• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Coincidences

I can't help but mentally link Coleridge with H.G. Wells.

A coconut for the poster who can say why.

I know the reason.
 
Correct, but some guy's pinched your coconut.

image-20161124-15351-bfviu6.jpg
 
So, 10 mins ago, I made a weak pun about Mott the Hoople on b3ta. 2 mins later I unwrap and open FT365. Turn a page... first thing I see is page three and the words "Mott the Hoople" in a fullpage ad for a concert.

Haven't heard them for a long time and now twice within 2 mins...
 
So, 10 mins ago, I made a weak pun about Mott the Hoople on b3ta. 2 mins later I unwrap and open FT365. Turn a page... first thing I see is page three and the words "Mott the Hoople" in a fullpage ad for a concert.

Haven't heard them for a long time and now twice within 2 mins...

Any excuse for:

 
I had a notable synchronicity / coincidence incident a week ago Thursday ...

I had traveled back to my hometown to deal with probate issues on my late brother and continue with clearing out his home - the house in which we grew up. I finally excavated (I assure you - the most accurate term ... ) to the last corner of what had been his bedroom, and was surprised to find a stack of new-in-the-box apparel and shoes.

One box held a new pair of size 10 (US) walking shoes purchased in the 1980's but never worn. This was understandable. I recalled his shoe size as a 10 C (size 10; narrow width).

He and I were very active hikers / backpackers in the 1970's / 1980's, we preferred Danner boots, and we'd owned and worn out multiple pairs over the years. Another box held a new pair of Danner waterproof (GoreTex) boots with the sales slip attesting he'd bought them 30 years ago for over $100 (expensive for that timeframe). They showed no signs of ever having been worn.

This pair gave me pause, because they were a size 9.5 (US) in a medium (D) width. Owing to longstanding orthopedic issues, both he and I were always quite picky about shoe sizing and fit, so I couldn't understand why he'd purchased boots a half-size too small.

About an hour later a car pulled up at the old family home. It was a couple - old friends who'd retired to Ecuador 7 years ago, were visiting our hometown for the first time since emigration, and whose itinerary I'd matched to plan this latest trip.

The primary motivation for their trip back to the hometown was for shopping. The husband (the living friend I've known the longest, at circa 60 years) couldn't find apparel to fit in Ecuador. Though not especially tall or rotund, he'd been stymied by Ecuadorean stores' stock designed for smaller / shorter average Ecuadorean anthropometrics.

I asked him if there were any items he still needed to acquire to achieve his trip objectives. He said the main thing was a pair of good boots he could wear on his forays into the mountains and / or beyond into the Amazon basin region. He wanted to find something waterproof and relatively lightweight.

I asked him what shoe size he wore ...

"9 and a half"

I then asked what width he used ...

"Medium - a D width"

I reached behind my chair, pulled out the Danner box, handed it to him, and said, "Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!"

They fit perfectly, and he was suitably stunned and grateful ...

If they'd visited a day earlier I'd not have discovered the boots yet. If they'd visited a day later they'd have already purchased other boots.
 
I had a notable synchronicity / coincidence incident a week ago Thursday ...

I had traveled back to my hometown to deal with probate issues on my late brother and continue with clearing out his home - the house in which we grew up. I finally excavated (I assure you - the most accurate term ... ) to the last corner of what had been his bedroom, and was surprised to find a stack of new-in-the-box apparel and shoes.

One box held a new pair of size 10 (US) walking shoes purchased in the 1980's but never worn. This was understandable. I recalled his shoe size as a 10 C (size 10; narrow width).

He and I were very active hikers / backpackers in the 1970's / 1980's, we preferred Danner boots, and we'd owned and worn out multiple pairs over the years. Another box held a new pair of Danner waterproof (GoreTex) boots with the sales slip attesting he'd bought them 30 years ago for over $100 (expensive for that timeframe). They showed no signs of ever having been worn.

This pair gave me pause, because they were a size 9.5 (US) in a medium (D) width. Owing to longstanding orthopedic issues, both he and I were always quite picky about shoe sizing and fit, so I couldn't understand why he'd purchased boots a half-size too small.

About an hour later a car pulled up at the old family home. It was a couple - old friends who'd retired to Ecuador 7 years ago, were visiting our hometown for the first time since emigration, and whose itinerary I'd matched to plan this latest trip.

The primary motivation for their trip back to the hometown was for shopping. The husband (the living friend I've known the longest, at circa 60 years) couldn't find apparel to fit in Ecuador. Though not especially tall or rotund, he'd been stymied by Ecuadorean stores' stock designed for smaller / shorter average Ecuadorean anthropometrics.

I asked him if there were any items he still needed to acquire to achieve his trip objectives. He said the main thing was a pair of good boots he could wear on his forays into the mountains and / or beyond into the Amazon basin region. He wanted to find something waterproof and relatively lightweight.

I asked him what shoe size he wore ...

"9 and a half"

I then asked what width he used ...

"Medium - a D width"

I reached behind my chair, pulled out the Danner box, handed it to him, and said, "Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!"

They fit perfectly, and he was suitably stunned and grateful ...

If they'd visited a day earlier I'd not have discovered the boots yet. If they'd visited a day later they'd have already purchased other boots.

Great story! Reminds me of the wellies. I bought a pair of steel toecap wellies from a car boot sale, worn once, £2. They just appealed to me.

I washed them in the kitchen sink and out them out to dry, wondering why I'd wanted them - not even our size! - and my friend rang to ask if I had any such wellies in that very size for her son who was starting a college course. Yeah, I said, looking out at them drying in the sun...

Exactly the same thing happened again later, when I impulsively picked up another pair and my brother suddenly needed some.
 
Last edited:
Anyway...

Last night I wanted to pop out late on. The bathroom clock said about 20:41 so I snapped it up a bit. Later I noticed that the clock was still at that time. It seems to have stopped the moment I saw it.
You are the Medusa.
 
Great story! Reminds me of the wellies. I bought a pair of steel toecap wellies from a car boot sale, worn once, £2. They just appealed to me. I

washed them in the kitchen sink and out them out to dry, wondering why I'd wanted them - not even our size! - and my friend rang to ask if I had any such wellies in that very size for her son who was starting a college course. Yeah, I said, looking out at them drying in the sun...

Exactly the same thing happened again later, when I impulsively picked up another pair and my brother suddenly needed some.

And now you're known as "The person to see if you need wellies".
 
I think Waitrose is reading my mind! :actw:

I was looking at the Ocado app and an advert came on the TV advertising exactly what I was looking at.
 
Yesterday, I noticed an Eco-friendly laundry bleach in my local Spar. Picked it up for some reason (it's not the sort of thing that usually piques my interest ;)) . This morning I see that MrOTT has dyed quite a lot of my whites a horrible shade of blue. Guess what my next purchase will be...
 
When i was a kid i was playing in our local park with other kids, as we were playing hide and seek i ran through some bushes and stepped onto a plank of wood, i immediately screamed as a nail in the wood had gone straight through my shoe and my foot was impaled on it, a lad riding past on his bike came over and stood on the wood to keep it still and held me still, he shouted to his mate ring an ambulance, i was whisked away to hospital and made a complete recovery, fast forward 15yrs and my cousin started dating a guy and it was the same guy who came to my aid when i got impaled on the nail.
 
This morning, around 8am-ish there was an ad for Corona featuring a really cool song by a band called Khruangbin (found out after a google search, I'd never heard of them before.)
About an hour later I dropped into my local WH Smith, and was looking at the free cd on this months Mojo, and there was a track by........Khruangbin!
 
How do you know it was 20.41 when you first looked at the clock?

Because I was keeping a close eye on the time and knew it'd been only a minute since I looked at a downstairs clock.
 
When i was a kid i was playing in our local park with other kids, as we were playing hide and seek i ran through some bushes and stepped onto a plank of wood, i immediately screamed as a nail in the wood had gone straight through my shoe and my foot was impaled on it, a lad riding past on his bike came over and stood on the wood to keep it still and held me still, he shouted to his mate ring an ambulance, i was whisked away to hospital and made a complete recovery, fast forward 15yrs and my cousin started dating a guy and it was the same guy who came to my aid when i got impaled on the nail.

He was a cool kid, he knew exactly what to do. I bet he's grown up into a good bloke.
 
Sorry, just changing the subject.

My OH told me a good coincidence from his past this evening. In the early 90s he had a good friend called James. James went off to university in a far away city, and by letter (as we used to do in those far off days) they arranged that Mr E would visit. James gave him the phone number of his new house. Just before he went to visit, Mr E phoned to sort out the last minute arrangements. "Hi James, how are you? I'm just phoning to (etc etc)". But James sounded a bit funny. With good reason - he wasn't at home. He'd been walking down the street and passed a phone box which was ringing, and for whatever reason decided he'd answer it. And there was Mr E on the end of the phone. I don't know if he'd given Mr E the wrong number, or Mr E had dialled the wrong number. But whatever (and even if phone box numbers were quite similar to houses in the local area - which I'm not sure is true) - the chances of him walking past at that exact moment and deciding to pick up the phone, must be fairly slim.

When Mr E brought this story up a few years later, James had forgotten about it. Which I think often seems to be the fortean way for some reason. Or are we forteans just more sensitive to the weirdness of the world.
 
When Mr E brought this story up a few years later, James had forgotten about it. Which I think often seems to be the fortean way for some reason. Or are we forteans just more sensitive to the weirdness of the world.

This is quite the usual way! Most people tend to filter-out anomalies and forget weird stuff. We weird folk dwell on these tales, so seem destined to appear weirder than we really are! :atom:
 
Back
Top