Freaky coincidence stuff...

[Lady Whistledown]

Interesting (but not original), but you've not mentioned the several thousand facts about these people that they don't have in common. I would be willing to bet you could pick and two people and 8 times out of 10 find something slightly out of the ordinary about them that they have in common.

I was thinking that as I read it, it's a fair point. The human brain seeks uniformity and pattern in things, including sometimes when it simply isn't there or goes against all logic. It looks for what it can see not what it can't.

Still funny about the photo though. Not so much that I took it, as that could have had any one of the 65,000 or so people at Twickers that day in it. Just that I happened to bump into the one recognisable person in it, months down the line.

 

[severnside gull]

About ten years ago we were in Malta and had the usual battle to get past a gang of time share salesmen in Valetta. Later that evening we met some of them in a bar in St Julien and got chatting. Off duty they were quite a decent bunch and were appreciative that we had earlier given them the brush off politely and without swearing at them. We saw them again over the next few days while they were working. We always said hello and they never hassled us.

Two years ago in Hong Kong we were walking down Nathan Road market when we were accosted by two girls selling timeshare. As they started their pitch and we kept walking I heard someone shout at them "you're wasting your time wth those two". It was one of the Maltese lads who had been brought over to head up a team selling a new holiday complex. Popped into a McCafe and had a latte to catch up and he said this was his last job as he was getting married and planned to return to Europe to live.

Last summer we drove over to France and stayed in the Pyrenees. We were having a coffee in the main square in Pau and thinking about finding a hotel for the night when a man walked in with a group of cyclists - you've got it - the same guy we met in Malta and Hong Kong!. He now owns a gites up in the mountains organising cycle tours of the big tour de france climbs. We're going back this year but for a planned meeting this time.

 

[skipper734]

If these six degrees of separation type things are so usual or unusual how come I can't get 6 out of 49 lotto numbers right.

 

[brunswick]

synchronicities exist for sure....study some of carl jungs work.

for me, there is no such thing as a coincidence. consciousness creates.

 

[X Isle]

I just remembered, a few years back we were on a family holiday in the Tyrol region of Austria. One afternoon we ended up walking up a particular mountain, probably having lunch at the top or something like that.

As we walked back down one of the dozens of footpaths afterwards, I noticed something familiar about two people walking up the mountain towards us. Sure enough, it was the couple who lived about six door up from my folks. We had no idea they were in Austria. Of all the days, months, times, countries, towns, mountains, and even footpaths we could have chosen, we all ended up converging on that path, a thousand or so miles from home.

Still not as cool as meeting a random face in the background of your photo, but still unlikely.

Got in a mini-bus for a tour of three Cities in the Cuban interior a coupe of years back, a couple of pick ups from random hotels, six in the party, two other Brits. After a short while it became apparent the two guys were from Shoreham and Lancing, small world.

Infact what would really freak me out was if they were on here, pretty sure at least one was an Albion fan .

 

[Huple]

I went into a pub in london recently and got talking to a man at the bar who turned out to be a brighton fan as well and then i went into the chip shop next door and there was another albion fan and this time i had met him before.
then i went to the match

 

[Muzzatron]

I was also born in Beverley, Yorkshire.
Thats moderately coincidental isn't it ?

A fellow Yorkshireman .. Aye Up

 

[Guy Fawkes]

This is probably one of the best introductions to a film (Magnolia) - the 3rd example is incredible if true

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[s5.bha]

One of my more interesting recent ones:

About 6 years ago my boiler broke down so I rang a number on the back page of the friday-ad. The guy who answered was in hospital but recommended a great heating engineer that had just moved down from London. I rang this other dude, who came round at the end of his day as he lived near me in the east brighton area. He was basically doing me a favour to get my hot water on that same day so I offered him a beer and he charged me f*** all for the job. We ended having a few beers and became mates. Nice bloke.

Then, about 3 years later, we were chatting about our early lives when he said, "my first best mate Paul [surname removed] moved to LA in 1985 and ended up living there. You lived in LA for a while, right? He was a skater."

Which is a bit like being asked by a random in New York, "Do you know Bob Smith in Birmingham?" There's 15 million people in the San Antonio basin!

So I said, "Did he come from Chingford and have 3 brothers?", whereupon his face dropped as if to say "you're having a laugh".

Turns out I knew this guy Paul very well, he had lived with my mates in HB pretty much since he moved there in 85.

Not only that, one of Paul's brothers married a girl I was sharing a house with in Huntington Beach in 2003, and the wedding reception was held in the house they all grew up in in Chingford.

I got some of my snaps from the wedding out and he confirmed that it was the same family, same house. Put em back in touch on farcebook. Small feckin world indeed!

Oh, and a shameless plug for my mate's excellent plumbing services!

Gas Boilers and Central Heating | Sussex | Brighton Hove Based JMP Heating

HB........now that brings back memories, worked at Wimpis back in 87 !!!

Went to a party one time in HB and there was 19 skaters and surfers at the party all from the Brighton area.............shit I'm getting old !!!

 

[fataddick]

I'm shit at maths, but I know a lot of coincidence is down to probabilty. Most famously, the birthday equation. There are 365.25 days of the year it is possible to be born on, yet it only requires 57 random strangers to be at a party for there to be a 99% chance of two of them sharing a birthday. Even with just 23 random people in a room there's a 50% chance two will share a b'day.

My favouritest personal 'coincidence' things are:

STREAM OF COINCIDENCES
Had booked a trip to Boston two years ago. Love WWE wrestling. Many months after booking, found out by chance while websurfing that there was going to be a WWE pay-per-view in Providence Rhode Island (an hour on the train from Boston) when I was over there, so bought a ticket to the event and switched my hotel booking to include two nights in Providence. The one night of those that wasn't the wrestling, I was sat twiddling my thumbs in a bar, flicked through a local music paper to see a photo of a really obscure feminist punk band (Mecca Normal) that was one of my favourite bands many years earlier. I'd never seen them live and thought they'd split up ages ago. Turns out they were still going. And they were about to go on that night in Providence (asked the barman for directions...) two doors down from where I was drinking. Went to the gig. I was the only paying punter. Liked the gig, staff and venue - and felt a bit sorry for them to be fair - so I bought a venue T-shirt. Stashed it at the back of my cupboard until a laundry crisis three months ago, when I finally wore it for the first time. Went to my local pub in Kemptown, there were no spare tables, ended up sharing a table with an American couple who were in Brighton for one night only (part of a London vacation), found out they were from Providence, mentioned going there once (largely by accident), flashed open my jacket to show my obscure tiny venue - AS220 - T-shirt I was wearing for the first time, and they both gasped lotsly as she told me her dad owns said venue, and they proceeded to take photos of me in the T-shirt with them. I'm actually wearing said T-shirt for only the third time ever today when I happened upon (and am replying to) this thread. All a lot of tiny coincidences, but they add together to seem weirder than their whole. Or something.

SINGLE COINCIDENCE
A year or two after moving to Brighton (in the mid 90s), I - being a loveless clown - took out a personal ad in the Guardian Soulmates section. My first date was in a Lanes pub with a woman who turned out to come from Surrey (like me), and I discovered had grown up in the same village I grew up in as a small child. On further discussion, it turned out we lived literally next door to each other. Further discussion = we went to the same playgroup. Even further discussion = our respective parents car-shared taking us there. So we'd travelled to/gone to playgroup together pretty much every day from age 3-5. And before the usual suspects ask, no I didn't shag her on the date (or at any stage), partly as I thought the whole thing was a bit scary/uncanny, and mostly as she didn't fancy me and wouldn't return my calls. But still, a weird coincidence I think.

 

[butchy]

SINGLE COINCIDENCE
A year or two after moving to Brighton (in the mid 90s), I - being a loveless clown - took out a personal ad in the Guardian Soulmates section. My first date was in a Lanes pub with a woman who turned out to come from Surrey (like me), and I discovered had grown up in the same village I grew up in as a small child. On further discussion, it turned out we lived literally next door to each other. Further discussion = we went to the same playgroup. Even further discussion = our respective parents car-shared taking us there. So we'd travelled to/gone to playgroup together pretty much every day from age 3-5. And before the usual suspects ask, no I didn't shag her on the date (or at any stage), partly as I thought the whole thing was a bit scary/uncanny, and mostly as she didn't fancy me and wouldn't return my calls. But still, a weird coincidence I think.

Are you sure it wasn't your sister

 

[Colossal Squid]

A very good friend of mine grew up in the sleepy village of Dormansland, just outside East Grinstead, where I too spent some of my formative years. He eventually left home to go to uni in Aberystwyth at the age of 20 where, in his second year, he started courting a young lady of the same age. As they got on to the subject of where they were from originally they were both shocked to discover that they had both been living in the very same village (pop. 2,200). Their paths had simply never crossed before as she had gone to a private school whilst he was a commoner like me.

As their relationship got more serious they took a trip back to the village they both knew so well, to meet their respective families. Turns out her family had moved in to the very house that my friend's family had first lived in, on the edge of the village. In fact the girlfriend's family had actually purchased the house from the boyfriend's family, many years ago.

And now? They live together in Seven Dials and are engaged to be wed next year!

Don't you just love a happy ending?

 

[blue'n'white]

I'm sure that meeting the local video store man on a holiday to Gran Canaria doesn't rate too highly here and that's the only personal thing I can think of.

However I was intrigued to find out today that EXACTLY the same number of runs had been scored in this year's cricket world cup as in the last one which I thought quite staggering

 

[Tomo1794]

Another coincidence connected to my birthday involves my Mother's best friend having her first child on March 17th.

Knowing my mother's family were of Irish extraction she skoffed to my mother I bet you can't do that(have a baby born on St Patricks day).

12 months later to the day she did.

My Birthday = 17th March
Surname = Callaghan
Probably means: Irish heritage

 

[eastlondonseagull]

When I was travelling, nine years ago, I spent a few weeks on the Perhentian Islands, off the coast of Malaysia. The girl I was travelling with at the time started chatting to another girl on the beach and they soon found out they were from the same part of north London. Several questions later, turns out that this random woman was the new flat-mate of my mate's ex-boyfriend! Part of the reason she'd gone travelling was to get away from him after they'd split up! Of all the people to bump into!

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

My Birthday = 17th March
Surname = Callaghan
Probably means: Irish heritage

Such a shame you were born in 1794 and not 1973, then it would have been an even bigger coincidence!

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I was thinking that as I read it, it's a fair point. The human brain seeks uniformity and pattern in things, including sometimes when it simply isn't there or goes against all logic. It looks for what it can see not what it can't.

Still funny about the photo though. Not so much that I took it, as that could have had any one of the 65,000 or so people at Twickers that day in it. Just that I happened to bump into the one recognisable person in it, months down the line.

It's a great story, I was just heading off an sort of paranormal voodoo that some people tend to incant about these things (although I love the Lizard People theory)

 

[NMH]

One of my more interesting recent ones:

About 6 years ago my boiler broke down so I rang a number on the back page of the friday-ad. The guy who answered was in hospital but recommended a great heating engineer that had just moved down from London. I rang this other dude, who came round at the end of his day as he lived near me in the east brighton area. He was basically doing me a favour to get my hot water on that same day so I offered him a beer and he charged me f*** all for the job. We ended having a few beers and became mates. Nice bloke.

Then, about 3 years later, we were chatting about our early lives when he said, "my first best mate Paul [surname removed] moved to LA in 1985 and ended up living there. You lived in LA for a while, right? He was a skater."

Which is a bit like being asked by a random in New York, "Do you know Bob Smith in Birmingham?" There's 15 million people in the San Antonio basin!

So I said, "Did he come from Chingford and have 3 brothers?", whereupon his face dropped as if to say "you're having a laugh".

Turns out I knew this guy Paul very well, he had lived with my mates in HB pretty much since he moved there in 85.

Not only that, one of Paul's brothers married a girl I was sharing a house with in Huntington Beach in 2003, and the wedding reception was held in the house they all grew up in in Chingford.

I got some of my snaps from the wedding out and he confirmed that it was the same family, same house. Put em back in touch on farcebook. Small feckin world indeed!

Oh, and a shameless plug for my mate's excellent plumbing services!

Gas Boilers and Central Heating | Sussex | Brighton Hove Based JMP Heating

HB is where I first moved to in California in 1981.
Played football with a bunch for a Newport Beach team, briefly - wouldn't be surprised if we'd been around similar circles, and people.

I'd moved to LA in 1983, where I lived til 2006

 

[somerset]

Ok,... here goes mine,....

In 1997 I was on RAF Akritiri in Cyprus having a post rugby match drink when one of my mates introduced me to his cousin from Hong Kong just over in Europe for a visit... we had a chat, all went out on the town,... got pissed and then all of us went back to our lives as you do. Now,.. 8 years later, 2005, I was just taking my seat in the 'cake tin' stadium in Wellington New Zealand for the 2nd Lions Test...... and who do you think was in the seat next to me..... yep, you guessed it,...... spooky eh?

 

[Tomo1794]

Such a shame you were born in 1794 and not 1973, then it would have been an even bigger coincidence!

Ha, nah I'm born in 1994 but the 17 comes from the March bit. Used it as my username for numerous other things and it kinda stuck.