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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

My life lost a friend through cancer about three years ago. Their nickname for her was Witchypoo, a reference to the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

The womans sister just messaged my wife and told her that 'Midge' was with her today.

Shortly after this the power went off in the house for a short second and came back on. The TV came back on and the TV channel had changed, showing the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the witch is dead.
 
Spudrick68 said:
My life lost a friend through cancer about three years ago. Their nickname for her was Witchypoo, a reference to the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

The womans sister just messaged my wife and told her that 'Midge' was with her today.

Shortly after this the power went off in the house for a short second and came back on. The TV came back on and the TV channel had changed, showing the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the witch is dead.
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I think I would describe that as high strangeness. Difficult to believe it was purely a coincidence.
 
Funny little one on Christmas morning. I bought my daughter a necklace for Christmas which included a small clasp. When she undone the clasp however the little pin that attaches the clasp together fell onto the living room floor and couldn’t be found. She searched high and low for it to no avail. She pulled away the coffee table, the sideboard, looked under sofa’s etc but she simply couldn’t find it.

Boxing day morning, I’m getting ready to drive into London, and was sitting on the sofa putting on my trainers and there was the pin sitting right in front of me on the living room floor. It certainly wasn’t there the night before or even early that morning as I would have seen it.

Strange little one eh..?
 
Wow that
Spudrick68 said:
My life lost a friend through cancer about three years ago. Their nickname for her was Witchypoo, a reference to the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

The womans sister just messaged my wife and told her that 'Midge' was with her today.

Shortly after this the power went off in the house for a short second and came back on. The TV came back on and the TV channel had changed, showing the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the witch is dead.
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Wow that is quite creepy. Or at least I found it to be creepy anyway.
 
Dick Turpin said:
Funny little one on Christmas morning. I bought my daughter a necklace for Christmas which included a small clasp. When she undone the clasp however the little pin that attaches the clasp together fell onto the living room floor and couldn’t be found. She searched high and low for it to no avail. She pulled away the coffee table, the sideboard, looked under sofa’s etc but she simply couldn’t find it.

Boxing day morning, I’m getting ready to drive into London, and was sitting on the sofa putting on my trainers and there was the pin sitting right in front of me on the living room floor. It certainly wasn’t there the night before or even early that morning as I would have seen it.

Strange little one eh..?
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Possibly caught on someone's clothes and fell off when you all turned in for bed? I've lost count of the number of very small items I've lost on the floor never to see daylight again.
 
I've a few minor incidents to post - hopefully not too minor.

First

A group of us sometimes travelled to Bristol to see bands that were too big to visit Devon. Arrive lunchtime - have a walk around - visit a couple of pubs - see band - a few nightcaps - stay at hotel - drive home after a good breakfast.

One visit we had a walkabout then went into a pub located somewhere behind the Colston Hall. Inside was quite large with several areas and rooms and small flights of stairs. Was mid-afternoon with a handful of people scattered around. We stood at the empty bar and ordered our first drinks of the trip. Then we were giving it plenty of chat and banter. After around 20/30 minutes we gradually became aware that no-one had had more than a sip of their drink. By now it was either time for another round or move on.

There were six of us - all with a different drink. Three draught - guiness, ale, lager. Three bottled - cider, lager, different cider. None drinkable. We were baffled, the other folks in there were drinking. Scratching our heads, we left all six drinks on the bar and departed. Found another pub and all the beer was fine.

This has never happened to me in several decades of drinking in pubs - the odd duff pint - poor line cleaning and such - but six different drinks? It just seemed to be us though. We had a thought that it was some kind of candid camera set-up, but I doubt it.

btw - I won't be naming the pub - doesn't seem fair. This happened around 2012.
 
Benzie said:
we gradually became aware that no-one had had more than a sip of their drink. By now it was either time for another round or move on.

There were six of us - all with a different drink. Three draught - guiness, ale, lager. Three bottled - cider, lager, different cider. None drinkable. We were baffled, the other folks in there were drinking. Scratching our heads, we left all six drinks on the bar and departed.
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Great story, but just to clarify a bit... you and your friends became aware that no one had touched their drinks, then found them to be undrinkable? Why weren't they drinkable?
 
Benzie said:
I've a few minor incidents to post - hopefully not too minor.

First

A group of us sometimes travelled to Bristol to see bands that were too big to visit Devon. Arrive lunchtime - have a walk around - visit a couple of pubs - see band - a few nightcaps - stay at hotel - drive home after a good breakfast.

One visit we had a walkabout then went into a pub located somewhere behind the Colston Hall. Inside was quite large with several areas and rooms and small flights of stairs. Was mid-afternoon with a handful of people scattered around. We stood at the empty bar and ordered our first drinks of the trip. Then we were giving it plenty of chat and banter. After around 20/30 minutes we gradually became aware that no-one had had more than a sip of their drink. By now it was either time for another round or move on.

There were six of us - all with a different drink. Three draught - guiness, ale, lager. Three bottled - cider, lager, different cider. None drinkable. We were baffled, the other folks in there were drinking. Scratching our heads, we left all six drinks on the bar and departed. Found another pub and all the beer was fine.

This has never happened to me in several decades of drinking in pubs - the odd duff pint - poor line cleaning and such - but six different drinks? It just seemed to be us though. We had a thought that it was some kind of candid camera set-up, but I doubt it.

btw - I won't be naming the pub - doesn't seem fair. This happened around 2012.
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Even the bottled drinks?
That must be the pub that is marked as 'permanently closed' on Google maps.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
Great story, but just to clarify a bit... you and your friends became aware that no one had touched their drinks, then found them to be undrinkable? Why weren't they drinkable?
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I had a real ale that tasted horrible - but sometimes happens with real ale. We were all engaged in intense conversation so I just stopped drinking after a couple of sips. At some point it became apparent that no-one was drinking at all - despite this being our first pub. I don't remember many specific reasons from the others apart from remarks like rank and awful tang. We were quite bewildered really.

Many a time I've drunk a pint that isn't the best, but hey, I'll have something different next time. This was too unpleasant to drink.

Bizarre - 6 different drinks - and it wasn't the glasses as the 3 guys with bottles didn't use any.
 
Benzie said:
I had a real ale that tasted horrible - but sometimes happens with real ale. We were all engaged in intense conversation so I just stopped drinking after a couple of sips. At some point it became apparent that no-one was drinking at all - despite this being our first pub. I don't remember many specific reasons from the others apart from remarks like rank and awful tang. We were quite bewildered really.

Many a time I've drunk a pint that isn't the best, but hey, I'll have something different next time. This was too unpleasant to drink.

Bizarre - 6 different drinks - and it wasn't the glasses as the 3 guys with bottles didn't use any.
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That is weird! I wonder if, as Myth pointed out, that was the pub that closed and if rank drinks were the reason....

Thanks for the unsolved mystery!
 
Spudrick68 said:
My life lost a friend through cancer about three years ago. Their nickname for her was Witchypoo, a reference to the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

The womans sister just messaged my wife and told her that 'Midge' was with her today.

Shortly after this the power went off in the house for a short second and came back on. The TV came back on and the TV channel had changed, showing the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the witch is dead.
Click to expand...
Witchiepoo was in HR Pufnstuff on TV, not in The Wizard of Oz. They're both witches though. :)
 
Talking about smells - I was standing in the kitchen just now, washing up the dog's bowl, when I smelled a very odd smell. It smelled a bit like wee that's soaked into a carpet, you know that stale urine smell? After the obvious checking (that it wasn't me or the kitchen mat, because both I and the dog can be a little... unreliable) and being unable to smell it anywhere other than standing at the sink, I discovered that the smell was coming from a vase of lilies that I have on the kitchen windowseat.

I love the smell of lilies and often have them in the house to make it smell nice. But these just smell like wee.
 
catseye said:
Talking about smells - I was standing in the kitchen just now, washing up the dog's bowl, when I smelled a very odd smell. It smelled a bit like wee that's soaked into a carpet, you know that stale urine smell? After the obvious checking (that it wasn't me or the kitchen mat, because both I and the dog can be a little... unreliable) and being unable to smell it anywhere other than standing at the sink, I discovered that the smell was coming from a vase of lilies that I have on the kitchen windowseat.

I love the smell of lilies and often have them in the house to make it smell nice. But these just smell like wee.
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Did it...smell....like...Old lady trouser-smell with yesterday's knickers?
 
'In September 1904, Sigmund Freud set out with his brother Alexander on their annual Mediterranean holiday. They were aiming for Corfu, but the heat was so intense they took a ship from Trieste to Athens instead. The two men climbed the legendary hill above the city to visit the Acropolis and it was there that Freud became overwhelmed with a strange and bewildering sensation. “By the evidence of my senses I am now standing on the Acropolis,” he later wrote, “but I cannot believe it.”

This was not just the tourist’s usual expression of amazement ("Here we are at Machu Picchu, Petra, the Pyramids – and it feels so unreal!"); Freud experienced a complete incredulity that the Acropolis actually existed at all. He had read about it from childhood, studied engravings and daguerreotypes of the Parthenon, so elegant, grave and stoic; but now that he was here the strongest feeling was of powerful disbelief. The experience would baffle him for decades.'

(Guardian)
 
Steven said:
'In September 1904, Sigmund Freud set out with his brother Alexander on their annual Mediterranean holiday. They were aiming for Corfu, but the heat was so intense they took a ship from Trieste to Athens instead. The two men climbed the legendary hill above the city to visit the Acropolis and it was there that Freud became overwhelmed with a strange and bewildering sensation. “By the evidence of my senses I am now standing on the Acropolis,” he later wrote, “but I cannot believe it.”

This was not just the tourist’s usual expression of amazement ("Here we are at Machu Picchu, Petra, the Pyramids – and it feels so unreal!"); Freud experienced a complete incredulity that the Acropolis actually existed at all. He had read about it from childhood, studied engravings and daguerreotypes of the Parthenon, so elegant, grave and stoic; but now that he was here the strongest feeling was of powerful disbelief. The experience would baffle him for decades.'

(Guardian)
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I encounter the same feeling when I go to Walmart.... :D

Seriously though, I think I can just about wrap my head around what Freud experienced because I've felt something similar when I traveled to Europe for the first time and found myself standing on a street that existed hundreds of years before any man-made structures in the US. I'd seen pictures and movies and tv shows showing those same areas of Europe, but to actually be standing there was slightly discombulating...
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
I encounter the same feeling when I go to Walmart.... :D

Seriously though, I think I can just about wrap my head around what Freud experienced because I've felt something similar when I traveled to Europe for the first time and found myself standing on a street that existed hundreds of years before any man-made structures in the US. I'd seen pictures and movies and tv shows showing those same areas of Europe, but to actually be standing there was slightly discombulating...
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I was the same the first time I travelled to Australia. I remember standing on a beach on the Mornington Peninsula in 40 degree sunshine, saying to my daughter 'it's February and we're in the sea!' and just being somehow gobsmacked that Australia actually existed somehow. Even though I knew it did, because my other daughter lives there.

I've not had the same feeling on subsequent visits, oddly.
 
There's a wonderful passage in the novel The Miniaturist, in which the protagonist's sister-in-law 'travels the world' in her imagination by collecting the exotic gifts from distant shores given to her by her merchant brother. She keeps the gifts in her room, and treasures them. In that age she was sadly denied a career of such adventure, due to her sex, and so her imagination had to suffice; but who's to say that her experiences were really the poorer?


* I now realise that this was a crass opinion, due to my male perspective - she shouldn't have been reduced to merely imagining adventures, as wonderful a power as imagination can be.
 
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Steven said:
There's a wonderful passage in the novel The Miniaturist, in which the protagonist's sister-in-law 'travels the world' in her imagination by collecting the exotic gifts from distant shores given to her by her merchant brother. She keeps the gifts in her room, and treasures them. In that age she was sadly denied a career of such adventure, due to her sex, and so her imagination had to suffice; but who's to say that her experiences were really the poorer?


* I now realise that this was a crass opinion, due to my male perspective - she shouldn't have been reduced to merely imagining adventures, as wonderful a power as imagination can be.
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I don't think it's a crass opinion at all. Imagination is a luxury everyone can afford but few use, at least that's what it seems like...
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
I encounter the same feeling when I go to Walmart.... :D

Seriously though, I think I can just about wrap my head around what Freud experienced because I've felt something similar when I traveled to Europe for the first time and found myself standing on a street that existed hundreds of years before any man-made structures in the US. I'd seen pictures and movies and tv shows showing those same areas of Europe, but to actually be standing there was slightly discombulating...
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Totally know what you mean. We, in North America, have so few large landmarks or structures that exist that far back in time. I was slightly awed when I travelled to Quebec City and stood looking at a foundation (part foundation only) of a house that had existed merely 600 years before.

The oldest site of any civilization near my city is the Southwold earthworks (around 1450-1550 CE) , but they are only an open field with a couple of grassy mounds. So the feeling of age doesn't really translate into an emotional reaction.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwold_Earthworks

Anything we visit as historical is circa 1800's. Even my city's oldest church was built around 1822.
 
brownmane said:
Anything we visit as historical is circa 1800's. Even my city's oldest church was built around 1822.
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Same, I just looked up the oldest building in my state is from 1802. 220 years is a sneeze in European terms...

Also, I'm not slighting the First Nation, obviously they had some pretty nifty structures here long before we arrived. I'm thinking in terms of European civilization in Europe compared to European civilization in North America, that while we were putting up dinky log cabins, Europe had castles hundreds of years old.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
Also, I'm not slighting the First Nation, obviously they had some pretty nifty structures here long before we arrived.
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But even then, because of their structures (?meaning that wood and bark etc not having a long lifespan), even the earthworks that I mentioned are only dated to 1400-1500 CE.

Though the Haida people in BC have totem poles that have remained, (I am not sure of their age). I have never been to BC. These too, the Haida people allow them to decay and return to the earth.
 
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