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It Happened To Me! Then I Realised It Hadn't

I wrote on the UFO thread on here earlier this year about an amazing thing I saw in the night sky. It started out as a bright star on the horizon, that split into three stars as it got bigger and bigger. I was thinking, a UFO sighting! At last!

It eventually materialised as a massive, slow-movng triangular craft. It was spectacular. Proper hairs standing up on neck experience. After weeks of searching the internet, I identified it as a military freight craft, magnificently called the Globemaster.
 
Back when I was about 10, we went on a family holiday to a farm in Derbyshire. One day, I'm roaming around trying to find something to do, and I see a cat with a baby rabbit in its mouth. Intrigued, I follow into a barn, up a wooden ladder, and into the hayloft where I hide behind bales to watch kittens run around, which it was obviously going to feed it to.

The next day I see presumably the same cat wondering around, so I decide to follow it. It goes into the tractor shed, and turns into a corridor which leads into the cows milking room. I decide to head it off by going into the front entrance of the milking room, and enter the empty white-tiled space, which has the machinery and low two-foot high walls in the middle, so cows follow the same path.

I take a few steps inside and FREEZE. There is suddenly a loud hideous rasping noise like a whirlpool makes in a bathtub. I have no idea where it is coming from, as it bounces off tiles which also amplify it. After a few seconds it stops. And shocked, I eventually carry on, taking tentative steps forward-

THHHHHWWWWWW----

Again the sound. Louder! I know it's not the machinery, because it sounds... organic? And I know it's not the cat, because no cat can make that sound. Once again frozen, I stare at a two-foot high wall in front of me. It's the only thing I cannot see beyond, and the most likely culprit as to what is hiding the source of this ungodly sound.

Now, even at this young age I was into Forteana, having issues of The Unexplained delivered every week. So I knew all about Aliens and Demons, and in that moment knew something not of everyday life lay beyond that wall - maybe an injured alien Grey trying to warn me off, or a trapped Gnome that dare not show its face? I also knew whenever people relate stories like this, this is the point where they scarper, leaving a lifetime to speculate on what horrors they could have seen.... But not me! Those stories frustrated me enough to carry on - even though I'm pretty scared at this point! - so when it all goes silent again, and I summon up enough courage, I move towards that wall... Each step thinking the noise will return. My heart racing. I reach the wall. And peer over....

And I see the cat. Sitting next to a puddle of fresh diarrhea.


:gobs:
 
When I was a kid (many years ago), one of my teachers told our class about an experience that she had had.

She'd gone out to the shops late one afternoon with her shopping basket to get a few essentials. By the time she had obtained what she wanted it was dark, and she started her walk home.

It was a dark, misty, winter afternoon, with the only light coming from the few streetlamps that lay along her path. She admitted to us that she was already feeling a bit nervous at the mist and shadows and the emptiness of the streets. She wasn't too far from home when she heard a muffled footfall behind her. She turned around.. but no-one was there! She continued on her walk, but then there came that sound again, and again there was no-one to be seen. Quickening her pace there came a further flurry of these footsteps following her and she broke into a terrified sprint; all the way to her front door.

There, she paused as she fumbled for her front door key, and looking back at the way she had come, saw... a trail of slices of bread disappearing away into the darkness!

The wrapper of the loaf of bread that she had bought at the shop had come open at one end and what she had mistaken for footsteps were just slices of bread falling out of it to the pavement.:chuckle:
 
When I was a kid (many years ago), one of my teachers told our class about an experience that she had had.

She'd gone out to the shops late one afternoon with her shopping basket to get a few essentials. By the time she had obtained what she wanted it was dark, and she started her walk home.

It was a dark, misty, winter afternoon, with the only light coming from the few streetlamps that lay along her path. She admitted to us that she was already feeling a bit nervous at the mist and shadows and the emptiness of the streets. She wasn't too far from home when she heard a muffled footfall behind her. She turned around.. but no-one was there! She continued on her walk, but then there came that sound again, and again there was no-one to be seen. Quickening her pace there came a further flurry of these footsteps following her and she broke into a terrified sprint; all the way to her front door.

There, she paused as she fumbled for her front door key, and looking back at the way she had come, saw... a trail of slices of bread disappearing away into the darkness!

The wrapper of the loaf of bread that she had bought at the shop had come open at one end and what she had mistaken for footsteps were just slices of bread falling out of it to the pavement.:chuckle:
Similar happened to one of my sisters back in the day, except she didn't even notice the sound of the bread falling. She'd carried the bread under one arm and left a trail of slices all the way from the shop! After that our mother made us carry a bag for everything.
 
I've just posted elsewhere about my 'poltergeist/earthquake' phenomenon.

Spoiler alert: It was a cat that had been shut in the wardrobe by mistake.

This one is the other way round.

One night this last summer I thought there'd been an earthquake. I was just lying down to sleep - not overtired or drunk! - when I heard the fan at the end of my bed rattling and clanking against a tall tin I'd left next to it.

I thought one of the cats was leaning against the tin and fan and scratching itself so wasn't worried, but then the bed started shaking violently. I've felt a minor earth tremor before, also in bed, and it was exactly like that.

I sat up and listened a bit, expecting to hear car alarms going off. Nothing at all. I resettled myself and drifted off as normal. Next morning I checked online and found no mention of earthquakes. I've also asked around and found nobody else who felt it, not even Techy!

So I dunno. If it was a ghost it didn't scare me.
 
Last night our shop alarm wouldn't set, so manager and I had to stay to wait for the engineer. It got to midnight and we were tidying up the warehouse, when manager called me over to the back door. 'There's a noise', she said.

I went outside (because I am well hard and it's a North Yorkshire market town, not Cromer), and, indeed, there were intermittant sounds coming from a corner up against the next door shop. There's a building site on the other side, but no sign of movement anywhere. Manager got spooked and went inside to hover at the door, while I stand there, hands on hips, thinking 'come on, spook.'

Rats. Well, a rat. Manager was more frightened of the rat than of purported ghost.
 
A few years ago my youngest had a weekend job in Bath at a small hotel- early starts on Sundays ( 07:15) so i used to drop her off then take dog for walk in quiet city.
Favourite spot was Dingley dell in the Royal Victoria park, its enclosed so I could risk letting him off and try a bit of real training. One autumnal morning, still a bit misty and not too light we were in the Dell when i almost walked into a bloke just standing there under the trees - eyes closed completely immobile. not a flicker despite a semi hysterical terrier scampering round his ankles.

grabbed dog and dragged him up the path, still no sign of Now, I had I left it there itl it would have been a creepy, weird encounter in the mist, but once we were out of range I risked a peek back and there he was doing Tai chI. Just a guy trying to get some peace and quite, only to be harassed by noisy dog and inept trainer.
 
I was about to turn around in alarm when the flame resolved itself into a pair of cabbage white butterflies, out in the garden, doing that fluttering dance around each other.

Arthur Machen and Lovecraft both refer to moths as luminous at points in their fiction (Machen actually has a swarm of moths that glitter and appear to be on fire in The Terror). If not actively giving off light, they are perceived as doing so at points in-story. Seems like a trope for them.
 
I do have one!
Circa 2007 or 2008, I was standing at a street corner in Savannah, GA. I heard a plane, and, as you get a lot of military aircraft from Hunter Army Airfield passing over, looked up to see-- not anything I expected, but a B17! Nice and shiny, glittering in the sun, its tail all round... and what was it doing there, in the year of our lord 20-something?
I thought I must have misidentified it, until I got home and started looking up pictures. Then I found out that not only are a few still operational, but one does (did?) a turn at the airfield every year for paid rides to the public. So it was wholly mundane, but very cool nonetheless.
 
I do have one!
Circa 2007 or 2008, I was standing at a street corner in Savannah, GA. I heard a plane, and, as you get a lot of military aircraft from Hunter Army Airfield passing over, looked up to see-- not anything I expected, but a B17! Nice and shiny, glittering in the sun, its tail all round... and what was it doing there, in the year of our lord 20-something?
I thought I must have misidentified it, until I got home and started looking up pictures. Then I found out that not only are a few still operational, but one does (did?) a turn at the airfield every year for paid rides to the public. So it was wholly mundane, but very cool nonetheless.

Years ago I was chatting to a neighbour when I noticed a Lancaster Bomber flying over, which I pointed out. Neighbour immediately contradicted me, saying that there weren't any still flying and anyway you're only a girl so what do you know?

I didn't think there were either but they are distinctive-looking and I recognised it, what a beauty. It was indeed a Lancaster, as I was able to prove a day or so later when it was featured in a Guardian article about airshows. We were on the flight path!
 
Years ago I was chatting to a neighbour when I noticed a Lancaster Bomber flying over, which I pointed out. Neighbour immediately contradicted me, saying that there weren't any still flying and anyway you're only a girl so what do you know?

I didn't think there were either but they are distinctive-looking and I recognised it, what a beauty. It was indeed a Lancaster, as I was able to prove a day or so later when it was featured in a Guardian article about airshows. We were on the flight path!
Two are airworthy.
 
A brief incident this morning...

I was putting my cereal bowl in the sink and turned round to see the in-house GP holding my mug of tea, staring at it intently. I was expecting a facetious comment about the colour of said tea (although he's lived with me long enough to know that's how I like it) but instead he said that he was cutting open his new stack of wheat biscuits and a piece of plastic flew off; he couldn't see it anywhere, so he was expecting it to float to the surface of my tea any second. Which it didn't. But he advised to me chuck it away and make a new one. Somewhat grumpily - because my tea had already cooled to a certain extent to be drinkable - I poured it down the sink and found - no plastic. Our worktop is dark granite and the floor is quarry tiled, so white plastic should show up clearly, but nothing. The worktops are a bit more cluttered than they would be normally but he was standing at the clearest space, so I'd expect to see it. He looked pointedly again at the area and remarked that we needed to contact the Royal Society for Physics (does such a thing exist?) to report vanishing matter.

In the meantime I had made another cup of tea, which was now too hot to drink. So I took the mug upstairs with me and left it on the side whilst I did ten minutes of yoga and a five minute guided meditation (I know! I know! Honestly I'm not a complete hippy chick.). Then I picked up the mug and wrapped both hands around it - and felt a scrap of white plastic transfer itself onto my fingers. I'm guessing some major static attraction was responsible for the plastic to have clung on whilst the mug was being tipped and moved and dumped.

So the physicists can stand down. Nothing to see here, move along...
 
It's happened to me! Or rather it hasn't which comes as something of as a surprise. Nearly 3 weeks into a November and I've not had a damn good kicking from life which without fail occurs in this month. (oh it's tried a couple of times but 2-0 to me so far). Strange how really really bad stuff happens in the one month. I'm going to raise an online petition to get November removed from the calendar, and hold my breath until 1st December. If you don't hear from me again, the N word has wrought it's revenge:chuckle:
 
A brief incident this morning...

I was putting my cereal bowl in the sink and turned round to see the in-house GP holding my mug of tea, staring at it intently. I was expecting a facetious comment about the colour of said tea (although he's lived with me long enough to know that's how I like it) but instead he said that he was cutting open his new stack of wheat biscuits and a piece of plastic flew off; he couldn't see it anywhere, so he was expecting it to float to the surface of my tea any second. Which it didn't. But he advised to me chuck it away and make a new one. Somewhat grumpily - because my tea had already cooled to a certain extent to be drinkable - I poured it down the sink and found - no plastic. Our worktop is dark granite and the floor is quarry tiled, so white plastic should show up clearly, but nothing. The worktops are a bit more cluttered than they would be normally but he was standing at the clearest space, so I'd expect to see it. He looked pointedly again at the area and remarked that we needed to contact the Royal Society for Physics (does such a thing exist?) to report vanishing matter.

In the meantime I had made another cup of tea, which was now too hot to drink. So I took the mug upstairs with me and left it on the side whilst I did ten minutes of yoga and a five minute guided meditation (I know! I know! Honestly I'm not a complete hippy chick.). Then I picked up the mug and wrapped both hands around it - and felt a scrap of white plastic transfer itself onto my fingers. I'm guessing some major static attraction was responsible for the plastic to have clung on whilst the mug was being tipped and moved and dumped.

So the physicists can stand down. Nothing to see here, move along...
That'll teach you to disbelieve IH GP.
 
It's happened to me! Or rather it hasn't which comes as something of as a surprise. Nearly 3 weeks into a November and I've not had a damn good kicking from life which without fail occurs in this month. (oh it's tried a couple of times but 2-0 to me so far). Strange how really really bad stuff happens in the one month. I'm going to raise an online petition to get November removed from the calendar, and hold my breath until 1st December. If you don't hear from me again, the N word has wrought it's revenge:chuckle:

Do you think we could apply to get November's bad stuff removed to February, and then delete February from the calendar? Only my birthday is in November, and I quite like my birthday. On the other hand, I hate February with a passion (how can a month o 28 days last so LONG?).

We could get everyone to move all their shit stuff to February too, and then just cut the month out. In one, fell, swoop, we'd have got rid of all the evils of the year!
 
Do you think we could apply to get November's bad stuff removed to February, and then delete February from the calendar? Only my birthday is in November, and I quite like my birthday. On the other hand, I hate February with a passion (how can a month o 28 days last so LONG?).

We could get everyone to move all their shit stuff to February too, and then just cut the month out. In one, fell, swoop, we'd have got rid of all the evils of the year!
Perhaps we could make an exception for the date of your birthday and just make November one day long. I could cope with that. As far as February is concerned, that one can go too. We can then have a year of 11 months and one day.
 
What a waste. I'd've poured into another cup through a strainer.



Heh, who am I kidding? I'd've just drunk it. Maybe just a little more carefully. :chuckle:

I know, but I think he just wanted his piece of plastic back. Which didn't happen. I did have a few defiant sips before pouring it away.

I was smug inside.

He cares!
 
Assuming your in-house GP still has hair, I would have voted that the plastic had flown backwards and landed in the hair on the back of his head.
Sticking to your cup during the rinsing, refilling and moving procedures is still pretty impressive.
 
Going back about 20-odd years, Mr Zebra and I had relocated 'down south' and at first we rented in a village but after a couple of years we bought a house in a large town. Neither of us were used to large town or city living, having both grown up in smaller places.

We hadn't lived in our new house for very long, just a couple of months, when one evening we were startled by loud gunfire which made us, quite literally, dive for cover in the hallway, terrified that someone was shooting at us. It was, after all, an unfamiliar town to us and we were admittedly quite naive.

Well, there we were, lying prone on the floor; both of us wondering who was out to get us, whether we were cut out for large town living, and unsure if we would possibly survive the night (we really were that terrified).

In a lull in the gunfire we crawled, tentatively, to the front room and sneaked a look out the side of the curtain. This window faced towards a large park a few streets away.

Then it dawned on us as the gunfire started up again, accompanied by bright colours in the night sky.

It was November.

The park, we soon found out, played host to a yearly Bonfire Night celebration.
 
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