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My mum and I had a load today, it was ridiculous!

We'd had a chat for an hour, then watched Only Connect. Subjects that we'd mentioned that were mentioned in the quiz (some in the actual answers, some just in the chat); the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, avocados, James Joyce, sheepdogs and draught horses. We'd mentioned James Joyce, because I'm reading Finnegan's Wake atm, and that was an answer in University Challenge later.
 
We'd mentioned James Joyce, because I'm reading Finnegan's Wake atm, and that was an answer in University Challenge later.
I once watched Mastermind all alone, when a participant's subject was the life and work of the poet John Donne. I was doing'im at university so got every question right. With no-one to witness my triumph.
 
I once watched Mastermind all alone, when a participant's subject was the life and work of the poet John Donne. I was doing'im at university so got every question right. With no-one to witness my triumph.
Dammit - you could have been more famous than you actually are. Wot a waste.
 
Today's oddity. On the FT398 thread, I was interested in following through a reader letter about an MIB sighting in an American public park. It wasn't explicitly said in the letter exactly where the sighting was (although the inference was there, you'd have needed a bit of local knowledge about Manchester, New Hampshire, to confirm the location without resorting to the Internet). I narrowed it down to Starks Park in Manchester NH, then looked for any other UFO-related oddnesses in the area. (Found one, but five years prior to the incident related in the letter). In passing I discovered the British Stark's Park - the home ground of lower-league Scottish football club Raith Rovers. (alas, drew a blank on UFO or generally weird activities in Kirkcaldy, except for a paranormal investigator who wanted to explore if odd things happened around naked girls in showers - multi-tasking his interests there).

That was yesterday. Today, on my way into work, I saw a big SUV vehicle on Wellington Road in Stockport - the A6. It had a personalised number plate: R4ITH R. Evidently a fan of the footie side - but several hundred miles south and west. If it had been one of the big Scottish teams - Hearts, Hibs, Celtic, Rangers - maybe less remarkable. However a lower league side whose home matches tend to struggle to break 1500 attending - and the day after I'd checked the place out - well, worth noting here.

EDIT - OK. The original anomalous incident was in Manchester, New England, USA. I have to add for completion that the SUV with a personalised plate linking it to Stark's Park in Scotland was travelling southbound on the A6 main road.... which meant it was travelling out of Manchester, Old England, UK....
 
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Fortean weird things, that is. i have to admit I only scanned the first two or three pages of a Google search and my attention was drawn to the paranormal investigator who believed the bathroom was the best place for at least three hidden cameras, but didn't bother to warn anyone using the shower about this. Big "oh dear" moment there...
 
Wow. I was only searching for UFO's (none to be found in this bit of Scotland, seemingly)- but Kirkcaldy appears to be heavily populated with ghosts...
 
I once watched Mastermind all alone, when a participant's subject was the life and work of the poet John Donne. I was doing'im at university so got every question right. With no-one to witness my triumph.
OT since it's not a coincidence, but this reminded me of an amusing anecdote. My sister owned a bar in our home town for twenty year or so. One of the regulars, Dave, she had inherited when the town's other bar had closed down. I knew Dave well, having worked at the other bar myself some years before Sis bought her place.

One day I stopped in for a beer, and took a stool next to Dave. He was watching Jeopardy. Soon, I noticed he was answering Alex's questions correctly. Dave was a good customer who never said much and didn't cause trouble, but he had by then retired from a job as a laborer and I knew he was not well read or very much interested in world history, literature, or anything like foreign cultures. He kept muttering correct responses:

Ethiopia.

The Magna Carta.

Washington Irving.

Voltaire.

Ten sixty-six.

And so on. What the hell?

Some commercials came on, and Dave wobbled off to the restroom. I flagged my sister down and asked what the deal was with Dave and Jeopardy. She cackled, said, "It's great, isn't it?"

What do you mean?

"The same show is on channel 27 at four o'clock."
 
When I set out with the Teenager this morning, she went into a long video-game related spiel (to which I was given permission not to listen, but I did anyway). She was saying that her favourite game, Overwatch, is about to bring on its Halloween overlay, and she'd seen the 'costume' for her favourite character. At first she thought it was a dress with foxes' ears, but then she read somewhere else that it was actually a nine-tailed fox - Kitsune, as the Japanese call it. This is a coincidence because as part of her Art GCSE, she has been drawing Kitsune over the last month or so, otherwise she would have no clue about the symbolism of the nine-tailed fox!
 
At work I was talking with a colleague about Arsenal Football Club.

Ten seconds later, a customer phoned who had the same surname as an Arsenal player.

If it had been Smith or Jones then it would not have been remarkable, but it was not a common surname in the UK.
 
Over the last 2-3yrs, I've had to spend a lot of time at different hospitals whilst visiting /supporting/transporting close family members for various serious treatment sessions.

I also have other family & friends who work based in hospitals, who I sometimes visit in their workplace (bear with me: I need to set some relevant context & baseline for my story.... TL-DR I am currently in hospitals more than most patients, am there nearly as often as some staff, and am utterly-familiar with them as environments)

Yesterday I was again in a major hospital in Scotland, when I saw someone wearing medical scrubs walk past me, in a busy public corridor, wearing the insignia of the Blood Transfusion Service: a comparative rarity, in my (relevant) personal experience.

This person was a total (Covid-masked) stranger to me: I looked at them and thought to myself- "that's no good- I want to see my good friend and former colleague who works for the BTS, who I haven't seen in over a decade"

So: four seconds later: my 'asked for' missing friend walks past me in the corridor....!

Masked (Covidly, I mean, the same as me and everyone else), wearing BTS insignia and medical clothing (insignia I was seeing for maybe just the second time in nearly 20yrs), we immediately recogised each-other, paused, greeted the other by first name, exchanged brief pleasantries, and carried on our respective ways.

This could very-nearly be an "It Happened To Me" in addition to being coincidental.

I absolutely must emphasise: I cannot decide whether this encounter was more (or less) coincidental as a function of the fact that it was in a context for which I could be considered as being an 'equalised local' within...it was/is like a second home to me.

Would this encounter have been more of a coincidence if I'd never set foot in a hospital for over a decade, and then seen him? In some ways yes: but in other ways no.

This is an interesting thought: in some ways, there's been an inadvertant experiment in the nature of coincidences, going on here. Hear me out:

- I was 'localised' (as was he) to that setting

- We were both semi-anonymised (masked)

- I was somehow subliminally-prepared to see him (it was as if he was summoned)

- Neither of us were in the least-bit surprised to see the other, yet the encounter was (empirically/experientially) unprecidented within that (or indeed any other previous recent) context

- We achieved instantaneous accurate interpersonal recognition with almost zero prep/prompt time: as if we were both expecting to see the other.

I feel this was an interesting example...somehow....of: coincidental coincidentallity.

But how do you interpret this? (and don't neglect my observations on equalisation of context)

EDIT
Clearly the perfect capstone to this incident would be to find-out whether or not my friend had exactly the same type of premonitionary personation prelude as myself.

When I next see him (which might well be a decade from now, the way the world now operates) I shall ask him.
 
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@Ermintruder

You were somehow in sync with your friend, something greater than chance occurred.
Whilst spending so much time in hospitals increases your chance of meeting your friend in one, it far from guarantees it.



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Yesterday I sent two friends a short video clip on whatsapp.
At different times.

Today, at exactly the same time, they both replied to me with comments about the clip.
 
Driving through a grim part of a local town during the week, the lyrics of Forgotten Town came to me out of nowhere. Turn on radio to distract myself and who should be talking, but the manager of the Christians. Funny little coincidence.
 
Driving through a grim part of a local town during the week, the lyrics of Forgotten Town came to me out of nowhere. Turn on radio to distract myself and who should be talking, but the manager of the Christians. Funny little coincidence.

I heard that too. Grim indeed.
 
Last month at work, a customer called who had an unusual foreign name.
In fact, I had only ever once heard of that name, it was a friend whom I was to see that evening.

Today at work, a woman called with a foreign name, not so unusual, but not so common either.
Just before work this morning, I had been talking to a friend...who has the same name.
 
Yesterday I went to 2 different supermarkets.
At the first I got a promotional packet of tea worth $6 which I was very pleased about.
After I got home from the second and unpacked the bags the boy had left out the kiwifruit and garlic- worth $6.
 
Yesterday I went to 2 different supermarkets.
At the first I got a promotional packet of tea worth $6 which I was very pleased about.
After I got home from the second and unpacked the bags the boy had left out the kiwifruit and garlic- worth $6.
Nothing good comes out of taking advantage of "special offers", retailers see to that.
 
The 1st and 2nd supermarkets have a hot line--"quick! leave $6 worth of products out of Iris's bag! You know who I'm taking about!" :evillaugh:
 
Yesterday I went to 2 different supermarkets.
At the first I got a promotional packet of tea worth $6 which I was very pleased about.
After I got home from the second and unpacked the bags the boy had left out the kiwifruit and garlic- worth $6.

Which is why I pack my own shopping. Even if the local Scouts are standing there looking hopeful (in pre-Covid days). I like to pack things MY way. Plus, when I have been to supermarkets in the US, their packers are SO wasteful - two items per bag!
 
Which is why I pack my own shopping. Even if the local Scouts are standing there looking hopeful (in pre-Covid days). I like to pack things MY way. Plus, when I have been to supermarkets in the US, their packers are SO wasteful - two items per bag!
When I used to shop with the Snailets they'd pack everything really efficiently, separating goods into fridge-freezer-cupboard-biscuit jar etc.
I really miss them!
 
Which is why I pack my own shopping. Even if the local Scouts are standing there looking hopeful (in pre-Covid days). I like to pack things MY way. Plus, when I have been to supermarkets in the US, their packers are SO wasteful - two items per bag!
Yeah, I never let the scouts pack my groceries. I always just give them a small donation.
They'd be much too slow at putting stuff in bags.
 
Most people in the U.K and Australia will be familiar with the t.v show 'Home & Away' which has been running for decades.
On Friday of last week the actor Les Hill who played the character Blake Dean on the show came into our store with his wife/partner.
The day after, actor Nicole Dickson, famous for her role of Bobby Simpson from the same show came in to do some early Christmas shopping.
 
On an unscheduled stopover in Reno, California a few years ago when we out to get something to eat. I was trying not to sing REM all day...

The waitress didn't add our drinks onto the bill, and we didn't realise until after we had left.

We didn't know if it was a genuine mistake or whether she liked us because we were English!
 
Another work coincidence.

Today I took a call from a customer with a French surname.
Not one commonly heard in the UK.
The call resulted in a subsequent process being carried out and logged on a database.
By an employee of my company, with the same surname.
I suppose it is possible they were relatives, one using the company because of a recommendation from the other.

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Today Imperial College announced that Covid antibodies decline quite rapidly after a person isinfected.
The staff member announcing this was called Paul Elliot.

A few hours later, the Football Association announced an initiative to promote racial equality in football.
The staff member announcing this, was ex-footballer Paul Elliot.
 
I used to work in a small hospital where I shared an office with a colleague. We were walking between buildings to go to get some lunch and he was regaling me with a tale from his childhood about when a wasp had crawled into his ear and had repeatedly stung him as it tried to escape. I have no idea whether this story was true or not but have no reason to think it wasn't other than that it seems an unlikely thing to happen. To my utter astonishment, as he concluded his story a wasp flew down and stung him on the ear. I still can't quite believe it happened. But it did.
 
I used to work in a small hospital where I shared an office with a colleague. We were walking between buildings to go to get some lunch and he was regaling me with a tale from his childhood about when a wasp had crawled into his ear and had repeatedly stung him as it tried to escape. I have no idea whether this story was true or not but have no reason to think it wasn't other than that it seems an unlikely thing to happen. To my utter astonishment, as he concluded his story a wasp flew down and stung him on the ear. I still can't quite believe it happened. But it did.

I'd believe him!

It's like the family who house was repeatedly struck by lightning so they moved away to another area. Their new house was also struck and they all died.
 
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