talkmagic.co.uk

I've just been having an interesting little chat about all those meaningless little descisions that we all make everyday that shape our whole lives.

One of mine was deciding to pop into the Co-Op to get a chocolate bar when I was 16. Bumped into an old friend from primary school, I'd not seen in years. Got chatting, I was still trying to decide on which 3rd A level to take, she was doing art and talked me into taking it too, so I did.

If I'd not fancied a Whisper bar, I'd never have gone to the college I did, I'd not be working where I am now, I'd nver have met Dave and I woudn't be living where I am.

That girl is now my best friend, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be doing magic seriously now...

How different my life would be if it wasn't for that chocolate bar.

So then, what meaningless little thing shaped your lives?

It all happens for a reason No it doesnt really.

I went through a very bad patch at 14-15 of being a little rebel and always causing trouble. Believe it, or believe it not, I stole my first magic trick, that was a cheesy thimble trick from a Poundshop at the age of 11 and thats where it all got started. I didn't steal it for any reason other than the fact that I wanted to steal something!

I had to repeat a year at school, and even tho it S***s, some major things have come from it; I have an awesome job, i got into magic and im doing some great research.

Hopefully Ill get into uni as well!!!

strange, wierd and occasionally tough childhood...

moving in to live with a woman who was 19, when i was 17...

just randomly googling unusual words and concepts...typed in magic, then mind magic (lucky guess), and went from there...

boredom makes you do random and fun things sometimes...

The last weird coincidence was arranging to meet someone I hadn't met before in London, getting held up on our terrible public transport system with text messages going back and forth from both of us saying we've been delayed only to discover when finally meeting an hour and half late that we both live in the same road.

It didn't shape my life in anyway though.

Maybe so much of a SMALL thing but I failed a year at uni and had to repeat. but due to this I got to spend a year living in Spain wiht my girlfriend while she had her year out (and i didn't want to spend a year away from her), due to not finding a job in spain I took up a new hobby, magic. aslo, upon returning to uni to re-do the year I met 3 guys who are now my best friends and I also found the juggling club (which wouldn't have been there had I not failed and gone to spain).
In short, everything I am today is due to me failing a year at uni. And had I the chance to go back and do better in that year and pass it, there's no chance i'd do it! I like being me!

15 years ago I found myself out of work for a short while after being made redundant from Lotus Cars.

One evening my then wife had popped out to see a friend when the phone rang and my friend had got me a days work.

If hadn't have gone looking for her that night I may never have found out she was having an affair, and may never have gone on to meet the most wonderful woman (GM) in the whole world.

The silly little thing that shaped my life was a 5 pence piece.

Heads meant stay, tails meant go. I flipped it on the evening of Sunday 29th November 1992 and it came up tails. The next morning, I sent my boss an email, and on Friday 15th January 1993, I was on a Virgin Atlantic jumbo transferring me to the Boston office, which sounded unimaginably glamorous at the time. The job took me to San Francisco (foggy but some great people), Minneapolis (found the only micro brewery making bitter in the city), Chicago (drunk on bloody marys in first class), Austin (Drunk in Hooters!), Dallas (in-flight emergency - bloke had a heart attack), Atlanta (city of mental taxi drivers), Mexico City (I'm a Macc Lad: NO ONE mugs me, much less a tramp! Testicular pain was all he got), and plenty of places in New England (first bitingly cold, then very hot and crawling with mosquitoes).

The problem was that between trips, I had literally nothing to do, and was dreadfully homesick. There was a spare Mac Classic in the office so I took it home at night and spontaneously began writing silly, scandalous stories linking my friends back in the UK to famous celebrities as therapy, and faxing them over. I came home at Christmas, and got headhunted for what turned out to be 9 intensely dull years as a consultant during which I learned to write documentation people wanted to read. Finally, I'd had enough. Over Christmas 2002, I sat down with Jackobi's "The Magazine Article" (the Corinda of freelancing), learned to write a proposal for an article, sold it, wrote another one and sold that too, and decided I'd rather be doing this all the time. Freelancing gave me the time to discover mentalism via my interest in psychology, and now there's all "this". Funny old world innit. Now, when I can't decide, I always flip a coin.

Oh, by the way, Horizon tonight is about how we make decisions. It looks very interesting. The Radio Times mentioned something called "priming". Dunno what they can possibly mean.

6 years ago an aquaintance of mine asked me if my company could help his friend, who had just moved to her new house and needed a new kitchen.

I arranged for one of my reps to go round and have a look on the saturday, but he let me down on the day, so I cut my afternoon in the pub short and went round myself rather than let her down.

That potential new customer is now my wife!

If it wasn't for that rep letting me down we'd have never met. I've NEVER forgiven him!

I'm here because of a 5p too. In fact everywhere I go I'm there because of it. I was wandering through central London at 8am on a Sunday morning a couple of years ago, slightly bleary because I'd just come out of a club. At that time of the week there's not much going on in zone 1 so I was mooching along quite without watching the world around me when a pound coin caught the corner of my eye and I stopped mid step to turn 90 degrees and pick it up. The mild disappointment that slipped across my mind as I realised that the pound was only a fivepence was swiftly whipped away by the slipstream of the big red bus that went by at a potentially lethal speed, wheel arch brushing my jacket and wing mirror sailing clear over my bent head. I still wince when I think about it.

...and it was me driving that bus!

not really, but that would of been a mad synchronicitous moment eh...the irony is, i've never driven a bus in my life...a tractor, yes...

I'm overly tyred...

bronz wrote:I'm here because of a 5p too. In fact everywhere I go I'm there because of it. I was wandering through central London at 8am on a Sunday morning a couple of years ago, slightly bleary because I'd just come out of a club. At that time of the week there's not much going on in zone 1 so I was mooching along quite without watching the world around me when a pound coin caught the corner of my eye and I stopped mid step to turn 90 degrees and pick it up. The mild disappointment that slipped across my mind as I realised that the pound was only a fivepence was swiftly whipped away by the slipstream of the big red bus that went by at a potentially lethal speed, wheel arch brushing my jacket and wing mirror sailing clear over my bent head. I still wince when I think about it.

Ever seen Final Destination?

I have indeed Paul, and whenever I get on a roller coaster or in a car or switch on the kettle I cross myself and duck. Mind you, then I remember that the violent death always happens when it's least expected, so I'm prone to suddenly freezing and looking around manically with clenched fists, ready to ward off any danger. I can barely eat cos my stomach's in a permanent twist. No wonder I look like Ken Dodd on a particularly paranoid come down.

When I was at highschool one of my friends taught me the basics of html so I could make a website to share 'screenmates' (cute little characters that walk, bounce or fly around your desktop). Because of that I helped a local computer shop with their webpage. There I met a person who became my best friend. His death sparked my interest in ghosts and psychics and magic. Because of the shop, I also did an NCFE in computer maintenence. There I also met a guy who became my long term boyfriend. It was the worst descision of my life and it changed me forever.

All because of a cute little sheep cartoon.....

People people pull your selves together. 5ps and whisper bars and the likes influences your lives. We be having coffee mornings next and watch Richard and Judy. Its like saying if I never used the toilet at that time I would have wet my self.

And GD do you abbreviate every body you know. GM , GD GDD (Georgia’s dads dog)? Just asking it just strikes me as a touch odd then again what do I know.