Ever been really lucky?

benjamin d · 15-12-2015 02:41PM #1

The company I used to work for are in serious difficulty and all my ex colleagues are basically working day to day and expecting the hammer to fall at any time, with quite a few already laid off. I just happened to get to know a manager in a similar company by chance and a few months later they offered me a permanent contract with even a small pay rise. Looking back at all the people I used to work with, loads of jobs have been decimated and the rest will possibly be gone in a few months, and with no one in the industry hiring I know it was sheer dumb luck that saved me from being in the dole queue and probably even having to move back in with my parents.
So have you ever looked back on something that happened to you and realised how lucky you were that things turned out as they did?

Specialun · 15-12-2015 02:58PM

You should email them all and tell them how fantastic your job is and how you hope they dont get the chop until after xmas

benjamin d · 15-12-2015 03:02PM

Specialun wrote: »

You should email them all and tell them how fantastic your job is and how you hope they dont get the chop until after xmas

Trust me I don't feel any glee about it, hence me saying I realise how lucky I was! The guys I left behind were and still are friends, and I was no more qualified than anyone else there to get offered a route out. Which is the point of what I'm saying.

topmanamillion · 15-12-2015 03:08PM

I entered a competition a few years back and won a trip to America.
Entered same competition next year and won a trip to Paris.
That the kind of thing you're talking about OP?

benjamin d · 15-12-2015 03:13PM

topmanamillion wrote: »

I entered a competition a few years back and won a trip to America.
Entered same competition next year and won a trip to Paris.
That the kind of thing you're talking about OP?

Well I suppose that was lucky so I can't really say that's not what I'm talking about, but I meant more along the lines of something in your life that happened by chance that in hindsight you see you would have been in a more difficult position if it didn't happen.

ejabrod · 15-12-2015 03:23PM

Yes, I was really lucky once.

pinkbear · 15-12-2015 03:23PM

Yes.... in my first year in college I failed one exam which I hadn't worked for, by a few %. No big deal, I had planned to get it in the repeats, easily. I studied hard for the repeats and was confident of a high score. The night before the exam I got very ill, and though I sat the exam, I was seriously ill and had to leave after an hour, knowing I had failed. When I recovered a few days later, I was in a panic, and starting looking into other courses that hadn't filled with the CAO. I grabbed one of those just so I'd have something to do. Amazingly I loved the new course, and ended up with my whole study and career path taking a bit of a turn from where I expected, and all definitely worked out for the best for me. I ended up marrying a work colleague who I may never have met if I had passed that exam, so my life would really be very different now!

King George VI · 15-12-2015 03:25PM

Found €5 on the ground the other day. I nearly cried.

The_Valeyard · 15-12-2015 03:28PM

Like the legend of the Phoenix
All ends with beginnings
What keeps the planets spinning
The force from the beginning

We've come too far to give up who we are
So let's raise the bar and our cups to the stars

She's up all night to the sun
I'm up all night to get some
She's up all night for good fun
I'm up all night to get lucky

We're up all night to the sun
We're up all night to get some
We're up all night for good fun
We're up all night to get lucky

Mr. CooL ICE · 15-12-2015 03:32PM

Once won a travel voucher worth £1500, a signed English football jersey and a manicure voucher. And I'm not even an English girl.

mathie · 15-12-2015 03:33PM

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Like the legend of the Phoenix
All ends with beginnings
What keeps the planets spinning
The force from the beginning

We've come too far to give up who we are
So let's raise the bar and our cups to the stars

She's up all night to the sun
I'm up all night to get some
She's up all night for good fun
I'm up all night to get lucky

We're up all night to the sun
We're up all night to get some
We're up all night for good fun
We're up all night to get lucky

That you Linda?

KungPao · 15-12-2015 03:34PM

I won €20 (in one go) in those machines where you have to navigate a key shape through a hole. A little kid was playing it just before I had a go and he stayed to see me hit the jackpot :pac:

That's about as far as my luck goes.

eviltwin · 15-12-2015 03:37PM

Meeting my husband, he's the best thing that ever happened to me.

KungPao · 15-12-2015 03:37PM

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Like the legend of the Phoenix
All ends with beginnings
What keeps the planets spinning
The force from the beginning

We've come too far to give up who we are
So let's raise the bar and our cups to the stars

She's up all night to the sun
I'm up all night to get some
She's up all night for good fun
I'm up all night to get lucky

We're up all night to the sun
We're up all night to get some
We're up all night for good fun
We're up all night to get lucky

We'll rob a Mexican!

The_Valeyard · 15-12-2015 03:38PM

mathie wrote: »

That you Linda?

Its meeeeeeeeeee

THE VALEYARD

benjamin d · 15-12-2015 03:44PM

pinkbear wrote: »

Yes.... in my first year in college I failed one exam which I hadn't worked for, by a few %. No big deal, I had planned to get it in the repeats, easily. I studied hard for the repeats and was confident of a high score. The night before the exam I got very ill, and though I sat the exam, I was seriously ill and had to leave after an hour, knowing I had failed. When I recovered a few days later, I was in a panic, and starting looking into other courses that hadn't filled with the CAO. I grabbed one of those just so I'd have something to do. Amazingly I loved the new course, and ended up with my whole study and career path taking a bit of a turn from where I expected, and all definitely worked out for the best for me. I ended up marrying a work colleague who I may never have met if I had passed that exam, so my life would really be very different now!

This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about

15-12-2015 03:54PM

Yes but then i lost it all on the next race

The Iron Giant · 15-12-2015 03:58PM

I hurt my knee playing football on Astro and went to the doctor to get it seen to.

Asked him to check this small painless lump on my neck which after loads of tests turned out to be Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer.

Started chemo in April and got the all clear (full remission) last month after 7 months of it.

If i hadn't hurt my knee I probably would have put off going to the doctor and maybe I would have been in hospital over Christmas or maybe the outcome would have been different.

So, lucky in a way

(I like to think so anyway)

NachoBusiness · 15-12-2015 04:01PM

Sometimes..

Backed a horse the other day that had no chance coming to the last but the leader hit it and fell and so I won!

But then the next day I backed the following horse and was counting my money after he jumped the last ten lengths clear, but then, buckaroo.

https://twitter.com/TheIrishField/status/676040325127905280

fleet_admiral · 15-12-2015 04:27PM

I gave up the horses over a year ago and hadnt done a bet since then. My mother in law died at halloween and we had the afters in a pub. Got chattig to her brother who asked me was I doing a bet. I said no im finished with them but got a bit of a goo for a bet.
Ended up backing a load of horses at all kinds of prices and didnt have one loser, even a 33/1 shot won that I had backed e/w obviously

SEPT 23 1989 · 15-12-2015 04:30PM

first race 10 euro to win 5/1

second race 50 euro to win 10/1

Raytown Rocks · 15-12-2015 04:32PM

I won on the National Lottery in Australia years ago.

Antar Bolaeisk · 15-12-2015 05:07PM

ejabrod wrote: »

Yes, I was really lucky once.

When you were conceived?

GLaDOS · 15-12-2015 05:12PM

Had no intention of doing biology for the leaving cert, but my preferred subject (technical drawing) wasn't being run due to lack of interest so I got biology instead, mainly 'cause it was either that or accounting. Ended up loving the subject, aceing it in the leaving and continuing it at both under-grad and now post-grad level. Feel very lucky to have ended up doing something I enjoy when I very nearly missed out on it.

wardides · 15-12-2015 05:16PM

Ordered 6 Chicken nuggets. Got 7.

Close the thread.

mattaiuseire · 15-12-2015 05:17PM

I got lucky in April this year with a footy accumulator, spent €2.50 on 8 teams to either win, lose or draw and won €4396.82!

OU812 · 15-12-2015 05:17PM

Was born a white male in Western Europe, that's about as lucky as you can get.

AnonoBoy · 15-12-2015 05:19PM

A few years ago I had two girls at the same time.

Yours,

One Cup.

KatW4 · 15-12-2015 05:29PM

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a teacher. I didn't get the points in my Leaving Cert (mainly cos I didn't bother studying) and I was devastated. I studied English and Music and pretty much hated it.

Myself and my friend, still wanting to be teachers, went to London to do it. Best experience of my life. I got a job straight away over there and made friends for life. I've left it now but I'll always be happy that I went there to study and work rather than in Ireland. I feel very lucky to have done that!

15-12-2015 05:32PM

When I was a student, I'd lost one part time job and although I found another one quickly, I was really on my uppers waiting for my first weeks pay. I had to drive to and from the job and was really down to pennies, I didn't want to bother my parents with this kind of stuff, so I was eating dry toast and cornflakes for days trying to stretch out the cash. In the middle of the week I had to put petrol in the car and figured I couldn't put more than £3.25 worth in without starving, and that would get me to and from the job for the few days. The weather was crazy stormy, really blustery and windy, and leaves and trash were swirling on the eddies of the wind as I put the nozzle in the tank, then something slapped me in the face. It was a £50 note.

There was no one else on the forecourt on a secondary road with nothing else around, it just arrived in my face in the wind. A little miracle I've never forgotten.

Besides that, I've a family I love, a roof over my head and food in the fridge, a job I enjoy and friends I can rely on. That's as lucky as it gets.

harry Bailey esq · 15-12-2015 05:33PM

fleet_admiral wrote: »

I gave up the horses over a year ago and hadnt done a bet since then. My mother in law died at halloween and we had the afters in a pub. Got chattig to her brother who asked me was I doing a bet. I said no im finished with them but got a bit of a goo for a bet.
Ended up backing a load of horses at all kinds of prices and didnt have one loser, even a 33/1 shot won that I had backed e/w obviously

I popped in for a quick pint to kill a half hour one day,grand national day. Normally if I'm going solo I'll carry a paper under the arm.That day however, I didn't, and the poker machine(my usual method of gambling)was in use.Someone had left a copy of the sun on the bar so I flicked through the middle to the have a look at horses running in the national later on that day.In the front page of the racing section Boyle's had a free €5 bet.As there was a Boyle's two doors down I said feck it,and filled out a docket.Fiver straight forecast on the Grand national, numbersixvalverde and hedgehunter.Got €295 off a free bet from a newspaper I didn't even buy.Happy effin days!

Ever been really lucky?

Comments