After a fun afternoon at the 'Boss des Bosses' in Chamonix in 1998 - bit of boardercross followed by on-hill beers and smokes - a friend suggested we skip the gondola queue to get down (it was a terrible snow year and the Grands Montets home run was broken) and cut into the Couloir Philippe instead. Shortly after navigating the avalanche barriers at the top I lost my heel edge and started careening down the couloir on my arse. Jammed my heel edge in hoping to stop myself and I ended up flipping over entirely and landing on my stomach, now going headfirst down the chute. At that point I knew I was dead... but somehow I managed to get my board into the snow and slow down and eventually flip over again and stop. VERY gingerly picked the rest of the way down. Massive ice burn on my face and neck afterwards... and I never ride with anything less than razor sharp edges now!
My dad provisionally booked a holiday to Corfu back in 1985. My mum then had to check with her boss if she could have the time off but she couldn’t, so we re-booked for the following week. If we’d got on that original British Airtours plane, we could have been amongst the 55 people killed as it crashed on take-off.
I was the third person to be admitted to my local hospital with COVID when it first kicked off. It was so early, and they were so new to it that I didn't even get oxygen for the first 72hrs. I got steadily worse to the point about 1 week in that I made a conscious decision to not go to sleep that night, as I was pretty sure I wouldn't wake up, I had nothing left in the tank.
Turned the corner that night but I was very lucky, I feel like I dodged a bullet.
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…
Same story, but I went round with mine for a few years, by which time the break had healed. Still had to have a fusion done because of a ruptured disc.
Some years later, I googled my name. I found a guy the same age as me (and same name obviously) who'd had the same injury as me in a MTB crash.
He was paralysed from the neck down. He died in 2019
Not so much a dodge as a direct hit as I (accidentally) rode my KTM Duke2 into an oncoming car, both doing 50mph and no one braked. I guess my main dodge was not going down and into the car, instead I went airborne and landed in a forest. My bike was snapped in two and the car had a 2' V in the front of it. Got a lift home on the back of a mates Fire blade & was a bit sore for a few months after.
Knew a bloke who slept in and missed a meeting in the twin towers...
My Uncle in WW2 at Arnhem saw a lad get shot in the head, who said " that was close" my uncle said closer than you think.... he had a bullet hole in his right hand temple and the hole on the otherside was the diameter of a tin can, apparently it just grazed the front of his brain.. medical officer stuffed cotton wool on both holes and put a bandage on it...
Me motorcycle near death experience by the truck load.
Me? Not so much. A few teenage escapades. Motorbike in my 20s.
My grandfather used up all the family luck. He was in the Seaforth Highlanders TA when WW1 broke out. Volunteered for overseas duty. Was in France by 12th October 1914 and survived on active service the rest of the war. Worst injury was a training accident when someone dropped a live grenade. He had metal from that in him until he died 50 years later.
His three brothers had less luck.
Oh if we can include grandparents...!
My grandfather was in the Navy during the war, stationed up in the North Atlantic. Signaller/radio guy.
Anyway, he got reassigned to something in the Med but for some reason (I forget what) he couldn't go and anyway it was a plum job moving from the North Atlantic to the Med so there was no shortage of volunteers to replace him.
The replacement guy got out to his new ship, it was torpedoed 2 days later. He didn't survive. 🙁
Dec 87- went to visit my Sis in Zaragoza (N Spain). After a loooong sloooow overnight train from Barcelona, arrived in the early hours and decided to get a taxi to my sister’s place rather then wake her & get her to drive over.
Had I chose the latter option we would have been going past a Guardia Civil barracks around the time ETA bombed it
Some of these remind me of conversation with a friend about near misses. She'd just missed the tsunami in Indonesia (Boxing Day 2004) by the skin of her nose... as she was on holiday there on Boxing Day 2003.
By that reckoning, I just missed out being wiped out during 9/11 as on that very day I was in Turkey and drank beer at a bar who had the twin towers on the beer mats.
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.
Remember... We only regret the things we didn't do, not the things we did. The things we did have shaped who we are!
That and ALWAYS, given the opportunity, stick your wick in crazy (assuming you are single of course)... It can be a hell of a lot of fun! Just don't let them find out where you live too soon. Always go to their place until you have established whether they're too crazy (in which case cut and run), or just the right side of the line (in which case put all the kitchen knives under lock and key before you welcome them in)...
With my advice in mind... It might not surprise you that most of the bullets I have dodged in life have been members of the opposite sex, and more than a little unhinged at times! I do have some interesting stories to tell though, and they were all fun whilst they lasted...
Other than that, dodged a bullet not buying a house 16yrs ago when I was working for my Dad at the time... He wanted me to have my own place and was willing to front me a deposit (to be paid back out of my earnings over the next few years, interest free to be fair). Of course it would have financially tied me to him for a long time, the market was about to downturn, and our relationship was about to go properly sour too... BIG bullet dodged there!
Travelling in Thailand in 2004. Few days before Christmas deciding whether to go Ko Phi Phi or Koh Phangan for Christmas, literally flipped a coin and chose the correct island to be on Boxing Day.
Often wonder what would’ve happened if it had landed on heads.
uncle was northern ireland back in the day , on guard duty one eve and his mate came by 10 mins before guard change to take next watch ,uncle went to bed woke up in morning to news his mate had been shot and killed whilst @ checkpoint , 10 mins into his shift .. literally did dodge a bullet there but succumbed to a foreigner driving wrong side of road many years later and sadly did not survive that one .. a m8 slept in on the 7/7 bombing and was meant yo be sleeping in the hotel in the 2004 tsunami but went partying elsewhere , was days later we realised he was still alive , crashed his motorbike couple years back and was unconcious with tongue down the hatch , trainee doc walking by saved his ass , myself many near misses on road bikes and couple hits but still here , one day the wrong place wrong time is goin to align just right .. 🙈💀
Was ran over by a car pulling out of a T junction, that wasn't tooo bad (dislocated shoulder), but the impact flung me onto the other side of the road where the oncoming car stopped with the front bonnet literally touching my helmet, maybe a foot more and my face would have been splatted by the tyre. Still shudder thinking about that one...
When I was 18 I met a girl on a night out, got her number and we agreed to meet up a couple days later. I didn't really remember what she looked like beyond that fact she had blue hair. So when I get to the bar I proceeded to chat to the blue haired girl there - who didn't have a clue who I was and when the girl that I meant to meet with turned up a minute later, she clocked my mistake, slapped me and walked out. A few years later I learnt through a mutual friend she went to prison for killing her ex's two dogs when they broke up!!
Often wonder what would’ve happened if it had landed on heads.
A friend of mine survived the boxing day tsunami as an 11 year old, she was there with her younger brothers and parents.
As far as i can tell both brothers died on that day and her mum killed herself three or four years later in hospital here. Quite obviously she doesn't speak about it to anyone but her therapist and a (little) to her boyfriend, her dad is effectively monosyllabic unless he's asked a direct question.
I jogged one morning through the Twin Towers Plaza a few weeks before 9/11.
A few relationships I ran from before they got serious (and was right), and one I slowly cultivated until it was right (this was the right thing to do).
Lots of dud cars that at the time I should have dodged BitD, but actually with hindsight taught me a lot that pays the bills today.
A couple bosses I should have punched in the mouth on month one, but didnt, I regret that.
Relationships, cars and jobs, you have to kiss a few frogs I guess.
I missed going in the RAF for my dream job at 17 (dreamed of since I was 10) by 11 days due to a pissed car driver putting me in hospital for almost six months, did I dodge a bullet there?
This year a neighbour, very fit, non smoker, skinny, collapsed while out running. If it happened somewhere quiet he was gone. He collapsed on the road outside a golf club with passers by around who got the defib machine from the clubhouse and got him going. Good recovery made after blocked artery diagnosed and stent fitted.
(few years back) who was the forum member who had a piece of wood pierce the passenger side window screen and impale itself in the passenger seat on a particularly windy day on the A1?
Wife and I had some lovely posh nosh in the Windows on the World restaurant up WTC1 on a wet Monday night. Low cloud meant the views were hit and miss but the forecast for Tuesday was good, so we decided to return first thing in the morning to the Observation Deck of WTC2 before the place became mobbed with other tourists. Thought we'd round off Monday evening with a drinkie or two in the adjacent bar but ended up necking loads of cocktails until closing time. Woke up late on Tuesday morning to a developing hangover and loads of sirens passing our hotel at Times Square. Turned on the TV to see the North Tower had a plane shaped hole in it, sobered up very quickly and phoned to reassure my folks back in Scotland. Heard the 2nd plane go in while chatting to my dad. Pretty obvious at that point that it wasn't a freak accident. Regret not seeing the view on a clear day but it was quite a bullet to dodge.
I was a few hundred yds behind the Kegworth crash. Thankfully driving single file in roadworks, and already slow, when everything stopped
Not me, but I was driving the car… coming home from college, decided to drive as carefully as possible (no zooming out of junctions like teenagers do). Saw a box fly across the road, started to slow. Then I saw a person sliding sideways towards me. Turned out it was a girl on a moped, she had clipped a car and her top-box had come off (the box I saw) with her following. I emergency braked, she went under the car, things all very mangled. I got out and her head was inches from my front wheel. On any other day I could have been messing with cassettes, playing with the radio or whatever and not been concentrating enough and probably would have killed her.
If we can include grandfathers.....
My grandfather worked at Swan Hunters (ship builder on the Tyne) at the start of WW2.
Because of national service, he was assigned to a particular battalion, but had to stay at the shipyard building ships for the war.
His battalion got wiped out on D-Day, no one returned
(Technically would also include my father and me, who would never have existed)
Two close bus incidents.
1. Sitting at a T junction, I was about to go when suddenly I grabbed both brakes, and then the bus passed me. I dont know if i unco9nciously heard it and i didnt look anywhere other than straight ahead, but obviously something told me not to go.
Bus incident 2.
Over near the SECC in Glasgow there is two lanes, separated by a wide middle central reservation, paved etc,and for some reason the council have both lanes multi directional, even though its a quiet road.
I cross, coming from bells bridge(to those who know the route) bumped down onto the road, carefully looking right- road clear, meaning to cross both lanes, bump over the central paved reservation, and then across the two opposite lanes. Im just about to cross the white li9ne and looked up to see a bus immediately on my left, again the two handed brake lever death grip and could see the driver giving me one of those looks 😆 I'd no idea both sides were multi directional.
Did have a scary moment riding down Buchanan St in Glasgow about 2am. Many years ago when i was young, really fit and rode very fast.
Normally i would weave about, look for kerbs and small staircases to jump from but that night i went straight down the middle, at probably 25mph., nearing the bottom I noticed the council had recently installed large block granite seating benches, and they were black. didnt know they were there and hadn't seen them anyway given they blended in so well. Had a little heart flutter there, as I might normally in my weaving about rode right into one.
Or the day I rode into an extremely busy junction, ignoring the lights(I was young and carefree) only to find the reason Hope fit those little pad pin safety clips, as I'd forgotten to fit them and all my pads had left the bike at some point in the journey. Plastic pistons against steel rotors don't really make for braking efficiency 😆 suddenly finding you've no brakes with fast moving traffic coming from 4 directions is a bit of a heart stopper
Dodged a bullet?
Well I suppose I have. Well more 'slouched away from' a bullet. I was on a bus and it got shot at. The entry hole was about 4cm above my head and my decent slouch meant my head was low enough to not get hit. It made a bang, I had a bit of glass on me, but it was a cleanish hole, and there was an exit hole on the other side of the bus. The driver immediately stopped, but all the passengers shouted 'go!'. I didn't really know what had happened for a bit, then realised I had been very lucky. I wasn't initially sure whether it was a bullet or not having limited experience, but it was a projectile that easily went straight through the bus, and wouldn't have been good for my head had I been sat upright. Had a few beers when I got home after that.
So slouching, yeah recommended .
walking waterfalls in northern thailand, 8 or 9 pools & waterfall steps up a valley, decided not to have a paddle in one half way up, a minute later the biggest tree made a cracking sound and fell over, landing in said pool.. an arms span width trunk and very tall
We were staying in a lodge in a camp in Cuba. There was a central walkway through the camp with branches off at right angles to access each lodge. The walkway and branches were poured concrete slabs on legs about 1 metre high to carry us over the undergrowth. After an evening of mojitos and music in the central bar we returned to our lodge along the rather dimly lit walkway, but I had forgotten about the precise layout of the path and absent-mindedly cut the corner whereupon there followed a comedy step into fresh air and descent into the undergrowth, my body horizontal as i plunged. Being a totally unexpected event, and somewhat over the driving limit I was totally relaxed as I hit the ground and suffered nothing more than bruised pride (and the hysterical laughter of Mrs BH). The bit that keeps me awake is the thought my face and head must have missed the concrete slab forming the perpendicular access walkway to our lodge by millimetres.....
Often wonder what would’ve happened if it had landed on heads.
There but for the grace of dog.
The story of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton always sticks with me. They were on a tour bus and the front bunk was considered the premiere accommodation. Cliff and drummer Lars Ulrich argued over it and in the end they flipped a coin. Lars lost. A little while later the bus crashed and the penthouse suite turned into a raspberry jam factory. Imagine that, your entire fate - and someone else's - decided over a Harvey Dent moment.
and ALWAYS, given the opportunity, stick your wick in crazy (assuming you are single of course)… It can be a hell of a lot of fun!
In my admittedly somewhat limited experience I've found anecdotally that there is an inverse correlation between raw attractiveness and enthusiasm. Supermodel women who are more into themselves than anyone else just expect service and gratitude; the plainer ones and (oh my god) the 'alternative' ones are the ones who could suck a golf ball through a hosepipe. You want to be railed six ways from Sunday and leave the next morning thinking "I'm going to need some cream for that," go find yourself someone who looks like Bob Ross has thrown them face first into a fishing tackle box.
Few days before Christmas deciding whether to go Ko Phi Phi or Koh Phangan for Christmas, literally flipped a coin and chose the correct island to be on Boxing Day.
It's all a bit 'No Country for Old Men', that one. What's the most you've lost on the toss of a coin?
I crossed the road this morning just 20s after a car whizzed past. If I hadn’t stopped and looked I’d have been under it.
I also held a sharp knife by the handle rather than the blade. A lucky escape, I wrote it down in the Near Miss book.
On that basis, Jimmy Saville once jogged past me and said hello. I still shudder at what might have happened if I'd said hello in return.
Because of national service, he was assigned to a particular battalion, but had to stay at the shipyard building ships for the war.His battalion got wiped out on D-Day, no one returned
There might be some confusion about unit sizes or casualty rates here but I don't remember reading about any whole battalion wiped out on D Day and can't find anything on Google? (A fairly swift search and I'd be happy to be corrected.)
expatscot
Free Member
I was a few hundred yds behind the Kegworth crash. Thankfully driving single file in roadworks, and already slow, when everything stopped
Always wondered why that wasn't even more serious for those on the ground, that explains it.
Riding to school, car pulled out of a junctionw while I was absolutely flat out- with driver staring right at me, of course. Hit car doing something like 25, went over car, went through back window of parked car, had to be extracted out of parked car back through the smashed rear windscreen. Lots of cuts, barely even a bruise. Was told several times helmet saved my life- was not wearing a helmet. It's a strange thing to stand up after something like that and have bits of car pour off you while feeling absolutely fine. Bike was basically unscathed, but I hit the car that pulled out hard enough to break the windscreen and bent the door enough that it wouldn't open.
Jimmy Savile once jogged past me and said hello. I still shudder at what might have happened if I’d said hello in return.
My sister told me of an incident she had when she was about 11. On our own road a van pulled in and the side door opened(sliding) the driver was calling her over. She said there was a bloke driving and another in the rear. She declined to do so as she felt something was very wrong, and scarpered home.
I'd a similar incident aged 8 or 9 coming home from primary. Me and a couple of mates were larking about pushing each other into hedges and the like and some guy stopped his car and tried to drag me into it saying he was going to take me to the police station. I was hanging onto a hedge in a death grip and the mates shouting at him to leave me alone. He let go of me, got back into the the car and drove off. Neither my sister or myself informed our parents about these things, so makes you wonder how often such things occur and the kids just havent said anything.
Didn't elect to take any government mandated jib jabs over the past few years.
This I feel has greatly reduced my risk of dying from "suddenly."
Didn’t elect to take any government mandated jib jabs... ”
I once got a cut on my forehead from a sharp bit of tin foil on my hat. If it was 0.1mm wider the 5G nanobots would have got in.
As above, most involve roads and vehicles between age of 17 & 25.
Crashed motorbike (just a rubbish rider really) at least a couple of times, first one involved fish-tailing across the opposite carriageway, luckily on approach to town so just outside 30mph limit and oncoming traffic had time to dodge.
Advance a few years, now fast cars, 205 GTI, bombing along A84 by Loch Lubnaig, Donald of this parish in passenger seat, crest blind summit, road takes a sharp right, hard to do when you're airborne, thankfully back on road rather than cliff side and sharp change of direction.
Night out with folk from home, Hogmanay I think, minibus to next party, I sat by back of bus as it was a bit overcrowded, next thing I knew the back doors had swung open and I was hauled back inside.
Not really any grandparent stories. My dad did, however, get evacuated from Glasgow during WW2 - around 1941 - to relatives in ... New Zealand, that set have been a bit of a fraught, long sea journey with U-boats about.
If it was 0.1mm wider the 5G nanobots would have got in.
I was walking the kids to school and saw this sign on a lamppost. I dropped them off, went back to the car for my leatherman and took it down, so no one may stumble upon its ludicrous cobblers again. Misinformational disaster averted.
When I was 21 I was holding some logs for a mate who was cutting them, chainsaw bounced into my right arm, went right down to the bone and missed my main artery by 2mm.
Few very near misses on a motorbike including a head on collision
took it down, so no one may stumble upon its ludicrous cobblers again.
I love how it's all EU legislation they are rallying against, and that the website itself is a .EU domain.
I thought Brexit meant an end to all that!?
Not really any grandparent stories. My dad did, however, get evacuated from Glasgow during WW2 – around 1941 – to relatives in … New Zealand, that set have been a bit of a fraught, long sea journey with U-boats about.
Back in the late 80s, I guess, I was on a train, half asleep, and listening to the conversation between the two people sitting next to me. She was Dutch, and had been evacuated from one of the big cities in WW2 (I'm tempted to say Rotterdam, but it was a long time ago.) to a lovely house next to a bridge over a river. A short while later the bridge was one of those in Operation Market Garden. (As in the film A Bridge Too Far.)
Oh if we can include grandparents…!
If great grandparents are allowed…
My great grandmother on my father’s side grew up as an ethnic Armenian in Trabzon in Turkey. During the Armenian genocide an estimated 50,000 Armenian residents of the area were massacred through drowning, burning and shooting.
She and her sister were hidden in a church when people were rounded up. They were smuggled to Africa via the Black Sea. Her daughter, my Nan was born in a small town Atbara in Sudan where she had no formal citizenship until she met my Grandad. He was navigating Bristol Bombays for the RAF having survived his Wellington Bomber and Fairey Battle days in Europe, literally (and I mean literally) dodging bullets. She was in the RAF typing pool in Cairo and he convinced the RAF to grant her citizenship so he could bring her home to Blighty.
Then he died of bladder cancer aged 45.
Here's one from today:
Bathroom refurbing, involves moving a couple of downlights (fitted 15 years ago by a spark).
Went into the loft to be greeted by this, attached to a still functioning light.
