Tales of the Unexpected: True and Embarrassing

By Barney Hegarty

There are many different types of laughter. Earlier collections in the Laugh Out Loud emails series caused the author to laugh out loud with mirth, surprise and even at times in shock or awe.

Tales of the Unexpected - True and Embarrassing is a collection that at times caused him to laugh for the obvious reasons and at others made him laugh in wonder, sheer joy or because he was frankly astonished at some of the tales and facts.

All of the tales inside this book are understood to be true and are all the more remarkable for that. A couple of them are simply beautiful and would bring a smile to anybody’s face; others are basically sad yet still bring a ‘Wow’ along with a wry chuckle at the bizarreness of coincidence. Yet others are simply hilarious because... well, because they are. Try the two stories involving Australian radio stations, or the two involving the magnificent ineptitude of men experimenting. Humans can be so funny that it is exquisite.

As with the other collections, this book is deliberately short and sweet so it can be dipped into and enjoyed at your leisure during a short journey, a break or over a drink; and all for less than the price of a coffee.

Note: If you are sensitive or are one of that curious people who are unable to laugh at themselves or ridiculous situations, think carefully before you read this book. It is about finding humour in even the most extreme circumstances. If this causes you a problem, don’t read it and leave the laughing up to others.

Everyone else – fill your boots and allow yourself to laugh. It’s good for you, even if it does show you have a bit of a dark side.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barney Hegarty
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781910291177

Barney Hegarty

Barney Hegarty is a pen name for Steve Corkhill.Born in Liverpool, UK, Steve was named by a public vote in the bar of a pub in North Wales. After an enjoyable education where his results reflected his passion and occasional aptitude for team sports, he started his working life training to be an accountant.His interest in audits soon waned and he changed jobs, only to be made redundant while he was on holiday. So he followed his childhood dream, trained as a schoolmaster and moved into a position in the glorious World Heritage City of Bath, UK. After a fairly rapid rise through the ranks he took his first major career gamble and accepted a 50% pay cut and an 85% reduction in holidays to move into the developing personal computing industry.It worked. It was quickly evident that there was an enormous gap between the IT specialists and the desires of their customers to be have something both useful and useable. Steve’s particular skills and values were well suited to fill the role of intermediary, specialising in making IT work for businesses across all sorts of sectors. It meant learning every day of his life, which is one of his core principles.At a birthday party one day, he realised that his commitment to clients meant that he was missing out on his children growing up, so took another career gamble. He resigned and went self-employed.So FlatBear was born and with it the plan to develop an internet based publishing arm in parallel with his day to day consulting activities. There followed years of study, investigation, wistful dreaming and, frankly, ennui. The consulting was working well and the indie publishing dream slipped out of sight.He was shocked into action by a series of events in 2013 and 2014 and the result was a series of books under the pen-name of Barney Hegarty, written mainly to test and learn the process of publishing. That established an infrastructure and broke the “one day” barrier.Receiving his very first payment of literally pennies for making international sales changed the game. He was hooked again.He finally wrote and published “Reboot For The Worn Out Professional”, a book he had been planning for years in response to seeing colleagues suffering burnout and stress in their high intensity jobs and of course as a result of his own recent challenges.One day it turned out that he had a heart defect. He went through the experience of open heart surgery, where a barrow-load of beliefs and presumptions were first shattered then realigned. The novel “How To Recover From Open Heart Surgery” is the direct result.At the time of writing he still lives in Bath. It has been easier to base himself there and travel the world than to continually move around after the work. Apart from that, it’s beautiful.Steve is still married to Betsan, the woman he first met in 1980.

Book preview

Tales of the Unexpected - True and Embarrassing

By Barney Hegarty

Copyright Barney Hegarty 2014 all rights reserved

Published by FlatBear Publishing

PO Box 3679, Bath, UK. BA2 4WS

ISBN 978-1-910291-17-7

Smashwords Edition

Part of the Laugh Out Loud emails series

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your enjoyment. If you feel a need to share this book with one other person, you may do so provided the book remains in its complete original form. Outside that limit, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it then please return to your favourite e-book retailer and buy a full copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

Table of Contents

A Well Planned Retirement

Singles Ad

Lipstick in School

Embarrassing Moments

Sometimes it DOES take a Rocket Scientist

Twin brothers

Cactus

Unlucky People

How Did They Know?

1001 Arabian Nights

World’s Luckiest Man

Karma

Mark Twain and Halley’s Comet

Little Bastard

Ronald Opus

Carnation Milk

Destiny Bullet

ChicagWow

Psychopath Test

Two Brothers

Only a Man Would Attempt This

Twin Boys, Twin Lives

Domain Names

Fire Drill

Too Busy for a Friend?

How to Get to Heaven from Scotland

Aussie Radio Station

Samples from Other Books in this Series

About the Author

Welcome

There are many different types of laughter. Earlier collections in the Laugh Out Loud emails series caused me to laugh out loud with mirth, surprise and even at times in shock or awe.

Tales of the Unexpected - True and Embarrassing is a collection that at times caused him to laugh for the obvious reasons and at others made him laugh in wonder, sheer joy or because I was frankly astonished at some of the tales and facts.

All of the tales inside this book are understood to be true and are all the more remarkable for that. A couple of them are simply beautiful and would bring a smile to anybody’s face; others are basically sad yet still bring a ‘Wow’ along with a wry chuckle at the bizarreness of coincidence. Yet others are simply hilarious because… well, because they are. Try the two stories involving Australian radio stations, or the two involving the magnificent ineptitude of men experimenting. Humans can be so funny that it is exquisite.

As with the other collections, this book is deliberately short and sweet so it can be dipped into and enjoyed at your leisure during a short journey, a break or over a drink; and all for less than the price of a coffee.

Note: If you are sensitive or are one of that curious people who are unable to laugh at themselves or ridiculous situations, think carefully before you read this book. It is about finding humour in even the most extreme circumstances. If this causes you a problem, don’t read it and leave the laughing up to others.

Everyone else – fill your boots and allow yourself to laugh. It’s good for you, even if it does occasionally show your dark side.

Barney

A Well Planned Retirement

This is a true story…

Outside Bristol Zoo in the UK is the car park, with spaces for 150 cars