h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just a thought for a nice thread that occurred to me today. Not that I knew what the TLA meant at the time as I was far too young and innocent.

A long time ago, back in the early 80s my Dad worked for Granada TV in Bedford (UK). Occasionally he would go to their main HQ in Manchester and he made a good friend there.
So his wife and their dogs came down to visit once. His wife took myself and my sister - we were about 10 and 7 yo at the time - ish.
So the WTF moment was that when we were queuing to pay at the till suddenly this girl from down our street approached and asked my dad's mates wife... "are you the one in Coronation Street (a marginally famous TV soap here"...

to which she replied..... ' Yes' and then there manifested a big queue of autograph hunters.

Myself and my sister just looked at each other...... WTF?

We had NO clue about any of this. We'd never seen it, she was just my dad's mate's wife to us. Cheryl

Still makes me laugh to this day. Took me years to find out who she actually was also - a lady called Cheryl Murray, had to be told by someone who was a corrie fan when I mentioned this to my mates as a student.

Anyone else had a proper WTF moment like that?

(she took us down he local shop I meant to say)

Not meant to be a claim to fame thread BTW - just moments that left you truly dumbstruck.

On my first visit to Helsinki I found my hotel room had a complimentary copy of "Welcome To Finland" magazine.

I once experienced déjà vu that turned out to be real.

It's all a bit convoluted, but basically I was at a party in a stranger's home a couple of towns away. I was invited by a "friend of a friend" from community college. I suddenly experienced the strongest sense of déjà vu anyone could. I knew what I'd find around corners and behind doors I'd never seen before. I knew where the A/C intake vent was and the linen cupboard. This house was in a neighborhood I'd never been to before. My sister was also at this party, which was weird in itself. She was still in High School and knew someone else who was a "friend of a friend". I asked her and she said she was also experiencing déjà vu. She figured it out before I did.

Years earlier, when we were maybe 15 and 13 respectively, our parents would get together with their friends families for card games and cookouts. One of these families lived on a lonely road at the edge of this town. Across the street and down the road about half a mile were 4 "model homes" for a subdivision that never opened. All of us kids, maybe 6 of us, would sneak into one of those model homes through an unlatched window. We would do the sort of dastardly things you'd expect teenagers to do like sneak puffs of purloined cigarettes, &c.

Well, apparently that failed subdivision was finally built out and our mutual "friend of a friend of a friend" had moved into that same model home. There was no neighborhood there when we were younger so we didn't recognized the area on our way there.

Until my sister figured out where we were, I was seriously freaking out.

Ha, yes that's weird, nice one.

When I was a little kid -- maybe 4 or 5 years old -- I was walking behind my house and saw a very feisty bird walking a few feet away.
In retrospect I think it was a large chicken or even some kind of turkey. This was odd because no one in the neighborhood had any chickens or turkeys. never saw it again, and never figured out the mystery.

That reminds me a bit of an incident that happened to me on a bike ride 2 or 3 years ago. About 5 years ago I got into Audax which is a long-distance version of cyclo-sport. This occasionally involves *Really* long rides during which you have a minimum speed which kind of ensures you end up cycling through the night and get sleep deprived on the longest ones - this can lead to hallucinations and stuff.

On one of these, a 400 km ride, during the wee small hours, at dawn-ish I encountered the biggest damn rabbit I've ever seen - which stared at me then bounced off in a very Alice-in-Wonderland-esque fashion. WTF? This rabbit was fully 2 feet tall - maybe even 3 - or so it seemed in my dreamland state at the time. WHen I finshed and got rested I thought maybe it was one of those really small deer instead.
Or... perhaps I'd just encountered my own version of Donnie Darko....

In the end it rather boringly (but still quite coolly) turned out to be hare and I'd just never seen one up close and had no idea they were so big.

This isn't my story, but one that has some interesting overlap with yours, Orcus.


This was also a long distance bike ride, but of the motorized sort. There's an organization for long distance motorcycle riders, the Iron Butt Association. They have certain criteria to qualify. The basic Iron Butt ride is 1000 miles in 24 hours. Members of my motorcycle club have their own Iron Butt run annually. On the first of these, some of my friends at the time vied for their patch. The ride was a circle route that started and traveled through three Texas cities, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas with a detour through Western Louisiana. A member of my chapter was determined to get the shortest time, but he had to forego that goal when he realized that some of his fellow riders were unprepared for the ride. In particular one of his friends was getting rather dehydrated and had low blood sugar from not eating. So he rode with this group for the rest of the ride. His 16 hour goal ended up at just under the 24 hour limit.

But the interesting part for this discussion is that the dehydrated, hypoglycemic rider was hallucinating during the ride. What did he see?


RABBITS!

Lots and lots of white rabbits jumping across the road ahead.

My WTF moment was working in an office for a big media organisation. The meeting rooms were shared by all staff - both the back office staff (like me) as well as the creative people working on productions.

I'd booked a meeting room for a contract review (or something boring like that) and was waiting outside for the previous occupants to emerge. I cound see through the smoked glass walls that there was clearly something creative going on, and there were vague colours moving around and the sound of muffled giggling. Then at 11am precisely, the door opened and a small troupe of young ladies in colourful but very skimpy outfits bounded out and down the corridor. (Think 'Pans People').

Well, we said nothing, filed in and began our meeting. It was only when I said "Can we resume our review of Schedule 7, Business Continuity" that everyone burst out laughing.

They burst out laughing just as the young ladies burst out of the room giggling?

Yes! several and some very weird, and some way beyond WTF!!!

Speeding through the city of London + UXB.
The burglar alarm and the plane ride.
The river accident.
If any undesirables turn up use this and don't hurt the rabbits.
Getting a licence.
Gis a quid.

I'll take the liberty of adding a WTF moment of U42.

The Infamous Bisquit Incident.


http://youtu.be/SF2fZ2iOXhk?t=2m43s

So, since I haven't gotten any of my books published, I can't lay claim to the incidents of my life that might resemble what has happened to other people? Or, what I consider more likely, Douglas and similarly talented writers (that whole vats crowd of them) will simply tell these incidents in such an entertaining fashion that I will just have to excuse them, albeit in an envious fashion.

City of London + UXB.

A long time ago I volunteered to drive into Cannon Road in London with a UXB in the boot.
The deal was that police traffic division would block every intersection and junction on the route. Any speed limit No! motorcycle outriders will escort your vehicle WTF I shall have a bit of that!!!

Continued due to cat on the keyboard!

1 h 6 min ( 51.0 mi ) via M25 is the distance and the time assumes the speed limit is not exceeded.

Total trip 44 Minutes through London traffic, I have never seen as many blue lights since cars parked across roads to let me through.

That was was a true WTF moment.

Still trying to find out what the World Trade Federation has to do with all this

On the animal front:

During a camping trip my wife woke up with a palm sized toad on her hand. The next morning, said toad had found a new favourite spot in the shoe of our neighbour (scream...)

Can I get in before paulh and ask if they were open-toad sandals?

I am sorry, they were hiking boots.