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Quirky Folk - March 2009



Photo by Erik1980. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.



Recently, some crazy woman has been coming to the block of units where I live and rings everyone’s intercoms late at night. When I answer she doesn’t respond apart from continuing to ring my intercom. I know it’s a woman because I went downstairs to have a look to see who it was. I didn’t recognise her so I in the end, when she wouldn’t stop ringing my intercom I told her I was going to call the police. She then left me alone but continued to ring my neighbours’ intercoms.

Now anyone who has lived in a block of units knows about how annoying ringing intercoms are. They don’t make a nice ding-dong noise. Instead, they emit this loud buzz which is enough to wake the dead.

This reminded my of my ex-neighbour’s cats, Higgins and Miggins. My old neighbour also had a crazy woman who liked to ring people’s intercoms as well. This drove my neighbour nuts as she also hated the sound. More importantly, it frightened her cats. They hated the sound of the intercom and she would have to calm them down.

My neighbour would run downstairs and nine times out of ten she would catch the woman out and ask why she was ringing her intercom. Unlike my crazy woman, this one would say she wanted someone to let her into the building so she could knock on her boyfriend’s door. But if that was the case, why not ring her boyfriend’s intercom to begin with? And if he was not answering, why would she still want to come into the building?


I don’t get this. Neither does my friend Fred, who works as a cleaner/caretaker for my old building. The way we saw it was if your friend wouldn’t let you in, why should anyone else?

It later turned out the boyfriend needed his personal space so he wouldn’t answer his intercom. In the end, the property manager received so many complaints about the intercom ringing the woman was banned from the building.
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The Moment I Lost All Sympathy

March 30th 2009 21:00


In 1987 two teenage boys in Arkansas were murdered and then their bodies were placed on train tracks, covered with a tarpaulin and later run over by a train.

The mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths were covered in Unsolved Mysteries, an American TV show where viewers with any information on unsolved crimes are encouraged to call in.

It was a terrible way to die and at first, I felt a lot of sympathy for the grieving families of the boys. That was until halfway through the segment, when one of the boy’s parents happened to mention the boys were spotlighting on the night of their deaths, a form of hunting which was outlawed in Arkansas where one person shines a spotlight into the target animal’s eyes, transfixing it, while his partner shoots the animal.

All I could think of from then on was the number of animals they had killed. Did they hunt the animals for food or their hides or did they simply leave them there to die? What kind of person gets kicks from killing animals for sport? It also made me wonder why the parents would allow their children to participate in such a cruel hobby. The father said he was unaware at the time that spotlighting was illegal but still…

The episode is shown below:





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Eleanora Finds Maggots in her Flour

March 29th 2009 21:00


Photo by Ranveig. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.


You might remember the tale of Maggot Mary, my sister’s ex-flatmate who liked to keep rotting food in her pantry. The food was so rancid it eventually caused a maggot infestation in the kitchen. Despite my sister’s many complaints, Mary wouldn’t throw the food out. Nor did she kill the maggots.

I was relating this tale to a friend when she told me she had the same problem. The difference was in her case, it was inadvertent and at least she did something about it.

Eleanora had been cleaning out her kitchen when she found a container filled with flour. She noticed something moving inside it and opened it up to have a closer look. Inside, she found maggots. The flour had gone off. Disgusted, Eleanora threw the flour out.

I had forgotten all about her story until I was also cleaning up my kitchen today. I found some béchamel sauce which I had thrown in the garbage and had yet to chuck out. I reminded myself to do it ASAP in case it also got infested with maggots. One of the benefits of having maggot phobia is my tendency to be on the lookout for any food scraps that could attract flies and to throw out any food as soon as it goes off. If a fly happens to get inside my flat I trap it and release it outside straight away, especially in summer. The thought of the fly laying maggot eggs all over my unit while I am away is too terrifying to contemplate.
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One Angry Cat

March 26th 2009 21:00

My frenemy, the GTC


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I Feel Better Now…

March 25th 2009 21:00
I hate plastic bags. Since 2007, my sister and I made an informal resolution not to accept any more plastic bags from retailers. Apart from slipping up two or three times, we have stuck to our guns.

The reason why plastic bags are on my mind today is I am due for another inspection soon and decided to spend some time cleaning up my unit. I opened up the cupboard underneath my kitchen sink and found dozens of plastic bags in there. These were the ones I had saved to re-use again. The problem was, since my sister and I carry plastic bags on us all the time, I never got to re-use these ones so I decided to recycle them today at my local supermarket. I must have recycled at least fifty bags, including bread bags. My cupboard is much tidier now and I feel better after having done my part in trying to save the world.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Facing one of my Phobias: Abalone

March 24th 2009 21:00
I don’t like living creatures that don’t have bones inside them, are slimy or are made up of segments (with the exception of lobsters). Needless to say, then, I don’t like snails, edible or non-edible.

My more cosmopolitan friends encouraged me to try escargots. They said they were delicious. But the thought of sticking some slimy snail in my mouth was enough to give me the willies…even if it was cooked in garlic butter. It did sound tasty in theory but given my squeamish tendencies I doubted I would be able to put it into practice.

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Photo by Fir0002. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

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Did Jamelia Really Have to Die?

March 22nd 2009 21:00
Reading this story in the paper last week HERE, I still find it hard to understand why it was so necessary to kill Jamelia the lioness. It appears Jamelia hadn’t caused any harm, the visitors had been housed in “safe houses” and she was moving slowly – not quickly or aggressively – towards a public area. Zoo owner Sally Padley even said no one was in danger. So why couldn’t the zoo keepers have tranquilised her or made more of an effort to capture her. Surely there was time for other options to be explored before the decision was made to shoot such a majestic creature to death?

Shooting a wild animal would be understandable if it was running around loose and behaving aggressively or attacking people. But this was not the case. It sounds as if someone may have overreacted.

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Paul the Muscovy Duck Attacks Skinks

March 19th 2009 21:00

Photo by Meekohi. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.


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The Perfect Christmas Present

March 18th 2009 21:00
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CY is Terrified of Dogs

March 17th 2009 21:00


Photo by The cat. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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What’s Wrong with this Picture?

March 16th 2009 21:00
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Calendar Crazy

March 15th 2009 21:00


Calendars galore! (clockwise from left): Cat Protection Society, Rachael Hale, Mixed Breed, small page-a-day and another Rachael Hale calendar.

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The Woman With Fifty Cats

March 12th 2009 21:00


Photo by Mykenik. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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Photo by CalistaZ. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

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I Want a Red Panda!

March 10th 2009 21:00


Photo by Brunswyk. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

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Gingersnap Bit Me

March 9th 2009 21:00
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Photo by Don Fletcher. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

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How Does a Frog Become a Horse?

March 4th 2009 21:00
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Photo by Baltazaren. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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Even Cats Have Bad Breath…

March 2nd 2009 21:00
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Photo by Maksim. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.


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