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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

I had a couple of cheap GPS (sat-nav) developer modules on order from a mainland China tech company on Ebay. I probably ordered them in September. It's been so long, I entirely-forgot.

Anyway, today: small grey package, with label on outside, marked as being the correct items....but no.

I am now the bemused owner of two tiny silver metal human-shaped figures, shaped as if they're riding (or humping) a barrel. Except the scale is such that they'd be doing that to a phone-cord.

Pics to follow

I sent off for some haberdashery items from China (forget what) and received a length of horrifically-coloured and patterned fabric.*
When I complained they apologised and offered a refund, and then the correct item immediately rolled up. Baffling.

*It really is nasty. Like a light upholstery fabric with stripes that don't complement each other (including maroon, urrggh) and random textural variations. Not sure what you could make with it that you'd want anyone to see.
 
I had the novelty 80's song Star Trekkin going through my head about half an hour ago. I hadn't heard it or thought about it for years, I've just switched a radio on and it was playing.

My secondary school did an exchange with a German school (in Rhineland) when I was a school-kid. As part of this, I heard a lot of the early 80s "Neue Deutsche Welle" tunes on German radio, it was a massive music fashion in Germany just then.

Decades later, I happened to be experiencing a nostalgia moment and idly and dreamily humming one of these tunes to myself, "Sehnsucht nach Allem" at work, at Emley Moor near Huddersfield. I wandered downstairs to the employee kitchenette and a recently-started-at-the-company Polish lass (who wasn't even born until the mid 90s) was listening to the same song on speaker from her phone, except hers was just starting the song and I had just finished. I was astonished that she had even heard of the song, which was never released in the UK nor Poland. The chance of that happening seemed incredibly remote.

It seems that her Dad was a fan of the band "Joy Ryder", from having listened to West German pop charts on the radio in the 80s while "fishing" for the western music scene and western news in that era that led to the whole end-of-the-cold-war movement. Still a huge coincidence!

Whenever I bump into her now, one or other of us will utter the hook line from the song: "Ich lach' mir ins Gesicht"... it seems fitting, somehow.
 
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This morning, after turning on the computer, I opened a browser and clicked to open a site. I received an error message that I was not connected to the internet. Looking behind my monitor to see the modem, I noticed that only one cat.5 cable was plugged in (the one for the other computer), but that the cable for the now-turned-on computer was completely out of its socket. There is no way it could have fallen out on its own, and it is highly, highly unlikely this could have happened without my noticing when I went to remove the modem power cable upon retiring last night. Those of you who read of a previous incident (involving my modem power cable) which I reported here will notice the thematic similarity.
 
at work, at Emley Moor near Huddersfield. I wandered downstairs to the employee kitchenette
You wandered downstairs at Emley Moor? The verb hardly seems to do the endeavour justice...
018220800112060-382.jpg
 
Another strange little experience this week. Out on the congested roads in the grim north of the UK, I had to stop at a red light on a pedestrian crossing, cursing slightly because there was literally no one around to cross. This crossing is set on a busy but straight road with a wide pavement which is 6 or 7 meters wide with a clear view of the wide corner of the road junction, the pavement on both sides ahead and the road. Only a very narrow lamp standard positioned about 5 meters in front of the crossing. I was watching the lights for the them to change and the adjacent pavement when suddenly , apparently out of nowhere, a very large lady stepped (from the nearside) onto the crossing. I almost jumped, out of surprise at her appearance. Obviously a trick of the mind or sight, but somewhat disconcerting nonetheless.

T'other day whilst driving, I was approaching a mini roundabout when a car appeared from behind the front pillar of my car as it crossed in front of me. It was just a combination of the angle of the car and distance from my front pillar which rendered it 'short' enough to hide behind the metal, but it was quite disconcerting nonetheless especially as it wasn't an awfully small car. Of course it could have just apported from another dimension...

Long story short... could the door pillar explanation be what happened in the case of your large nearside lady?
 
T'other day whilst driving, I was approaching a mini roundabout when a car appeared from behind the front pillar of my car as it crossed in front of me. It was just a combination of the angle of the car and distance from my front pillar which rendered it 'short' enough to hide behind the metal, but it was quite disconcerting nonetheless especially as it wasn't an awfully small car. Of course it could have just apported from another dimension...

Long story short... could the door pillar explanation be what happened in the case of your large nearside lady?
Yes I have wide front pillars on the front of my daily driver and as Shady says they are quite dangerous. I can't rule out the possibility that on that occasion the pillar obscured the pedestrian approaching. As I mentioned the junction is very open and it would have taken her to have walked directly in line with the "sight" line of the nearside pillar for some meters for me not to have spotted her. It is the only plausible explanation, since I doubt that a trans dimensional being would be that interested in crossing the road to get to Mcdonalds. I guess you never know though.
 
I have the same blind side on my car the right window pillar, really annoying and dangerous i think

I actually nearly caused an accident when I was driving out of a junction and the car that was approaching the junction must have been matching my speed so that it was continually hidden by my side pillar until we were almost in ramming distance, whereupon I saw the car suddenly appear alongside me. Luckily the road was otherwise empty so I slammed on my brakes.

I heard that the same thing had happened to other people too, so there must be something about the angle of the junction that keeps the side of the car such that oncoming single vehicles are hidden.

Skoda Fabia, before anyone asks. No problem with the pillars otherwise.
 
I had a very minor strangeness last night.

I was walking the dog down the road in the pitch darkness as is my wont, through our tiny village. It was about 8.30 at night. We'd gone as far as I could be bothered and turned around to come back when I saw a light. At first i thought it was another dog walker, but the light was moving very strangely, it was sort of bobbing as it would if the person holding it was running very energetically.

It was very odd and slightly unnerving. I was walking along feeling myself getting creeped out and trying to analyse what I was looking at - I knew it wasn't anything unearthly because Hair-Trigger Dog wasn't reacting at all other than mildly glancing the way of the light now and then. But I could actively feel my skin starting to prickle and my brain going at 90 miles an hour considering and discarding various 'what the hell is that?' theories.

When the light and I passed one another I found it to be a neighbour limping heavily, which was causing his torch to bob about dramatically. So not very strange. What I found most interesting was my reaction to the mysterious bobbing light, as I tried not to be scared (because obviously nothing to be scared of, or dog would have gone off like a rocket) and yet was scared despite myself!
 
What I found most interesting was my reaction to the mysterious bobbing light, as I tried not to be scared (because obviously nothing to be scared of, or dog would have gone off like a rocket) and yet was scared despite myself!
Your experience reminded me of something that happened to me a number of years ago while I was riding the bus home. A young woman was sitting a couple of seats ahead of me, and it looked like she had two elbows. There were two sharp angles in her sleeve instead of the one where a normal elbow would be. It was extremely unlikely she had some congenital trait that gave her two elbows, but if she had had two elbows, it would have looked more natural than that and it wouldn't have bothered me. Her arm was raised while she slowly scratched her head in what looked like a mindlessly compulsive way. Between that, and the oddly unnatural double elbow effect, my sense of normality was upset and it gave me the heebie jeebies. Her behavior and appearance seemed so fundamentally weird, in the full sense of the word.

After about fifteen minutes I realized she just had a rolled up magazine or something up her sleeve.
 
Your experience reminded me of something that happened to me a number of years ago while I was riding the bus home. A young woman was sitting a couple of seats ahead of me, and it looked like she had two elbows. There were two sharp angles in her sleeve instead of the one where a normal elbow would be. It was extremely unlikely she had some congenital trait that gave her two elbows, but if she had had two elbows, it would have looked more natural than that and it wouldn't have bothered me. Her arm was raised while she slowly scratched her head in what looked like a mindlessly compulsive way. Between that, and the oddly unnatural double elbow effect, my sense of normality was upset and it gave me the heebie jeebies. Her behavior and appearance seemed so fundamentally weird, in the full sense of the word.

After about fifteen minutes I realized she just had a rolled up magazine or something up her sleeve.
Possibly a knife or similar self defence item strapped to her arm.
 
I had a very minor strangeness last night.

I was walking the dog down the road in the pitch darkness as is my wont, through our tiny village. It was about 8.30 at night. We'd gone as far as I could be bothered and turned around to come back when I saw a light. At first i thought it was another dog walker, but the light was moving very strangely, it was sort of bobbing as it would if the person holding it was running very energetically.

It was very odd and slightly unnerving. I was walking along feeling myself getting creeped out and trying to analyse what I was looking at - I knew it wasn't anything unearthly because Hair-Trigger Dog wasn't reacting at all other than mildly glancing the way of the light now and then. But I could actively feel my skin starting to prickle and my brain going at 90 miles an hour considering and discarding various 'what the hell is that?' theories.

When the light and I passed one another I found it to be a neighbour limping heavily, which was causing his torch to bob about dramatically. So not very strange. What I found most interesting was my reaction to the mysterious bobbing light, as I tried not to be scared (because obviously nothing to be scared of, or dog would have gone off like a rocket) and yet was scared despite myself!


The bobbing torch effect made me think of the way people often report the movements of a will-o-wisp, so I was surprised when there turned out to be regular human on the other end of your mysterious light!
 
Almost every Vietnamese home has a family altar like this for the veneration of deceased ancestors, and our household is no exception. Note the three cups in pride of place at the centre - these apparently have connections to close family members.

altarinmyvnhome.jpg

Our altar is smaller, and placed on top of the refrigerator, as a precaution against the smaller members of the family causing havoc. My father-in-law went away over Christmas and New Year, and during his absence our cat knocked one of the cups off the fridge, with predictable consequences. F-i-L returned with the news that one of his mother's sisters (the last of the three, in fact) had died while he was in Hanoi.
 
I encountered the daughter (aged 14) wandering out of the kitchen post-breakfast this morning, and as she stopped for a hug, she told me that somebody must have been in her room last night. I said that yes, I'd been in to kiss her goodnight and she was a bit out of it at that point, but nobody else after me. She said that her stuffed dragon had been on the bed when she went to sleep, but when she woke up it was lying on her chest of drawers, positioned perfectly along the edge. She reckoned it was either the luckiest in-sleep throw ever, or somebody had moved it.

When I went in to help her with her hair, she had put said dragon where she had found it, and damn, it was precise. Bear in mind that her chest of drawers is at the end of her bed, with a two foot gap between the three-foot high footboard and the drawers. Either she's suddenly a somnambulist - she is a fidget when she sleeps, as I have experienced many times whilst camping - or "Toy Story" has been telling us the truth all along and the dragon flew there itself, or somebody moved it. It wouldn't be her dad - I heard him come straight upstairs from the downstairs loo last night - and her brother would be more likely to move her unicorn to mess with her head. Not too many other candidates round here though...
 
I encountered the daughter (aged 14) wandering out of the kitchen post-breakfast this morning, and as she stopped for a hug, she told me that somebody must have been in her room last night. I said that yes, I'd been in to kiss her goodnight and she was a bit out of it at that point, but nobody else after me. She said that her stuffed dragon had been on the bed when she went to sleep, but when she woke up it was lying on her chest of drawers, positioned perfectly along the edge. She reckoned it was either the luckiest in-sleep throw ever, or somebody had moved it.

When I went in to help her with her hair, she had put said dragon where she had found it, and damn, it was precise. Bear in mind that her chest of drawers is at the end of her bed, with a two foot gap between the three-foot high footboard and the drawers. Either she's suddenly a somnambulist - she is a fidget when she sleeps, as I have experienced many times whilst camping - or "Toy Story" has been telling us the truth all along and the dragon flew there itself, or somebody moved it. It wouldn't be her dad - I heard him come straight upstairs from the downstairs loo last night - and her brother would be more likely to move her unicorn to mess with her head. Not too many other candidates round here though...

The dragon flew there. Definitely. :)

Could you try replicating it, what I mean is sit on your daughter's bed and try throwing the dragon (of course if you have nothing else better to do with your time!) to see if it is possible to throw it in such a way?

Was there anything on top of her chest of drawers which looked out-of-place (e.g. had been knocked out of the way when the dragon landed)?

And finally the obvious question... did you happen to notice where the dragon was when you went in to kiss her goodnight?

(I've got an image in my head now of a toy dragon, stopped mid-flight somewhere near the ceiling, waiting for you to leave the room so he can continue on his way without being noticed...)
 
I encountered the daughter (aged 14) wandering out of the kitchen post-breakfast this morning, and as she stopped for a hug, she told me that somebody must have been in her room last night. I said that yes, I'd been in to kiss her goodnight and she was a bit out of it at that point, but nobody else after me. She said that her stuffed dragon had been on the bed when she went to sleep, but when she woke up it was lying on her chest of drawers, positioned perfectly along the edge. She reckoned it was either the luckiest in-sleep throw ever, or somebody had moved it.

When I went in to help her with her hair, she had put said dragon where she had found it, and damn, it was precise. Bear in mind that her chest of drawers is at the end of her bed, with a two foot gap between the three-foot high footboard and the drawers. Either she's suddenly a somnambulist - she is a fidget when she sleeps, as I have experienced many times whilst camping - or "Toy Story" has been telling us the truth all along and the dragon flew there itself, or somebody moved it. It wouldn't be her dad - I heard him come straight upstairs from the downstairs loo last night - and her brother would be more likely to move her unicorn to mess with her head. Not too many other candidates round here though...

Poltergeist phenomena (faked or not) usually occur around this age. Start worrying only if it happens again.

Edit: something went wrong, the wrong post was replied to. Fixed now.
 
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The dragon flew there. Definitely. :)

Could you try replicating it, what I mean is sit on your daughter's bed and try throwing the dragon (of course if you have nothing else better to do with your time!) to see if it is possible to throw it in such a way?

Was there anything on top of her chest of drawers which looked out-of-place (e.g. had been knocked out of the way when the dragon landed)?

And finally the obvious question... did you happen to notice where the dragon was when you went in to kiss her goodnight?

(I've got an image in my head now of a toy dragon, stopped mid-flight somewhere near the ceiling, waiting for you to leave the room so he can continue on his way without being noticed...)

The problem is that you can never replicate exactly these type of things. I'm retired and have dos all else to do so occasionally I've tried to establish how things end up in a certain impossible position when you drop, throw them or whatever. It's impossible to do it again. Particularly annoying when tinkering with something and a part drops through a gap which appears smaller than the bit itself. Air turns a horrible shade of blue.
 
The problem is that you can never replicate exactly these type of things. I'm retired and have dos all else to do so occasionally I've tried to establish how things end up in a certain impossible position when you drop, throw them or whatever. It's impossible to do it again. Particularly annoying when tinkering with something and a part drops through a gap which appears smaller than the bit itself. Air turns a horrible shade of blue.
No one can replicate climate, and yet meteorology exists. But annoying indeed.
 
Could you try replicating it, what I mean is sit on your daughter's bed and try throwing the dragon (of course if you have nothing else better to do with your time!) to see if it is possible to throw it in such a way?

Was there anything on top of her chest of drawers which looked out-of-place (e.g. had been knocked out of the way when the dragon landed)?

And finally the obvious question... did you happen to notice where the dragon was when you went in to kiss her goodnight?

(I've got an image in my head now of a toy dragon, stopped mid-flight somewhere near the ceiling, waiting for you to leave the room so he can continue on his way without being noticed...)

Oh my, I'm sure I could sit on her bed and try to kick the dragon into the same position for a month of Sundays, and it wouldn't land there!

There's not much on her chest of drawers - it's where she charges her laptop - so nothing looked out of place. There's a colour-changing light on there that seemed fine.

And when I went in, the room was dark, so I didn't notice the dragon. To be honest, she has that many toys on the unoccupied half of her bed, it's impossible to pick anything out! But I really want to see him waiting up by the ceiling as you postulated!!
 
Apologies for what will be a long post; it's difficult to explain in few words.

We had a bit of a curious drive yesterday afternoon... we were going to our favourite Swedish furniture store:) and had decided to take a different route for a change. Mr Zebra was driving, we had good music in the car, I wasn't feeling anxious or anything, but then several minor things happened.

We had to go 'straight on' at a junction where we'd only ever turned right before (to go to a different destination). So from this point we'd be on a road we'd not driven on before. Approaching this junction there is a long distinctive twisty bit of road beside a stream, so when we got to the beginning of that I knew we were only a few minutes away from the junction and I should pay attention in case I need to remind Mr Zebra to go straight on instead of right.

Now perhaps I zoned out; not impossible when I'm not driving and there's a good song on the CD. But... next thing I knew, we were on a bit of road I didn't recognise. I stared at the scenery for maybe a minute, trying to see if I recognised where we were whilst still enjoying the song which was one of my favourites. When the song finished I asked Mr Zebra "have we gone past the junction?" He replied that yes we had. "So this is the new bit of road?" Yes it was.

Except.... the song that had just finished was the one that had been playing at the beginning of the twisty bit. It shouldn't have still been playing by then, having gone all the way along the twisty bit, past the junction, and then along the new bit for a minute or so.

Mr Zebra did remember going past the junction though, but couldn't explain the song thing. So we carried on.

A mile or so later I was thinking what a nice road it was (wide and sweeping, not huge amounts of traffic, etc., nice scenery) and that we should definitely drive along here again.

But then minutes after that, I was suddenly overcome with a feeling that I can't quite explain... I felt sort of fearful - no, perhaps a feeling of dread, as if I knew this bit of road but not in a good way, even though I can categorically state that we'd never been along there before. This feeling lasted for quite a few miles until finally it subsided. The rest of the drive to the store was uneventful.


When we set off for home we decided to take yet another different route back, via a duel carriageway for a bit, then along the other back road to where we live. We thought it would be a straight-forward exit off the dual carriageway, but unclear signage and it being dark meant that we took a wrong turning. So we looked for somewhere to turn around, and as we were doing so I spotted a petrol station at the other side of the road. It took several minutes to turn around because we had to negotiate a set of traffic lights twice, which were red each time.

Once we'd finally got onto the correct road, we were heading through a small village when Mr Zebra announced that we were getting low on petrol and we ought to get some. We were certain there would be a petrol station in this village and indeed there was. We pulled in, waited behind a couple of other cars (it was very busy) but when our turn came, the pump wasn't working. Turned out there was some sort of problem that "will be fixed in a few minutes". So we waited for maybe five minutes, but evidently the problem wasn't fixable. So we drove on.

Because we still needed petrol, and there being no other petrol stations on this back road home, we had no choice but to turn off, go through another village (where we had to wait ages at a level crossing) and go to the outskirts of a town where we knew there was a petrol station, and from there loop back onto the original back road (but further along it), and home.

And on the way home, I got to thinking... if we hadn't taken the wrong turning and spent five or six minutes finding somewhere to turn around then we likely would have got to the first petrol station before the pumps failed. And then we wouldn't have had to detour into the other town, getting stuck at the level crossing, etc. Or even if we'd realised we needed petrol when we were lost, we could have gone to the petrol station I saw there, and again there would not have been all that other delay.

In the end, on the face of it, all that happened was we got home later than we expected; nothing bad happened.

But... did we avoid something bad happening, because of the delays? I can't help feeling they felt so engineered in some way.
 
Apologies for what will be a long post; it's difficult to explain in few words.

We had a bit of a curious drive yesterday afternoon... we were going to our favourite Swedish furniture store:) and had decided to take a different route for a change. Mr Zebra was driving, we had good music in the car, I wasn't feeling anxious or anything, but then several minor things happened.

We had to go 'straight on' at a junction where we'd only ever turned right before (to go to a different destination). So from this point we'd be on a road we'd not driven on before. Approaching this junction there is a long distinctive twisty bit of road beside a stream, so when we got to the beginning of that I knew we were only a few minutes away from the junction and I should pay attention in case I need to remind Mr Zebra to go straight on instead of right.

Now perhaps I zoned out; not impossible when I'm not driving and there's a good song on the CD. But... next thing I knew, we were on a bit of road I didn't recognise. I stared at the scenery for maybe a minute, trying to see if I recognised where we were whilst still enjoying the song which was one of my favourites. When the song finished I asked Mr Zebra "have we gone past the junction?" He replied that yes we had. "So this is the new bit of road?" Yes it was.

Except.... the song that had just finished was the one that had been playing at the beginning of the twisty bit. It shouldn't have still been playing by then, having gone all the way along the twisty bit, past the junction, and then along the new bit for a minute or so.

Mr Zebra did remember going past the junction though, but couldn't explain the song thing. So we carried on.

A mile or so later I was thinking what a nice road it was (wide and sweeping, not huge amounts of traffic, etc., nice scenery) and that we should definitely drive along here again.

But then minutes after that, I was suddenly overcome with a feeling that I can't quite explain... I felt sort of fearful - no, perhaps a feeling of dread, as if I knew this bit of road but not in a good way, even though I can categorically state that we'd never been along there before. This feeling lasted for quite a few miles until finally it subsided. The rest of the drive to the store was uneventful.


When we set off for home we decided to take yet another different route back, via a duel carriageway for a bit, then along the other back road to where we live. We thought it would be a straight-forward exit off the dual carriageway, but unclear signage and it being dark meant that we took a wrong turning. So we looked for somewhere to turn around, and as we were doing so I spotted a petrol station at the other side of the road. It took several minutes to turn around because we had to negotiate a set of traffic lights twice, which were red each time.

Once we'd finally got onto the correct road, we were heading through a small village when Mr Zebra announced that we were getting low on petrol and we ought to get some. We were certain there would be a petrol station in this village and indeed there was. We pulled in, waited behind a couple of other cars (it was very busy) but when our turn came, the pump wasn't working. Turned out there was some sort of problem that "will be fixed in a few minutes". So we waited for maybe five minutes, but evidently the problem wasn't fixable. So we drove on.

Because we still needed petrol, and there being no other petrol stations on this back road home, we had no choice but to turn off, go through another village (where we had to wait ages at a level crossing) and go to the outskirts of a town where we knew there was a petrol station, and from there loop back onto the original back road (but further along it), and home.

And on the way home, I got to thinking... if we hadn't taken the wrong turning and spent five or six minutes finding somewhere to turn around then we likely would have got to the first petrol station before the pumps failed. And then we wouldn't have had to detour into the other town, getting stuck at the level crossing, etc. Or even if we'd realised we needed petrol when we were lost, we could have gone to the petrol station I saw there, and again there would not have been all that other delay.

In the end, on the face of it, all that happened was we got home later than we expected; nothing bad happened.

But... did we avoid something bad happening, because of the delays? I can't help feeling they felt so engineered in some way.

" we were on a bit of road I didn't recognize" - Funnily enough I was only thinking about this a few days ago. Perhaps half a dozen times over many years I've been driving down roads I've travelled 100's if not 1000's of times, I've suddenly been unable to recognize the road or the environment. The feeling has only lasted a very few seconds fortunately. I have come to the conclusion that it's partly due to zoning out and suddenly a signal is sent down the wrong pathway in the brain ( a bit like the opposite of deja vu). It is very unnerving. Fascinating also that these events seem to occur whilst in a vehicle.

As far as avoiding something drastic - who knows? On two occasions I have been delayed by something only to come across a bad accident which has only just occurred and which I could easily have been involved in.
 
Apologies for what will be a long post; it's difficult to explain in few words.

We had a bit of a curious drive yesterday afternoon... we were going to our favourite Swedish furniture store:) and had decided to take a different route for a change. Mr Zebra was driving, we had good music in the car, I wasn't feeling anxious or anything, but then several minor things happened.

We had to go 'straight on' at a junction where we'd only ever turned right before (to go to a different destination). So from this point we'd be on a road we'd not driven on before. Approaching this junction there is a long distinctive twisty bit of road beside a stream, so when we got to the beginning of that I knew we were only a few minutes away from the junction and I should pay attention in case I need to remind Mr Zebra to go straight on instead of right.

Now perhaps I zoned out; not impossible when I'm not driving and there's a good song on the CD. But... next thing I knew, we were on a bit of road I didn't recognise. I stared at the scenery for maybe a minute, trying to see if I recognised where we were whilst still enjoying the song which was one of my favourites. When the song finished I asked Mr Zebra "have we gone past the junction?" He replied that yes we had. "So this is the new bit of road?" Yes it was.

Except.... the song that had just finished was the one that had been playing at the beginning of the twisty bit. It shouldn't have still been playing by then, having gone all the way along the twisty bit, past the junction, and then along the new bit for a minute or so.

Mr Zebra did remember going past the junction though, but couldn't explain the song thing. So we carried on.

A mile or so later I was thinking what a nice road it was (wide and sweeping, not huge amounts of traffic, etc., nice scenery) and that we should definitely drive along here again.

But then minutes after that, I was suddenly overcome with a feeling that I can't quite explain... I felt sort of fearful - no, perhaps a feeling of dread, as if I knew this bit of road but not in a good way, even though I can categorically state that we'd never been along there before. This feeling lasted for quite a few miles until finally it subsided. The rest of the drive to the store was uneventful.


When we set off for home we decided to take yet another different route back, via a duel carriageway for a bit, then along the other back road to where we live. We thought it would be a straight-forward exit off the dual carriageway, but unclear signage and it being dark meant that we took a wrong turning. So we looked for somewhere to turn around, and as we were doing so I spotted a petrol station at the other side of the road. It took several minutes to turn around because we had to negotiate a set of traffic lights twice, which were red each time.

Once we'd finally got onto the correct road, we were heading through a small village when Mr Zebra announced that we were getting low on petrol and we ought to get some. We were certain there would be a petrol station in this village and indeed there was. We pulled in, waited behind a couple of other cars (it was very busy) but when our turn came, the pump wasn't working. Turned out there was some sort of problem that "will be fixed in a few minutes". So we waited for maybe five minutes, but evidently the problem wasn't fixable. So we drove on.

Because we still needed petrol, and there being no other petrol stations on this back road home, we had no choice but to turn off, go through another village (where we had to wait ages at a level crossing) and go to the outskirts of a town where we knew there was a petrol station, and from there loop back onto the original back road (but further along it), and home.

And on the way home, I got to thinking... if we hadn't taken the wrong turning and spent five or six minutes finding somewhere to turn around then we likely would have got to the first petrol station before the pumps failed. And then we wouldn't have had to detour into the other town, getting stuck at the level crossing, etc. Or even if we'd realised we needed petrol when we were lost, we could have gone to the petrol station I saw there, and again there would not have been all that other delay.

In the end, on the face of it, all that happened was we got home later than we expected; nothing bad happened.

But... did we avoid something bad happening, because of the delays? I can't help feeling they felt so engineered in some way.
Whenever I'm held up I wonder what dramas I've missed out on!
 
In the end, on the face of it, all that happened was we got home later than we expected; nothing bad happened.
But... did we avoid something bad happening, because of the delays? I can't help feeling they felt so engineered in some way.

A few times my routine journeys being disrupted have lead to novel and useful experiences and locations - in the main though I'm just delayed. But I agree with the feeling that some diversions seem so contrived that I'm happier to believe that somehow I missed a bullet.

Yesterday there was a bit of a faff getting the train home because of signal failure. The earlier train was 30 mins late so I caught that, but it had half as many carriages as my usual, twice as many passengers and slow moving because it had missed it's departure slot. After I'd got off with streaming eyes and nose and made my way to the bike park, I heard an announcement that the Met Line had fresh delays because of a fatality. At least I got home last night.
 
That's really interesting Zebs. I know exactly the feeling you mean.

I had one of those journeys with so many delays it feels engineered late last year. I was on the way to a job interview and I had to catch a train. I prepared in good time and left the house early to catch a bus to the station but as I left the house I felt curiously anxious about getting to the railway station on time. When I got to the bus stop I saw the back of the bus further down the road: I had missed the one I had intended to catch though it must have come early, but no big deal as I had intended to catch one earlier than the one I actually needed to catch. Only 20 minutes later that bus didn't come.

So I executed my backup plan asking my partner for a lift to the station. It's a 15 minute drive at that time of day so with about 25 minutes until my train was due it should have been fine but we had to stop at every traffic light; they seemed to turn red on cue as we approached. Finally we were at the station and I raced through the ticket gate and ran down the platform but as I approached the train I was so close that the driver actually apologised out of the window to me as the train pulled away. I had missed it by seconds.

I phoned and apologized to the company explaining the situation and they kindly rescheduled. As I left the railway station it was like a switch had been flipped as I walked to the pedestrian crossing and both sides of the crossing went green as I walked up to them. I walked to my bus stop and boarded a bus home immediately which left just a minute later and made the best time I have ever known. I was home about 30 minutes after leaving the station.

When I went to the rescheduled interview I caught a train two hours early to avoid a repeat of the situation, meaning I was at the location ludicrously early and had to walk around for an hour and a half before I went to the office (and I was still 30 minutes early for my interview). I was offered and accepted the job but the day I was due to start the train timetable changed, which I had known about but couldn't find any details about the new schedule for this particular service. It turned out that the direct service to the location of my new office was permanently cancelled. My commute has become a ridiculous almost 4 hour journey, and consequently I am now looking for a new job again.

It does almost feel like something was trying to tell me to avoid that job.
 
That's really interesting Zebs. I know exactly the feeling you mean.

I had one of those journeys with so many delays it feels engineered late last year. I was on the way to a job interview and I had to catch a train. I prepared in good time and left the house early to catch a bus to the station but as I left the house I felt curiously anxious about getting to the railway station on time. When I got to the bus stop I saw the back of the bus further down the road: I had missed the one I had intended to catch though it must have come early, but no big deal as I had intended to catch one earlier than the one I actually needed to catch. Only 20 minutes later that bus didn't come.

So I executed my backup plan asking my partner for a lift to the station. It's a 15 minute drive at that time of day so with about 25 minutes until my train was due it should have been fine but we had to stop at every traffic light; they seemed to turn red on cue as we approached. Finally we were at the station and I raced through the ticket gate and ran down the platform but as I approached the train I was so close that the driver actually apologised out of the window to me as the train pulled away. I had missed it by seconds.

I phoned and apologized to the company explaining the situation and they kindly rescheduled. As I left the railway station it was like a switch had been flipped as I walked to the pedestrian crossing and both sides of the crossing went green as I walked up to them. I walked to my bus stop and boarded a bus home immediately which left just a minute later and made the best time I have ever known. I was home about 30 minutes after leaving the station.

When I went to the rescheduled interview I caught a train two hours early to avoid a repeat of the situation, meaning I was at the location ludicrously early and had to walk around for an hour and a half before I went to the office (and I was still 30 minutes early for my interview). I was offered and accepted the job but the day I was due to start the train timetable changed, which I had known about but couldn't find any details about the new schedule for this particular service. It turned out that the direct service to the location of my new office was permanently cancelled. My commute has become a ridiculous almost 4 hour journey, and consequently I am now looking for a new job again.

It does almost feel like something was trying to tell me to avoid that job.

Wow, that must've been quite a stressful day on that first interview day! It does indeed sound as if something was against you, somehow... it's very telling how different things were for you as soon as you were no longer going to the original interview.

And good luck with the job search; I hope you find something with a much better commute... 4 hours sounds terrible.
 
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