One of the best times I had in Cornwall was going down in mid/late October and staying into November. Pretty much everyone had gone, except the die-hards. And the weather was still be quite balmy, being west coast. At the time we were living in Kent and almost hunkering down for winter already. The difference in climate and temperature between Cornwall and Kent was like t-shirt, through jumper, to coat.
I love Cornwall, anytime of year. I worked in Cornwall through one winter, with thick snow on Bodmin moor and wild coastal winds whipping the waves up into white froth and bending the scrubby little tree tops till they were almost parallel with the ground...and then the sun would break through the clouds and it all became magical in a different way. It's a beautiful county with just the right mix of wild country and civilisation. Tourists are a nuisance, but they pay the bills in the county so I guess they are a necessary evil. I just wish they wouldn't drive there at 30 miles an hour, towing a terrible plastic shed behind them so that they can ruin the landscape and hold up traffic.
Coincidences are blips in the matrix. I've experienced some that must be absolutely millions to one odds of happening.
Biggest one was when I was in Thailand. Was on one of the islands, can't remember which one. Sat in a taxi with the 2 guys I was travelling with, the taxis over there were like minibus type things with the roof cut off and the driver would stop and pick multiple people up along the way. Anyway we were sat going along and a group of 3 other blokes get on, quick glance and I said to my mate "isn't that so and so". Was a guy who we were really good mates with in primary school and his family moved away to Manchester when we were about 9/10. Said his name kind of quietly just to see if any reaction and it was him, spent a few days with him when we were over there and he was still a good guy, he probably hated me though!
On Christmas Eve in 2005 I was in Vietnam on a drunken night out. At about 4am my buddy and me were sat down eating at a late night outdoor banh mi shack on plastic chairs. My mate was worse for wear, and when these two Aussie guys rocked up, he started getting aggro with them. So then a big fight took place, mostly just handbags. Then, in 2007, I was in Goa, India, in a small bar on Palolem beach, chatting with an Aussie guy for an hour or so. We got onto the subject of previous adventures and all that, and he mentioned being in Vietnam at the same time as me. So we start reminiscing, and he mentions how him and his mate had some bad luck on Christmas Eve, because they ran into some British yobs and got a bit roughed up. At this point I'd done the math, and I described my mate to him, and exactly how and why the fight took place, and who hit who etc. Aussie guy was like, "How the **** do you know all that?", and I told him, "That was me and my mate you were fighting!!" And it was. Everything he explained matched exactly what I recalled. Anyway, we became good friends after that and hung out together for a few days. Absolutely bonkers. Him from Oz, me from UK, just having two random encounters in two entirely different places would be weird enough. Added to that the fact that we had a fight, because neither of us are that type of person. And then chatting with each other for over an hour and not recognising each other. It's too crazy, still to this day freaks me out.
There was another one which I remembered now (not quite as crazy as the other one). Was in New Zealand and travelled to the South Island just for one night before we flew to Australia. Stayed in a hostel and in the same dorm room was 2 other guys who were travelling, from Leicester or something. Turns out they were going to be on the same flight as us at stupid o clock in the morning the next day so we went out for a few drinks and agreed to share a taxi to the airport in the morning. They seemed alright the first night, and the next day at the airport everything was cool, said our goodbyes when we landed in Melbourne. Bumped into them in Melbourne at a bar about a week later, then again in a random park in Melbourne. Then again in Sydney, Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and Cairns in various random places. By this time we had all realised we didn't really like each other and was a bit of a "FFS" moment whenever we bumped into them. We flew off to Vietnam after, we were there for about 6 weeks then went on to Thailand. First ****ing day in Thailand we bump into them in Bangkok, then again on Samui and at the full moon party. All of it isn't too mad (although the distance apart is a bit weird) as it is a pretty common route taken by travellers. 6 months later I'm back at home and I get a message from my mate who was travelling with me at the time "You'll never ****ing guess who has just walked into "insert pub he was in". It was those 2, turned out one of them's girlfriend was from just outside Bristol and they were visiting her for the weekend and had ended up in the same pub as my mate (which is a tiny pub that you wouldn't even go in unless you knew about it). He was like "you have to come down, this is seriously weird". I had had enough of them by the time we had left Melbourne so didn't want to see them again so didn't go.
Boy, do I know that one well ....... second Mrs. CG was a girlfriend from when I was 17 ...... that didn’t work out well ........
Richard Feynman: "You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight... I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!” Vin
Just met a Chinese drug addict, he said “Have you seen my cocaine”? I replied “not since the Italian job”
Is this some who doesn't like Teslas? Nope, it's someone who doesn't like people owning new cars. Watch the video: Whoa, note the Fox channel too.
Last thing. A great angry Climate video from father and son team Zac and Jesse. These guys are usually very light and comedic with their appeal, but lately they've been getting frustrated. I think it's because they can see the prize of the world tipping towards renewables, while the monster of climate tipping points are happening right now. I've never known them [especially Jesse] to be so frustrated. This is worth watching and thinking about: BTW, I think presidential candidate Andrew Yang and his USA 15% global emissions isn't quite right. From memory, it's higher. But forget that. Just watch the video.
