Not sure in the general run of things, but in the particular, then maybe now and then. I guess this goes back many years to an old apartment and its former occupant. Five of us girls were roomies in a century home. Our apartment was huge, a part of an old mansion now sub-divided into apartments. Only there weren’t five of us in the place; there were six.

I can’t remember exactly who saw or felt what first. I am not sure if it was the man said to walk through a wall, and bear in mind the structure had been altered to make apartments from the original mansion, or whether it was the woman in the front bedroom hovering over the youngest roomie. For me it was the feeling of a persistent cold spot outside of the door of my room. And then was the strangest of the strange. All of us were really looking forward to watching a particular show on TV. I can’t now remember what it was, but there was only one TV in the lounge and that is where we were all sat, watching. I had been called just as it started and hadn’t switched off my record player. Yes, it was an old vinyl type. When the track ended the arm would swing off the record and onto the rest. Except it didn’t quite end up like that.

The program was gripping and all of us were on the edges of our seats for the duration. I vaguely recall hearing my record finish because I was grateful to concentrate fully on the show and not have the background noise irritating. Yep, lazy, I know, but I didn’t want to miss anything. Not one of us moved until the show was over and then we sat around discussing it.  And then I went back to my room and saw my record player. The arm had come to rest in the off position, as it should. However, a little plastic hook was snug over the arm to stop it jumping out of position. The little plastic hook was not attached to any power source and could not move on its own. It had to be placed over the arm manually, but no one had stirred. Not for a second. The door to the apartment was also locked and could only be opened with a key. Which only the five of us had. And we were already inside. Together.  I asked them if anyone had moved, just in case I hadn’t noticed, and the answer was no.

After this incident, two of the girls, who were Catholics, asked their priest to come bless our home. The cold spot didn’t move an inch.

FEBRUARY GIVEAWAY.

It is an accepted fact that when something essential breaks down it is almost impossible to get someone out to fix the problem that day. Yesterday my water heater bust. It has been ailing for a few years and was old, so I can’t complain there. However, having no shower in the morning was a huge, huge, HUGE hardship. I phoned one company first thing and had to leave a message. Another company wanted to charge me a fee for a guy to come out to just look at the problem and wouldn’t give me a ballpark figure for a new heater. Um, hello, I knew it was done and couldn’t be fixed. I was glumly considering turning out for a session in the rec center just so I could use their showers. And then the first guy phones back.

Ray’s Plumbing and Heating turned up just after one p.m without needing a looksee charge. He gave me a great quote and the wonderful man had a tank ready to instal in his truck. By three p.m I had a new water tank and the old one was gone. This happened in ONE DAY. It wasn’t that he wasn’t busy as he had three other households with water heater problems to look at yesterday and also said he had to work today. This is efficiency in motion. Highly recommend this company to anyone in my area. This is the man!

Once upon a time three parcels were carefully wrapped up and diligently labelled twice, just to be safe. One was to go to New Zealand, one to Canada and one to South Africa. They were duly collected by the carrier, Parcel Monkey, in the UK. For some reason, known only to the worshippers of the mysterious Murphy and his laws, the carrier relabelled all of the parcels, completely covering both original destination addresses. In the fullness of a VERY long time, the parcel for New Zealand arrived in that country but could not be delivered as the address could not be found, so it was sent back and discovered to be the parcel intended for South Africa.

South Africa is, of course, in the same hemisphere as New Zealand. It is not, however, in the same hemisphere as Canada. Guess where the parcel for Canada went. Mmm, got it in one. And the parcel for New Zealand? Still out there somewhere. Maybe it was addressed to Santa, or Bigfoot, or a giant redwood tree?

It is actually difficult to imagine how someone could mess up in such a monumental fashion. It is beyond belief that the person relabelling didn’t check the new label against both instances of the first labels and got it wrong three times. Strikes me a person may be better off strapping a parcel to the back of a pigeon and hoping for the best.

I can haz pretties!.