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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

PeteS said:
Perhaps someone could photoshop a fairy into that piccie for added interest.
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Will this do ~
fairy_ring.jpg
 
PeteS said:
Good one - of course in 50 or so years time, viewers will be arguing whether the fairy is real.
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Oh... well 'PeteS,' the Fairy is real enough ~ it's Window's 10 which is the dodgy bit!
 
A haunted soap dispenser?

I recently order three automatic soap dispensers, one for each sink in the house.
You put in a mixture of 1 part liquid soap to 4 parts water and, when you put your hand under the sensor, it dispenses a measured dose of foam into your hand.

Economical, hygienic and convenient!

The two battery-operated dispensers worked perfectly, but the rechargeable USB one, which we used in our upstairs wet-room, seemed to take on a life of its own...

For three weeks it behaved normally, but then, one evening, we were downstairs watching a movie and heard a noise from upstairs.
The noisiest of our three dispensers made a vocalisation somewhere between a bumblebee buzzing and a cat growling. It was as if someone - or something had passed within 10 cm of the device's sensor, whist we were the only people in the house.

Running upstairs, I found an errant blob of ectoplasm (or "pousse-mousse" as I like to use the French term) on the bathroom floor.

Suspecting that its operation may become erratic when the battery charge drops a bit, I gave the dispenser a full charge.

Over the next day or so, it then went into full-on poltergeist mode - operating at random times, with no-one nearby and ejecting the full content of its soap reservoir on two occasions, and would have done more, if I didn't get there in time and pull its two halves apart.

As I had an appointment booked with the council tip this afternoon for a shedload of accumulated rubbish, I decided to put the haunted soap dispenser in the car and take it on its last (hopefully!) journey.
During the 10 minute drive across town, it groaned at random times, as if it knew its fate.

As I hurled it into the "small appliances" skip, it was still buzzing.

soap.JPG
 
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blessmycottonsocks said:
Over the next day or so, it then went into full-on poltergeist mode - operating at random times, with no-one nearby and ejecting the full content of its soap reservoir on two occasions, and would have done more, if I didn't get there in time and pull its two halves apart.
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First thought would be that the sensor needs to be cleaned. So when it arrives magically back at your door step, show it who's boss with a q-tip and a little rubbing alcohol. :D
 
I recently had one of those experiences that have been variously blamed on mischievous spirits or a glitch in the Matrix.

I enjoy Tanqueray Malacca gin for its unusual flavor profile. Because I can only get it in one liter bottles, not the (usually) money-saving 1.75 size, it costs more than I'm usually willing to spend on a quality gin. Therefore, I promised myself I would only use it occasionally, and only in martinis and other strong drinks where I could enjoy the flavor.

Friday, after a long day at the end of a long week, I decided to use it to make a martini. I first made my wife a margarita, then went back to the kitchen to make my drink. I filled a shaker with ice, grabbed the gin from the counter near the refrigerator, and took them both to the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen, between the sink and stove. I measured out the gin and prepared to put it away - but realized the bottle cap was nowhere to be found! I searched every open surface in the kitchen, moving and looking behind things to make sure the cap wasn't hidden. I concentrated on the most logical place, the counter where I poured the gin. Aside from some drink-making items, the only other thing there was a Crock Pot which held the basic ingredients for dinner. There was even an open area of the counter about the size of a dinner plate, and I searched the adjacent areas thoroughly.

At this point I went into the living room to tell my wife what happened and to wait a bit to see if reality would reset. I returned to the kitchen and searched everywhere again several times, to no avail. I was so disoriented by this that I accidentally put aromatic bitters in my gin instead of the orange bitters I like in my martini. I skipped the vermouth and had a pink gin instead.

After a while I went back into the kitchen to start putting dinner together. I moved the top of a cocktail shaker aside to make more room, and there – in the middle of that open area on the counter – was the missing cap. I had looked at that very spot many times, even moving that shaker top, and didn't see the cap until now.

The cap – bare aluminum with a white seal on the inside and copper-colored on the outside – did superficially harmonize with the black/white/gray/tan speckled counter, but my attempt to recreate a camouflage effect failed: I could clearly see the cap on the counter and discern the color differences.

At least I learned that Malacca makes a good pink gin! (I still had a martini afterwards.)
 
You know what that means, right, ChasFink?










Time to clean the kitchen!




And to make certain you do, tell the missus it needs to be done.
(Ducks crockery flung by the ladies.)
 
I've been thinking about the incident some more, and I now regret not resorting to the solution my mother taught me, just to see if it worked: praying to Saint Anthony. I remember it often came in handy in my childhood.

By the way, just to be clear about the colors on the counter: The pattern is like a fine granite, but the bottle cap's colors are solid (except for some writing and decoration on the outside). The cap was upside down, so mostly the inside was what I saw when I found it. If we are to assume that nothing paranormal took place, it means that I looked directly at an object, with relatively large areas of uninterrupted white and silver against a background of a fine speckling that included tan and black, several times over the course of about 15 minutes without seeing it.

The way it came into view was interesting, too: it was like a magic trick. As I moved the top of the shaker only a few inches to one side, it acted as a diversion. A split second later, when I glanced back at the area near where it had been, it was as if the magician had placed it there during the diversion.
 
Following a dearth of Strange Things recently there was a weird little episode yesterday. Sat reading in the lounge and there was suddenly a light clattering in the hallway. Post thought I so go to pick it up only to find the kitchen spatula on the floor in the hall a couple of feet away from the kitchen. No on else in the house and cat is unable to climb so can be discounted. It's always in the pot with other long kitchen implements on the work surface next to the door. Unless our ghostly cat has returned and is fed up with having no attention, the only explanation I could come up with was that I had jammed it into the pot loosely next to the long pincer type implement( what are they called) which had suddenly flicked open and thrown the spatula out. Strange.
 
Our house is kind of odd. We’ve had things happen here and there that make you think “what just happened?” This morning I was in the dining room, drinking a bottle of water and stressing about doing something this afternoon that I really didn’t want to do and our kettle whistled in the kitchen to let us know it had boiled. Nobody was in the kitchen, both cats were in their beds on the ottoman behind me, the husband and child were both upstairs so it had been about an hour since anybody had been in there. I don’t mind the odd occasional occurrence in this house because compared to our old haunted flat this place is a breeze.
 
JKG said:
Our house is kind of odd. We’ve had things happen here and there that make you think “what just happened?” This morning I was in the dining room, drinking a bottle of water and stressing about doing something this afternoon that I really didn’t want to do and our kettle whistled in the kitchen to let us know it had boiled. Nobody was in the kitchen, both cats were in their beds on the ottoman behind me, the husband and child were both upstairs so it had been about an hour since anybody had been in there. I don’t mind the odd occasional occurrence in this house because compared to our old haunted flat this place is a breeze.
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It took at least an hour to boil?
Reduced voltage? Time in the kitchen running slow?
 
Mythopoeika said:
It took at least an hour to boil?
Reduced voltage? Time in the kitchen running slow?
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I would hope it hadn’t taken an hour to boil, it’s only a few years old! I went in, touched it to make sure I’d not imagined it, went back into the dining room and sat back down to carrying on with what I was doing. The chair I was sat in is right next to the kitchen door (we live in an old terrace where the dining room has a door which is the only way into the kitchen). Just chalked it down to one of those things. Worse things have happened so I didn’t think much more of it.
 
JKG said:
I would hope it hadn’t taken an hour to boil, it’s only a few years old! I went in, touched it to make sure I’d not imagined it, went back into the dining room and sat back down to carrying on with what I was doing. The chair I was sat in is right next to the kitchen door (we live in an old terrace where the dining room has a door which is the only way into the kitchen). Just chalked it down to one of those things. Worse things have happened so I didn’t think much more of it.
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Worse things? Do tell, we're listening.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Worse things? Do tell, we're listening.
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I was looking for a thread to share but the only one I could find seemed a little dead (no pun intended). They’re a little more than minor strangeness I’m afraid!
 
JKG said:
I was looking for a thread to share but the only one I could find seemed a little dead (no pun intended). They’re a little more than minor strangeness I’m afraid!
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Feel free to revive any old thread. It will suddenly erupt with discussion.
 
Mythopoeika said:
It took at least an hour to boil?
Reduced voltage? Time in the kitchen running slow?
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I've often myself put the kettle on a low heat, then walked off... mind taken up by something that has distracted my attention. A low and slow boil could take an hour and eventually blow the whistle!
1599324086091.png
 
I moved into this house in January. Because I had to work during moving, my kids helped do a lot of the moving whilst I was absent.

Now, the other day I had cause to investigate my bookcase/shelving unit. On a top shelf (which otherwise holds only the ashes of my dogs and a glass bowl of pine cones) I found the attached 'thing'. I've asked everyone involved in moving - everyone denies all knowledge of it. It looks like a broken base of something, but a) if someone broke something they would own up and/or throw away the base, rather than put it on a shelf and b) I don't own anything this could belong to. So why is it on a display shelf? Where did it come from? The edges are sort of sharpish, as though it's the snapped/broken off base of something glass, but I own very little glass and nothing this could have come from and, again, WHY would it be on a shelf?
glassthing.jpg
glassthing.jpg
 
catseye said:
I moved into this house in January. Because I had to work during moving, my kids helped do a lot of the moving whilst I was absent.

Now, the other day I had cause to investigate my bookcase/shelving unit. On a top shelf (which otherwise holds only the ashes of my dogs and a glass bowl of pine cones) I found the attached 'thing'. I've asked everyone involved in moving - everyone denies all knowledge of it. It looks like a broken base of something, but a) if someone broke something they would own up and/or throw away the base, rather than put it on a shelf and b) I don't own anything this could belong to. So why is it on a display shelf? Where did it come from? The edges are sort of sharpish, as though it's the snapped/broken off base of something glass, but I own very little glass and nothing this could have come from and, again, WHY would it be on a shelf?
View attachment 29504View attachment 29504
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I think it's a glass 'bull's eye' ornament that is the glass left stuck on the end of a pontil. It's a bit jagged because it is snapped off.
This is how they made glass windows back in the early days. That might be one that was a reject, so it was sold as a curio.
Example of a window panel with pontil scar:
4832578642_dc97622a72_b.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_glass_(window)
 
So why is it on my bookshelf? I've never owned one, there is no such glass in the cottage and I've never seen it before in my life (neither have any of my kids).
You didn't put it there, did you, Myth?

And there's part of a sticker on the bottom, as though it had a label across the base, but most of it has rubbed away. It is also very heavy, very dense. More like the bottom of a very thick heavy bottle, if the rest had broken off, but the glass is too thick for a bottle.
 
Was it on one of your own shelving units or one that was part of the house? It could have been left by the previous owners. Even if it was on your own furniture one of the removers may have found it and put it there for safety? There again you would have noted it when you were arranging your own stuff. It's just that I've got odd bits about the house that were left by previous owners which have become a fixture ie a pretty Avon scent bottle and a pottery bird. Found when moving in and putting them down to be chucked out later and then inertia setting in!
Sollywos x
 
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