Strange Coincidences?

[cycleboy2]

Now I want Ronaldo to do that!

Nah, the completely hatstand former Manchester City player Mario Balotelli is the man for that, among many other, er, rich man's hobbies, such as causing £400,000 worth of damage setting off fireworks indoors.

https://metro.co.uk/2011/12/19/mari...-father-christmas-and-gives-out-money-259890/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ide-16million-striker-s-Cheshire-mansion.html

 

[bugmum]

When I went down to see if there was anything to collect today, the chap down there spotted a parcel for my friend - who left in February (obviously an order held up by current circumstances). So I took it and said I would e-mail her to ask about it. When I got back to the office and 'woke up' my computer, I found an e-mail from the same friend on a different subject. We don't e-mail often so it was rather unexpected.

 

[PeteS]

It's the plastic bag tax I cant afford, hope they don't find out it's to live in they will want stamp duty.

And when the Census comes round again they'll want to know what type of plastic bag, how many live in it, what you do in it and the sexual orientation of everyone occupying it.

 

[IbisNibs]

But at least the Census doesn't include household pets—if that were the case, RaM would have to tally the bedbugs, too.

 

[IbisNibs]

Ack! It has happened to me!
Yesterday I bought a used Harry Potter DVD at a thrift store (charity shop to you British), and today in my email I got an ad from HBO Max for steaming the whole Harry Potter series!
Yes I used a bank card to pay for the DVD, but there is no detail on the receipt about what it was. It's not like thrift stores order specific items and keep track of their inventory like that. And no, I've never bought any Harry Potter stuff online ever.

 

[Iris]

Sell it on Ebay.

 

[Nosmo King]

Ack! It has happened to me!
Yesterday I bought a used Harry Potter DVD at a thrift store (charity shop to you British), and today in my email I got an ad from HBO Max for steaming the whole Harry Potter series!
Yes I used a bank card to pay for the DVD, but there is no detail on the receipt about what it was. It's not like thrift stores order specific items and keep track of their inventory like that. And no, I've never bought any Harry Potter stuff online ever.

Have you got an Amazon of Google spybot in you home?

 

[RaM]

No matter what anyone says if you type or swipe anything into a device
connected to the net you are telling someone something. and it as the
potential to come back and bite you on the ass.
If you are carful then the gain likely out weighs the risk but it is there non the less.

 

[Victory]

In the week I called a previously to me unknown tradesman called Simon for a quote in fixing something in my home.

He said he was busy, but could recommend his friend, also called Simon.

I messaged this second Simon, and he replied by text.

As soon as I had seen his text, I then checked my emails and one had come in that minute from a relative called Simon, about something totally different.

 

[Eyespy]

This is a little bit of complicated weirdness that lighten my day.
I have a daughter who has an unusual ( we think beautiful ) name, needless to say she dislikes it, not least because she never had any of the usual tat as a child with her name on. She now works as a bar supervisor and the one of the projects in hand is developing cocktails named after wildlife, finding unusual birds is a bit of a challenge.

I volunteer in a local charity which had a small pile of ladybird books given to them, so I was having a quick look through them to see if any were worth trying to sell. One of these was the Ladybird book of sea and estuary birds, beautiful pictures- put to one side incase she could use it. Closer inspection revealed a previous owner name crossed out- yes it was her name and the surname was my family name. So I bagged it for me.

On the way home I stopped at the bus stop for some paperbacks, picked up a couple of Lee Childs. Got home removed the books form the bag and a postcard from the Galapagos Islands fell out featuring a Blue Footed Booby.

She's a happy girl.

 

[Mythopoeika]

This is a little bit of complicated weirdness that lighten my day.
I have a daughter who has an unusual ( we think beautiful ) name, needless to say she dislikes it, not least because she never had any of the usual tat as a child with her name on. She now works as a bar supervisor and the one of the projects in hand is developing cocktails named after wildlife, finding unusual birds is a bit of a challenge.

I volunteer in a local charity which had a small pile of ladybird books given to them, so I was having a quick look through them to see if any were worth trying to sell. One of these was the Ladybird book of sea and estuary birds, beautiful pictures- put to one side incase she could use it. Closer inspection revealed a previous owner name crossed out- yes it was her name and the surname was my family name. So I bagged it for me.

On the way home I stopped at the bus stop for some paperbacks, picked up a couple of Lee Childs. Got home removed the books form the bag and a postcard from the Galapagos Islands fell out featuring a Blue Footed Booby.

She's a happy girl.

That should offer the opportunity to use up the blue curaçao that's been festering in the back of a cupboard!

 

[IbisNibs]

Have you got an Amazon of Google spybot in you home?

Nooooo! I do not!!! I do not even like it when people who have Siri on their phones come over to visit, because I feel like we're being spied on.

Not only that, but I didn't even utter the name of the DVD at any time, I do not have a smart phone, I do not keep my internet connected day and night (I unplug it from the electric socket at night, except of course when I'm wasting time for hours enjoying myself on the Forteana Forums), and I do not have any appliances that advertise any "smart" or web connectivity function at all. The day I bought the DVD, I played it on a DVD player that was not plugged into any other appliance and which gives no indication of having any bluetooth or wifi capability. The internet was disconnected. My computer was off. My phone does not have wifi. If this was not a bona fide coincidence, we are all totally screwed even more than we thought. (Well, I guess because of climate change we're already totally screwed . . . )

 

[maximus otter]

We’re nodding acquaintances with our next-door neighbours. Yesterday, l was unloading the car after coming home from the rifle range, and saw them toiling in the heat to trim some buddleia in their front hedge. Feeling neighbourly, l took a 2-litre bottle of pop and two glasses out to them, and chatted while they rehydrated.

The subject of his job came up, and he mentioned that he worked for [well-known UK electronics firm]. l replied, “Is that the same as [clarified the slightly different version l knew]?” Yes, it was. l mentioned that my late brother-in-law (died about ten years ago) used to work for them, and quoted his name. The neighbour had known him. He was reaching the end of a long career when the neighbour joined as a new employee.

Not earth-shattering, just odd that a man who lived thirty miles away and died a decade ago should connect two random strangers.

maximus otter

 

[RaM]

It's a small world and getting smaller

 

[Trevp666]

nodding acquaintances with our next-door neighbours.

.....reminds me that (I don't think I mentioned it before) the chap that lives over the road from me, we were 'nodding acquaintances' too, then a couple of months back, when I was getting my Kuga valeted, we started chatting.
It turned out that he knew me as he was one of the senior nursing staff that looked after my mum when she was in Lister Hospital (Stevenage) just before she carked it early last year.

 

[Floyd1]

On a trip to Australia many years ago, I got talking to an English guy in Cairns. I asked him where he was from and he said ''Derbyshire'' (same as me).
I asked whereabouts and he replied, ''a place you'll have never heard of'' - (it was a few miles from where I grew up)- ''but I now live in Stoke'', (same as I was at that time).

 

[escargot]

.....reminds me that (I don't think I mentioned it before) the chap that lives over the road from me, we were 'nodding acquaintances' too, then a couple of months back, when I was getting my Kuga valeted, we started chatting.
It turned out that he knew me as he was one of the senior nursing staff that looked after my mum when she was in Lister Hospital (Stevenage) just before she carked it early last year.

I had one like that, previously reported on'ere somewhere -

My brother was working with people who had learning difficulties and was introduced to a rather taciturn middle-aged client. He rarely spoke, certainly not to people he'd just met.

However, after he'd heard Bro chatting for a while the client started laughing and said 'Joan and Val at the shop in (my home town)! Joan says 'Don't give him any sweets!' but Val gives me some anyway and we laugh!'

This was right across the country from our home town. Turns out that the client lived there for a while in his youth and was regularly taken to a corner shop run by my Aunties Joan and Val. Joan was the boss and would tell Val off for sneakily giving the young man free sweets. Val was kind like that, and it wound Joan up no end!

The client never met Bro there. We think he recognised his distinctive accent or perhaps even picked up a family voice-resemblance.

 

[Spudrick68]

I've mentioned this on here before a few years ago.

I was with a friend 8n an island off the North Coast of the Netherlands. If I recall correctly it is called Schiermonikoo.

Asking for a drink the bloke serving me asked where I was from. Near a place called Predton in the North West of England. He told us he was from Burnley.

Whilst not too amazing g it was a he'll of an isolated place to meet someone from a town about 30 miles from yours.

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

A few years ago while queuing to get into a club in Brighton we started chatting to the folks waiting next to us.

One of the blokes was about 20 years older than me but one of us spotted that we had similar accents. Turns out we'd both been born in the same maternity home in a tiny village near Stratford Upon Avon - about 150 miles away from Brighton.

 

[Marwood]

I've mentioned this on here before a few years ago.

I was with a friend 8n an island off the North Coast of the Netherlands. If I recall correctly it is called Schiermonikoo.

Asking for a drink the bloke serving me asked where I was from. Near a place called Predton in the North West of England. He told us he was from Burnley.

Whilst not too amazing g it was a he'll of an isolated place to meet someone from a town about 30 miles from yours.

Did you mean Preston? My coincidence is hardly strange but ties in with yours.
My guitar playing buddy is from Preston and has lived down 'ere in Wiltshire for over 20 year. I play bass and we've often played in bands together since I met him.
He's currently in a folk duo though with another ex pat from Lancs and he's from Burnley too!

 

[charliebrown]

Labor Day Holiday is one of the rare times that the family can be together, but strangely everyone was complaining about having bad dreams the night before.

I can see maybe one or two people, but twelve people talking about their nightmares.

My wife was being chased, one of my son in law said he lost his lost his wallet, the youngest grandchild said he was being eaten by a dinosaur, one of my daughter said she could not find her way to work, and so on.

I personally think that this was extremely bizarre.

I wondered if this is the side effects of the stress from a covid world ?

 

[Analogue Boy]

A few years ago while queuing to get into a club in Brighton we started chatting to the folks waiting next to us.

One of the blokes was about 20 years older than me but one of us spotted that we had similar accents. Turns out we'd both been born in the same maternity home in a tiny village near Stratford Upon Avon - about 150 miles away from Brighton.

I lived there for years. A few weird things happened, the most disconcerting of which was a visit to the dentist who pulled up mid examination and said ‘No. This isn’t right’. Turned out they’d pulled up the records with someone with the same name as me. Knocked that on the head with a sharp exit I can tell you.

Filed under ’Having your Doppelgängers Dentistry Done’.

 

[eziofan]

About 5 years ago we moved into a small town in East Yorkshire. Shortly after moving I joined the local Working Man's Club. While at the bar an elderly man asked me, in a broad yorkshire accent, where in London I was from (accent was a bit of a giveaway!). I am from Stratford in East London so what I normally say is Stratford, where the Olympic Stadium is. "I know Stratford well" he said. Turns out when he was 6 years old he was sent to London to live with his aunt. She lived 2 streets away from me! And then to top it all he said an uncle came to live with them because he had been bombed out of his house in Pelly Road. Pelly Road was the road where I was born! He moved back to Yorkshire in 1958, the year I was born, so from that moment on I referred to him as Daddy!

 

[Spudrick68]

Marwood yes Preston. Sausage fingers and a mobile phone don't mix

 

[hunck]

I may have mentioned this before. My family surname is quite unusual & going back years there was a small report in the local paper about a car accident. The woman involved had exactly the same name as my mum, same spelling as well - there’s a few different options. She was inundated with phone calls asking if she was OK.

The other driver in the crash was a William Shakespeare.

 

[Marwood]

About 5 years ago we moved into a small town in East Yorkshire. Shortly after moving I joined the local Working Man's Club. While at the bar an elderly man asked me, in a broad yorkshire accent, where in London I was from (accent was a bit of a giveaway!). I am from Stratford in East London so what I normally say is Stratford, where the Olympic Stadium is. "I know Stratford well" he said. Turns out when he was 6 years old he was sent to London to live with his aunt. She lived 2 streets away from me! And then to top it all he said an uncle came to live with them because he had been bombed out of his house in Pelly Road. Pelly Road was the road where I was born! He moved back to Yorkshire in 1958, the year I was born, so from that moment on I referred to him as Daddy!

I'm having another strange coincidence from a strange coincidence post!
Pelly Road is named after the Pelly family I'm assuming? They lived in the area a couple hundred years ago and the current Pelly family live in Hampshire.
I'm going to do some work for them in a couple of weeks and have worked for them a few times over the years...they don't just live in Hampshire, they have quite a large estate in Hampshire!

 

[IbisNibs]

It turned out that he knew me as he was one of the senior nursing staff that looked after my mum when she was in Lister Hospital (Stevenage) just before she carked it early last year.

No wonder you didn't recognize him. Condolences to you and your family.

 

[eziofan]

I'm having another strange coincidence from a strange coincidence post!
Pelly Road is named after the Pelly family I'm assuming? They lived in the area a couple hundred years ago and the current Pelly family live in Hampshire.
I'm going to do some work for them in a couple of weeks and have worked for them a few times over the years...they don't just live in Hampshire, they have quite a large estate in Hampshire!

My word! Yes, Pelly Road was named after Sir John Pelly who owned a large estate in the area. And his descendants now live in Hampshire. The following article may be of interest to you.
https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/newham-history-king-pelly-ruler-of-an-icy-empire-3080200

 

[Marwood]

My word! Yes, Pelly Road was named after Sir John Pelly who owned a large estate in the area. And his descendants now live in Hampshire. The following article may be of interest to you.
https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/newham-history-king-pelly-ruler-of-an-icy-empire-3080200

Thanks for that, Richard Pelly once tried to teach a very young me how to program a computer! His chalet style office was blown into the next field during the 1990 high winds and in true 'little pigs' style we rebuilt it in brick and flint.
The story about grazing rights at Upton Park was told to me by the farm manager one Saturday afternoon while I listened to Saints winning 4-2 there in the 90s! (If I worked Saturdays I'd take a radio for the footy). Great memories.

 

[Bad Bungle]

On a trip to Australia many years ago, I got talking to an English guy in Cairns. I asked him where he was from and he said ''Derbyshire'' (same as me).
I asked whereabouts and he replied, ''a place you'll have never heard of'' - (it was a few miles from where I grew up)- ''but I now live in Stoke'', (same as I was at that time).

The antithesis of coincidental meetings in Australia was described (I think) by TV personality Clive James. Fans would ask him where he was from and when he said Sydney, he would sometimes get the reply (for example) "oh right ... my mate emigrated to Perth - do you know him ?"
I believe the distance from Sydney to Perth is akin to that of London to Cairo.