Bullets you've dodged, off the back of 'Biggest regret of your life?'

Thank Allah for poor marksmen.

I found the root cause of the corrupted matrix which resulted in having to reprogramme myself again. Almost like a full clean OS installation but much harder due to many corrupted files. Luckily, I still have a bit of time to fix it.

Nearly got killed by a truck while sleeping. Thank god for small dogs and their toileting habits.

If you're going to sleep rough, lorry parks are not the place.

Tree falling through my roof, wall and landing on my bed at 3am was a good one… thank goodness for leaving my phone in the kitchen or I’d have been flattened.

A little further back in time I should have been at Hillsborough on that fateful day, but at the last minute chose to go to Old Trafford. Mum and Dad didn’t know until we got home late that night, so they were having kittens.

Pretty much every time I drove a car in my late teens and early twenties. What a dickhead!

Turning down a job offer from Grimsby college.

Burns Day hurricane, 1990.  A flying, tumbling barn roof that literally brushed the top of my head and the sleeve of my coat. I hate to think what would have happened had I been walking six inches further to my right.

Also, there have been more than one Louise type near misses.

If you are going to go to a venue called the Hibernian Club in Fulham Broadway on the evening when the INLA/IRA had successfully killed the MP Airey Neave with a car bomb in the House of Commons car park, don't get so pissed that you don't notice everyone else on the huge dancefloor standing to attention with many making a salute whilst the band played what I quickly learnt was the Irish National Anthem.

This was my first venture as a naive 19 year old from Leeds on my own to London to stay with my room-mate from University for a few days during the Easter holidays. Mick came from an Irish family, lived in Shepherds Bush, and in the first two terms at Uni had established a reputation for his prodigious ability to drink. I'd been wandering around London during the afternoon before making my way to Shepherds Bush and had seen lot's of emergency vehicles, including several army Landrovers, bluelighting to an incident somewhere. At Mick's the TV news was on showing the aftermath of the bombing and the implication it had for our democracy. We set off out and picked up a couple of his school mates from their homes on the way to the first of several pubs. At one house the elder brother of Mick's mate was sat in front of the TV celebrating the bombing - apparently he was a 'supporter' of a certain nationalist organisation.

Several hours and even more pubs later we finished up at the aforementioned Hibernian Club where the merriment continued involving more booze and some fairly drunken dancing to the Irish band, until my slow realisation that everyone else was stood to attention, and me slurring to my mate "Mick what the F*** is happening" while I continued in my drunken dancing. Mick's mate's brother, and a couple of his friends (also apparently 'supporters' of a nationalist organisation) had joined us at the club, and suddenly realised the potentially serious implications of my 'disrespect' to the Irish National Anthem in front of a few hundred people of mainly Irish descent. Fortunately, they managed to all gather round me and hustle me out through the crowd to safety - it was a bit like a boxer being escorted into the ring surrounded by a bunch of heavies.

I was on the 7/7 bus the day before (same time) and in Hungerford in the morning of that dreadful day. That’ll do me for life.

2. I’ll call her Louise, a very hot tatooed milf/vixen who I turned down, it would have been fun, but never stick your wick in crazy as they say.

Do you still have her contact details?

Uh, asking for a friend.

Managed to avoid being blown up on 7/7 because I was hungover and late.

Managed to avoid being chopped up / driven into on London Bridge / Borough Market because I had to work late.

I wasn't allowed to join the RAF because I was a security risk.

Not much of a bullet dodge unless you knew there was literally a bullet/missile with your name on, or… you proved to be an security risk in later life? Or is there something more to the story?

7/7  I was heading home that night, so wouldn’t bike commute out to Uxbridge.  Got the Northern line to Kings Cross, changed to the Met out to Uxbridge.  By the time I got to Uxbridge there was already a commotion at the station with rumours of a power surge and they weren’t letting anyone in.

Got up to the office and the first BBC reports were coming in. Phoned mum to say I was ok.  Then thought “how the smeg to I get home?” as KGX was already shut down. Checked BMI and BA websites and the only flight I could get was LHR-MAN. Bought that quickly & left the office for the bus to LHR. An hour later I would have had to walk as the bus incident reports finally took out the bus network (there was a LOT of confusion).

My dad drove from Sunderland to Manchester to pick me up. Bless him

I had a bike wheel with me for my girlfriend. I had to go to WHSmiths in T1 and buy them out of brown paper  to wrap it before BMI would check it through.

My colleagues had to walk home. A team member who was going to the Petite France site was in an adjacent carriage on the train through Russel Square.

5h1t day.

Not much of a bullet dodge

Depends how you look at it.  I don't think I would have got on well in the forces.  The big clue was the fact that I was only a security risk if I wanted to be an Aircraft Technician.  Since I had a degree they said they would waive the security requirements if I agreed to become an officer instead.

I decided I might struggle with the lack of logic behind the rules.

Went and started working offshore instead.  Turns out I struggled with the lack of logic behind the rules there as well but at least I was getting paid a decent amount to put up with it.

Thanks to my work colleague Nobby who pushed me out of the way of the launched car that crashed down just where I'd been whilst walking in Morocco.

Also in Morocco the massive engineering lathe that spat the large heavy component out at the incorrect high speed that killed the operator I was stood next to.

The angry group of rock chuckers of El Jadida who wanted to lynch us for urinating in what turned out to be an unfinished religious building. The fastest a clapped out Clio has ever been driven.

I was on the 7/7 bus the day before (same time) and in Hungerford in the morning of that dreadful day. That’ll do me for life.

Not me but a girl I was at uni with.
She was on Flight 93 on 10th September...

A close one for me was setting off to work one morning, realising I'd forgotten my pass and having to go back to get it - maybe only a 30-60 second delay. Cycled off to work and as I got into the industrial estate that I had to ride through heard a massive bang just up the road. 30-60 seconds ride up the road and on the roundabout, a truck had overturned spilling it's load of metal recycling. I'd likely have been right under that if I hadn't had that slight delay at the start.

Neither are first hand, but quite close to home.

My Dad was in the merchant Navy as a young man, and left to settle down and start a family. His best mate from then stayed on ships for many years. He was rostered on the Herald of Free Enterprise but swapped shifts with a colleague and so was sat at home when the ship went over and his mate drowned. Only consolation is that the swap was at his colleague's request, so the 'should have been me' feeling was diluted somewhat.

My son's class from school made a trip to the HoC as part of their studies into citizenship and democracy. After the trip they were supposed have walk back to the south side of the river and catch the coach back to school, but because of the rain they decided to fetch the coach over to them on Parliament Sq. Shortly after they left, the terror attack happened with 6 killed and 50 injured.

Not me directly, but my grandfather was saved by his belt buckle in WW1 (Dublin).   It's still in the family.

The greenpeace boat I was invited on but turned down in favour of a proper job was arrested and the crew jailed in Murmansk.  I think only a very short time but even so I cannot imagine Murmansk jail is a very nice place

nothing dramatic or interesting.

but meeting and marrying my wife is my one life changing thing.

i had been locked away for a few month, and was deffo heading down a very destructive path in my life.

more time locked away was deffo on the cards.

i met my wife and my life changed full circle.

King's Cross fire.
At the time I was really pissed off that the train went right through the station.
Got home,saw the news 😲 😮

@fasthaggis My dad was through the station around 5 minutes before the fire took hold. Visiting mum in the National Hospital for Neurological Disease that evening and had a very lucky escape.

Sent home on 7 July from all my calls in the London area. Saw many, many ambulances heading down the A12 to provide extra cover for LAS who were otherwise engaged.

Driving up the M5 back from Cornwall in 2016. Some poor guy jumped off a motorway bridge and missed me by a couple of feet.

It didn't end well for him.

6ft to the right and it wouldn't have ended well for me and my family either.

Driving back around the edge of Grozny mid 90s after curfew with the lights out so wouldn't get spotted.  That still makes me twitch a little

7/7  I was heading home

I was staying on Gower Street where the bus exploded, made it to my meeting further down the street before they closed everything, thinking better shut in with colleagues than stuck in a hotel. Bit daft as I ended up walking to Kentish Town to stay with a mate. Knew it was a bomb having heard about five IRA ones explode, but never felt remotely at any personal risk. I guess I never do really. But there will have been a thousand or so people in a similar range.

Bullets I've dodged? Dunno. Impulse decision to take a year out of uni blew me a way off course, to multiple forks in the road. But who knows if you've dodged a bad outcome? What's the counterfactual?

Can't think of anything much for myself, but my grandmother was living in London during the Blitz with a new baby (my uncle) asleep in the cot upstairs. She had a bad feeling or premonition and brought him downstairs to be together with her. Shortly afterwards a stray bomb knocked down part of the roof, directly into the cot.

I was six seconds from being last man through the pothole in our through-and-off group ride. Sadly Ralph was last man. I could not save him. RIP 🙁

Charing Cross bomb, right platform, 15 mins earlier.

Charing Cross bomb, right platform, 15 mins earlier.

had the day off on the day of the Kings Cross fire, would been in the station at that time.

On a motorbike tour & swapped from being leader to tail end charlie, 1/2 mile later & a lorry coming the other way turned right in front of us, leader hit it head on.

I used to get the train home from Potters Bar from school. Had the points held on a few hours longer I (along with a lot of other schoolchildren) could have been stood on the platform the carriage slid into.

grandfather was saved by his belt buckle in WW1 (Dublin).

Eh? Didn’t think WW1 fighting reached Dublin (the Easter rising and subsequent independence struggle being something completely different)

and in answer to the OP; Joanne and her family.

Donna

Moved my wedding by a week as it was much cheaper so I was not on that Paddington bound train.

Moved my holiday by 3 weeks because it was much cheaper so I was not in the WTC on that day!

My granddad had a ticket for the Titanic apparently.

My big dodge was finding out that an ex had put pinholes in a stack of condoms I bought.   I never wanted kids and she knew that, but wanted to trap me.

Funny thing would have been that if I'd fallen into her trap then she'd have been creaming cash off me for the next 20 years.

Let's just say that dating from 35 onwards there've been a few women who were so keen on finding a potential baby father they prioritised that over just about everything else, including our compatibility as a couple.

1992 - just got off the train at London Bridge on the way to work.  Had just left the platform and was into the bull run that takes you to the cross passage when an IRA bomb went off.  Heard the whooomph then felt the shock wave go through me.  Got to the office and had a quiet gibber for a bit after that. Had I been on the back of the train (typical for me as I usually cut in fine to get to the station) and not the front I would have been a whole lot closer.

And this year, on holiday in The Bahamas and out on the paddle board when I see a storm brewing and approaching so high tail it back.  Just got out the water when there is a massive almost simultaneous lightning flash/thunder clap.  VHF starts squawking for the local volunteer fire rescue as a lightning strike has started a fire - about 20 yards from where I had been paddling about 5 minutes before.

Rounded a sharp corner driving, under rail bridge, to have car coming head on at high speed on my side of the road with police in pursuit. Just managed stop in time/ he swerved to own side, but needed pull over for few minutes as was shaking, sure was going to be hit.

In a previous life working in a newsroom on the day of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing.

It was the end of my shift, I was due to go home, the reports of the blast started coming in and my then girlfriend (now wife) was supposed to be meeting friends there for a drink. It was the days before ubiquitous mobile phones.

Being professional, writing copy, organising coverage, while all the while s***ting myself about her.

I was supposed to go off-shit at 8pm, worked until midnight ...got a call from the Mrs circa 11.30pm and she was oblivious to the whole thing. Her mates had cancelled the drinks and she'd gone to the cinema instead.

Through the years we've had a couple of things like that: I have PTSD from days like that in my previous life. Similar deal with the Paddington rail crash etc etc.

The thought of it all brings me undone these days. Hug your people close.

Launched 20 ft onto a muddy soft verge by a car wing mirror from behind that was absolutely destroyed. Other than bad right buttock bruising and a bit of a stiff neck both me and bike were OK.

1ft either way I doubt I'd be typing this - SMIDSY and must have been doing at least 50 probably 60.

There's been a few.

Near Cleveland Ohio in 1987 with a few mates, got approached by the cops as we were hanging out in a car park, although only chatting. They (locals) all took off in multiple directions, running through back gardens and jumping fences etc, so I did likewise. Only afterwards did I realise that the cops gave chase and shoot you with no questions if you run, but arrest you and invent some charges if you don't. 'murican cops, eh? Sheesh...

Walking the dogs with a mate circa 1990 during a storm, a bough on a tree came off and crashed down end-on about two feet from where we were walking. Embedded itself about 18" into the ground.

Climbed up a ladder to clip some cables to a purlin in a warehouse roof. Put my hand up onto the purlin to steady myself and found that exactly where I'd put it was a live junction box without the lid. Cue me getting a belt and falling about 30 feet. Luckily I was early 20s and so bounced.

Riding a Vespa along a mountain pass in Formentera with a girlfriend and rounded a corner too quickly, drifting onto the wrong side of the road. Met a lorry going the other way at approx 40mph and only just missed it by a few inches as I wrenched it back onto my side of the road. She thought it was hilarious as the adrenaline was pumping, absolutely terrified me.

Every time I drove a car between 17 and approx 30.

Coming back from Middlesex 7s in 'drag' makeup, as you do. Woke up on the Tube surrounded by some very hard-looking young men staring intently at me. Not sure why I didn't get mugged and beaten up, maybe they thought I was just too weird to bother. Sobered me up quickly.

Many close encounters with idiot drivers during group rides. On another day they'd have wiped us out.

Broke my neck a few years ago, fortunately it all healed up well, but the Dr made it clear how close to being permanently wheelchair-bound I'd been.

When I went to A&E (drove there after riding home with said broken neck!), they didn't spot the break and sent me home with a diagnosis of whiplash.  It was only a couple of days later after a consultant had checked over the weekends xrays that the break was spotted and I was called back in for the full halo-brace treatment.  If it hadn't been spotted it could have been a different story entirely...

Camping in Northern Australia behind a sign which I read in the morning: 'Sal****er crocodiles inhabit this area'

I was driving on the M1 the night of the Kegworth crash, I'd gone past about 10mins before. Mates waiting for me had seen it on the news and were relieved when I turned up in one piece.
Following a mate home from a gig, there was a crash round a bend just ahead and someone was out trying to slow traffic. My mate slowed, so did I - the road was completely blocked. I know that if I'd been the one in front I would have ignored the helpful chap and piled into the crash...