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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Sgt Girth said:
Phantosmia.............or maybe something is actually burning!
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Well, I stuck my head in a couple of rooms that have had their doors closed for ages. No burning toast smell in there.
Less of a burning toast now than there was.
I really do think somebody out there has been burning something, probably on one of the local farms.
 
catseye said:
I am well known for being infuriated beyond the point of reason by people who advertise their car on cards in shop windows and misspell the make. I often have to be helped from the shop by kind people, whilst I mutter "it's written on the BACK OF THE CAR! All they had to do was go out and COPY IT DOWN..."
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The one that really irritates me is Camero for Camaro. It was even in the lyric sheet on a Springsteen album.

Trevp666 said:
As PeteS said.
I agree - I have heard that it can be an indicator of either a stroke or seizure of some sort.
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I'm no expert, but wasn't this debunked a few months ago in FT?
 
ChasFink said:
I'm no expert, but wasn't this debunked a few months ago in FT?
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I spoke to a world expert on neuro surgery a couple of decades ago or more and she told me that a surprising number of her patients reported odd smells as the first sign of symptoms of a major problem, burning toast being the most common. Could be coincidental and opinions may have moved on considerably since then. I suppose it's a similar type of thing with Covid where the sense of smell disappears in some sufferers.
 
On Monday I received in the mail a magazine I has subscribed to via flybuys.
As I'd already bought it the day before I left it in it's plastic bag and put it on the coffee table.
Yesterday I thought I'd put it in the bag I was going to take to my friend but couldn't find it anywhere.
I went through all the magazines waiting to have their puzzles done, pulled all the cushions off the couch but nothing.
This morning when I came out there it was sitting on the lounge.
Both my daughter and I have sat where it was and you would think we would have noticed if it was there.
 
So, some weeks ago I realized that instead of two pairs of sweatpants I only had one. I checked very thoroughly - went through my husband's stuff, laundry room piles, laundry bins, odd places I might've absentmindedly gotten undressed, nothing. This was inconvenient because I am very hard to fit and my sewing binge this year was focused on making stuff for hot weather, not the four weeks of coldness we can expect in any given year. Today (it's warm) I opened the empty drawer to put away the single pair of sweatpants I'd just laundered, and there was my second pair.

This would be a lot stranger if we didn't have three cats and the drawer weren't open in the back. Our bedframe has drawers on the sides with an open space down the center, as handy for the cats as it is inconvenient for us, and quite possibly the only place I didn't think to look during my search. Presumably the pants disappeared when one of the cats decided they wanted a nest in the open space and dragged the pants back there, and reappeared when one of them decided to sleep in the drawer and found it bare.

At least, this is the comfortable explanation I'm going with.
 
We had a mysterious event in our kitchen a few days ago which we simply cannot explain.

We were all (me, Mr Zebra, ZebraPup1 and ZebraPup2) sitting on the settee together watching some film or other. Then there was a crash sound from the kitchen, sounding like something had fallen, quite forcefully - it was a loud crash. We rushed through (as you do) only to find an empty cocoa tin lying on its side on the kitchen floor, beside one of the dog bowls.

The cocoa tin in question had been empty for quite some time but we had put it at the far side of the kitchen worktop to keep in case it came in handy for storing anything in. So for many weeks it had stood there, between the bread making machine and toaster. Neither of us had moved it, and due to the layout of the kitchen (crude diagram in MS Paint to follow) it wasn't possible for either of the dogs to reach it and somehow cause it to be unstable and thus later fall (remember both dogs were with us in the living room at the time of the incident), and as it was at that far side of the worktop, it also wasn't in danger of ever getting knocked by either one of us as it wasn't an area that we 'use' actively.

We tried 'recreating' the incident (i.e. putting the tin back where it should have been and gently pushing it off the worktop) to see if it had fallen there somehow. (even though it hadn't been sitting right at the edge of the worktop).
- Each time we tried, it either hit the side of the bin and fell in (lid was open), or it fell just to the left (as viewed on the diagram) of the bin.
- It did not roll very far if at all, when we got it to land on the floor rather than in the bin.
- Attempting to push it slightly to make it roll from that position, resulted in it barely moving. There isn't a slope on the floor that would cause it to fall down and then roll to the location we found it in.
- The noise we heard was definitely loud enough to be called a 'crash', and both of us had the inescapable feeling that the cocoa tin had been thrown. (The noise we heard was singular and quite quick, certainly not a 'fall then roll' sort of noise).


The thing that unnerves us, is that we have both in recent months (independently and without telling the other until both had witnessed it) seen or sensed movement across that very kitchen - which I shall relate in a separate post if anyone is interested.


For now, crude diagram in MS Paint as promised. If anyone has any ideas/suggestions/similar experiences we would be glad to hear them.

1609975447438.png
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
We had a mysterious event in our kitchen a few days ago which we simply cannot explain.

We were all (me, Mr Zebra, ZebraPup1 and ZebraPup2) sitting on the settee together watching some film or other. Then there was a crash sound from the kitchen, sounding like something had fallen, quite forcefully - it was a loud crash. We rushed through (as you do) only to find an empty cocoa tin lying on its side on the kitchen floor, beside one of the dog bowls.

The cocoa tin in question had been empty for quite some time but we had put it at the far side of the kitchen worktop to keep in case it came in handy for storing anything in. So for many weeks it had stood there, between the bread making machine and toaster. Neither of us had moved it, and due to the layout of the kitchen (crude diagram in MS Paint to follow) it wasn't possible for either of the dogs to reach it and somehow cause it to be unstable and thus later fall (remember both dogs were with us in the living room at the time of the incident), and as it was at that far side of the worktop, it also wasn't in danger of ever getting knocked by either one of us as it wasn't an area that we 'use' actively.

We tried 'recreating' the incident (i.e. putting the tin back where it should have been and gently pushing it off the worktop) to see if it had fallen there somehow. (even though it hadn't been sitting right at the edge of the worktop).
- Each time we tried, it either hit the side of the bin and fell in (lid was open), or it fell just to the left (as viewed on the diagram) of the bin.
- It did not roll very far if at all, when we got it to land on the floor rather than in the bin.
- Attempting to push it slightly to make it roll from that position, resulted in it barely moving. There isn't a slope on the floor that would cause it to fall down and then roll to the location we found it in.
- The noise we heard was definitely loud enough to be called a 'crash', and both of us had the inescapable feeling that the cocoa tin had been thrown. (The noise we heard was singular and quite quick, certainly not a 'fall then roll' sort of noise).


The thing that unnerves us, is that we have both in recent months (independently and without telling the other until both had witnessed it) seen or sensed movement across that very kitchen - which I shall relate in a separate post if anyone is interested.


For now, crude diagram in MS Paint as promised. If anyone has any ideas/suggestions/similar experiences we would be glad to hear them.

View attachment 33546
Click to expand...

Great post and appreciate the addition of the diagram - it really helps paint a picture!

Re. Your other experiences in the kitchen, do you realise what forum you're on?? :p OF COURSE we want to hear more. :chuckle:
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
We had a mysterious event in our kitchen a few days ago which we simply cannot explain.

We were all (me, Mr Zebra, ZebraPup1 and ZebraPup2) sitting on the settee together watching some film or other. Then there was a crash sound from the kitchen, sounding like something had fallen, quite forcefully - it was a loud crash. We rushed through (as you do) only to find an empty cocoa tin lying on its side on the kitchen floor, beside one of the dog bowls.

The cocoa tin in question had been empty for quite some time but we had put it at the far side of the kitchen worktop to keep in case it came in handy for storing anything in. So for many weeks it had stood there, between the bread making machine and toaster. Neither of us had moved it, and due to the layout of the kitchen (crude diagram in MS Paint to follow) it wasn't possible for either of the dogs to reach it and somehow cause it to be unstable and thus later fall (remember both dogs were with us in the living room at the time of the incident), and as it was at that far side of the worktop, it also wasn't in danger of ever getting knocked by either one of us as it wasn't an area that we 'use' actively.

We tried 'recreating' the incident (i.e. putting the tin back where it should have been and gently pushing it off the worktop) to see if it had fallen there somehow. (even though it hadn't been sitting right at the edge of the worktop).
- Each time we tried, it either hit the side of the bin and fell in (lid was open), or it fell just to the left (as viewed on the diagram) of the bin.
- It did not roll very far if at all, when we got it to land on the floor rather than in the bin.
- Attempting to push it slightly to make it roll from that position, resulted in it barely moving. There isn't a slope on the floor that would cause it to fall down and then roll to the location we found it in.
- The noise we heard was definitely loud enough to be called a 'crash', and both of us had the inescapable feeling that the cocoa tin had been thrown. (The noise we heard was singular and quite quick, certainly not a 'fall then roll' sort of noise).


The thing that unnerves us, is that we have both in recent months (independently and without telling the other until both had witnessed it) seen or sensed movement across that very kitchen - which I shall relate in a separate post if anyone is interested.


For now, crude diagram in MS Paint as promised. If anyone has any ideas/suggestions/similar experiences we would be glad to hear them.

View attachment 33546
Click to expand...
Something hit it, it bounced over the work surface to the wall, bounced off and rolled along until it fell to the floor.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Something hit it, it bounced over the work surface to the wall, bounced off and rolled along until it fell to the floor.
Click to expand...

Interesting... but it would have to get past the toaster (and all the other crap essential kitchen items that are on the worktop which I didn't put into the diagram).

Just to clarify - which way do you mean bounced over the work surface? What direction?

There was nothing else out-of-place that had fallen and hit it (and nowhere to fall from).
 
Cloudbusting said:
Great post and appreciate the addition of the diagram - it really helps paint a picture!

Re. Your other experiences in the kitchen, do you realise what forum you're on?? :p OF COURSE we want to hear more. :chuckle:
Click to expand...

Thanks, and sorry its only a diagram and not a photograph, which may or may not have helped further.

Yeah, this is the cooking forum, isn't it? :p
 
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Schrodinger's Zebra said:
Interesting... but it would have to get past the toaster (and all the other crap essential kitchen items that are on the worktop which I didn't put into the diagram).

Just to clarify - which way do you mean bounced over the work surface? What direction?

There was nothing else out-of-place that had fallen and hit it (and nowhere to fall from).
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Like this:
bounce.png
 
Mythopoeika said:
Like this:
View attachment 33547
Click to expand...

Nice use of colour there Sir :)

But alas.. there are things behind the toaster so it certainly couldn't have happened that way. Apologies for not putting enough into my diagram, I thought I'd keep it simple but I've possibly made it a tad misleading. Here's a perhaps better attempt (and now you see why I haven't posted an actual photo :shy:):


1609978344337.png
 
Other kitchen incident as requested.

Since we've been working from home, Mr Zebra and I have set up our computers in the back room, which has a hatch into the kitchen. The way we are sitting, Mr Zebra has his back to this hatch and I am sitting at right-angles to it (with the hatch to my left).

Several times in the last few months I have seen something move across the kitchen, visible through the hatch. It's quite hard to put it into words as I'm typing this (even though I can picture it in my mind). Just a greyish shape, taking a second or so to cross the visible area through the hatch, but somehow I just knew it was a human shape (that sort of size, anyhow), or ghost, or... I don't know. But definitely something there. Like I said, hard to explain. And nothing like anything I've seen before.

The one thing I would add is that the way it moved - the speed - faster than a 'normal' person would be walking across that part of the kitchen, not to mention that the position of the thing (I really don't know what to call it) was at the far side of the fairly small kitchen, further away from the hatch and near the sink, and where it was moving - there wasn't anywhere to go, really. It would 'walk' straight into the dishwasher if it kept on the direction it was going. I say 'walk' because it wasn't really a walk, more of a... glide, maybe?

Anyway, you're probably thinking "visual disturbance" - but wait. The first time I 'saw' this thing, I didn't say anything to Mr Zebra. We were both busy working, and I didn't think too much of it, even though it was as described above. I guess I put it down to my imagination, or a floater in my eyes (even though it was nothing like a floater, but it's sometimes easier to dismiss things, isn't it.).

But then I saw it again, a day or so later. And again. And again. Sporadically over a course of days/weeks. And still I didn't say anything to Mr Zebra, because I really didn't know how to describe it. And I think, in some daft way, I didn't want to bring it up in case it was a sign of some eye issues or something (I worry about that sort of thing). So best not to say 'owt, you know. Maybe I just dismissed it as a shadow, or something. Tried to rationalise it. As you do.

But here's where it gets even more interesting. One day a couple of weeks after that, Mr Zebra had swivelled his chair around to my part of the desk to help me out with something. So he was now between me and the hatch, facing more or less the same way I was. And after a while, he suddenly remarked that he'd seen something move across the kitchen, through the hatch. That was the point at which I admitted that I'd seen this thing, whatever-it-was, several times too. Comparing what we'd both seen, it was clear... we'd seen the same thing.

On a further occasion, again when Mr Zebra was round my side of the desk, it happened again. We both saw it at the same time that time.

So... what the heck was it?

We're still working in that room, of course, as we're still working from home. But haven't seen the thing for some time, although we're only just back working after the Christmas break. If it appears again... I don't know.

So there you have it.
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
Several times in the last few months I have seen something move across the kitchen, visible through the hatch. It's quite hard to put it into words as I'm typing this (even though I can picture it in my mind). Just a greyish shape, taking a second or so to cross the visible area through the hatch, but somehow I just knew it was a human shape (that sort of size, anyhow), or ghost, or... I don't know. But definitely something there. Like I said, hard to explain. And nothing like anything I've seen before.

The one thing I would add is that the way it moved - the speed - faster than a 'normal' person would be walking across that part of the kitchen, not to mention that the position of the thing (I really don't know what to call it) was at the far side of the fairly small kitchen, further away from the hatch and near the sink, and where it was moving - there wasn't anywhere to go, really. It would 'walk' straight into the dishwasher if it kept on the direction it was going. I say 'walk' because it wasn't really a walk, more of a... glide, maybe?
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Maybe it was the Auditors? They're always bad news, according to Sir Terry Pratchett.
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
Other kitchen incident as requested.

Since we've been working from home, Mr Zebra and I have set up our computers in the back room, which has a hatch into the kitchen. The way we are sitting, Mr Zebra has his back to this hatch and I am sitting at right-angles to it (with the hatch to my left).

Several times in the last few months I have seen something move across the kitchen, visible through the hatch. It's quite hard to put it into words as I'm typing this (even though I can picture it in my mind). Just a greyish shape, taking a second or so to cross the visible area through the hatch, but somehow I just knew it was a human shape (that sort of size, anyhow), or ghost, or... I don't know. But definitely something there. Like I said, hard to explain. And nothing like anything I've seen before.

The one thing I would add is that the way it moved - the speed - faster than a 'normal' person would be walking across that part of the kitchen, not to mention that the position of the thing (I really don't know what to call it) was at the far side of the fairly small kitchen, further away from the hatch and near the sink, and where it was moving - there wasn't anywhere to go, really. It would 'walk' straight into the dishwasher if it kept on the direction it was going. I say 'walk' because it wasn't really a walk, more of a... glide, maybe?

Anyway, you're probably thinking "visual disturbance" - but wait. The first time I 'saw' this thing, I didn't say anything to Mr Zebra. We were both busy working, and I didn't think too much of it, even though it was as described above. I guess I put it down to my imagination, or a floater in my eyes (even though it was nothing like a floater, but it's sometimes easier to dismiss things, isn't it.).

But then I saw it again, a day or so later. And again. And again. Sporadically over a course of days/weeks. And still I didn't say anything to Mr Zebra, because I really didn't know how to describe it. And I think, in some daft way, I didn't want to bring it up in case it was a sign of some eye issues or something (I worry about that sort of thing). So best not to say 'owt, you know. Maybe I just dismissed it as a shadow, or something. Tried to rationalise it. As you do.

But here's where it gets even more interesting. One day a couple of weeks after that, Mr Zebra had swivelled his chair around to my part of the desk to help me out with something. So he was now between me and the hatch, facing more or less the same way I was. And after a while, he suddenly remarked that he'd seen something move across the kitchen, through the hatch. That was the point at which I admitted that I'd seen this thing, whatever-it-was, several times too. Comparing what we'd both seen, it was clear... we'd seen the same thing.

On a further occasion, again when Mr Zebra was round my side of the desk, it happened again. We both saw it at the same time that time.

So... what the heck was it?

We're still working in that room, of course, as we're still working from home. But haven't seen the thing for some time, although we're only just back working after the Christmas break. If it appears again... I don't know.

So there you have it.
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I'd still have an eye test.
 
Are there windows in the kitchen through which something could be being reflected? Doe sit happen at all times of day or is it more concentrated at certain times?

And what is behind your kitchen? I'm just wondering if something is going past outside the kitchen window which is perhaps reflecting off another surface and catching your attention out of the corner of your eye but without giving you time to focus on it properly.
 
escargot said:
I'd still have an eye test.
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Highly unlikely we'd both have something wrong, though, surely? Not much chance of getting one at the moment anyway, but we had our tests early last year (Feb I think) so it's not that long since they were done and they get done regularly.

I know I said I dismissed it as possibly an eye problem but like I said, that was just me trying to rationalise it and it's hard to get across how 'real' this thing actually was. And now coupled with the mysterious cocoa tin incident, which still has no explanation!

It wasn't something seen just in the corner of our eyes. (I'd say at least a couple of the occasions were when I was looking across at Mr Zebra, therefore with the hatch much closer to the front of my vision. It hasn't always been at exactly the same angle, in other words. Plus it's not anything we've seen elsewhere, in any other rooms or situations, and for most of the time sitting working in that room, I've seen nothing, even though we've been in that room 5 days a week, 9 or 10 hours a day, since March.

Not trying to be dismissive, just trying to explain further :)



catseye said:
Are there windows in the kitchen through which something could be being reflected? Doe sit happen at all times of day or is it more concentrated at certain times?

And what is behind your kitchen? I'm just wondering if something is going past outside the kitchen window which is perhaps reflecting off another surface and catching your attention out of the corner of your eye but without giving you time to focus on it properly.
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The only window in that room is in the roof and it doesn't really get reflections etc. It's an old sort of box-shaped glass affair. The only other windows letting light into the room are the ones in the back room that we're sitting in at the time but they face into the back garden so no cars etc going past. (The only movement going past them are the occasional bird).

As for time of day... hmmm... can't really say when these things occurred, different times of day I think.


Here is another Zebs-patented :) diagram which might shed some more light (!) on the circumstances.

1610206782570.png


The roof window is a sort of box rising above the slope of the roof, it is solid/opaque at the sides and opaque on top (very old glass/perspex/something). It's not a 'velux'-type roof window.
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
we would be glad to hear them
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I should cocoa!

Anyways....have you considered setting up a 'trigger object', a la 'Most Haunted'?
Seeing as the cocoa tin was 'picked on' you could place it on a sheet of paper on t' kitchen worktop, draw a circle around it and sprinkle a little flour around it so that you can see if it gets moved, and also if there are any marks like a cats paws might make?
 
Trevp666 said:
I should cocoa!
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:hahazebs:

Trevp666 said:
Anyways....have you considered setting up a 'trigger object', a la 'Most Haunted'?
Seeing as the cocoa tin was 'picked on' you could place it on a sheet of paper on t' kitchen worktop, draw a circle around it and sprinkle a little flour around it so that you can see if it gets moved, and also if there are any marks like a cats paws might make?
Click to expand...

Ooh interesting idea, we shall give that a go, thanks!

What's the idea behind the cats paws thing? Is this a ghostly sign?
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
Not trying to be dismissive, just trying to explain further :)
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Dismiss me all you like! but it's your sight and it is precious. If this were me I'd be off to Asda for a gruellingly comprehensive eye test.*

No matter if anyone else has seen the same thing. They have their own eyes to take care of.

I have indeed done this, many years ago when one eye went partly blind. Had every test under the sun and was eventually diagnosed with migraine. Thank you, NHS!

*Had one last week in fact and was happy to be told I have no abnormalities whatsoever in either eye. Just the regular myopia.
 
Trevp666 said:
Possibly an interloper, sneaking in through an open window......does seem a bit of a stretch though.
But yeah, the sprinkling of flour would rule out any other kind of corporeal interference.
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Yeah, I think this unlikely. The only window in the kitchen is the one in the roof and it doesn't open. Other windows in the house are occasionally opened of course, but at the time in question they were all closed.

In any case ZebraPup1 and/or ZebraPup2 would soon let us know if there was a feline interloper in the house :)
 
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