» Tales of the Unexplained

Dead schoolkids of Singapore
For the last few years, I used to rent a condo apartment with my GF's sister (the sisters are always better looking)...anyway from time to time I would have to babysit my chinese "niece", daughter of the flatmate. Aged about 3.5 years, she already had a history of imaginary friends etc.

On the particular night anyway I was minding her and she went into a tantrum. As we had limited powers of communication (we would speak basic Indonesian), I managed to get her to agree to calm down if we went out for a walk.

We were walking past a nearby Japanese school, the kid up in my arms, when she asked, "What is that little girl doing over there?". We walked over to where she was pointing, the were some flowers and a little memorial sign detailing the events that caused some young schoolkid to lose her life there some years previously. I brought this up with her parents, they had never brought her anywhere near that area, and there was nobody else on the island minding the kid at any stage.

Also used to know a guy in Jakarta who claimed to see dead people everywhere and was regularly scared shitless while walking down the street, opening doors in old houses, etc. Reckon he had a screw loose though..
(Fri 4th Jul 2008, 15:07, More)

» Unexpected Good Fortune

Hazy Days After El Camino
I had just finished walking 800km across the north of spain one July. My two friends and I travelled to Madrid to fly back to Ireland. Unfortunately however, there was some problem with our flight that would leave us stranded in Madrid for another 2 days; under normal curcumstances this would be fine, but we hadn't a penny left between us, and we were very tired.

Options also exhausted, we were panned out on some ballard outside Madrid airport musing that had we even a small bit of weed we could pass the days happilly.

Cue a young woman exiting the airport, directly approaching our unkempt, smelly, just-walked-500-miles selves, and asking us if we spoke english. She gave a short explanation and promptly gifted us with a large lump of very sticky pollen hash.

I can recall some very balmy afternoons spent on the steps of the royal palace, watching the city go by. We had a lot of luck on that Camino.
(Sun 17th Sep 2006, 10:12, More)

» Old People Talk Bollocks

Mrs. Cuddihy
My grandmother, God love her, is very much missed locally. What a melancholy thread this is, in a way.

Anyway she never wanted me to explain computers to her as they would "blow up the world". She thought slugs were incarnated from the dew on the morning grass. Anytime my Dad was chasing me as a kid she'd let me hide behind the curtains in her house and tell him she hadn't seen me. Go grans!
(Fri 12th Mar 2004, 14:22, More)

» Impromptu Games You Play

Where is the bass drum?
While zooming through roadside villages in the west of Ireland, my friend would hang bodily out of the car's back window and shout at surprised, shrinking pedestrians, "WHERE IS THE BASS DRUM?". In a faux-German accent, naturally.

It's the simple things in life....
(Wed 31st Mar 2004, 15:02, More)