» The nicest thing someone's ever done for me

Some nice Canadian doctor
In August I booked some flights to Canada to see my sister this Christmas. I paid an extortionate amount of money for them.

Three weeks later the airline company went bust and, as I'd paid on debit card, it looked like I'd not get the money back.

My sister's boss then offered to buy me some more flights so I could still spend Christmas with her. I've never met him and she had only been working at the hospital about 5 weeks.

Without sounding smug, I have too many amazing things that people have done for me; I am fortunate enough to have wonderful friends. One is a b3tan and he has done more for me than he probably ever realised... if you still hang around on here, thank you so much.
(Thu 2nd Oct 2008, 17:13, More)

» Family codes and rituals

naked music
My grandfather had a lot of strange rituals, mostly involving beer (which he would pour into a teapot so that his wife believed he sat at his desk all day drinking Japanese tea). He was a very talented musician, and when my mother brought home her first boyfriend he burst into the room to serenade them on his viola. Naked. Apparently that boy never came back again (it was 1950’s Japan, so all very prudish).

Fast forward 30 years, when I walked in on my sister as she was playing the cello, with no trousers on; her 8 year old mind had decided that her jeans would get stretched and baggy at the knees, so taking them off would mean they retained their shape. These days, the dainty little thing can still occasionally be found hammering away Beethoven sonatas on the piano wearing little more than her underwear.

There must be some mad money to be made in this.

EDIT - the problem with this QOTW is that there are so many little family things which are so incredibly funny to me, but probably will read as pretty bland to a bunch of people on the interweb whom i've never met...
(Fri 21st Nov 2008, 10:20, More)

» Eccentrics

voices in her head
my sister is one of those ridiculously intelligent people, but has very little common sense.

as a child she would do little science experiments on herself, and this has continued throughout her medical career.

therefore, when she came to me when we were visiting my mum in dublin and said, "how were you able to sleep through those little child like, almost japanese sounding, muffled voices that kept talking at intervals throughout the night?" i just thought she was being weird.

actually, it turns out that my mother's gentleman friend had planted a furby in her pillow, so every time she moved it started gibbering.
(Wed 5th Nov 2008, 14:13, More)

» Social Networking Gaffes

it started on a networking site,
and has pretty much ended on one too. I've yet to work out where I made the mistake though...

About 5 years ago, at the bottom of a bottle of vodka, my flatmate signed me up to faceparty. It’s full of dreadful people, and I soon deleted my profile. However, in the days whilst the fascination was still sucking me in, I had stumbled upon the most wonderfully eloquent and enchanting person.

Over 9 months of email and msn banter, I believed that I had found my soul mate.

And in the flesh, he was even more captivating.

A further 3 years on an emotional rollercoaster taught us that we did not work in a girlfriend-boyfriend type way; I loved him to the ends of the earth, but knew he could not be trusted and consequently our relationship was untenable. So we broke up.

We managed to find our way back to a near perfect friendship; I had a confidante and companion who helped me though some tough times. Until his girlfriend (or fiancée, as I was recently informed) banned him from any contact with me. I don’t really understand why, since I was not any threat to what they have. I had realised long ago that we work best as friends and nothing more.

I still get the occasional email; there is never any text, merely a link to something or a picture. Momentarily the lost, broken part of my soul that is wondering around looking for him feels comforted.

OK, and I admit that once every couple of months I look at his facebook page, too. But I feel like I have no place to be there and guiltily start checking to see if anyone is watching me...
(Thu 11th Sep 2008, 17:22, More)

» Annoying words and phrases

Working in Essex
This probably should have been in the ignorance QOTW but I wasn't around then so I'm going to tell this now since people are mentioning the inability to pronounce correctly.

My colleague wrote an email to her boyfriend which he kindly forwarded to me. "I've just bought a pretty pink hambag!"

I asked her if this was perhaps some avant-garde design idea for a bag made from ham, or perhaps a bag for carrying ham (an essential part of any dog's wardrobe).

But no, her defence was, "Well that's how it's pronounced!" to which I replied, "erm, no, it's not. It's a handbag." She stood there looking utterly confused for about 5 minutes.

She also spelt abrupt as "apprupt" and I have to keep correcting her when she says "secutary" rather than secretary.
(Mon 12th Apr 2010, 11:41, More)