B, boys & I just spent the weekend camping with my bro-in-law and it was gorgeous weather. We sat out reminising about when we travelled Europe and it reminded me of an amazing coincidence that we experienced that i thought may be a good thread starter?
During the months of July & August 2004, we moved around Italy. Pisa - Rome - Napoli - Florence - Venice. For six weeks we didn't see a single GB car or speak to any english people. When we arrived in Florence we drove on to our campsite and we were directed to a large pitch for the van. As we drove past one couple we noticed they had a GB on the back of their car and so we made a mental note to plod up to see them once we were set up at the pitch. Few hours later we walked up and they were stood outside their tent. We nodded and said hello and once they saw we were english we stopped to chat. They too said that they were yet to see any other GB's during their 3 week stay in Italy. Whilst we were chatting away, i noticed on the registration plate for their car underneath all the letters and numbers it said BK Rollinson LE15. I quickly asked 'whereabouts are you from' and they said " You won't have heard of it, its the smallest county in England. We're from Oakham in Rutland" We couldn't believe that not only were they the only British for us to see in 2 months in Italy, but they were from the same town as us. We were all so shocked and quickly found out that they knew our parents very well and we knew their kids from school.
Now is that a coincidence?????
Anyone had any others?
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My long lost sister................
However, I don't think this is that amazing. Humans are incredibly bad at statistics, and I am sure there were just as many near-misses & 'coincidences' that didn't happen or I did not realise.
Cool KK & DG!
A less amazing one was when i was 11 and my dad had just bought another place in London to rent out. We all went down there to check it out and for my mum to work her interior deisgn magic on it. dad got annoyed with us and gave us a couple of quid to nip to the Brunswick Centre for some sweets(not far) and when we walked in the sweetie shop i bumped into my woodwork teacher from school :-)
One of my cousins, who's a bit older than me, went to work in Kenya after graduating from uni in the mid-80s. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air.
The elephant seemed distressed so John approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large thorn deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, he worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face him and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For several tense moments John stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.
John never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where John and his son Alex were standing. The large bull elephant stared at John and lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at him.
Remembering the encounter back in the 1980s, John couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. He summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again.
It wrapped its trunk around one of John's legs and hurled into the enclosure wall, killing him instantly.
So it probably wasn't the same elephant.
He said "oh, I'm from east yorkshire, a small town". "Whereabouts exactly?" I enquired. "A small place, you won't have heard of it". Try me, I said. "A small place near Beverly in Yorkshire", he said. "Go on" I said. "Tiny place called Brandesburton" he said. I couldn't believe it. I told him I knew the place and that my ex in-laws had a farm there. He stared at me in disbelief and asked if it was Mrs X. OMG, yes it's her. He laughed and said he knew her as his parents were currently going through a legal dispute with them.
Another time in Melbourne Australia I was babysitting with my mate. The mum of the kid we were sitting was talking about all these people whos names I seemed to recognise. It turned out that she knew my cousin (who then lived in Queensland and I'd just visited hence the reason I knew all the names) My cousins daughter had punched her other daughter one night in a night club and knocked her out - Oh the shame of it - I didn't know where to put my face. I explained pretty quickly that I was not like that as I was looking after her kid )))
OK, slightly more serious one. I was chatting to a couple in an airport in Turkey a good few years ago and it turned out that the lady was the nurse who had been with my Auntie when she died a few months earlier.
Mate had the habit of meeting friends wherever he went. The classic was a bus trip in a tiny bit of Egypt.
When I was nursing in Suffolk, I was chatting to a patient who after a while I realised had worked with my aunt at a stately home in a small Welsh town.
Who would have thought it?!
I've never been to Ibiza.
Thanks Coops, its more fun than housework
indeed, Jason X, great tale, Muttley
I couple of months late I was in a pub on South island and recounted this amazing coincidnce. The bloke I was talking to said "that's him over there".
Strange but true