Strange Coincidences?

Bad Bungle said:
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.
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Even within WA it's 1,046 miles by air from Perth to Broom, same as flying London to Vilnius WA is the size of Western Europe.
 
Bad Bungle said:
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.
Click to expand...
Many years ago a friend visiting the USA was asked in all seriousness if he knew the Queen. I'd've said oh yes, we are frightfully good chums, in fact I live in the palace next door! but he just mumbled something about waving to her at Trooping the Colour.
 
Bad Bungle said:
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.
Click to expand...
Ha! Yes I loved Clive's programmes. I recently watched the one he did in Miami. -Yes, it's certainly a long way. I did it by bus, but would kill me now.
 
I did a number of coach trips to Amsterdam from London when I was a youth and each time it took something like 14 hours including the ferry crossing.
Imagine my surprise, some years later, on learning that Amsterdam is nearer London than Leeds is.
 
Browsing the Guardian's Culture-Obituaries site, at work, on Tuesday, I learned of the recent death of Igor Oistrakh.

The "junior" Oistrakh has passed, a master of the violin, aged 90. RIP.

Browsing in a Rochdale charity-shop yesterday, I picked up an EMI DVD of archive footage, devoted mainly to "King David" - Igor's Dad.

Not the usual type of DVD, you find in charity shops!

In a Bonus item, Oistrakhs Senior and Junior join in a Prokofiev duo. "King" David died - unexpectedly - back in 1974. I recall the shock. RIP both.

Some called them King David and Prince Igor! :clap::clap::clap:
 
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I got this on my screen right now: no manipulation by me.
"Welcome at Samsung Free" combined with "Arbeit macht frei"
Screenshot_20210909-223820_Samsung Free.jpg
 
uair01 said:
I got this on my screen right now: no manipulation by me.
"Welcome at Samsung Free" combined with "Arbeit macht frei"
View attachment 44793
Click to expand...
I am not sure of the context about which you posted this image.
Where did that come from?
Was it sent to you as a phone screen saver by Samsung?
 
Samsung Free is a mobile app that's bundled with Samsung Galaxy products running Android. It's a content aggregator for news, etc.

My guess is that the "Arbeit macht frei" photo was the then-current splash screen for the lead news story when the Samsung Free app was opened. The lower caption is simply Dutch for "Welcome to Samsung Free."
 
Well this was an odd one.
Through some random Internet noodling I ended up Reading about the post-mortem history of so Walter Raleigh‘s head. (Quite a curious story, see here: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/oct/28/walter-raleigh-bag-severed-head-gory-mystery)

An hour later, put the radio on, listening to BBC R3. The early music show is on....
“Lutenist Paula Chateauneuf and historian Claire Clinton reflect on the history and music associated with the household of West Horsley Place in Surrey during the 16th and 17th Centuries, with intriguing links to King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh and even Guy Fawkes!”

And you guessed it, amongst various anecdotes Paula Chateauneuf describes the post-mortem history of Sir Walter Raleigh’s head. West Horsley Place was apparently the location where the head resided for some years...
 
Amergin said:
Well this was an odd one.
Through some random Internet noodling I ended up Reading about the post-mortem history of so Walter Raleigh‘s head. (Quite a curious story, see here: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/oct/28/walter-raleigh-bag-severed-head-gory-mystery)

An hour later, put the radio on, listening to BBC R3. The early music show is on....
“Lutenist Paula Chateauneuf and historian Claire Clinton reflect on the history and music associated with the household of West Horsley Place in Surrey during the 16th and 17th Centuries, with intriguing links to King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh and even Guy Fawkes!”

And you guessed it, amongst various anecdotes Paula Chateauneuf describes the post-mortem history of Sir Walter Raleigh’s head. West Horsley Place was apparently the location where the head resided for some years...
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Raleigh's fate has always held a grisly fascination.
Reminds me of a TV advert where Raleigh's ghost is playing football and shouts 'Over'ere, Son! On me'ead!' :chuckle:
 
Just watched Episode 2 of Season 6 of Lucifer and in the last 10 seconds a large frog lands on Ella Lopez’s car bonnet. no more than a minute later I opened the back door to take the bins out and sat there in a puddle next to the bins was a rather large frog.

It’s the end of times!!!!
 
escargot said:
Raleigh's fate has always held a grisly fascination.
Reminds me of a TV advert where Raleigh's ghost is playing football and shouts 'Over'ere, Son! On me'ead!' :chuckle:
Click to expand...

Hamlet playing football with Yorick's skull surely??

 
Cycling home from Bristol yesterday my thoughts randomly turned to a pair of Bristol Rovers footballers from the early 1970s – Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister, collectively known as 'Smash and Grab'. I hadn't thought of their names for years but that's cycling for you, well, at least on traffic-free routes where your mind can wander a little.

And then listening to a Radio 5 podcast yesterday there's a mention of Bruce Bannister as one of sport's most famous Bruces. Okay, a small coincidence.

And then in the Guardian today Warboys gets a mention in a piece on footballing truck drivers.

That really did feel like a coincidence!

https://www.theguardian.com/observer/osm/story/0,,1720920,00.html
 
cycleboy2 said:
Cycling home from Bristol yesterday my thoughts randomly turned to a pair of Bristol Rovers footballers from the early 1970s – Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister, collectively known as 'Smash and Grab'. I hadn't thought of their names for years but that's cycling for you, well, at least on traffic-free routes where your mind can wander a little.

And then listening to a Radio 5 podcast yesterday there's a mention of Bruce Bannister as one of sport's most famous Bruces. Okay, a small coincidence.

And then in the Guardian today Warboys gets a mention in a piece on footballing truck drivers.

That really did feel like a coincidence!

https://www.theguardian.com/observer/osm/story/0,,1720920,00.html
Click to expand...
A former footballer who went on to drive for his family's haulage firm was mentioned on'ere recently, I dunno who as I take no interest in sport.
It struck me that footallers're like the racing greyhounds that are discarded once they're past their best. That's certainly what Warboys felt happened to him.
 
escargot said:
Many years ago a friend visiting the USA was asked in all seriousness if he knew the Queen. I'd've said oh yes, we are frightfully good chums, in fact I live in the palace next door! but he just mumbled something about waving to her at Trooping the Colour.
Click to expand...
People were jerking him around. Lol. He fell for it
 
Work based coincidences continue.

On Friday a pest controller came to my flat.

His name is Ken.

I was working from home, I just so happened to be speaking to a customer at that exact time.

His name?

You guessed it...Ken.
 
Victory said:
Work based coincidences continue.

On Friday a pest controller came to my flat.

His name is Ken.

I was working from home, I just so happened to be speaking to a customer at that exact time.

His name?

You guessed it...Ken.
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It's beyond our ken, so it is.
 
Victory said:
Work based coincidences continue.

On Friday a pest controller came to my flat.

His name is Ken.

I was working from home, I just so happened to be speaking to a customer at that exact time.

His name?

You guessed it...Ken.
Click to expand...
Just had a work-based coincidence this morning. There were two people I worked with over 30 years ago who absolutely despised each other, every day was taken up with the two of them feuding and causing trouble for each other and anyone else who got in their way. They both retired in the early 90s and, I saw in today's paper that both of them have died around the same time - they were about 100 miles apart so I don't think it was a final duel to the finish.
 
Victory said:
Work based coincidences continue.

On Friday a pest controller came to my flat.

His name is Ken.

I was working from home, I just so happened to be speaking to a customer at that exact time.

His name?

You guessed it...Ken.
Click to expand...
Were they 'Yes' men?
 
living-in-ithilien said:
People were jerking him around. Lol. He fell for it
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He was over there for a wedding. This was 30 years ago, before the internet, when Americans and Brits held more stereotyped idea about each other.
The American wedding guests were charmed by the Brits' 'Cockney' accents which were in reality mainly northern English with a smattering of Welsh and Geordie. They certainly believed we all live in either Anne Hathaway's cottage or Buckingham Palace. :chuckle:
 
We watched something this week in which the Hall & Oates song "You make my dreams come true" featured prominently. Obviously I recognised it, but it's a song I haven't heard in a very long time. Yesterday morning, driving up to see my dad, we'd got the radio on and they played "You make my dreams come true", which made all of us in the car smile and nod.
 
ramonmercado said:
Even within WA it's 1,046 miles by air from Perth to Broom, same as flying London to Vilnius WA is the size of Western Europe.
Click to expand...
My daughter moved out to live in Melbourne about five years ago now, from very rural North Yorkshire. She works in a building in the CBD in Melbourne, and was walking into her building one morning when someone got off the bus at the stop opposite and said her name in an incredulous fashion. It was someone she'd been at school with in Malton. They'd had no communication since they left school....

But then as I always say, it seems that most of North Yorkshire goes out to Oz for at least a year when they've left school, so maybe not THAT much of a co incidence.
 
catseye said:
My daughter moved out to live in Melbourne about five years ago now, from very rural North Yorkshire. She works in a building in the CBD in Melbourne, and was walking into her building one morning when someone got off the bus at the stop opposite and said her name in an incredulous fashion. It was someone she'd been at school with in Malton. They'd had no communication since they left school....

But then as I always say, it seems that most of North Yorkshire goes out to Oz for at least a year when they've left school, so maybe not THAT much of a co incidence.
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Investigating this thing called "nice weather"? :chuckle:
 
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