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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Manufacturer's instructions?? Pah! Like any man, the first thing I do when I start using a new tea towel is throw away the instruction manual.
Then there is nobody to blame except yourself when you are accused of drying up incorrectly.
 
Then there is nobody to blame except yourself when you are accused of drying up incorrectly
Oh catseye, you have no idea. The drips, the smears, sometimes even a snag.... it can be a NIGHTMARE!!
 
They're parked up down in Blackberry Way.

(Roy Wood was/is a genius)
 
Similarly in 1992 I moved into a house with a huge beautiful tappan gas range that must have dated to the 50"s . Every time you turned anything on the whole knob glowed red - I used to show it off to guests and turn it on xmas ever as decoration. The day I was going to use the oven for the first time I realized I had not a clue how to actually light the gas, As this was pre-internet, at the advice of a friend I called my local small-town fire department and asked if any of the guys there had dealt with one of these. Must have been a slow day because a truckload showed up and argued about whether it was a danger and they should just turn off the gas to the house. Luckily one of them had experience with that model, and showed me how, it did not have a pilot light. Years later I wanted something smaller so I sold it on ebay to someone who rebuilt these models. He said they were bought a lot by NJ crime families down by the shore. He made quite a nice profit on them.
I am constantly on you tube checking how to change batteries, put up fairy lights outside etc. Thank you all those people who post the videos, you’ve saved me hours of puzzling
 
Odd one today.

Wasting time in youTube, as you do, I came across an anonymous Dutch family's holiday movie that they'd uploaded. (well, they were named. But just an ordinary everyday Johannes and Johanna and their kids). It was just what might have been Super Eight camera film from 1977, uploaded and preserved to a digital format which they'd put up on youTube. I liked it; nothing remarkable happened, nothing of professional quality, but an achingly nostalgic look into a vanished world 44 years ago, with just a hint of that "1970's ethereal weirdness" which is a background to so much that is Fortean of that time. It's gentle, indefinably charming, has an air of something strange lurking just out of sight and I kind of love it.

Anyway, mum, dad, three kids and possibly an auntie/mother of one or two kids head off from Holland to the South of France on holiday, leaving rainy cold glum Gatinmijnbillen and crossing Europe. They arrive in Southern France and go to the top of a mountain pass on one day out and the camera lingers on the placename.

Guess what.

Watching the Tour de France today, and the peloton has just arrived at the foot of a knackering better-them-than-me mountain climb.

Same damn place as in the holiday film from 1977. Updated road signs, but same place. (Admittedly it is billed as a mountain climb the TdF regularly visits, but even so... )
 
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I've just posted on a couple of threads. A few random things....

I live in a 70's new build council estate in London. Weird things have happened here, shadows etc. heavy breathing only me and my brother heard (my sister remembers me and my brother looking at one another shocked and saying "did you hear that??")

We've also heard the 3 knocks and then learned of a close friend's death.

When I was a child, I often stayed at my nan's during holidays with my sister. One year there were a few random incidents such as lights being left on and taps found to be fully turned on. I reckon I was 8, my sister 12 and my 2nd cousins around the same age as me. We were told off but bewildered as it wasn't us.

The following day on the way to the High Street, passing my nan's sister in laws house her sister ran out telling my nan not to bring us in as Aunty M had died. My nan sent us back home (Aunty M hadn't left her bed since my nan's brother had died many years previously). It all seemed very weird and has stayed with me.

Also, my nan's house was a new build when she and my grandad bought it in the 30's. My brother lives there now and my brother in law often sees weird things...
 
Just remembered another one, although it happened to my sister, not to me.

When we were very young, we lived in Harrow, London for a bit.

Apparently the house we lived in, in a cul de sac, was haunted. My sister saw a creepy grinning man who was mocking her, knowing she was the only person who could see her, she was about 6??
 
I did a random walkabout through Rotterdam this afternoon (by bicycle) because my wife has gone to a Jesuit convent for a few days :)
I stumbled upon this "police line do not cross" scene and took a picture:
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Since I was doing a random walk I didn't even know the street name. This evening I looked it up on streetview. It was this:

Rotterdam Sunday afternoon, a 36-year-old Rotterdammer was killed in a shooting incident in a house on the Ruilstraat. Police are investigating the incident.
Police received a report around 12:45 p.m. that someone had been shot at a residence. When emergency services arrived, cpr began immediately. Unfortunately, this has not been to any avail.
 
Also, pets.

We've always had cats in the house I live in and have since the age of 4, so nearly 50 years. I'm often in the bathroom and feel a wet nose on the back of my leg. Look down, none of our current 3 around. I like to think it's my little black panther Barnaby, letting me know he's OK- he was poorly with cancer before he was put to sleep.

Miss you still Barn, RIP Fangster
 
A very minor strangeness, the highlights of my continuing existence : the kettle at Work stopped working 10 mins before I went home. I bought a Latte at the station and convinced the Wenzel staff to pour it into my empty thermos. 20 minutes later on the train I poured it back out into my cup. The froth had separated into lumps of gloop - imagine a pre-chewed digestive biscuit floating in warm brown liquid - it looked like the milk had curdled (actually it looked disgusting) but didn't taste so. No more Lattes from now on, just coffee with milk next time. Or maybe just coffee.
 
A very minor strangeness, the highlights of my continuing existence : the kettle at Work stopped working 10 mins before I went home. I bought a Latte at the station and convinced the Wenzel staff to pour it into my empty thermos. 20 minutes later on the train I poured it back out into my cup. The froth had separated into lumps of gloop - imagine a pre-chewed digestive biscuit floating in warm brown liquid - it looked like the milk had curdled (actually it looked disgusting) but didn't taste so. No more Lattes from now on, just coffee with milk next time. Or maybe just coffee.
Did you have any residual citrus type beverage in your flask? Squash or fruit juice? That would have curdled the milk
 
Did you have any residual citrus type beverage in your flask? Squash or fruit juice? That would have curdled the milk
No I only used the flask for tea - never even forced to do a pee in it.

Latte_0385.jpg
 
A very minor strangeness, the highlights of my continuing existence : the kettle at Work stopped working 10 mins before I went home. I bought a Latte at the station and convinced the Wenzel staff to pour it into my empty thermos. 20 minutes later on the train I poured it back out into my cup. The froth had separated into lumps of gloop - imagine a pre-chewed digestive biscuit floating in warm brown liquid - it looked like the milk had curdled (actually it looked disgusting) but didn't taste so. No more Lattes from now on, just coffee with milk next time. Or maybe just coffee.
Must have been a witch passing by...
 
The thermos flask I use to take milk into work for my coffee (no fridges for staff use). Periodically, rather than just rinse it in warm water, I leave it to stand overnight carrying hot water and a Steradent dental cleansing tablet. I have to remember to rinse it out really well the next day, or the Steradent residues do things to the milk. How do you deep-clean/sterilise your flask?
 
A very minor strangeness, the highlights of my continuing existence : the kettle at Work stopped working 10 mins before I went home. I bought a Latte at the station and convinced the Wenzel staff to pour it into my empty thermos. 20 minutes later on the train I poured it back out into my cup. The froth had separated into lumps of gloop - imagine a pre-chewed digestive biscuit floating in warm brown liquid - it looked like the milk had curdled (actually it looked disgusting) but didn't taste so. No more Lattes from now on, just coffee with milk next time. Or maybe just coffee.
In my youth (said the sage) I was often told by the oldies that you shouldn't put milk in a hot drink in a Thermos as it would curdle.
Haven't found this myself but maybe it's cumulative or summat.
 
The nastiest aspect of modern Thermos flasks is their horrid, push-button stopper.

It harbours congealed milk-goblins, is hard to disassemble and impossible to clean thoroughly.

Best to treat it as a simple, screw-in stopper and avoid its internal sewer entirely! :nods:
 
When I used to work in t' building trade (crikey, 30+ years ago) we used to take one of those over-size thermos every day, filled only with boiling water. On the way into work we would stop at a shop and get a pint of milk.
Then it was a simple matter of making tea/coffee in the same way as you would from a kettle.
And yes the thermos would stay hot enough for tea-making right up until the mid-afternoon tea-break.
 
I went to visit my parents and we were talking about cars and mentioned were.my dad used to buy his cars when we lived at our first house. I would have been about 7 the last time we went to that dealership. So around 40 years ago. I asked my mum if she remembered the sales bloke with curly hair. She couldn't, but the next day someone posted a picture of the salesman in the dealership on Facebook. I was wrong about this name though.
 
No I only used the flask for tea - never even forced to do a pee in it.

View attachment 42173
Me, the Mrs and our mate 'Jane' went for a 'fuck covid!' walk last year .. except I didn't use fresh milk in the thermos .. I used budget milk powder instead of the milk powder I usually use so the end result looked exactly like that when we got to our location.
 
When I used to work in t' building trade (crikey, 30+ years ago) we used to take one of those over-size thermos every day, filled only with boiling water. On the way into work we would stop at a shop and get a pint of milk.
Then it was a simple matter of making tea/coffee in the same way as you would from a kettle.
And yes the thermos would stay hot enough for tea-making right up until the mid-afternoon tea-break.
I worked on a big refurb once and there were about 8 of us of various trades there. We used to take turns to make tea in a double garage that was our 'canteen' and this particular morning it was my turn. I had bought some milk on the way but it was winter and there was a carton of milk left from the day before that was open, with quite a bit left in it. I used this for the tea in the morning and it tasted fine. lunchtime I went back in to make tea again and picked up the carton to see how many more cups it would make. I had a glance inside and to my horror there was a dead mouse floating in the remaining milk! I decided not to mention it to the rest but I did have a horrible feeling in my throat for the rest of the day. I did hope that it had got in after the morning tea but it then dawned on me that the carton was open in the morning when I went in and I had closed it after making the first lot. Happily no-one was off sick for the rest of the time I was there!
 
Last week we lost our Pomeranian pooch Zoom. He’d been with us for 11 years. He was and still is very much loved, and is missed by all of us. He became ill and despite treatment went down hill very quickly. We made the very difficult decision to euthanise. He was always such a joyful dog, and heartbreaking as it was to make that decision, to see him miserable and unable to do anything, and knowing that there was very little chance of recovery we felt it was the best thing we could do for him.
The thing we have all noticed is how quiet the house is now he is gone. It’s awful. Usually he followed people in the house everywhere. Mainly on the off chance that one of us would drop some tasty tit-bit he could pilfer, but also because he just loved humans. He would watch what you were doing with a look on his face that seemed to be saying “havent a clue what you are up to but it must be important and I absolutely love you anyway” and he never just walked. Always did this half trot half sprint thing. Because he was so small and we have hard flooring when he started off he did this funny running on the spot Scooby-Doo thing before he gained purchase enough to move off.

My daughter told me yesterday morning that she got up to use the loo in the middle of the night and as she was walking across the landing she heard Zoomy do his running on the spot scuffle In the hallway downstairs. She said for a second she didn’t think anything of it. It’s a sound we are all used to. Then she remembered that Zoom was gone. She looked over the banister but the hallway was empty. She said she wasn’t spooked at all. She found it reassuring to think that he was still home with us.
 
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Last week we lost our Pomeranian pooch Zoom. He’d been with us for 11 years. He was and still is very much loved, and is missed by all of us. He became ill and despite treatment went down hill very quickly. We made the very difficult decision to euthanise. He was always such a joyful dog, and heartbreaking as it was, to see him miserable and unable to do anything, and knowing that there was very little chance of recovery we felt it was the best thing we could do for him.
The thing we have all noticed is how quiet the house is now he is gone. It’s awful. Usually he followed people in the house everywhere. Mainly on the off chance that one of us would drop some tasty tit-bit he could pilfer, but also because he just loved humans. He would watch what you were doing with a look on his face that seemed to be saying “havent a clue what you are up to but it must be important and I absolutely love you anyway” and he never just walked. Always did this half trot half sprint thing. Because he was so small and we have hard flooring when he started off he did this funny running on the spot Scooby-Doo thing before he gained purchase enough to move off.

My daughter told me yesterday morning that she got up to use the loo in the middle of the night and as she was walking across the landing she heard Zoomy do his running on the spot scuffle In the hallway downstairs. She said for a second she didn’t think anything of it. It’s a sound we are all used to. Then she remembered that Zoom was gone. She looked over the banister but the hallway was empty. She said she wasn’t spooked at all. She found it reassuring to think that he was still home with us.
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