# Your craziest co-incidence?



## brian.mobile (29 Jan 2006)

I'm fascinated by co-incidences. Can you tell me of your nuttiest?

Example: i dialled a wrong number from Oz. Ended up ringing a phone box in a village where an old lady answered. She knew my sister, who lived in the town. Strange..

BM


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## gearoid (29 Jan 2006)

I worked on a J-1 in New Jersey 16 years ago. While working on a board walk in a small resort I got chatting to one of the locals who it turned out was a lost relative. 

A cousin of my grandmother's had run off to America in 1910 and lost contact. This was his grandson.


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## Brendan Burgess (29 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Hi Brian

It's certainly a coincidence. But it's not at all strange. What would be much more strange if these things did not happen at all. 

Did you ever hear anyone telling you that they dialled a wrong number but did not know the person? Probably not, because these things are not remarkable. But if lots of get wrong numbers, one of us is likely to dial someone we know.

In your case, you just dialled someone who knew someone you know. You had dialled a particular area code , so it's even more likely that someone there will know someone, anyone you know. 

The fact that you phoned from Australia, makes no statistical difference, but it does add to the apparent strangeness of it.

Brendan


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## SteelBlue05 (29 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

This kind of co-incidence is partially the subject of a fairly new area of science called Network Theory (check out a book called "Linked" by an author named Barabasi or another book called "Nexus: Small Worlds..." is also quite good).

There is one particular part of the subject called Six degrees of Separation which states any one person is only 6 links away from any other person in the World thus giving rise to the "Small World" idea. The reason for this is that the human society network is made up of "hubs" i.e. people with lots of connections and they make the link from any one person to any other very short. Graphically it looks a lot like a big chart showing all the airport flight routes across the world, the big hubs like Atlanta, London etc make it possible to go from any point to any other point in just a few hops.

Anyways, either of the books above are quite interesting, this network theory that gives rise to the Small World idea also is an underlying driver behind economies, the spread of Aids, the Internet, and terrorist cells. 

So in response to the OP this kind of co-incidence can be put down to pure luck but there is a theory and reason behind it. In a way its not just a mere co-incidence. I mean, statistically that old lady you rang accidently probably shouldnt have known someone you did but the basis of the network behind human society made it seem a very strange co-incidence.


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## stuart (29 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Only ever met two people from Malaysia in my life
First in Dublin who worked with a friend and the other I worked with in London

Both of them had gone to university togther and where very good friends

Only found out by jokingly stating "I know a guy from Malaysia perhaps you know him"

Popoulation 23,953,136 (July 2005) means that a bit of as stretch


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## Henny Penny (29 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

My friend was on holiday in China with her boyfriend whose mother lives in some remote part. She met my brother who was touring the world (and had already been away for 18 months) in a most un-touristy part of China that he happened to go to because of a guy he met in Thailand was from there and suggested he visit to see 'real china'. 

Another completely different co-incidence ... my husbands aunt and uncle are both called Bernie L*******. She goes by another name so it only became apparant during the wedding ceremony that they had the same first name and surname. So his aunt did not have to change her name when she got married ... and thay are not related to each other ... and not from the same place either.


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## WarrenBuffet (29 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Either these are coincidences or i am cursed

1. Was in Charles de Gaulle airport the day the Concorde crashed (one and only time in my life i was in the place)
2. Was supposed to fly home from Newark airport on Sept 11th....flight delayed surprisingly enuf
3. The next time i was in NYC was 2 years later - the night of the black-out
4. Started work in London shortly afterwards - first week there the tube went down because of a power cut

There are actually more of these kind of events but cant remember them this late on a sunday night!


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## Ceist Beag (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

A number of years back I was travelling to Australia and as we were going to be stopping in Melbourne for a few days enroute to Sydney a friend of mine gave me the name and address of a good friend of hers to meet up with for a few drinks. My friend had mentioned that her friend was only back in Melbourne after travelling around Oz and had stayed with her aunt who is a nun in Perth. 
So anyways, we had stopped in Singapore for a few days on the way and were sitting in a pub when a Belfast lad heard our accents and came up to chat to us. After a few hours chatting (and multiple pints!) we got to talking about where we were going in Australia and we mentioned that we were stopping off in Melbourne for a few days before going on to Sydney. 
Ah right he said, I'm just after coming from Melbourne, was with my brother and a few of his friends. In fact, he said, they're just back from travelling around Australia. Cool I said, what parts did they visit? Ah all over really, they spent a fortnight in Perth and get this - they stayed in a nunnery with an aunt of one of the girls!
.... I nearly fell off my bar stool!! So we ended up hand delivering a letter to his brother written on the back of a beer mat!!


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## ninsaga (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

WarrenBuffet... I think you owe it to the rest of us to let us know where you are right now..what you are doing & what your travel plans are!!


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## fobs (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Ninsaga - was thinking the same as you while reading this post - don't want to meet this guy at any airport I intend on travelling to 

I live posts like this but cannot think of any worthy stories of my own to add in!


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## stuart (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Warren,

Are you sure your life was not made into a movie?








I wouldn't leave my house if I had been at all those locations


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## PGD1 (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

i was once offered a job in the U.S.   and it turns out the interviewer was the roommate of my fiancees sister.


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## Sarah W (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Some years ago I had an old Vauxhall Cavalier which I sold privately. A year or so later I was driving back to Dublin from Waterford and on a complete whim decided to detour via Courtown. Got lost and spotted a chap working outside his house and stopped to ask directions. I didn't hear what he said cos I was staring at the car parked in his driveway - my old Cavalier!

Sarah

www.rea.ie


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## Janet (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

The freakiest coincidence is always turning on the radio to hear that song you've been humming for the last few minutes playing.  I always try to convince myself that I've heard someone else's radio playing without realising it and that's why I was humming it but sometimes there's just no way it could be.  Particularly freakish when it's an old or not often played song.


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## daithi (30 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Here's a funny one-I had just come in from college one evening and the radio was playing away in the background.I asked my flatmate what the time was, and just as I asked, the dj on the radio said " and the time now is half past five.....!"


d


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## ophelia (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

In 1984 I worked briefly with a certain lady. Left the job and never gave her a second thought for about 15 years. Then one day out of the blue (at the supermarket checkout), her face came in to my mind and I found myself thinking about her for a few minutes, wondering where she might be now etc.  One hour later I was driving to work (not the original place of employment) and pulled up at a traffic light - looked to my right, and My God... there she was in the car next to me,  I never got such a shock in my life.  how does this happen??


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## brian.mobile (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*



			
				ophelia said:
			
		

> In 1984 I worked briefly with a certain lady. Left the job and never gave her a second thought for about 15 years. Then one day out of the blue (at the supermarket checkout), her face came in to my mind and I found myself thinking about her for a few minutes, wondering where she might be now etc. One hour later I was driving to work (not the original place of employment) and pulled up at a traffic light - looked to my right, and My God... there she was in the car next to me, I never got such a shock in my life. how does this happen??


 
That is nuts.

I was trying to avoid a person at Crimbo, went to town thinking 'I betch I'll meet her...'

Lo and behold and hour later guess who I was making gammy smiles st?

Lol

Life; I LOVE it!

BM


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## Dearg Doom (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

I had a dream one night about walking through a field with a girlfriend and we come across this old stone breaker beside a disused quarry and she explains what it is as it was an implement I'd never heard of or seen before (in real life or in dreams!). Thought nothing of it until some months later I'm walking through a field with a new real live girlfriend near her home place and in the distance I see an unusual old implement. So I say to her 'I bet that thing over there is a stone breaker' and she confirmed that it was and it was positioned exactly as per my dream with remenants of stone underneath it and everything. So I married her...


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## Danmo (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

There's no such thing as a coincidence. It's synchronicity.


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## Decani (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

When I was younger I was looking at buying my first computer. Scanned the ads in the paper and my Dad suggested I look the phone number up in the book to get an idea of where the seller was. So as I looked for similar numbers I found the persons entry in the phone book.


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## brian.mobile (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*



			
				Danmo said:
			
		

> There's no such thing as a coincidence. It's synchronicity.


 
Please discuss Danmo.

BM


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## Alba Longa (31 Jan 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

I was born in Ireland 13th October 1955 and by a strange coincidence my nearest neighbour was born in Italy on 13th October 1955.  Obviously we celebrated our 50th birthday together this year!

My husband was in the lobby of the Hilton, New York when he heard somebody calling him by his christian name!  It was a childhood friend!

Not much, however?


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## ClubMan (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*



			
				Alba Longa said:
			
		

> I was born in Ireland 13th October 1955 and by a strange coincidence my nearest neighbour was born in Italy on 13th October 1955.  Obviously we celebrated our 50th birthday together this year!


 If you have more than 60 neighbours then there is a 99% probability of this happening. See the Birthday Paradox.

I have never experienced any strange coincidences. I have met lots of people who haven't either. Is that a strange coincidence?


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## ninsaga (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*



> I have never experienced any strange coincidences. I have met lots of people who haven't either. Is that a strange coincidence?



....hey I was just about to write that also...what a co-incidence


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## MugsGame (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*



			
				ClubMan said:
			
		

> If you have more than 60 neighbours then there is a 99% probability of this happening. See the Birthday Paradox.



Except that they also had the same birth year, not just the same birth date.
But it is still much more likely, statistically, than intuition would suggest.


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## annR (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

I was sitting in a shack on Flores, Indonesia talking to a guy from Zurich.  I told him about my friend who moved to Zurich and was working in the university.  Turned out he was working in the office opposite my friend.


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## Sarah (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Maybe not so much of a co incidence but myself and my partner always seem to be thinking or just about to say the same thing that does not either relate to the conversation we just had or be relevant to anything that day...as in off the wall comments.Another thing that happens to me quite often is when i call a friend or family member they always seem to be engaged because at the exact same tme they are trying to call me!


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## SteelBlue05 (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*



			
				Sarah said:
			
		

> Maybe not so much of a co incidence but myself and my partner always seem to be thinking or just about to say the same thing that does not either relate to the conversation we just had or be relevant to anything that day...as in off the wall comments.Another thing that happens to me quite often is when i call a friend or family member they always seem to be engaged because at the exact same tme they are trying to call me!


 
I've had the same experience, most of the time its some external stimuli that triggers you to think about something, it could be anything, a TV ad, an overheard conversation etc etc. Two people with the same past experiences may be triggered to think about the same thing in response to an external stimuli. The thing is you dont realise that something triggered you to think about something, usually you pick up this things sub consciously, and therefore when the above scenario happens it seems strange when really there a simple explanation to it.


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## Humpback (1 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

I went out with a lady for a while in London a few years ago. Broke up, no big deal.

About a year later, started going out with another even nicer lady whom I'd met in completely different circumstances. She however, turned out to be the original ladies flatmate and best friend. Whom I'd obviously never met the first time around.


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## ZEGAR (2 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Year 1981
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament.
4. Pope Died

Year 2005
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament
4. Pope Died

In the future, if Prince Charles decides to remarry . please warn the
Pope!!


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## Lauren (2 Feb 2006)

*Re: Your craziest co-incidence*

Made a very good friend when I was living in Rwanda working for the UN. She and I were there for around two years and socialised a lot together. We were both leaving there at about the same time and agreed to catch up a few months later once we had both settled back home. (She was returning to UK, I to Ireland). 

I got home and did the family thing for about two weeks and then decided to take a well deserved but impromtu holiday travelling around Asia. Left in a hurry, told very few people. Was in an airport ladies 'powder' room in Hong Kong when this good friend walked in. We were both speechless, but hardly had a chance to talk because we both had to board flights. I was heading to Vietnam and she was on her way to an impromptu holiday in New Zealand.......

Spooky!


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