Strokes of luck

[Nuclear Spoon]

Last night was November 5th. This was as good as any other reason to go out and place ourselves in varying states of inebriation.

At some point we ended up on top of a hill. Shortly after we ended up at the bottom of the hill, courtesy of someone thinking rolling down it would be a good idea (it was). I lost my phone in the process and couldn't find it. It was pretty dark, after all. Phoning it didn't seem to help locate it either.

I decided to go back this morning after my lecture, and spent about 10 minutes aimlessly wandering around the slope, trying not to fall over.

Then I heard a faint jingling noise (it fortunately happened to be quite silent around these parts) nearby. "It couldn't be," I thought. But it could and it was. I followed the sound and eventually found my phone hidden in a divot.

I have no idea why my alarm was set to 10:29am in the morning, but I am still rather amazed.

I am sure you all have much more interesting stories.

[.max]

My Grandpa, may he rest in peace, had a wonderful tale of luck which he told me once.

He was posted to Crete during WWII, and one day they got the call that the opposition had invaded the island from the north, so they had to leave from the south.

So he and a few of his friends decided, since they essentially had sod all to do until the evacuation boat arrived, to sample some of the local wine. My Grandpa wasn't the heaviest of drinkers, in fact this was one of his first experiences with alcohol, so it didn't take very much for the booze to take effect.

As it happened, he fell asleep, and missed the boat.

The boat was sunk by bomber planes shortly after leaving, and everyone on board died.

So, you could say, if my Grandpa didn't get drunk, I wouldn't exist today.

[Hydralisk]

Finding money on the street is always nice.

Once I left my ipod in the student union - went back several hours later and one of the nice till ladies had taken it, and hid it underneath the till so that people couldn't just say "uuh yeah that's mine lol". So wonderful of her - I've still to buy her a drink for that. :/

Getting into second year of university on written appeal after failing one of my first year exams was a masterful stroke of luck too! Although I am now resitting second year....

Also, no matter how wild and rainy it is, 80% of the time when I'm about to get out of a building/bus it always seems to calm down briefly for about 10 minutes. This is usually cancelled out by my brothers' presence, who seems to attract more rain than is normal!

[Pie hunter D]

Originally Posted by .max

My Grandpa, may he rest in peace, had a wonderful tale of luck which he told me once.

He was posted to Crete during WWII, and one day they got the call that the opposition had invaded the island from the north, so they had to leave from the south.

So he and a few of his friends decided, since they essentially had sod all to do until the evacuation boat arrived, to sample some of the local wine. My Grandpa wasn't the heaviest of drinkers, in fact this was one of his first experiences with alcohol, so it didn't take very much for the booze to take effect.

As it happened, he fell asleep, and missed the boat.

The boat was sunk by bomber planes shortly after leaving, and everyone on board died.

So, you could say, if my Grandpa didn't get drunk, I wouldn't exist today.

My old man had such a lucky escape.

The day my sister was born, he was due to ride in a convoy through Warren Point in Northern Ireland transporting stores. His CO came up just as he was about to leave and informed him, his wife was having the baby. Stubborn as the old man is he was determined to carry out his duty. He was ordered to stand down and see my ma in the hospital, the CO took his place.
If anyone's aware of this incident, you'll know the rest.
For those that aren't aware; There were two massive incendary devices set off by the roadside at Warren Point. Think big bomb that burns absolutely everything in a flash.
Anyway, when the first trucks were hit, the second one was detonated at a location (the IRA knew) would be procedure for an emergency control centre.
Not one man survived.
Won't go into the mucky details. But if it wasn't for that man I wouldn't be here today either!

[codename_47]

My nan tells a story like this too:

During the war my Grandad was a fireman so obviously he was a bit busy. When an air raid siren sounded he had to report to his fire station no matter how recently he'd been on duty...
So one night he'd just literally got home and into bed (this being 8am or something when he'd been on a nightshift..) and after about 10 mins the air raid siren sounded. He didn't want to get out of bed but my Nan made him after a bit of squabbling.
Anyway when he came back when the all clear was sounded, he realised a bomb had gone off near the house, shattering the window of the bedroom and leaving a large shard of glass embedded in his pillow...

Now baring in mind this is my Nan telling the story so it might be slightly exaggerated. There might have been glass on his pillow, that I believe, but a large shard embedded? *shrug*
Plus I never had the heart to nitpick and ask her if he'd have stayed wouldn't he have gone in the air raid shelter anyway?

But meh, it was a captivating story so I'm gonna let it lie

[MOONHITLER]

We don't have anything quite as serious as those, but there was a incredibly amazing thing that happened (it wouldn't have been bad if it didn't happen, but it was epic that it did). My family, and my friend's family were at another's house for a barbecue. Being the type of crazy people we are, we had some rather strange competitions, such as finding the most tennis balls around the garden with our team name on.

Anyway, after various games, they announced the scores. It went something like this:

In last place, with five points: the apples! [The teams were named after fruit]
In third place, with eight points: the bananas!
In second place, with eleven points: the Oranges!
And in first place, the winners tonight with twelve points are...The Strawberries!!

Then, in the distance, a solitary firework flew up at just the perfect timing for it to be hilarious. Now, me and my friends, when something suspiciously coincidental happens, we call it a 'Firework moment'.

[Weebl-snail]

I like finding money on the street.

[da-geezer]

A colleague of mine was in Afghanistan (I was only very loosely involved with work there); in an armoured vehicle being transported from A to B. For whatever reason, the vehicle stopped, and he jumped out to have a cigarette with the rest of the occupants. Moments later, and IED exploded, and destroyed the entire nearside of the vehicle.

He now has a photograph of himself near the wreckage holding the pack of cigarettes, with the caption: "Smoking Kills? I don't think so!"

Lucky boy indeed.