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Bizarre coincidences


chrisjpainter
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The other day I had a bit of a medication incident. I'd recently changed stuff and the new stuff was causing me to hallucinate and generally go a bit manic. My partner called Dorset 111 (not mad enough for 999, but enough to need a bit of advice). Who does she end up speaking to? One of my former colleagues when I used to work in an outdoors shop in Reading! Neither of us are in that area any more and I didn't even know he was down this way - or working for 111. Thankfully he was apparently a lot more helpful than previous experiences of 111!

Anyone else got any weird ones out there?

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I was working in London and staying at a house near Tooting Bec Common (a big lovely old house owned by two semi-retired art valuation experts). They were actually away one week but their daughter was there. On talking with her she was a doctor at Whiston hospital and she knew my Dad!!

Another one was I was thousands of miles from home (Falklands) and walked into the top bar snooker room to find my cousin playing snooker in there

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I have two;

Both took place in London and I very rarely visit London, but I used to occasionally on business - and both of these took place whilst there on business.

Firstly, I got into a tube train at (I think) Baker Street heading for Wembley, sat down and looked about - and discovered I was sitting bang opposite my old boss (with whom I fortunately got along very well).  It was perhaps not 100% coincidence since we were both attending the same (trade) event at the conference centre there.

Secondly, I was asked at very short notice (phone call the night before) to attend an exhibition in Olympia as a colleague to should have been on our stand there had to cancel at the last minute.  Took train to London and tube to Earls Court, then decided to walk up to Olympia so that I could have a smoke before getting there.  Whist walking along - I suddenly became aware of someone calling my name from a car (I didn't recognise) pulled over and window down.  Turned out to be a friend who I used to shoot with once a year in Scotland.  He was working in the area and unbelievably had spotted me amongst the many others (I was wearing a standard London compatible business suit etc.)

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Wow! I was on an Air France flight from Lagos to Paris back in 2015 and there sat on the seat next to me on the airplane train was....my wife....! It was quite a surprise. Until I remembered that we were coming back together from Nigeria after a four week family visit. And what's even more strange is that in 2019 the same thing happened again on another Air France flight. Talk about coincidence!

Edited by enfieldspares
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Back in the day when you could go up to the cockpit of a plane, we took our son up to see the captain and he had been in my class at school.

Another was in London when my mrs was walking the dog. She got talking to a guy who remarked on her accent and asked where in Ireland she was from as he was also Irish. When she mentioned the tiny village in Limerick she is from, he was amazed and said he used to spend many an hour just watching a blacksmith in that town. When my mrs asked what the blacksmith's name was, it was her Dad.

Edited by walshie
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About 8 years ago my wife and I were visiting our son in Oz.

We went to a winery one day and while we were stood chatting and having a drink a chap came up to me and said "are you from   .............. (My home town).

It turns out he had overheard our chatter and recognised my accent although he had not been home (about a mile from where I was born) for at least 44 years and had live a couple of doors down from an infant  school friend.

He was visiting Oz having lived in New Zealand for all that time.

My accent (cannot change it for the life of me) is very broad and typical of the time I grew up in.

I feel local regional accents are fast disappearing these days.

Different accents from very close communities were very easily recognised then and still are from the older community.

I can think of at least 4 from within 5/6 miles of me.

 

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had my kitchen done about 25 years ago ....the handyman who did a stonking job of it brought his son along (aged 12) as he was on the school hols ...to help him.........

 

fast forward 25 years.....the young son buys the house next door to me............last year.........spooky

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A few years ago I went on holiday to Benidorm with a couple of friends and some other friends of theirs that I'd never met, while walking to a bar we were having a bit of banter and I was getting a bit more as one of the friends of my friends heard I worked in an office (so was getting the easy job lines), at one point I mentioned that I hadn't always worked in an office and in fact was a mechanic before started working in factories, the conversation changed and started asking where and when, at that point got to a road crossing and looked up... right there was a massive poster with one of my ex-factory mates (from 20 years previous) who was now doing Elvis tribute acts in the place we were opposite.. walked in and as soon as his set finished he walked over for a great catch up, very small world lol

2015-10-31 16.55.05.jpg

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When I was in the army I got talking to a RAF guy whose surname was Waldock I was working with at a tri service unit.

He was from Lincs but his family on his dads side were originally from Bedfordshire, same as my Mums.

It transpired also that his grandfather had been a farmer, as had mine.  Then it emerged that they had both lived and farmed around the same small village at roughly the same times.  So the next monday after having been home I borrowed a book from my mum which had the history of the village and had a section on my grandads farm.  

Turning to the page about Town Farm there was a picture of a man and woman sitting in the inglenook fireplace at the farmhouse.  The caption was "John and Cis Waldock by the fire at Town Farm".  His grandad had been the tenant farmer my grandad took over from in the 50s.

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Another one that I had - I was in the Falklands in 87 in JCUFI - a tri-service unit - and there was a guy I was on shift with called Speedy. A couple of years later when in the Air Force in training at RAF Locking I bumped into him there - he was terribly confused as I was in a blue uniform!!

Flash forward 20 years and I am driving from Salisbury to home the back route (via Pewsey to avoid the tourist route) and as you come into Pewsey there is a petrol station when coming from the south and as I went buy I glanced into the station - slammed the brakes on and pulled in and then spent the next hour catching up with Speedy!!

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Last one from me (for now :) )

I met my wife in Cyprus when she was on holiday and I was stationed there and got married in St Lucia 11 months later and had a blessing and a reception/night do when we came back.

My mate from where I used to live came along his partner to the do and thought he had the wrong place because his neighbour was there! They were there because they were friends with my wife and had lived next door to each other for a few years. The funny thing is they had been talking with each other about going to weddings at the weekend prior - they could have shared a cab :D

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A few years ago we were in Disney (magic kingdom) and a former student that my wife and I both taught, was in a queue for a ride (we didn’t know she was there - never had any contact after leaving school, she had done uni etc) and chatted as we moved. She was just starting travelling USA for a year.
 

Roll forward 12 months, we are at the same park and same ride and guess who was in the queue at the same time..... 

Edited by markm
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15 minutes ago, markm said:

A few years ago we were in Disney (magic kingdom) and a former student that my wife and I both taught, was in a queue for a ride (we didn’t know she was there - never had any contact after leaving school, she had done uni etc) and chatted as we moved. She was just starting travelling USA for a year.
 

Roll forward 12 months, we are at the same park and same ride and guess who was in the queue..... 

Santa Claus?

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Mickey Mouse? Twelve years ago now my next door neighbour bid £50 on an advertisement with no pictures on it on eBay for "a Mickey Mouse outfit". Later that week a large minibus pulled up outside his house, Billy Davies and fifteen or so other blokes got out, then there was a knock at his door, and he found out he'd actually purchased the Derby County Football Club 2007/2008 Premier League team! How bizarre was that!

Edited by enfieldspares
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30 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

Mickey Mouse? Twelve years ago now my next door neighbour bid £50 on an advertisement with no pictures on it on eBay for "a Mickey Mouse outfit". Later that week a large minibus pulled up outside his house, Billy Davies and fifteen or so other blokes got out, then there was a knock at his door, and he found out he'd actually purchased the Derby County Football Club 2007/2008 Premier League team! How bizarre was that!

Had he met them before ?

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