» Ignorance

Wireless Printer
A few years ago my fiancée lived in a bedsit. The couple who owned the house were a nice bunch. Early 30s, a little vacant but the perfect kind of people to share your personal space with.

I was visiting my fiancée over the weekend and we needed to print off a couple of forms from her laptop. We asked the lady if they had a printer spare, after it was dug out from some hiding place she explained "It's a wireless printer, but we could never really get it to work properly".

I thought I would have a go at it anyway, so took the box back to the room, opened it up and searched for the power cable. I went back, asked if she knew where the power cable was..

"Oh no, its wireless" she says.
(After a brief confused pause) "Oh of course, sorry, forgot you mentioned that" I reply. Beginning to sense that this wasn't going well.

I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt and looked to see if there was a battery compartment like some of the old school tape decks used to have with the massive D sized batteries. The search was in vain. I did find a small toggle that would allow it to connect to a wireless network, but the big plug socket in the back that was obviously missing a cable was the clincher.

I checked inside the compartment... no ink cartridge either.

So I handed it back, "I couldn't get it to work either!". "Oh well, thanks for trying" She replied. I walked back into my fiancées room, she turned to me and said...

"You know what she does for a living? She works for the council on the I.T. Department"
(Fri 31st Aug 2012, 12:22, More)

» B3TA Most Haunted

Closed doors
In my early teens I shared a room with my brother. We had a bunk bed, they don't do much for privacy but are definitely more fun and provide at least a small bit of personal space. My brother, being a few years younger than myself liked to have the door to our room slightly open and the hall light on. The bed was positioned such that you could see the door and the comforting hall light on.

My grandfather had been ill recently and had been submitted to hospital, we had visited a few times and he was lucid enough to teach me how to make a decent paper-airplane. As time went by his condition worsened, depressing, but expected for someone in their late 80s. At the time I prayed for some peace in his passing. If it was his time to go, I asked the big guy in the sky to let it be painless.

My grandfather passed away a few days later. Whilst I know it was more coincidence I always felt a bit guilty for "praying" for him to die.

A few months later, the funeral had passed, family life had gone back to normal and I had a rather vivid dream. I had dreamed my grandfather had come into my room, stood by my bunk bed and tucked me in. He stood there for a few moments in the comforting way that a content family member does by the bedside of a child or grandchild before he walked from the room and shut the door behind him.

I woke up after dreaming this and noticed the door was closed. We never shut the door to the room. I got a big dose of goosebumps, I was sure I had been dreaming. Unnerved, I opened the door to the hallway and getting back into bed I stared at the hall light until I fell back to sleep.

I never mentioned this to anyone. A couple of years later at a family gathering my siblings and I were sitting round chatting and talk got onto ghost stories.

My brother then related the exact same dream I had about my grandfather's visit to our bedroom, the only difference being that he stood by the lower bunk nearer my brother.

I'm not much of a believer in ghosts. But I had never mentioned that dream before. Coincidence perhaps? But the chills I got when he told that story are something I will never forget.
(Sat 15th Sep 2012, 0:07, More)

» Random Acts of Kindness

The Park Slide
~~~~~~~~
Many years ago, in Kensington Gardens there was a swirly slide. To my child's mind it was huge, the kind of slide that was probably no higher than 5ft but seemed endless at the time.

I was probably no older than 8 and the queue onto the slide was your typical playground queue, kids pushing the smaller kids out the way and other kids too frightened to approach it for fear of being pushed.

I boldly waited my turn, hoping no one would try to talk to me as I had already learned that opening my posh little mouth tended to land me into trouble. Whilst waiting, I spotted a little girl, most likely no older than 5 who had been shunted into an alcove. Knowing that to aknowledge her plight would fall on deaf ears I proceeded to wait my turn. Standing before the top of the slide I turned round and lending the girl my hand, I led her to the front of the queue.

I'm now 25 and for some reason this memory has stuck in my head. It was probably the first random act of kindess I can remember.
According to google the slide has been replaced by some bizzare pirate-ship in dedication to Princess Diana. I'm not sure how the two are connected personally.
(Thu 9th Feb 2012, 23:10, More)

» Ignorance

General Ignorance
I have grand parents that live in America, we used to visit them pretty much every summer from the age of 8 - 16. As a chance for the parents to get some peace of mind, my siblings and I were enrolled in some of the summer sports programs they have going on.

Whilst many of the questions we were asked were sensible... here are some of the notable exceptions.

Do you know the Queen?

My cousin lives in England, John, do you know him? (This was asked many times about many different relatives from many different people over the years.)

Do you have snow in England?

Is there mud in England?

Is there a Sun in England?

Do you have parents in England?

These questions were asked in earnest, from kids aged 12-15. I may not be the smartest crayon in the drawer. But really...
(Thu 30th Aug 2012, 19:11, More)

» Training courses, seminars and conferences

At Uni
I thought it would be of great benifit to attend a program set up by the Dyslexia services on Time Keeping.

Aptly I forgot when the first class was and ended up missing it.
(Mon 19th Mar 2012, 12:00, More)