal prices and it looks to have doubled in two weeks, where's it all going, I'm sure there's not been a ship in at least a week so its somewhere in the UK, really I've never seen them move so much steel so fast.
 
Two weeks ago I heard from a friend the price of scrap metal was very low and scrapyards were no longer buying scrap from small independents, only to be expected at this time. Today I had a walk and noticed a big scrapyard near me which all year has had a massive pile of scrap steel, ( tens of thousands of tons ), had less than 1/4 of the scrap pile left and was loading lots of trucks up with the scrap. This scrapyard is on a big river and in the past I've only ever seen the scrap leaving on ships, and I've never seen it with so little scrap. I had a look at scrap metal prices and it looks to have doubled in two weeks, where's it all going, I'm sure there's not been a ship in at least a week so its somewhere in the UK, really I've never seen them move so much steel so fast.
Recycling faster because supplies from abroad haven't been coming in on time?
 
Evening all!

About 6-8 weeks ago I was driving back from band practice in Cumnor (Oxfordshire) and had to take a detour as part of the a34 was closed. It routed me a fair way off the beaten path to get back northbound and I ended up out into the sticks towards Bletchingdon/Kirtlington.

Now bearing in mind this was around midnight, I'm driving in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and wooded areas. I turn a slightly sharp right hand bend, slowing the car down and there stood in front of me, on the right hand side, was a man with his back to me.

Now the weird thing is, he was already still when I caught him in the headlights (as it were). He wasn't mid stride or anything. Just deathly still and he didn't move an inch, it was almost as if he were frozen.

It gets weirder as he didn't even turn to face the car or acknowledge the presence of a car discovering him in the middle of nowhere. He just stood still. I slowed down to see if he needed help or anything but as I approached, something was really 'off' about it so I kind of panicked and drove on.

I tried to get a look at him as I went past, but couldn't really see any facial features due to the positioning of the lights.

I'd estimate his age based on clothing and posture as being in his 60's. He wore a flat cap with a reddish jumper and beige slacks.

I debated turning around to drive back and absolutely confirm what I had seen, but something about it really gave me the creeps, so I didn't go back. Which I regret as it's not like me to not try to be rational.

As a result of this, I did a bit of research into the area and I believe there was a taxi driver that was murdered back in the late 80's very, very close to where I witnessed this. The gent in question was of an older age also.

Maybe I'm just being stupid? It really was a very strange scenario. I can't think of a scenario where an older gent would be standing alone, in the arse end of nowhere, at midnight, in daytime clothing (it was a very cold night).

I should also add there wasn't any car parked up on this road that he could have embarked come from.
 
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Recycling faster because supplies from abroad haven't been coming in on time?
That makes sense Mythopoeika, though I started to think something more sinister ( Ben Elton's Stark* maybe ) after not being able to get on the internet after posting that (have been trying on and off for over 5 hours ), was waiting for a knock on the door !. But I I've known this scrapyard for about 15 years and never seen the scrap pile move so fast, its base scrap metal and can only be used in foundrys, are there that many still working in this country ? * Stark = star ark
 
Only explanation comes to mind
Evening all!

About 6-8 weeks ago I was driving back from band practice in Cumnor (Oxfordshire) and had to take a detour as part of the a34 was closed. It routed me a fair way off the beaten path to get back northbound and I ended up out into the sticks towards Bletchingdon/Kirtlington.

Now bearing in mind this was around midnight, I'm driving in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and wooded areas. I turn a slightly sharp right hand bend, slowing the car down and there stood in front of me, on the right hand side, was a man with his back to me.

Now the weird thing is, he was already still when I caught him in the headlights (as it were). He wasn't mid stride or anything. Just deathly still and he didn't move an inch, it was almost as if he were frozen.

It gets weirder as he didn't even turn to face the car or acknowledge the presence of a car discovering him in the middle of nowhere. He just stood still. I slowed down to see if he needed help or anything but as I approached, something was really 'off' about it so I kind of panicked and drove on.

I tried to get a look at him as I went past, but couldn't really see any facial features due to the positioning of the lights.

I'd estimate his age based on clothing and posture as being in his 60's. He wore a flat cap with a reddish jumper and beige slacks.

I debated turning around to drive back and absolutely confirm what I had seen, but something about it really gave me the creeps, so I didn't go back. Which I regret as it's not like me to not try to be rational.

As a result of this, I did a bit of research into the area and I believe there was a taxi driver that was murdered back in the late 80's very, very close to where I witnessed this. The gent in question was of an older age also.

Maybe I'm just being stupid? It really was a very strange scenario. I can't think of a scenario where an older gent would be standing alone, in the arse end of nowhere, at midnight, in daytime clothing (it was a very cold night).

I should also add there was car parked up at any point on this road that he could embarked come from.
is... elderly person with dementia?
 
As I was reading the most recent posts on the "Signs From God" thread on these beloved Forums, I heard what sounded like a chorus singing one sustained note, the kind of sound used in movies to indicate epiphanies or the present/intervention of God. I heard it twice.
It could have been an extra loud car radio, a strangely musical water pipe (one I've never heard in this building before), or train wheels scraping along the rails if the sound had carried on a puff of wind. Most likely the car radio, as the the window is cracked open a little, like my brain.

(BTW, I'm not religious. I see weird things in the bottoms of coffee cups, and could see them in pork snack items if I came in contact with such things, but it doesn't make me believe that what I see exists in any other context.)
 
The most likely explanation. Now I feel bad for not stopping. Still a little odd how they didn't react at all to the car.

Unlikely he was suffering from dementia it would have been all over the local press. More likely a poacher, that's why he didn't leg it, (suspicious) 0r turn to you, (he didn't want to be identified).

It's not all about shooting, he could have been setting traps.

What do you mean "daytime" clothing?
 
Unlikely he was suffering from dementia it would have been all over the local press. More likely a poacher, that's why he didn't leg it, (suspicious) 0r turn to you, (he didn't want to be identified).

It's not all about shooting, he could have been setting traps.

What do you mean "daytime" clothing?

Well it was around 0-3c, I would have expected somebody to have a coat on or maybe a hat, gloves, scarf or clothing more suitable for a countryside trek in the dead of night!
 
Very creepy! I agree that he might well have been a poacher.
 
Just a tiny thing, but a few miutes ago Mrs Asparagus knocked one of our wine glasses onto the kitchen floor. It is a quite delilcate glass and it fell from over three feet onto a hard floor but when we picked it up it was undamaged. We thought it would be shattered but there wasn't even a crack in it!
 
I don't think most people look up to notice. Some great architecture and oddities above street level and if you look you see nobody else is looking up!

I had a history lecturer who used to tell us to 'always look up'. A lot of buildings, especially in town centres, have been altered massively at street level, but the upper storeys often remain intact. 90% of history is above our heads.
 
As I was reading the most recent posts on the "Signs From God" thread on these beloved Forums, I heard what sounded like a chorus singing one sustained note, the kind of sound used in movies to indicate epiphanies or the present/intervention of God.

We have threads on “sky trumpets”. Here’s one:

forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/that-annoying-trumpet.53899/
Link is obsolete. The current link is:

Sky Trumpets (Mystery Sounds; Skyquakes)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/sky-trumpets-mystery-sounds-skyquakes.53899/


maximus otter
 
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I had a history lecturer who used to tell us to 'always look up'. A lot of buildings, especially in town centres, have been altered massively at street level, but the upper storeys often remain intact. 90% of history is above our heads.
My dad used to always say that, in Leeds city centre. Absolutely true - there are some real gems, higher up on the late Victorian/Edwardian buildings. Probably the same in any city that was largely built at those dates, when they spent stupid money on pointless ornamentation! I never forgot it though and in new places too, I always look up.
 
Absolutely true - there are some real gems, higher up on the late Victorian/Edwardian buildings.

I remember that Southport's local paper used to run a weekly quiz, featuring photographs of the elegant architectural features overhead. Lord Street, the main shopping boulevard, had once been home to dozens of very distinctive shops, banks and tea-shops; at ground-level, those businesses had their identity, sometimes literally, plastered over by standard chain-store designs. They were just so much floor-space! Above ground-floor level, the external features, at least, were left in peace.

In some cases, I gather, the internal features also survived, as businesses shrunk. Whole floors could be used just for storage or sealed off as time-capsules. I gather the old Co-Op in that town - since home to Poundland and Macdonald's etc, has a ballroom on the top floor, essentially in mothballs! Inquisitive workers have found their way up there from time to time, though I have not seen any photos! :)
 
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