I was half way down a ski slope in Bulgaria and a guy I hadn't seen in twenty year pulled up right beside me. He had married an ex-girlfriend who on cue pulled up on the other side of me although he had said she was on another slope she had changed her mind and gone on the same one as him-and me.
I also once met my next door neighbour on a ferry to Gozo, Malta.
Quote: Kenneth @ November 11 2011, 2:15 PM GMTWhat was the book?
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
(Which is a novel, if it had been a non fiction that would have been a lot weirder.)
Quote: zooo @ November 11 2011, 3:09 PM GMTA Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
That book is only a few years old. Had it been something really old, such as Balzac's Lost Illusions, that would have been weirder and a better read.
Quite possibly.
There are still hundreds of thousands of books I could have come across, and chosen to buy though. And many trains and seats I could have picked. And of course all the millions of books that exist that she could have decided to read that day. So still semi weird!
When back to Leicester for the first time in ten years a while back to see a rugby match. As I was openeing the main doors of the hotel for an older couple who were struggling with their bags, I heard one of them say my name. I turned and looked a bit more closely. They were friends of ours who also used to be very involved with the club but they had moved to Yorkshire about the same time we had moved away. This was the first and only weekend that they were visiting. I also hasten to add that there is more than one hotel in Leicester. Small world.
I remember once, when I was 12, going fishing with a mate, to the Leeds-Liverpool canal. I'd brought a small, bright green net with me, which I had beside me as I knelt on the bank, peering into the water. Then, when I saw a fish, I started looking frantically for the net, then noticed that it was at the bottom of the canal, or so I thought. Obviously, I figured it had fallen in, so I reached into the water and scooped it out. It was only then that I noticed that my net was actually still on the bank, squashed under my leg, meaning I now had two identical nets. Now this might not seem like a particularly spooky coincidence at first, but when you consider how long the canal is, and the fact that the net was identical in size and colour to mine, you start to realise what a massive coincidence it was.
I was searching for a customer on the computer system at work
The database contains every single house on every road and street in the whole of Great Britain - that's like thousands and thousands
Anyway I hit the wrong key and the house that came up instead by accident was one about 5 doors down from where I live
Statistically that is quite staggering!
I went to the Grand National the year it was abandoned because of an IRA bomb-threat ('97 I think). There were some races before the evacuation, and I had a bet on one of them. I went up to one of the bookies and looked at the runners on his little blackboard, and decided to play it safe and put £25 each way on the horse that I presumed was the favourite, because it was at the top of the list, with odds of 14/1. There was a bloke next to me who saw/heard me placing my bet, and I remember him looking at me and saying something like, "Why not? You only live once", or something, then him putting a similar amount on the same horse. Anyway, I watched the race, and sure enough my horse came in first. I went back to the bookie to receive my lovely cash and had another look at the blackboard, and realised that my horse had actually been the least favoured, rather than the favourite. Straight away I realised why the other bloke had said what he'd said.
The race was re-held, a couple of days later, on a Monday, and I remember my sister telling me she was going to be putting a tenner each way on a horse that had odds of 100/1, and me advising her not to do it. Of course, the horse ended up coming second or third!! I felt was so annoyed and guilty that I gave her a hundred quid out of my wallet the second the race finished, so I ended up losing some of my winnings. Can anyone work out how much she would've really got? I've forgotten how each way bets work?
My three Nephews all have the same Birthday,not Triplets.
Two are Brothers,with a two year age difference.
Quote: catskillz @ November 12 2011, 12:18 AM GMTThe race was re-held..she was going to be putting a tenner each way on a horse that had odds of 100/1, and me advising her not to do it. Of course, the horse ended up coming second or third!! I felt was so annoyed and guilty that I gave her a hundred quid out of my wallet the second the race finished, so I ended up losing some of my winnings. Can anyone work out how much she would've really got? I've forgotten how each way bets work?
She would have bet £20 (£10 e/w) and got back £260: (£10 @ one quarter odds of 100/1 = 25/1 returns, plus the £10 stake).
Oh okay, thanks.
Actually, that reminds me of another coincidence. I think I remember reading that only two 100/1 horses have ever won the National, and they were in consecutive years, back in the '20s.
My daughter and I were walking the streets of London and someone began yelling her first name. She ignored it until the girl yelled our last name, too. It was her friend from high school back in Orange County, California.
My parents spend half the year in a 100-unit condo complex in Florida. There was a residents' meeting the weekend they moved in so they decided to attend and a woman introduced herself as my mother's high school classmate. They hadn't seen each other since high school 50 years earlier in a class of 30 people 2,000 miles away.
In 1982 I was working in Germany the day of England versus Spain in the World Cup. I was driving on the autobahn on the outskirts of Dortmund when, on a complete whim, I decided to check in to a Holiday Inn which I saw from the autobahn, and watch the match. About half-an-hour after checking-in, the phone rang in my room: it was Reception, who said that there was a call for me. I told them that that was impossible, as nobody could possibly know that I was there. Five minutes later, they rang again to check my name and insisted that there was a call for me. I reiterated the impossibility of this, but the Receptionist asked me if I would speak to the caller, who she said was insistent.. so I took the call. It went something like this:
Caller: Mister S******?
Me (very surprised): Yes?
Caller: Mr. S******? This is (can't remember) from (can't remember) GMBH in Dortmund. We're just calling to confirm our meeting time for later today. Are you settling in okay?
Me (dumbfounded): Ummm.. I'm sorry, but I have no idea who you are!
Caller: Oh.. are you Mr. S**** S******?
Me (gobsmacked at hearing my exact name): Yes, I am, but...
Caller: Well Mr. S******, this is bladiblah from bladiblah GMBH. We have an appointment to meet later and I'm just calling to confirm your arrival at the hotel.
Me (dumbstruck for a few seconds): Ummm.. yes, my name is S**** S******, but you must have the wrong person. I'm an antique dealer and I don't know anything about what you're saying. The only thing I can think of is that there has been an incredible coincidence, and that another english person with the same name is also staying at the hotel.
Caller(silent for a few seconds): Oh. Well then, I'm sorry to have bothered you.
Me: no problem.
5 minutes later, the phone rings again and it is Reception. She asks me to confirm my name and says that there is a call for me. I tell her that I am not the person who the call is for and she goes on to tell me that I must be, because I had made a reservation a week before (!!!). I was completely confused and so was Reception..
To cut a long story short(er), another english person with exactly the same names as me (not a common surname at all) had booked a room at the hotel for that night, and when I turned up, they had assumed it was me and given me the reserved room.
Had this been in England, it would have anyway been some coincidence... but this was in the middle of Germany and I had just stopped there on a whim. Crazy.
Wow! That is a big'n.
This set of coincidences are more my friend's than mine but I was 'there' for the first part so I was at least involved in the process.
In 1990 me and my mate Alan went to Aghios Nikolaos on Crete for a lads' holiday. While we were out there we met a couple of girls from Stoke-on-Trent and while things didn't progress the way your (dirty) minds are thinking we spent most of our days with them.
Anyway, after the holiday we went out separate ways, us back to Peterborough, them back to the Potteries, and that was that...except that two months later, while Alan was walking along a crowded promenade at Blackpool on August Bank Holiday Monday, the two girls spotted him and they all spent the rest of the day together. I remember there being quite a neat photo of them all together hugging each other and feeling miffed that I'd missed out.
...but it doesn't end there...
A couple of years later Alan dated a girl and as they got to know each other they talked holidays and Crete came up in conversation. Not only had they both been to the same island, the same resort but they'd also stayed in the same apartment block...in the very same room! In fact, she moved in the same day we moved out!