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Strange Coincidences?

I few months back I went to London with a friend and while there we visited the great geek shop the forbidden planet. I'd been before but had never realised there was a massive floor of books down stairs.

My friend is more of a book worm than me and there was only one book (out of thousands) that I picked up and considered. Cross Stitch a time travel romance, I considered it but wasn't over keen on the period.

Anyway since Outlander has come to More4 (from Amazo) we have very much been getting into it, so much so we've got the DVDs as it's not on often enough. I knew it was based on a book so I went to buy it to see how the series compares. It's now called Outlander but started life as Cross Stitch! I knew there was some correlation in the story. But I couldn't believe the one book I had picked up at random (from thousands remember) has ended up a story I love. We were obviously meant to come together, now where's my handsome highlander to match?
 
MorningAngel said:
Anyway since Outlander has come to More4 (from Amazo) we have very much been getting into it, so much so we've got the DVDs as it's not on often enough.
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There's a thread for it in Fortean Culture somewhere. Personally, I got a bit sick of it as Jamie seemed to have it written in his contract that he must remove his shirt every episode to reveal his rippling torso but you might like that kind of thing.

It's a very Fortean series though, anyone into timeslips should give it a go.
 
On Wednesday night, I had a curious dream, wherein a colleague was climbing up a red-painted scaffold. It began to fall-down in front of me, right-to-left and I thought (well, dream-thought) "that's going to hurt...."

In the dream, she hobbled towards me, with her left foot turned impossibly outwards, and redundantly-announced the injury.

Thursday morning. At work. I walked up to her (in what we call real life) and I rhetorically enquired as to how she was doing?

"Fine, apart from my foot" she said. "I've twisted it yesterday, at the gym". She hobbled off in front of me, putting most of her weight onto her right foot. Towards the door, from the right, to the left....in red-coloured canvas trainers.

My spine chilled, with the overpowering certainty that if I could've remembered anything else, additionally, from the previous night's dream (which I couldn't) I would've nearly known what she was just about to go and do...now. Before she did....

Truly-strange. And at the time, the level of perceptable coincidence just felt inescapable, the sequence of pre-anticipated revelation was seriously off-putting. Almost like the caught-cusp inevitability of a roller-coaster, at the peak. And nearly as sickening.
 
davidplankton said:
There's a thread for it in Fortean Culture somewhere. Personally, I got a bit sick of it as Jamie seemed to have it written in his contract that he must remove his shirt every episode to reveal his rippling torso but you might like that kind of thing.

It's a very Fortean series though, anyone into timeslips should give it a go.
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I can't say I mind Jamie stripping off :p And there is a good measure of boobies so something for everyone ;).

Time slips fascinate me, that is what drew me to the story.
 
MorningAngel said:
good measure of boobies so something for everyone
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On my train journey back from work last night, I finished the novel I had been reading all this week. It's the debut novel from G.X. Todd and is a post-apocalyptic yarn called 'Defender'. The twist is an original one - that the apocalypse starts because people around the world start hearing voices in their heads, often compelling them to do bad things.
I read the last page just as my train pulled into my station. Walked back to my car and turned the ignition. The radio came on (BBC Radio 5 Live) and the first words I heard were "voices in your head" . It was an interview with someone running a support group for people who hear voices.
Nice little apocalyptic coincidence I thought!
 
Just this minute had a cracker of a co incidence..

Was FaceTiming my two daughters in Oz, they were playing a game of Cluedo, which they put on hold while we chatted. I asked what they were doing, when they said Cluedo, I said 'Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the lead piping', as a throwaway comment.

Daughter one just texted me as they were finishing. She says 'shit, it was the lead piping', then a few seconds later 'and in the library!' When I said if it was Col Mustard I was going straight to the papers, she said 'no Peacock, the bitch'.

But I'm claiming two out of three as a victory, since I'm not in the same hemisphere as them! (BTW, lots of others in the room/game, so I know she's not pulling my leg...)
 
Coincidences seem to happen quite frequently in my life, but the following incident has a particular relevance to Fortean matters.
In 2008 my wife was working as a live-in carer. Her last client had died recently and she had been assigned a new client in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. I recognised the place name, because back in 1968, when I was involved in UFO research, I saw in the Daily Mirror a letter describing an unusual sighting by a lady living there during the first world war. It was a discoid aircraft carrying a group of military-looking men, silent and relatively slow moving. I already had an interest in the airship reports of the 1896-1913 period, so I wrote care of the newspaper and got back from the witness's son a lot of fascinating information, including a sketch map showing the course of the object over Aldeburgh.
I asked my wife if she could get a few photos of the area on her hours off duty from her care work and she agreed. But when I looked through my surviving UFO files for the map I recalled that I had lent the Aldeburgh file to another research group and had never thought of requesting its return. Very frustrating!
A few days later, on 15 Sept 2008, I went in to the town centre of Bury St Edmunds on my way in to work. As I passed WHSmith, which I rarely visited, I felt a sudden urge to enter the shop, and wandered around the magazine section. I came across the latest edition of Fortean Times. The cover featured an item about travellers from the future, and (as regulars on this site will know) I have a special interest in time slip phenomena, so I opened the magazine and was immediately confronted with the very map that I wanted to see! The Aldeburgh case had been cited as a possible example of time tourists visiting their remote past. It seemed that my missing file had been made available online (and 2 years later when I got a PC I was able to download it myself).
So I was able to show my wife exactly where I wanted the pictures taken and not only did it turn out that she was working nearby but she found that the 1914 buildings were all still there, pretty much unchanged. The photographic information came to me 40 years late but I am still grateful for the help..
 
Further to my recent "voices in your head" coincidence, here's another one that hit me as I left the station last night.
On impulse I rang my wife from work yesterday afternoon to suggest that, instead of cooking. I brought us an Indian takeaway, and she readily agreed. This is not something we do at all regularly - maybe just 2 or 3 times a year. As I was walking from the station to my car, a car pulled up alongside me and a gentleman at first I didn't recognise, hallo'd me. I then realised it was the owner of the Indian restaurant, who'd remembered me from bringing my cricket team there several months ago and was enquiring if I needed a lift. My car was just around the corner, so I declined the lift but told him I would see him in 15 minutes as I would be calling in to place an order (which I was able to give him on the spot!). I've never seen him at the station before.
Due to a change of job I've only been taking the train for just over a month and that's 2 remarkable coincidences already on leaving the station. Watch this space!
 
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blessmycottonsocks said:
Further to my recent "voices in your head" coincidence, here's another one that hit me as I left the station last night.
On impulse I rang my wife from work yesterday afternoon to suggest that, instead of cooking. I brought us an Indian takeaway, and she readily agreed. This is not something we do at all regularly - maybe just 2 or 3 times a year. As I was walking from the station to my car, a car pulled up alongside me and a gentleman at first I didn't recognise, hallo'd me. I then realised it was the owner of the Indian restaurant, who'd remembered me from bringing my cricket team there several months ago and was enquiring if I needed a lift. My car was just around the corner, so I declined the lift but told him I would see him in 15 minutes as I would be calling in to place an order (which I was able to give him on the spot!). I've never seen him at the station before.
Due to a change of job I've only been taking the train for just over a month and that's 2 remarkable coincidences already on leaving the station. Watch this space!
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See, my theory with that is that its an example of (day)dream precognition as I believe it works. You unconsciously precognized the meeting with the indian restaurant owner, which is why you found yourself "on impulse" thinking about indian food.
 
(This nearly ended-up being put into a new thread...)

Yesterday, early whilst walking in town, I saw a county council dustbin truck/lorry with a child's toy 'trophy'-affixed to the front bumper/fender....it was that famous glove-star puppet, Basil Brush (which I immediately felt was a bit old-school retro, in a number of ways).

Fast-forward to the afternoon. Driving (not homeword-bound, but during work) I was scanning my vehicle's radio through various poor-signal radio stations (an isolated part of the country) when my radio stopped on a talk-show programme / interview. I immediately recognised the voice of the guest (Prunella Scales, the actress) and, obligingly, there was a segment played of her acting the part of Sybil Fawlty, shouting the name of her long-suffering husband.... "Basil!!" (sorry, this a rather British-slanted anecdote, if you don't quite follow the trope, it will maybe become clearer over time).

And the third....food-shopping in a supermarket last night. Lazily putting items of food into a basket, I'm looking at tinned mackerel options (we've all been there). A most-annoying couple were sliding about the store, near me, holding forth with one of these public points-scoring statement-style conversations that you just know is leading to divorce or murder one day soon. She said to him "I don't care: dried herbs are just horrible, especially that basil!"

I slowly put my basket down beside the own-brand tuna cans, walked out to the car and hyperventilated for about two minutes. Then I drove away (with the radio off) and just had an early night.

And if I hear (or see) a b_ _ _ _ l of any sort, today (at all) I shall again go home to bed....again
 
Ermintruder said:
(This nearly ended-up being put into a new thread...)

Yesterday, early whilst walking in town, I saw a county council dustbin truck/lorry with a child's toy 'trophy'-affixed to the front bumper/fender....it was that famous glove-star puppet, Basil Brush (which I immediately felt was a bit old-school retro, in a number of ways).

Fast-forward to the afternoon. Driving (not homeword-bound, but during work) I was scanning my vehicle's radio through various poor-signal radio stations (an isolated part of the country) when my radio stopped on a talk-show programme / interview. I immediately recognised the voice of the guest (Prunella Scales, the actress) and, obligingly, there was a segment played of her acting the part of Sybil Fawlty, shouting the name of her long-suffering husband.... "Basil!!" (sorry, this a rather British-slanted anecdote, if you don't quite follow the trope, it will maybe become clearer over time).

And the third....food-shopping in a supermarket last night. Lazily putting items of food into a basket, I'm looking at tinned mackerel options (we've all been there). A most-annoying couple were sliding about the store, near me, holding forth with one of these public points-scoring statement-style conversations that you just know is leading to divorce or murder one day soon. She said to him "I don't care: dried herbs are just horrible, especially that basil!"

I slowly put my basket down beside the own-brand tuna cans, walked out to the car and hyperventilated for about two minutes. Then I drove away (with the radio off) and just had an early night.

And if I hear (or see) a b_ _ _ _ l of any sort, today (at all) I shall again go home to bed....again
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On waking up a few minutes ago, I read your post whilst listening to the 06:30 news on radio 5 Live. The sports news included details of major football transfer details - including one from Swiss club Basel.
 
A few years ago I had attended a meeting in London and was using the escalator at I think Euston on the way home to Lancashire. I suddenly remembered that I had not told my immediate neighbour and best mate Bob that I was going to be away most of the day. I looked up and who was standing in front of me but Bob himself. He could'nt believe it either.
 
I suspect that your peripheral vision had caught sight of Bob without you realising, and that's what made you think of him.
 
Friend and I got each other the same 'hand made' joke Christmas present - a rare photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore. Though Simpsons fans, it was not a hot topic between us at the time.

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We were chuffed by the coincidence but his Dad, a lovely but impressively grumpy man explained it as us both being "sad".
 
PeteS said:
A few years ago I had attended a meeting in London and was using the escalator at I think Euston on the way home to Lancashire. I suddenly remembered that I had not told my immediate neighbour and best mate Bob that I was going to be away most of the day. I looked up and who was standing in front of me but Bob himself. He could'nt believe it either.
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Years ago when I was a yoof, me my mum & sister were on holiday in Jersey when we met our next door neighbours & family at Gorey Castle. Neither of us knew we were going.
 
hunck said:
Years ago when I was a yoof, me my mum & sister were on holiday in Jersey when we met our next door neighbours & family at Gorey Castle. Neither of us knew we were going.
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Back when I was a schoolgirl I was on holiday with a cousin in Slough, her mum took us to Windsor Castle, where I promptly walked into a girl from my class at school (in Devon).
 
After my wife and I moved from Pinner (outer London) to Bury St Edmunds, we booked a Mediterranean Cruise. At dinner time we were all assigned to specific tables, where we had to stay for the rest of the holiday. At our table were a couple of sisters, and an elderly couple -- the wife was disabled and had a wheelchair. We got chatting and asked where they lived. The sisters came from somewhere up north, but the couple said they came from -- Pinner. "What a coincidence," I said. "We used to live there! What road do you live in?" They lived in Rayners Lane -- the road that runs across the end of Whittington Way. Pretty impressive.

But a few days later, after a stop at Malaga, the couple reported something even better. To save them taking a long walk, a port official had kindly let them take a short cut out of a side gate. As they passed out they met their next door neighbours coming in! They were on a different ship. Neither couple had known that they were going on holiday at the same time, never mind where they were going...
 
hunck said:
Years ago when I was a yoof, me my mum & sister were on holiday in Jersey when we met our next door neighbours & family at Gorey Castle. Neither of us knew we were going.
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Yesterday, I downloaded a song by Traffic via Twitter. Less than an hour later, I went on the 'Coincidences' thread on 'The Human Condition', and the last posting was a song by Traffic, posted by hunck!
I bumped into my former next door neighbour on Christmas Eve 1995 in George St, Sydney, and where we lived in Jersey was only a couple of miles from...Gorey Castle!
 
Only a day or two ago, browsing this forum, someone (I'll say Swifty, it's usually Swifty) posted an almost-but-not-really relevant Youtube video of a man in a brown suit singing apparent nonsense on Russian TV. It was strangely compelling - I'd certainly never seen it before.

Then, today, the writing on the Google doodle looked oddly familiar, recalling the set-dressing furniture on that Russian video. Sure enough, Google are celebrating what would have been the birthday of Eduard Khill, the "Trololo" man! On searching the web, I see that this video is famous enough to merit spoofs, memes and even an appearance on Family Guy, but I'd never encountered it until a mere couple of days before Google decided to dedicate their front page to it!
 
The video of that song is a bit creepy. It's possibly because he has bad teeth and no eyebrows.
Oh, and weird stuck-on hair and odd eyes.
A product of the era.
 
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