» Tales of the Unexplained

weird premonition - of me by someone else
A few weeks back I was woken at about 2am by a withheld number calling my mobile, i didn't answer and clicked "silence" and went back to bed, a few minutes later it rang again, and then again. eventually I answered it, it was my ex-girlfriend of about 4years ago, who was phoned me and asked me not to go out on my motorbike the next day as she had a weird feeling I was going to get hit off by a blue car. I thought nothing of it and went to work the next day, told a few people and never thought more of it.

I got home from work, all fine nothing had happened. my mum rang me from her mobile telling me that my dad had been hit off his motorbike on his way to work that morning, he was ok, apart from a damaged ankle and a messy looking bike.

thinking this was weird as hell, I went to see my dad, and casually asked him what happened, make and model of car etc.

he had been hit off by an old git in a blue corsa changing lanes without looking. I didn't mention the phone call to my parents. as they wouldn't have believed me. I called my ex to let her know and she had no recollection of calling me. I suspect she was drunk at the time, but she definatly did as there were voicemails and missed calls on my phone, she confirmed she had called me according to her phone records. I told a few people I worked with and my current girlfriend, they all found it very odd.
(Fri 4th Jul 2008, 13:44, More)

» Expensive Mistakes

failed to take disc-lock off!
one lovely summers day last year, the (now ex)Misses and I hopped on my Motorcycle so that I could whisk her through the traffic to the trainstation where she could buy her ticket for early the next morning, just so she could have a bit of a lie-in and avoid queueing for the ticket booths on a busy weekday morning.

Anyway, she gets off the bike, i get off the bike, I put the disc-lock on, we go into Temple Meads and buy said tickets, we come back out, helmets on, both get on and away we g... OUCH!

i had indeed forgotten to take the disc-lock off, what a pillock! There's me and the ex laying on our sides still on the bike on the floor. the worst thing was that the way the bike was still on top of us and we were still "sat" on it, it made it very hard to get up!

Cue loads of people stood around laughing and pointing and me getting angrier and redder shouting "get up, GET OFF!!"

not fun! damage to the bike was minimal, bit of scratching, my legs took the brunt of it. EGO damaged :(
(Wed 31st Oct 2007, 12:08, More)

» Tramps

CASELOAD 44
back in 2005, My girlfriend at the time and I worked in the Hatchet (pub in Bristol), we both needed somewhere to live other than our parents and so found a nice flat in Bedminster to rent. one of the regulars in the pub was Craig, we had both known him for ages since drinking and working in the pub. Craig is one of those people who thinks the world owes him a living, and having dropped out of University some years ago, had been sofa surfing or sleeping rough (kipping out as he called it) ever since. the inevitble happened and we allowed him to stay on our sofa for a bit here an there, in return he did the dishes, skinned up, want to the shops to earn his keep sort of thing. this went on for the best part of a year before he decided to move to exeter to follow (read stalk) a girl who he got the wrong impression from. some months went past and we heard nothing until one day I got a phone call from craig saying hes out of prison (in exeter) and would be coming back to Bristol soon, could he stay with us. He had been arrested for stalking this girl. we let him stay with us again, same terms. we had parties he came, passed out on the sofa and was jestfully tortured, socks set on fire, glasses coloured in etc it was all good fun. Craig classed himself as a poet, and managed to work the system to get funding to help him create an album (the globe project) and a book of his works (the penfold collection) from the Princes trust. craig had some paid work on and off, and would flit between my place and other friends. My girlfriend and I split and she moved out, Craig then had the spare room, got housing benefit and all was good for a time. until craig went a bit mental, I think all the weed had taken its toll on his state of mind. he met a random equally mad bloke in Glastonbury called seth, they both concocted random conspiracy theories regarding the abduction of madeline mccann, gordon brown and many others. people started distancing themselves from him. I tried to not engage him in conversation about the mad topics and always changed the subject whenever he brought it up. eventually I couldnt take it anymore and he had to go, he went off one day and didn't come back for his stuff. his attitude towards me changed and he added me to the list of people on his conspiracy lists, accusing me of 2 murders and his "attempted manslaughter" (his words not mine), constantly quoting case load 44 and diplomatic immunity, and claiming he had evidence against a gang he called the "glastifari" and that he had regular contact with Gordon Brown and Prince Charles. I managed to offload his belongings to a friend of his, and managed to get in contact with his Dad who understood that craig was a bit unstable and once he was back on the weed ( i had managed to get him to stop drining and smoking for a while) there was nothing anyone could do for him.

I tried to call craig a few times and my calls were met with a torrent of swearing and threats, I persisted and managed to get some info from him, that he was in london and making his voice heard, more accusations of madeline mccann, gordon brown, the glastifari etc.

So I eventually gave up, I did have to report his myspace pages for accusing me of these crimes which were removed by the myspace admins

www.myspace.com/craigwilson27
www.myspace.com/highperformancepoetry

check those out for more info.

I valued craig as a friend for a long time when many other "friends" didn't. I treated him with respect, homed him, fed him and invited him everywhere I went and treated him with respect and shared my wages with him. he never went without. the sad fact is that he was unable to grasp reality or accept responsibilty for his actions or indeed take ownership of the problems he causes other people, always blaming others despite the help he was offered.

I don't know where he is now, last I heard he was in the hatchet still going on about the mccann case (he believes the glastafari did it, whilst distracting the media with a poetry slam in bristol).

so I do have some sympathy for the homeless, its his choice.
(Tue 7th Jul 2009, 15:31, More)

» Stuff I've found

snail eaten tenner for me, wooo!!
A year or so a go I worked in Wiltshire driving a little white van with the shit-company-I-worked-for's name on the side, doing IT support for Wiltshire County Council. anyway, one day I was in Calne visiting the library and parked opposite in a short stay parking bay. as I got out of the van I saw what looked like the remains of a tenner in the flowerbed, on closer inspection it was a rather old snail eaten tenner! I picked it up and went straight to a bank in the highstreet by the library and exchanged it for a shiney cripsy new one :)

score me!
(Fri 7th Nov 2008, 10:42, More)

» Dumb things you've done

once at work party....
One company where I worked had just finished a roll-out of new hardware and software across the estate, and to celebrate there was an all expenses paid night out in Dorking. I being based in Bristol got a lift up with 2 of the trainers. We dumped our stuff into the hotel rooms and hit the bars! We turned up fashionably late to the party and quickly made our way to the free bar and proceeded to order drink after drink. Dancing ensued, food got thrown and I managed to spill a large glass of red wine all down my colleagues new silk shirt (oopsie, sorry Graham). Anyway, queue time to get back to the hotel room, I was in too much of a state to find anyone else so spent a good hour ringing round taxi Cos to get there. Eventually i got there and went to my room, got undressed, used the bathroom and laid on the bed. at some point I had become naked I decided to see if anyone else was back yet, so left my room, door slamming behind me... when I realised no one else was about, I found I couldn’t get back into my room as I had forgotten the cardkey thing that opens the door, so being naked and keyless I wander down to reception to try and get a spare, passing some elderly couples on my way who gave the odd remark. Eventually I turn up at reception and they refuse to help me as I am naked and pi$$ed, so catch 22, no clothes, naked, locked our of room, reception won't help me without clothes on. So I wander around the hotel until I find a laundry room, find a sheet / duvet cover wrap myself up in and head back to reception who shyly hand over a spare key. I eventually get back to my room and crash out, next morning I am woken by my Bristol based pals who inform me I have missed breakfast and we are about to leave, I quickly dress, stuff all of crap into my bag and join the queue of hung-over work mates to check out, getting some funny looks from them, the hotel staff and some of the paying guess, totally unaware of why.

When back in the car and safely on the motorway, the project manager called Ali who was driving, she put it on speaker and he began to repeat what the hotel staff and told him about my naked antics, I went bright red and slunk into the back seat... as you can imagine, it didn't take long for the whole company to find out and various rumours, nicknames etc were email to me non-stop for weeks.

I can see the funny side, I always seem to end up taking my clothes off when a bit worse for wear.

Length? not that long, it was a cold night!
(Fri 21st Dec 2007, 13:32, More)