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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

One of my jobs involved commuting and several colleagues would carpool together.
The week after I left a carful of them was hit by a lorry at a t-junction. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt but the could have been, and I could have been.
 
Re: '...not recognising the road we were driving along..." (eg)
I've had plenty of driving jobs over the course of time, and also had to visit friends or relatives in far-flung UK locations requiring driving along unfamiliar roads. I've always found that I never commit to memory the roads themselves (unless there's something particularly remarkable along the way, or indeed, I want to remember where a petrol station or MaccyDs is) but instead I always remember the junctions, such as that a drive from here in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, up to see my friend in Northampton, although being about 60 miles in all, and about 1 hour 15 minutes, is actually mainly cruising along at 60 or 70, and about 6 junctions where I have do something other than going straight on.
I do wonder sometimes what I might have missed at the sides of the road as I'm concentrating on the traffic ahead, and indeed if I ever get driven somewhere as a passenger I'm quite keen to look out the window and take notice of the surroundings, which I wouldn't do whilst driving.
 
On the outskirts of Vlaardingen stands a broken signpost, almost hidden in the weeds. It is rumored that if you whisper your deepest, secret wish into the hollow broken pipe, it will become reality. There is a price to be paid for that, but no one knows what it is, yet.
pipe1.jpgpipe2.jpg
Sorry, but that's how crazy one gets when one frequents this forum too often :conf2:
 
On the outskirts of Vlaardingen stands a broken signpost, almost hidden in the weeds. It is rumored that if you whisper your deepest, secret wish into the hollow broken pipe, it will become reality. There is a price to be paid for that, but no one knows what it is, yet.
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Sorry, but that's how crazy one gets when one frequents this forum too often :conf2:
Wishing spots are commom in English-speaking folklore. As I remember Kipling wrote a short story about one. Wells, dead trees, etc. No reason it cant be a sign pipe.
 
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.
The transport system is finely regulated for commuting, more in some countries, less in others. In Japan, schedules are very tight. Public transport is adjusted so that you can do commutes waiting little. If you lose your transportation, you have to wait for the next vehicle (and cycle). These are heavily enforced, and there are huge penalties for the drivers that miss their schedule. A derailment in Japan [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagasaki_derailment ] happened because the driver was late, and traveling too fast. The point being that often there are no shortcuts if you miss your transportation.

Another thing is that the semaphores are regulated to an ideal traveling speed. If you use it, you will get your way open through transit. If not, you will get out of the schedule, and you will see a lot more red lights.

With all that said, if I was God and I was wanting to save people from bad jobs, making them miss the bus would be the less noticeable way. There is no need to do things with unnecessary effort.
 
there are huge penalties for the drivers that miss their schedule. A derailment in Japan [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagasaki_derailment ] happened because the driver was late, and traveling too fast. The point being that often there are no shortcuts if you miss your transportation.

It's inevitable that a train driver will try to catch up and go too fast if there's a big fine for being late. People will be killed.
 
On the outskirts of Vlaardingen stands a broken signpost, almost hidden in the weeds. It is rumored that if you whisper your deepest, secret wish into the hollow broken pipe, it will become reality. There is a price to be paid for that, but no one knows what it is, yet.
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Sorry, but that's how crazy one gets when one frequents this forum too often :conf2:
Light a match next to the pipe and if you happen to die right then and there, it's not a sign post.
 
It's inevitable that a train driver will try to catch up and go too fast if there's a big fine for being late. People will be killed.

There has to be an optimal position between these extremes, though. It does seem that in the UK no one gives a damn if the bus fails to turn up, apart from the inconvenienced passengers of course. I am so used to it I just aim to catch the bus before the bus I need to, and the same with the train, so as to maximise the chances of getting to work on time. But it doesn't really have to be like that.
 
There has to be an optimal position between these extremes, though. It does seem that in the UK no one gives a damn if the bus fails to turn up, apart from the inconvenienced passengers of course. I am so used to it I just aim to catch the bus before the bus I need to, and the same with the train, so as to maximise the chances of getting to work on time. But it doesn't really have to be like that.

Punishing workers for trying to deal with a problem is always going to cause trouble. It takes away the safety net of damage-limitation and makes the worker more likely to behave recklessly or deviously or both.
 
Agreed. The carrot is better than the stick, anyway, but definitely agree that punishing the driver isn't constructive or fruitful. But the drivers of buses in the UK don't seem to give a damn that they are late, they don't apologise to the passengers or even attempt to offer an explanation. There must be a position between the extremes of fines and punishment, and complete apathy.
 
Agreed. The carrot is better than the stick, anyway, but definitely agree that punishing the driver isn't constructive or fruitful. But the drivers of buses in the UK don't seem to give a damn that they are late, they don't apologise to the passengers or even attempt to offer an explanation. There must be a position between the extremes of fines and punishment, and complete apathy.

Drivers are held up by all sorts of things - heavy traffic, making way for emergency vehicles, troublesome passengers, floods, diversions, other vehicles breaking down, you name it. They're not deliberately making things difficult for passengers.

As for apologising, can you imagine how much later they'd be if they offered apologies or explanations to every aggrieved passenger?
OK, they could make announcements as they drove along, but then there'd be complaints that they weren't concentrating on the road. They can't win.
 
Two mildly odd sleep related experiences:

(1) I find more and more that if there's a sound going on whilst I'm sleeping, then my mind will simply screen it out. For example, if I drop off with the radio on - which happens a fair bit because I often play the radio in bed -then I will sleep oblivious to the sound and undisturbed by its content or to any changes in the sound. Then when I wake up, I will suddenly become aware of the sound again - as if someone has just switched the radion on. In fact, I swear there have been times when I have been waking up and I sort of hear the sound being faded back up again - as if my subconcious has some sort of volume control!

I feel this one is related to age. I have only started noticing this in the past few years. I'm sure there was a time when a sound would keep me awake - or would become incorporated into my dreams somehow.

(2) Micro-sleep talking.
My job involves gadding about an often chilly city to meet clients (students) who I then have to teach often quite basic level English to - and this involves speaking to them. If the class is in the afternoon - and what I am talking about is not rivetting , then, quite frankly, I may find myself microsleeping a bit during the lesson. Sometimes this happens when I am mid-speech - I just drop off for a fragment of a second and then reawake. Sometimes I awake to just overhear myself saying something which is completley tangenital to whatever it was that we were supposed to be talking about - and facing a student with a slightly baffled look on their face.

Once I awoke to hear myself saying somthing about `dogs` and another time something about `bands` - both of which were unrelated to the study topic. It has happened about four times, to my knowledge. I think I may have got away with it because my students were rather young and of basic level and probably didn't really notice.

Still, not good in my line of work!
 
My Father-in-Law, God rest his soul, microslept all the time. Weirdest thing ever. You'd literally be mid conversation and suddenly he'd snore! Someone would nundge him and he'd carry on where he'd left off. No point telling him him he'd just fallen asleep, he wouldn't believe you.

He could fall asleep just as he was sitting down, snoring before his arse even hit the armchair, when seconds before he'd been laughing and joking. He often lay down sprawled across carpets and carry on conversations in between snoring.

He was always an early riser and relied a lot on expressos and cola for energy. I think he probably never actually knew when he was tired.
 
Punishing workers for trying to deal with a problem is always going to cause trouble. It takes away the safety net of damage-limitation and makes the worker more likely to behave recklessly or deviously or both.
I agree. The incidents of ambulance, police, bus drivers, couriers and the like speeding dangerously around our neck of the woods is getting utterly ridiculous. Clearly they are all doing it to meet some imposed time target. Only very recently a police officer killed himself on the M6 "whilst travelling to attend an accident scene".
Ambulance drivers seem to be the worst, yet it seems very common to wait hours for one to attend an emergency. Only last year Ms PeteS came across an elderly man who had collapsed in the middle of a busy road. It was dark and wet and this happened one mile from the hospital. She was told by 999 operative not to move him on any account- the ambulance took 90 minutes to get there. Yeah yeah staff shortages blah blah, but then why set clearly stress inducing unattainable targets on these services?
 
On the outskirts of Vlaardingen stands a broken signpost, almost hidden in the weeds. It is rumored that if you whisper your deepest, secret wish into the hollow broken pipe, it will become reality. There is a price to be paid for that, but no one knows what it is, yet.
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Sorry, but that's how crazy one gets when one frequents this forum too often :conf2:

My first thought was that the post was a breathing pipe, possibly leading down to a kidnap victim trapped in a coffin - did anyone listen for sounds coming up the pipe before whispering down it ? How long do you think the ground looked undisturbed for ?
 
Ms PeteS came across an elderly man who had collapsed in the middle of a busy road. It was dark and wet and this happened one mile from the hospital. She was told by 999 operative not to move him on any account- the ambulance took 90 minutes to get there.

Surely she didn't sit in the middle of the road with him?
 
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Sometimes this happens when I am mid-speech - I just drop off for a fragment of a second and then reawake.
My Father-in-Law, God rest his soul, microslept all the time. Weirdest thing ever. You'd literally be mid conversation and suddenly he'd snore!
First thing I thought of was that this might be some kind of sleep disorder related to sleep apnea, and bingo! a quick internet search led to this informative page on micro sleep and its unhealthy causes:
https://apneaseal.com.au/microsleep-and-sleep-apnea-top-5-causes/

So check with your doctor, Zeke Newbold! Sleep apnea is no joke.
 
The incidents of ambulance, police...speeding dangerously around our neck of the woods is getting utterly ridiculous. Clearly they are all doing it to meet some imposed time target. Only very recently a police officer killed himself on the M6 "whilst travelling to attend an accident scene".

The police and ambulance services are called “Emergency Services”. The clue is in the first word.

ln many cases, the “imposed time target” is “get there before the patient bleeds to death”, or, “get there before the estranged husband stabs his wife again”, etc. ad infinitum.
 
The police and ambulance services are called “Emergency Services”. The clue is in the first word.

ln many cases, the “imposed time target” is “get there before the patient bleeds to death”, or, “get there before the estranged husband stabs his wife again”, etc. ad infinitum.
And that would be great if they responded in a safe and timely manner to an emergency. My experience over decades is that they don't, whatever the reason. Maybe its just a problem in the grim North West of the UK.
 
Yes she had to- couldn't leave him alone distressed and in terrible pain, while the morons in cars shouted abuse at her. One off duty police officer eventually came to her aid but couldn't even think to request backup to at least divert the traffic a bit.
That's terrible. The traffic should have been diverted at least. They could all have been killed.

Reminds me of some TV stunt show where people lay in roads for a dare, and someone copied them and was run over.

I'd've taken the risk and moved the bloke or left him there and kept an eye from the side of the road. Or told the 999 operator I was moving him and see if that livened up the response.
 
And that would be great if they responded in a safe and timely manner to an emergency. My experience over decades is that they don't, whatever the reason. Maybe its just a problem in the grim North West of the UK.


There was an item about this on R4's Today programme this morning.

The delays mainly arise from paramedics having to wait at hospitals to hand over patients at A&E reception. So more A&E reception staff need to be trained and deployed to make the process faster and allow paramedics to get out and attend at incidents.
 
That does seem like a funny idea, to advise them to leave him there. On the first aid courses I've attended the first thing you check is 'Danger' - you don't want to put yourself in danger by sitting in a road, and to be honest, you don't want to leave the casualty somewhere where they're in danger, if you can reasonably move them. I know people might say "oh but you could make their condition worse" but their condition is going to be dead if they get hit by a truck. I'm not sure anyone would have blamed a well-meaning person who wanted to get him out of the road and save some traffic accidents.
 
I'd've taken the risk and moved the bloke or left him there and kept an eye from the side of the road.
I probably would have moved him as well. Fortunately or unfortunately Ms PeteS is pretty hidebound by rules and regulations regarding the elderly and of course, ridiculously, having been told under no circumstances to move him, you are open to legal ramifications if something goes wrong. It would have been handled differently if I'd been there.:)
 
Opposing views - never the twain shall meet :).

Thing is, if you see some stranger in a dangerous situation and decide to help you're taking responsibility.

That's OK if it doesn't place you in danger too. Would *your* family be happy if *you* were injured or killed too? Absolutely not.

This comes up in my job now and then. People put themselves in harm's way either accidentally or deliberately and staff have been known to intervene.

Not me though - when it has happened in front of me I've rung for help from the appropriate agency. Not getting myself killed for a stranger.
 
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