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Strange Coincidences?

Feech23 said:
I was thinking about redheads earlier on this morning and checking the racing post I noted Sassy Redhead was going in the 2:25 at Chelmsford. Sure enough she won at odds of 11/1. I was a bit miffed as I had noted it but not acted on it. I have seen this name type occurrence in the past in relation to picking horses. It has always interested me on how there appears to be something odd about being drawn to a name that subsequently wins but its pure coincidence isnt it!!
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Just before me and the ex moved to where I now live, a regular customer in the pub I was working in at the time advised me to place a bet on an outsider horse called 'Deeper In Debt'. I was tempted on the whole 'wouldn't it be ironic if this horse wins and I get 14 times my money back what with the comedy name' thing but then the 'How the hell do I explain to my girlfriend that I've just lost our money and not only that but to a horse called Deeper In Debt.?'. I didn't place the bet thank God because the horse lost the race. She still ran off with another bloke anyway though. She wasn't a redhead.
 
Swifty said:
a bet on an outsider horse called 'Deeper In Debt'.
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Reminds me of the 'Bottom' episode, 'Parade', in which....

"Larry is the local bookie and lets slip to Richie that a horse called 'Sad Ken' is said to come first at the 3.30 at Chepstow later on in the day. We then see that Larry blabbed a bit too loud, catching the attention of the entire pub.
Richie and Eddie come up with a scheme to make money fast to put a bet on Sad Ken"

https://the-bottom.fandom.com/wiki/Parade
 
I have another book related coincidence. A few years ago I was writing a history book that I eventually self-published. I wanted to look at other examples of self-published books to see 'how it was done'. I found a book online by a prolific self-published author. I think the author probably sells well but you wouldn't find her books in waterstones etc. I was about to go on holiday so decided to order when I got back. I was in Totnes a few days later looking around the charity shops. My partner gets annoyed at me buying so many books so I decided to not look at the book section to resist temptation. Eventually, in one store, I found myself drawn over to the history books and there, on the shelf, was the exact book I had been looking at getting!
 
Finnby said:
I have another book related coincidence. A few years ago I was writing a history book that I eventually self-published. I wanted to look at other examples of self-published books to see 'how it was done'. I found a book online by a prolific self-published author. I think the author probably sells well but you wouldn't find her books in waterstones etc. I was about to go on holiday so decided to order when I got back. I was in Totnes a few days later looking around the charity shops. My partner gets annoyed at me buying so many books so I decided to not look at the book section to resist temptation. Eventually, in one store, I found myself drawn over to the history books and there, on the shelf, was the exact book I had been looking at getting!
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Nothing should surprise you in Totnes...
 
Watching an old episode of the sit-com ‘One Foot in the Grave’ last night which had a scene in it about a missing shoe, reminded me of something I thought would fit in here.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s I had a pair of black Victorian-style ankle boots which I needed to take to the cobblers to get re-heeled. I took them into my regular shoe repair shop (there were about four to choose from in our town centre), dropped them off, was given my little ticket and told they’d be ready to pick up on Friday. Friday came, I gave them my ticket, off they went round the back to find them and reappeared looked rather sheepish. “I’m really sorry about this but it appears you have two left boots here, there has been a bit of a mix up“, the cobbler said. Turns out somebody had taken an identical pair of boots in on the same day to have the same repair and by accident the young lad working there had paired up the wrong ones. The other owner of the boots had already collected them and nobody had noticed, so she had her right boot and my right boot! I found out the following week when I went to pick them up (we knew the lady would soon see what had happened and go back to the cobblers), she had been away for the weekend, packed her boots and worn sandles. Trouble is it had poured with rain on the Saturday and when she came to putting the boots on discovered she couldn't as she had two right boots! No doubt she was even less I impressed than I was!
 
Reminds me of the old joke.
Chap is clearing clothes out of his wardrobe to send to the charity shop and while going through the pockets of a jacket he finds a ticket from a cobblers dated some 3 years previous.
"Crikey" he thought "I forgot all about those shoes....I'd better go and collect them"
So off he goes to the cobblers, and when he gets there he hands the chap his ticket, and the chap disappears off out the back of the shop.
A couple of minutes later he reappears empty-handed and says "They'll be ready Thursday".
 
Trevp666 said:
Reminds me of the old joke.
Chap is clearing clothes out of his wardrobe to send to the charity shop and while going through the pockets of a jacket he finds a ticket from a cobblers dated some 3 years previous.
"Crikey" he thought "I forgot all about those shoes....I'd better go and collect them"
So off he goes to the cobblers, and when he gets there he hands the chap his ticket, and the chap disappears off out the back of the shop.
A couple of minutes later he reappears empty-handed and says "They'll be ready Thursday".
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I was looking for a chuckling reaction but I think we only have the choice of like or love, or am I missing it somewhere? What happens if I need to cry at something?
 
You're not missing anything we have been reduced to the choice of the two! 'Like' has to cover a multitude of reactions but we are used to it now so we know that clicking on the 'like' for a post can mean 'Poor you' 'sad situation' 'oh that was interesting' all the way through 'to what a bu88er I'm spitting feathers for you' type thing. Well it does for me anyway. Guess 'I appreciated your post in the spirit in which it was inteded' sort of covers what I'm trying to say. :)
 
Trevp666 said:
Reminds me of the old joke.
Chap is clearing clothes out of his wardrobe to send to the charity shop and while going through the pockets of a jacket he finds a ticket from a cobblers dated some 3 years previous.
"Crikey" he thought "I forgot all about those shoes....I'd better go and collect them"
So off he goes to the cobblers, and when he gets there he hands the chap his ticket, and the chap disappears off out the back of the shop.
A couple of minutes later he reappears empty-handed and says "They'll be ready Thursday".
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I believe I first heard that joke on The Soupy Sales Show circa 1965, and I think it was old then. You're quite the humor historian, Trev!

It's still funny, too.
 
Sollywos said:
You're not missing anything we have been reduced to the choice of the two! 'Like' has to cover a multitude of reactions but we are used to it now so we know that clicking on the 'like' for a post can mean 'Poor you' 'sad situation' 'oh that was interesting' all the way through 'to what a bu88er I'm spitting feathers for you' type thing. Well it does for me anyway. Guess 'I appreciated your post in the spirit in which it was inteded' sort of covers what I'm trying to say. :)
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Thanks for clearing that up! :bthumbup: <<< I’ve just found the smilies so that makes up for lack of reaction choices!
 
I’ve had several emails in the last few days thanking me for my online orders from JD Sports and confirming delivery details, when I have never ordered a thing from them.
My email address attracts all sorts of spam and rubbish so I just discounted it and told the wife I would check my bank details to make sure nobody was ordering anything off my account.
Tonight I had text confirmation that an unexpected Yodel delivery was being made between 17.30 and 19.30. The reference number of the delivery began with JD.
That worried me as I thought someone has both my email address and telephone number. I phoned the bank to see if there had been any JD Sports transactions? No said the bank and there had been no unusual activity on my account.
I put down the phone and as I did, a knock at the door turned out to be the Yodel man with an Amazon delivery with the delivery reference starting with JD.
 
Iris said:
Tempest 63 what happened next? Was it a prize or a gift from someone?
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As I said, it was from Amazon. It was one box of two expected for a new king size dog crate we ordered for our two spaniels.
We didn’t expect Yodel to deliver it.

8746581F-89A0-4AE9-995B-E083D496A45B.jpeg
 
Thank you for answering Tempest63. I often get emails from Amazon confirming deliveries and I have never used them.
It's probably for some woman called Lissa in the U.S. who keeps using my email address.
In the past I've emailed schools etc to tell them that a number has been left off the email but lately I'm getting up to 45 ads and notifications a day.
As I'm not in the U.S. depending on the content they either go to junk or block.
 
Iris said:
Thank you for answering Tempest63. I often get emails from Amazon confirming deliveries and I have never used them.
It's probably for some woman called Lissa in the U.S. who keeps using my email address.
In the past I've emailed schools etc to tell them that a number has been left off the email but lately I'm getting up to 45 ads and notifications a day.
As I'm not in the U.S. depending on the content they either go to junk or block.
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Similar here, I get invited to school sorority reunions in the US. Every congressman across the divide wants my support. The US gun lobby inundate me. And from the content of my emails I seem to be having countless weekend breaks across the States and Canada with a multitude of different women. Essex doesn’t seem that exciting with all this going on.
 
^^^ Giant springers no doubt :) Actually ours are ‘King’ spaniels, we have two cavaliers. Quite funnily an old lady called them Prince Charles dogs the other day.
 
Lovely dogs! Our last dog was a black and white springer, lived to just shy of 15 and only slowed down when he got to about 12 :) That’s a super crate!
 
Iris said:
It's probably for some woman called Lissa in the U.S. who keeps using my email address.
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Tempest63 said:
And from the content of my emails I seem to be having countless weekend breaks across the States and Canada with a multitude of different women.
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It does sound annoying for you both, but I can't help it! :rofl:
 
Mooka said:
Watching an old episode of the sit-com ‘One Foot in the Grave’ last night which had a scene in it about a missing shoe, reminded me of something I thought would fit in here.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s I had a pair of black Victorian-style ankle boots which I needed to take to the cobblers to get re-heeled. I took them into my regular shoe repair shop (there were about four to choose from in our town centre), dropped them off, was given my little ticket and told they’d be ready to pick up on Friday. Friday came, I gave them my ticket, off they went round the back to find them and reappeared looked rather sheepish. “I’m really sorry about this but it appears you have two left boots here, there has been a bit of a mix up“, the cobbler said. Turns out somebody had taken an identical pair of boots in on the same day to have the same repair and by accident the young lad working there had paired up the wrong ones. The other owner of the boots had already collected them and nobody had noticed, so she had her right boot and my right boot! I found out the following week when I went to pick them up (we knew the lady would soon see what had happened and go back to the cobblers), she had been away for the weekend, packed her boots and worn sandles. Trouble is it had poured with rain on the Saturday and when she came to putting the boots on discovered she couldn't as she had two right boots! No doubt she was even less I impressed than I was!
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This is a classic example of a JOTT. Just One Of Those Things, a book by Mary Rose Barrington if not aware.
 
Spudrick68 said:
This is a classic example of a JOTT. Just One Of Those Things, a book by Mary Rose Barrington if not aware.
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'Well I never, fancy that' said in a well there we are then JOTT way was how we treated coincidences in my immediate family. We'd enjoy the thrill of them but didn't see the need to ascribe them to anything. Members of the wider family who were born again Christian's would see them as 'Gods' intervention and who knows maybe in some ways they were right. Not a believer myself a see them as a case of not 'God moving in mysterious ways' but the Universe.

Certainly one of the stories which those relatives would tell in an effort to get me to be a believer (it worked for a time) could well be construed as an answer to prayer.

This would have been sometime in the late twenties early thirties. Two of my great uncles, one of which was starting to get into doing a bit of preaching, were cycling to another village as ours didn't have a Gospel Hall or even a chapel, just a CofE whose doctrines they definately did not agree with.

They were well on the way, nearly there, when one of them said 'You know I wish we'd decided to go to (whatever the name of the village was) and not this one. The other replied I was thinking that when we passed the turning a while back I wish I'd said at the time because if we change course we'll be late. Anyway they decided to go with it working out they could enter quietly during the first hymn.

Cycling as fast as they could they arrived to find to their surprise that they were still at the first prayer. Waiting outside they listened in ............ They were praying for a preacher as the one who was due to speak hadn't turned up!!!

Great opportunity for my uncle, not only does he get a chance to preach but he arrived as an answer to prayer! How lovely it must have been for the people what an affirmation of their faith. If my uncles had been there from the beggining and they had to ask for volunteers if would not have had anywhere near the same impact.

I no longer see it in quite the same way but nevertheless you can't argue with it being an answer to prayer because it was! It's just the mechanism I query. Human mind to human mind, God, something else or JOTT? Who knows? I'm in no position to dis anyones belief!
 
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