"Meeting Nicola"

Well I'm going to drag this thread back on topic by giving my own belated two cents worth on it.

It's that it's a lovely story well told - but that it really has to be the most overblown thread on these boards - I mean in the sense that the signal to noise ratio is way off kilter.

If you go back to the O.P and boil down the tale to its bare bones, it consists of the following:

1) One quite an early morning a young man - in his early twenties - is walking alone along a river bank with the expectation of meeting a friend.
2) His friend appears to have not turned up.
3) Instead he espies an alluring young woman - in her late teens -and approaches her.
4) They get talking.

5) It is a good idea to pause at this moment and consider the fact that these are two young people, young enough to still be `hormonal`, engaged in a risky flirtation. This means that they are in a heightened emotional state with all kinds of emotions running high - nervousness, exhilaration, confusion, self- consciousness - and they are probably likely to be a bit inattentive too.

6) They walk together and - to the young man at least - it seems like an ideal romantic scenario - almost too good to be true.
7) Indeed, at that point his nervousness creeps up on him and he finds himself running out of things to say. So he desperately throws out a lame one-liner.
8) The girl reacts badly to this - with a lot of banked up defensiveness coming out.

Again we need to pause at this point and remind ourselves that a lot of young women - and often despite appearances - can find it quite stressful to be approached by men - especially if they are alone ( and even if they are otherwise flattered and intrigued). This feeling can then sometimes erupt in an explosive way that seems over-the-top to the observer.

9) Around about that point the girl's boyfriend turns up (they had probably already arranged to meet there). It is no surprise to discover that such an attractive young woman has a regular Alpha Male suitor - a biker in full biker get up.

And that's more or less it as far as I can see. Much of the perceived oddness centres around the young man's feelings about things (which, of course, will have been ramped up by the situation) and his failure to notice people coming and going (which can be explained in the same way).

There is a slight puzzle as to why the girl didn't bring her dog with her - but maybe the dog could fend for itself, or perhaps her nan was somewhere nearby.

So we have a rather sad and quite typical Boy Meets Girl and it All Goes Wrong story. I have experienced something similar (even when I wasn't so young) and I am sure other men on here will have too.
 
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Zeke Newbold said:
Well I'm going to drag this thread back on topic by giving my own belated two cents worth on it.

It's that it's a lovely story well told - but that it really has to be the most overblown thread on these boards - I mean in the sense that the signal to noise ratio is way off kilter.

If you go back to the O.P and boil down the tale to its bare bones, it consists of the following:

1) One quite an early morning a young man - in his early twenties - is walking alone along a river bank with the expectation of meeting a friend.
2) His friend appears to have not turned up.
3) Instead he espies an alluring young woman - in her late teens -and approaches her.
4) They get talking.

5) It is a good idea to pause at this moment and consider the fact that these are two young people, young enough to still be `hormonal`, engaged in a risky flirtation. This means that they are in a heightened emotional state with all kinds of emotions running high - nervousness, exhilaration, confusion, self- consciousness - and they are probably likely to be a bit inattentive too.

6) They walk together and - to the young man at least - it seems like an ideal romantic scenario - almost too good to be true.
7) Indeed, at that point his nervousness creeps up on him and he finds himself running out of things to say. So he desperately throws out a lame one-liner.
8) The girl reacts badly to this - with a lot of banked up defensiveness coming out.

Again we need to pause at this point and remind ourselves that a lot of young women - and often despite appearances - can find it quite stressful to be approached by men - especially if they are alone ( and even if they are otherwise flattered and intrigued). This feeling can then sometimes erupt in an explosive way that seems over-the-top to the observer.

9) Around about that point the girl's boyfriend turns up (they had probably already arranged to meet there). It is no surprise to discover that such an attractive young woman has a regular Alpha Male suitor - a biker in full biker get up.

And that's more or less it as far as I can see. Much of the perceived oddness centres around the young man's feelings about things (which, of course, will have been ramped up by the situation) and his failure to notice people coming and going (which can be explained in the same way).

There is a slight puzzle as to why the girl didn't bring her dog with her - but maybe the dog could fend for itself, or perhaps her nan was somewhere nearby.

So we have a rather sad and quite typical Boy Meets Girl and it All Goes Wrong story. I have experienced something similar (even when I wasn't so young) and I am sure other men on here will have too.
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Motorbikes are noisy even when being pushed:

"Immediately behind us, no more than a yard, was a giant of a man standing astride a hefty black and chrome motorbike.

He was dressed in all black leathers and wore a black helmet with a darkened visor.

I couldn’t see his face but could just make out the white of his eyes.

I was terrified.

I hadn’t heard the bike.

Even if he had pushed it along the 150 yards of the pot-holed dirt track we were on I would have heard something."

[my bold]
 
Zeke Newbold said:
Well I'm going to drag this thread back on topic by giving my own belated two cents worth on it.

It's that it's a lovely story well told - but that it really has to be the most overblown thread on these boards - I mean in the sense that the signal to noise ratio is way off kilter.

If you go back to the O.P and boil down the tale to its bare bones, it consists of the following:

1) One quite an early morning a young man - in his early twenties - is walking alone along a river bank with the expectation of meeting a friend.
2) His friend appears to have not turned up.
3) Instead he espies an alluring young woman - in her late teens -and approaches her.
4) They get talking.

5) It is a good idea to pause at this moment and consider the fact that these are two young people, young enough to still be `hormonal`, engaged in a risky flirtation. This means that they are in a heightened emotional state with all kinds of emotions running high - nervousness, exhilaration, confusion, self- consciousness - and they are probably likely to be a bit inattentive too.

6) They walk together and - to the young man at least - it seems like an ideal romantic scenario - almost too good to be true.
7) Indeed, at that point his nervousness creeps up on him and he finds himself running out of things to say. So he desperately throws out a lame one-liner.
8) The girl reacts badly to this - with a lot of banked up defensiveness coming out.

Again we need to pause at this point and remind ourselves that a lot of young women - and often despite appearances - can find it quite stressful to be approached by men - especially if they are alone ( and even if they are otherwise flattered and intrigued). This feeling can then sometimes erupt in an explosive way that seems over-the-top to the observer.

9) Around about that point the girl's boyfriend turns up (they had probably already arranged to meet there). It is no surprise to discover that such an attractive young woman has a regular Alpha Male suitor - a biker in full biker get up.

And that's more or less it as far as I can see. Much of the perceived oddness centres around the young man's feelings about things (which, of course, will have been ramped up by the situation) and his failure to notice people coming and going (which can be explained in the same way).

There is a slight puzzle as to why the girl didn't bring her dog with her - but maybe the dog could fend for itself, or perhaps her nan was somewhere nearby.

So we have a rather sad and quite typical Boy Meets Girl and it All Goes Wrong story. I have experienced something similar (even when I wasn't so young) and I am sure other men on here will have too.
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It is a bit of a cold case, a lot of time has gone by to try and find out if there was indeed a Nicola with a nan in Walton at that era. Anyway thanks for your feedback.
 
Nicola could also have been lying about the dog being her nan's. It may just have been a loose dog off about its own business, but she wanted a strange young man to think that either her nan was around somewhere, or that she lived nearby or even that she had a dog that may come galloping to her defence if called.
 
Great post and it's interesting that she told him her name was Nicola because shapeshifting water spirits are called the Nix, Nixy, Nixie (amongst others)!
Do any members know anything about English mermaids?
 
Trish71 said:
Great post and it's interesting that she told him her name was Nicola because shapeshifting water spirits are called the Nix, Nixy, Nixie (amongst others)!
Do any members know anything about English mermaids?
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Interesting, I personally know nothing about mermaids myself (English or otherwise) There was a mention of a Russian water sprite or something similar, earlier in this post. I don't know what happened that day to Frank, I'm not convinced it was something as prosaic as misunderstanding or misreading the situation, but then again I DO find it hard to comprehend shapeshifters and water sprites. Unless someone knows of a Nicola that lived in Streatham in the early '80s who had a nan on Walton on Thames, I do believe the case is cold and can only be left to personal interpretation.
 
WeirdExeter said:
I still don't get why people find it hard to believe that a man in a park/outdoor setting would talk to good looking girl with a dog as the internet is full of real life tales of relationships starting in this very way, for example:

https://www.nowtolove.com.au/news/real-life/secret-confessions-of-a-dog-walker-30423

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/06/25/dog-walking-meet-people-relationships_n_7661090.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-402547/Could-dog-man.html

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/18/owning-a-dog-will-help-you-find-love-8047662/

In particular this one:

I Walked 4 Different Dogs To See How Many Dates They Got Me​


"As a single girl living in a big city, I mainly find dates on apps. It's easy, it's fast, and I can do most of the legwork while siting on my couch in my pyjamas. But that isn't to say I don't enjoy meeting people IRL. I live for a meet-cute, and am always searching for ways to strike up conversations with attractive men I see in public. I once tried to pick up a guy at Whole Foods by helping him test whether or not a melon was ripe. (It didn't work.)

But a few weeks ago, while walking past a dog park with my cousin and her sons, I offhandedly mentioned that dogs are the ultimate icebreakers. "It's like throwing chum into the ocean," I told her. "If you've got a dog on a leash, I swear, people just swarm you. It's got to be the best way to pick up guys."

https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2017/11/197749/dog-walking-dating-challenge
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Dog walking is without a doubt an effective way to meet people. I'm not a dog person, but looked after a friend's dog for a few weeks a couple of years ago, and I had more conversations with strangers than possibly in the rest of my life combined.
 
Kryptonite said:
Dog walking is without a doubt an effective way to meet people. I'm not a dog person, but looked after a friend's dog for a few weeks a couple of years ago, and I had more conversations with strangers than possibly in the rest of my life combined.
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This has been exactly my experience as a puppy owner of approximately 6 months' standing.
 
Krepostnoi said:
This has been exactly my experience as a puppy owner of approximately 6 months' standing.
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Although it does presuppose that your dog is one that can safely be around other dogs/people. I've had many a shouted conversation with a good twenty metre distance between us as my dog snarled and tried to lunge at their dog. So I've met lots of people, but generally at a distance and or at speed.
 
Whilst browsing around Fortean blogs etc. I came across the post on the LAPIS site:

https://www.lapisparanormal.com/single-post/encounters-with-fairies

There a 1990s encounter with two 'fey folk' detailed and this is their description:

"One was a raven haired young woman in a long purple dress with a strange medallion around her neck. Her skin was a pale golden tan but her eyes were a transfixing azure. The other was a dwarf with long hair and a beard dressed in earth colours. He had a swarthy complexion, dark hair and glinting jet black wide eyes that seemed almost hypnotic."

This immediately put in in mind of this thread and 'Nicola' and her companion. Whilst the descriptions are by no means an exact match, I do feel there is a common archetype at play between these 'fey folk' and "Nicola' with her pale skin and emerald eyes and her companion who was dressed in black.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Whilst browsing around Fortean blogs etc. I came across the post on the LAPIS site:

https://www.lapisparanormal.com/single-post/encounters-with-fairies

There a 1990s encounter with two 'fey folk' detailed and this is their description:

"One was a raven haired young woman in a long purple dress with a strange medallion around her neck. Her skin was a pale golden tan but her eyes were a transfixing azure. The other was a dwarf with long hair and a beard dressed in earth colours. He had a swarthy complexion, dark hair and glinting jet black wide eyes that seemed almost hypnotic."

This immediately put in in mind of this thread and 'Nicola' and her companion. Whilst the descriptions are by no means an exact match, I do feel there is a common archetype at play between these 'fey folk' and "Nicola' with her pale skin and emerald eyes and her companion who was dressed in black.
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Hi , Thanks for that link Paul, I found another incident in york with a guy who in the early hours met a strange man with Jet black hair and a very pale complexion (same archetype), this also took place by a river.
 
It may have been mentioned before, but are you aware that from information provided in this thread, it is a simple matter to identify Frank, and even find pictures of him? Frank mentioned the whites of the bikers eyes, he also said his visor was down and he couldn't see his face?
 
Rushfan62 said:
It may have been mentioned before, but are you aware that from information provided in this thread, it is a simple matter to identify Frank, and even find pictures of him? Frank mentioned the whites of the bikers eyes, he also said his visor was down and he couldn't see his face?
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Yeah Franks OK with the link that I posted (takes you to the "Sicilian shadows" newspaper article). Reguarding the visor he only said that he could make out the whites of the eyes and not much else regarding features. He contacted me a couple of weeks ago, he's in the process of selling off some of the duplicates in his comic collection, and after he's spent money on comic bags and acid-free board, whats left over he wants to put towards a registered Hypnotist to try and see if he can get to the bottom of this, I told him to make a tape. If this happens I hope to get him to upload this here.
 
I'm glad this topic is still very much alive. I recall reading it when I was a simple 'lurker'.

It probably doesn't mean much, but I've always been quite perceptive of people and able to sniff out a 'wrongun' quickly, and I remember feeling extremely uncomfortable when looking at the picture of the young lady. Even after seeing the picture a few times, I still feel really odd looking at it. I wonder if anyone else had the same sensation?

Look forward to hearing more in due course.
 
Windsock said:
I'm glad this topic is still very much alive. I recall reading it when I was a simple 'lurker'.

It probably doesn't mean much, but I've always been quite perceptive of people and able to sniff out a 'wrongun' quickly, and I remember feeling extremely uncomfortable when looking at the picture of the young lady. Even after seeing the picture a few times, I still feel really odd looking at it. I wonder if anyone else had the same sensation?

Look forward to hearing more in due course.
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I don't know, a drawing from memory is unlikely to be very accurate. Best to think of it as a vague resemblance rather than a portrait as such.
 
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Windsock said:
I'm glad this topic is still very much alive. I recall reading it when I was a simple 'lurker'.

It probably doesn't mean much, but I've always been quite perceptive of people and able to sniff out a 'wrongun' quickly, and I remember feeling extremely uncomfortable when looking at the picture of the young lady. Even after seeing the picture a few times, I still feel really odd looking at it. I wonder if anyone else had the same sensation?

Look forward to hearing more in due course.
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Yes the eyes look a psycopathic and the mouth cruel.
 
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