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PS Ignition switch to starter motor wire on that car burnt out a few years later so as a quick fix I used the horn wire, turn on ignition and press the horn to start, left it like this for a few months and repaired it just before the next mot, for a long time after I would now and again beep the horn and scare myself starting the car.

Back in the Seventies my late best friend and I had a small fleet of old VW Beetles we tinkered with, traded, hybridized, and used as a mutual car pool.

The strangest Bug in our fleet was the Beachball. It was a really old ('59 / '60) Beetle that was pretty much worn out when we bought it cheap (originally intending to use it for parts only). It died on our test drive, and it took about 30 minutes to diagnose the short circuit inside the distributor, fix it using a Band-Aid, realize the vehicle's wiring had been endlessly modified by prior mad owners, and decide to buy it as a rolling puzzle that repeatedly tested our tech abilities. Some countercultural prior owner had painted the body panels into a patchwork of different colors, so we dubbed it "The Beachball." Anyway ...

One of the bizarro modifications someone had done was to cross-wire the ignition into the light circuit. The starter wouldn't engage unless the parking or headlights were "on." Once the engine was up and running (on its functional 3 or 3.5 cylinders) the ignition switch was irrelevant as long as the lights were active.

One of our running gags was performed anytime a passenger started complaining about the Beachball's rattlings, noises, etc., and cast aspersions upon its probability of getting us wherever we were going. Whichever one of us was driving would simply jerk the keys out of the irrelevant ignition switch, toss them at the stunned complainer, and offer to stop and let him / her take over. With respect to shutting up the griping, it worked every time ...
 
Earlier I put on a TV programme I'd recorded about health. A report came on it about some protein drink, which didn't interest me.

But Techy said 'Hey, that's what I'm looking up online right now!' He was thinking of ordering some but wasn't sure. So we watched the report and he decided to go ahead.

After talking all the way through it so it's a good job I wasn't listening.
 
MrsCarlos has worked in midwifery for many a year- it's common knowledge in the 'industry' that late September and early October have a significantly higher birth rate. All the Christmas and New Year nookie innit.

Inforgraphic on this page.

Oh my... my three children have birthdays in late September, middle of October and Christmas day, lol.

Someone I knew years ago was born on Christmas day. Whenever Christmas or birthdays were mentioned he would whine and whinge that he only ever got one lot of presents. Not in a humorous way either, the MOG. Did this into his 50's as well, until his untimely early death- on Christmas day. There has to be a moral in there somewhere, but it escapes me what it might be.

My late father's birthday was the day after Boxing day and, being born in 1937, had a childhood of being given one present 'for Christmas and birthday'. I remember him telling me that one year he got a pencil and an orange. He never complained though, he wasn't that sort of man.

My daughter, being born in more affluent times, has the opposite problem; she gets far too much stuff, and often saves presents until the summer, when she has an 'unbirthday party' when her friends are free to come, and the weather is better :)
 
My daughter, being born in more affluent times, has the opposite problem; she gets far too much stuff, and often saves presents until the summer, when she has an 'unbirthday party' when her friends are free to come, and the weather is better :)
What a nice idea - I suspect most would simply rip open every present on day one.
 
Yes, Pete, something weird going on. What you say about ancestral memories... my brother named his daughter and I named one of my sons with fairly old fashioned and unusual names; names no-one else their age had, really. Years later I found niece's name and my son's were used and re-used for over a century in a branch of my dad's family.

That house we lived in, that turned out to be built over the place my step great great grandad was born... we loved that house. It felt like our's from the day we moved in. Of all the houses we've lived in, that one built over the chainmakers' in Birmingham, is our favourite. We got that house by a total fluke - we had no kids at the time and were probably only entitled to a high rise flat, but this house had been badly converted so it only had one bedroom so they let it to us as it was no use for a family. I've always regretted moving out. We should have bought it. (Council house from the time when large city councils often bought up entire streets so the whole terrace, although built late 19thC, were council houses). I loved the garden, too. We were really happy there but then I got itchy feet and wanted to go abroad so we gave it up.

Ancestor names - my first born son was given a name I appear to have plucked out of the air, but suited him somehow. Some 25 years later researching family ancestry going back several generations I found that the name had been chosen several times by my forbears.
 
Back in the Seventies my late best friend and I had a small fleet of old VW Beetles we tinkered with, traded, hybridized, and used as a mutual car pool.

The strangest Bug in our fleet was the Beachball. It was a really old ('59 / '60) Beetle that was pretty much worn out when we bought it cheap (originally intending to use it for parts only). It died on our test drive, and it took about 30 minutes to diagnose the short circuit inside the distributor, fix it using a Band-Aid, realize the vehicle's wiring had been endlessly modified by prior mad owners, and decide to buy it as a rolling puzzle that repeatedly tested our tech abilities. Some countercultural prior owner had painted the body panels into a patchwork of different colors, so we dubbed it "The Beachball." Anyway ...

One of the bizarro modifications someone had done was to cross-wire the ignition into the light circuit. The starter wouldn't engage unless the parking or headlights were "on." Once the engine was up and running (on its functional 3 or 3.5 cylinders) the ignition switch was irrelevant as long as the lights were active.

One of our running gags was performed anytime a passenger started complaining about the Beachball's rattlings, noises, etc., and cast aspersions upon its probability of getting us wherever we were going. Whichever one of us was driving would simply jerk the keys out of the irrelevant ignition switch, toss them at the stunned complainer, and offer to stop and let him / her take over. With respect to shutting up the griping, it worked every time ...

I would guess a 59/60 Beetle nowadays would be highly desirable to the VeeDub freeks.
 
Back in the Seventies my late best friend and I had a small fleet of old VW Beetles we tinkered with, traded, hybridized, and used as a mutual car pool.

The strangest Bug in our fleet was the Beachball. It was a really old ('59 / '60) Beetle that was pretty much worn out when we bought it cheap (originally intending to use it for parts only). It died on our test drive, and it took about 30 minutes to diagnose the short circuit inside the distributor, fix it using a Band-Aid, realize the vehicle's wiring had been endlessly modified by prior mad owners, and decide to buy it as a rolling puzzle that repeatedly tested our tech abilities. Some countercultural prior owner had painted the body panels into a patchwork of different colors, so we dubbed it "The Beachball." Anyway ...

One of the bizarro modifications someone had done was to cross-wire the ignition into the light circuit. The starter wouldn't engage unless the parking or headlights were "on." Once the engine was up and running (on its functional 3 or 3.5 cylinders) the ignition switch was irrelevant as long as the lights were active.

One of our running gags was performed anytime a passenger started complaining about the Beachball's rattlings, noises, etc., and cast aspersions upon its probability of getting us wherever we were going. Whichever one of us was driving would simply jerk the keys out of the irrelevant ignition switch, toss them at the stunned complainer, and offer to stop and let him / her take over. With respect to shutting up the griping, it worked every time ...
I'm a big fan of air cooled vw's, I had a 1970 campervan when I was younger, drove all round europe and scandinavier in it, just over 7000 miles and only had to replace the engine once, they were so easy to work on, I would pull the engine out to change the spark plugs - only took 20 mins in and out. My van had the fuel shutoff solinoid wired with the oil pressure light so it took awhile cranking over to start, but cut out if you lost pressure, saved one of its engines that way, can't remember now how many engines I ended up fitting. One engine I changed, on strip down had 2 cracked heads (normal) , 2 burnt out valves and a holed piston - and had still got me home 20 miles ! Wish I could afford one now.
 
I think this means he married his wife's sister after his wife died - not his own grandmother's sister?

Yes, this is right, the second 'his' refers to my husband, not his grandfather. I did read it back and think it might be confusing! Grandfather married eldest girl in family, she died, he came home and married her younger sister.
 
I'm a big fan of air cooled vw's, I had a 1970 campervan when I was younger, drove all round europe and scandinavier in it, just over 7000 miles and only had to replace the engine once, they were so easy to work on, I would pull the engine out to change the spark plugs - only took 20 mins in and out. My van had the fuel shutoff solinoid wired with the oil pressure light so it took awhile cranking over to start, but cut out if you lost pressure, saved one of its engines that way, can't remember now how many engines I ended up fitting. One engine I changed, on strip down had 2 cracked heads (normal) , 2 burnt out valves and a holed piston - and had still got me home 20 miles ! Wish I could afford one now.


Talking about coincidence’s with cars, and this is a coincidence I love to relate, odd that I’ve not posted it on here before.

Back in the mid 90’s I owned a mini metro, not the coolest of cars perhaps, but they were small cars so handy for driving and parking in busy old London.

One weekend afternoon I was driving through the Forest Gate area of London, when the car started to conk out on me.

I was on a residential street with cars parked either side, and there wasn’t any space for me to pull over. The car somehow managed to keep going, until I spotted a space in front of a double set of closed gates. So there I was in my broken down car, and as I’m not mechanically minded, and didn’t have a mobile phone back then, I had no idea what to do next.

Within a minute or two the gates opened, and a man appeared and told me I couldn’t park there, because the gates were in constant use.

I told him I had no choice as I’ve broken down, the man then smiled and shouted out a name, and within a moment a second man appeared wearing greasy oil covered overalls.

To cut a long story short, behind those closed gates these two men ran a company, that specialised in buying clapped out mini metro’s, fixing them up, and selling them on for stock car racing.

The fact that the car conked out, not just in that very street, but just outside those closed gates, and behind those gates were two men who were experts in mini metros is a massive coincidence.

The carburettor had got clogged up somehow, they simply cleaned it out, poured some reddex into the petrol tank, and I was back on the road within 30 minutes. :)
 
Meaningless coincidence happened today. I’m reading a book about William Rufus, which mentions two of his closest advisors, never heard of either of them before this morning . Durham Cathedral’s Facebook page for today mentions how their individual graves were discovered in the Cathedral in 1874.
 
Couple of small coincidences in the last week, one of which is linked by this very forum.

Until last week I had never heard of the manchineel tree, then I read about it here. And last night it played an important part in an episode of Death in Paradise (one of my guilty pleasures).

Last week I went to Cardiff to watch the Wales vs France rugby match with a friend of mine and his dad. His dad's about 15 years older than me and was brought up in Cardiff – but I found we had an acquaintance in common. When I was at university in Norwich in the early 1980s the sports centre there was run by Haydn Morris, who played rugby for Wales and the British Lions in the 1950s. I found him a really lovely bloke. It turns out that he taught my friend's dad in Cardiff in the late 1950s. Separated by 20+ years and 250 miles. Small world, eh!
 
My post regarding the broken down mini Metro, has reminded me of another car related coincidence, that happed in the spring of 2006.

I hadn’t long moved to a small Essex town, and was poking around in the local library one day, when I came across Peter Haining’s book, the Supernatural Coast.

The book had a chapter entitled “The lost world of Dunwich” which Intrigued me, so I googled Dunwich, and discovered that It was not a million miles away from where I was now living - approx. an hour and half drive.

The following week was the school holidays, so I booked a day off work with the intention of having a family day out visiting the place.

On the day in question we packed the kids and a picnic box into the car, and set off. As we turned left onto a main road from our small cul-de-sac, we happened to be behind a VW camper Van.

20 miles later we were now on the busy A12, and still behind the same van, and 40 miles further on from there, still behind it. I mentioned to the wife how weird it was that we have been behind the same vehicle for the past 60 miles.

To cut this long story short, we followed the camper van all the way to Dunwich. It parked up in the Carpark right by the sea wall, and I parked up alongside.

What are the chances of pulling out behind a vehicle, in which the driver of that vehicle had the same destination in mind as me, and that destination was over 60 miles away. It’s not as if Dunwich is a major attraction, it’s beach is not up to much, and apart from a café, pub and small museum, there is bugger all there.
 
My post regarding the broken down mini Metro, has reminded me of another car related coincidence, that happed in the spring of 2006.

I hadn’t long moved to a small Essex town, and was poking around in the local library one day, when I came across Peter Haining’s book, the Supernatural Coast.

The book had a chapter entitled “The lost world of Dunwich” which Intrigued me, so I googled Dunwich, and discovered that It was not a million miles away from where I was now living - approx. an hour and half drive.

The following week was the school holidays, so I booked a day off work with the intention of having a family day out visiting the place.

On the day in question we packed the kids and a picnic box into the car, and set off. As we turned left onto a main road from our small cul-de-sac, we happened to be behind a VW camper Van.

20 miles later we were now on the busy A12, and still behind the same van, and 40 miles further on from there, still behind it. I mentioned to the wife how weird it was that we have been behind the same vehicle for the past 60 miles.

To cut this long story short, we followed the camper van all the way to Dunwich. It parked up in the Carpark right by the sea wall, and I parked up alongside.

What are the chances of pulling out behind a vehicle, in which the driver of that vehicle had the same destination in mind as me, and that destination was over 60 miles away. It’s not as if Dunwich is a major attraction, it’s beach is not up to much, and apart from a café, pub and small museum, there is bugger all there.

I wonder whether the driver of the VW kept looking back suspiciously and wondering why someone was following him?

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. I go a very round about route of 80 miles to visit a friend , (people ask me why I take such a complicated route) part motorway part urban route, part over the tops to the back of beyond to the small village where he lives. About 5 minutes into the journey from home on the motorway, I noticed the same model of 2 seater sports car that I was driving behind me, although quite a bit back. Drive onto the next motorway and then the next and it was still there. Reach the end of motorway journey and turn off on a very little used junction - so did the other driver. Wind my way through a complicated urban route and out the other side into the hills and climb and then descend into the valley and the guy was still there. It was only when we entered the village that he turned off into a side street and I turned off about 200m further on. Weird little coincidence.
 
Really small coincidence, but the other day I was listening to an audiobook, 'Erebus', by Michael Palin.

We live by the river here, so this is not an unusual thing to see... but I glanced out of the window and saw the very distinctive silhouette of a cormorant. A second later, Michael Palin said the word "cormorant".

:wtf:

ETA: Reading that back, I just realised at least it wasn't a dead parrot.
 
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A weird weird coincidence just discovered . Last week I was researching on the interweb the sadly now demolished (in 2010) Grammar school my mother attended for 3 years in the early 1930's. Strangely I came across a school photograph of her sitting with a small group of her classmates taken in the playground at the rear of the building. Stood behind her as a classmate (and verified by the family) is the mother of my deceased wife who I only knew for 4 years before she died at the age of 47, the same age as her mother died.
 
I'm reading an excellent audio book of "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann. Written in 1912. Remarkable how it fits the current coronavirus situation.

venice01.jpg


venice02.jpg


From here: https://archive.org/stream/DeathInVenice/DeathInVenice-ThomasMann_djvu.txt…
Excellent audiobook: https://audible.de/pd/Der-Tod-in-Venedig-Hoerbuch/B00D7IG5UG?qid=1583954736&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=e54013e2-074a-460e-861f-7feac676b789&pf_rd_r=39YAWSFJ466DZQFG46VY…
 
earlier today I was indulging in an episode of Jonathan Creek while the builders were diggup the garden looking for a blocked drain. said builder politely asked me to go and flush the upstairs loo twice. Off I scampered to do as bid, came back down to a big thumbs up, turned back to my guilty pleasure to hear Jonathan say to Maddy " Shall I just stick my head down the toilet then?" to which she replied "only if you flush"
Not much of a coincidence, or even very amusing but in these hard, boring times of isolation it made me smile.
 
T'other day I read something on the RIP thread about Roy Hudd and a haunted house and some theatre chap called Dan Leno (whom I'd never heard of before).

Afterwards we chose at random an old film to watch from ones we'd recorded recently. We chose one we hadn't watched before; Meet Mr Lucifer. Not too many minutes into the film, and Dan Leno is mentioned.
 
T'other day I read something on the RIP thread about Roy Hudd and a haunted house and some theatre chap called Dan Leno (whom I'd never heard of before).

Afterwards we chose at random an old film to watch from ones we'd recorded recently. We chose one we hadn't watched before; Meet Mr Lucifer. Not too many minutes into the film, and Dan Leno is mentioned.

You'll have to read all about him now.
 
T'other day I read something on the RIP thread about Roy Hudd and a haunted house and some theatre chap called Dan Leno (whom I'd never heard of before).

Afterwards we chose at random an old film to watch from ones we'd recorded recently. We chose one we hadn't watched before; Meet Mr Lucifer. Not too many minutes into the film, and Dan Leno is mentioned.

Search out for Music Hall entertainers. And set time aside for Frank Randle because his life and behaviour is almost unbelievable.
 
Dan Leno is mentioned.

Leno seems to have attracted some curious speculations. He features in Peter Ackroyd's 1994 mystery, Dan Leno & the Limehouse Golem, which also managed to include a lot of stuff about Babbage, Lovelace and their Difference Engine.

I read the novel twenty years ago but it has not left many traces in my memory. I now see it was made into a movie in 2016, by which time CGI steampunk was in its stride and titles ever harder to distinguish. Anyway, Dan Leno's name was lost from the film title. :dunno:
 
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