Freak Out!

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No, this isn't about Chic.

As I was walking across the field to work this morning, I suddenly heard Radio 4's Today programme loud and proud in my head. This naturally freaked me out as there was no-one else about and I didn't have a radio! I began to wonder whether I was one of those people who can pick up radio signals in their fillings (really happens or Urabn Myth? Anyone?) and then, finally, I found the answer to my mystery. About fifty feet away was a cyclist with a trannie secreted snugly in his Genuine Spencer Basket, volume turned up to ten, and in the still, crisp air of a misty March morning it seemed as though he was right there next to me!

So, have you had any experiences which freaked you out, then turned out to be completely and utterly mundane?

― MarkH, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was going to add "recently" or "lately" in the final sentence, but then thought, no, it would be interesting to see whether ppl draw their examples from their recent experience or from when they were children. I would imagine that this sort of thing occurs with greater frequency when you're a kid than in adulthood (Aarghhh! There's a MONSTER in the room....ooops it's just my CUPBOARD etc etc).

― MarkH, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This happened to me once - I thought I heard one of my favourite ever records in my head, and I had listened to it so much I thought maybe it had imprinted itself to my ears and I would never escape it. But no, my discman had been jolted in my bag and turned itself on...

― Bill, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

welcome back Bill. Where've you been?

― MarkH, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

wow...I was noticed! (I thought I always kind of slipped quietly into the background...) Erm, yeah, Egypt, for 6 weeks, trying to learn for upcoming degree (Egyptian Archaeology wahey! etc). Should have been 9, but food poisoning and constant hassle made me...fed up.

― Bill, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

well, I could hardly have failed to be impressed when you drove home after the Lollies/Gossip gig at the late, lamented Point (sob!) in Oxford and posted a message to ILE as soon as you got in. I had the opportunity to get a boat to Egypt from Aqaba (Jordan) but time pressue meant I didn't in the end.

― MarkH, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

About fifty feet away was a cyclist with a trannie secreted snugly in his Genuine Spencer Basket, [...]

"I'll take 'Phrases That Sound Dirty, But Aren't' for $400, Alex."

― Dan Perry, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Welcome back, Bill! It's so nice to see you again that I'll even forgive you for making me giggle at work (plus nobody else was in the office at the time, my boss was walking past but was hopefully too busy getting annoyed at the cardkey reader refusing to work to notice).

I really hope the milkman sometimes plays the radio really loud on his rounds, otherwise the distant music I hear occasionally while lying in bed at 5am means I'm going even more mad. I have not yet been worried enough by it to get out of my nice warm bed to see if there's a milkfloat there, let alone wander outside to see if it is the source of the music, though.

― Rebecca, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Rebecca, did you get the mixtapes?

― MarkH, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

*looks guilty*

Yes, I did, ta very much, and very good they are too. I did the uncomplicated bit of your tape and then I put off the rest because I was waiting for Domino to send me the new Clinic album to put a couple of tracks of that on, and that took two weeks longer to turn up than I expected, and then I had a busy couple of days, and then someone sent me a record that they had to write a press release for and for some reason thought I might have more idea what it sounded like than they did (it sounds v odd indeed so I have been failing to get back to them and feeling guilty about that) and, er, generally I'm just rubbish. Sorry. Oh, and I was going to put Modest Mouse's "Heart Cooks Brain" on like I do with every tape I make but then you'd put some MM stuff on your tape so I figured you'd already have it, which isn't really an excuse since it's only 5 minutes long, but, errrrrm...

So, this weekend I will listen to the bonkers thing I'm supposed to have thought of apt and inviting comparisons for until my brain melts, invent nonexistent bandnames to compare them to if necessary, and then start worrying about your tape again. Honest.

― Rebecca, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm trying this again:
In a delusional state, when I thought I might want to get back to Britain overland, there was a chance I might have taken that ferry. Apparently it is immensely overpriced.
And I'm making people laugh. My God! (This has been a good day all round).

― Bill, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yer a good person, Bill, simple as that. The blessings of ILx rain down on your head.

Freaky experiences turned mundane? I'm feeling very dull today, nothing is coming to mind, not even a good creaky-noises old-house late-night story.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"genuine spencer basket" = cheap & narsty last time we stox0red them. Now we do these fancy Basel european quick-release wicker baskets (drone drone ile falls asleep)

― A BiCYCLE RePaiR MaN WRIT3Z0RZ, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One morning I woke to a loud ringing, that in my groggy, half-asleep state I figured was the alarm. So I go and hit the snooze button, but that doesn't stop it. I then turn the main alarm switch off, but that doesn't stop it. By this time I'm more awake but still in a kind of druggy state of mind, so I go answer the phone but still the ringing continues. It's very loud and I can't localize the source so I re-check the alarm (I may have even unplugged it). I wander around the house trying to locate the source, to no avail. I was kind of upset/frustrated/resigned to my fate at this point, so I just give up and I go back to bed -- "OK, my house is ringing." I don't remember how long I laid there, but I finally realized that the burgler alarm on my house (there when I bought it) had gone off because of a malfunction. It had been years since I was even setting the alarm, so I never thought about it. This whole episode lasted at least 20 minutes, I think, and it was like a movie where someone has gone crazy, told from that person's POV. When it was over I felt a combination of relief and mad at myself that I fumbled around for so long.

― nickn, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thread title ... MUST BITE MY TONGUE!

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this is a drug question, isn't it

― geeta, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, Dan, I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one startled by the use of "trannie".

― rosemary, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i saw a spaceship when i was 16 which turned out to be street lights reflected off a telephone wire

not scary esp but i did walk into a tree which checking out why it was moving when i moved and stopped when i stopped

― mark s, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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