I was once on a climbing trip with a friend in the wilds of Quebec. After a long and exhausting day, we were setting up at the lakeside in order to fish for our supper, when my friend declared that he had forgotten his lures in the car which was a more than a mile away through the woods.

I helpfully declared that if he gutted whatever we caught, I would run back and get the tackle. So off I went, only to arrive at his VW Jetta to realise that I had forgotten to get the key from him.

After scaring the local black bear population with my foul language, I suddenly remembered I had once been told that there are only so many keys issued by a car manufacturer, and that some work in other cars of the same manufacturer. And I drove a VW Jetta of the same vintage. And had the key attached to my Swiss Army Knife which was in my pocket.

So I gave it a try, and the door opened.

It may not sound like a big deal now, but at the time I couldn’t believe what had just happened.

What substantial coincidences have you experienced that might even seem unbelievable now?

Whenever my wife buys new clothes, they’re always a “bargain and in the sale”.

Whenever my boss walks towards my desk, the browser with STW visible suddenly minimises.

My 5x great grandfather is also my 6x great grandfather 😮

Not much in the scheme of things, but was on a solo walking trip in Glencoe in the mid- late-80s. Foul weather – visibility was rubbish. Got to the top of the hill – started chatting to the other lad at the summit (from beneath Gore-Tex both of us). Turned out he’s a cousin – second cousin – hadn’t seen him for 5-10 years. Chatted about family, and parted into the mist/clag.

Fast forward, in Glencoe again, different hill, in 1993 – for my stag weekend – hill walking was required first. Got to the top (bidean) – as we neared the summit, in lovely snow conditions, there’s a lad leaving – yup, my cousuin David again..

I was sat on a chair lift in Park city utah, I was over at the same time as rampage but had no ticket. Chatting to the lad on the lift he had a spare ticket couple of emails later ticket acquired 🙂

That bloke who was in the Boston bombings, Paris attacks AND the Brussels one just now 😯

PS SaxonRider do you climb as well? Fancy a trip to Boulders?

My dog’s birthday is the same as my mother’s.
My other dog’s birthday is the same as my wife’s mother’s.

PS SaxonRider do you climb as well? Fancy a trip to Boulders?

It’s been years, but yes; and I would definitely be up for a trip to Boulders.

Not a coincidence as such but fantastic and unexplainable nonetheless.

The first ever thread I started on STW….

Fell off my bike last night for the first time in about 25 years.

Bimbling along a raised path through a peat bog in the local nature reserve, the path is about four feet wide with a drop off either side. Came up behind a couple walking a dog on a lead, gave a discreet cough to let them know I was there at which point they turned round and reined in the dog to let me pass.

All good so far.

As I rode past them and gave them a nod and said thanks for letting me through, i turned and almost ran over the OTHER dog, which wasn’t on a lead and had shot out of the undergrowth on the bank of the path.
Faced with an instant choice of : Kill the dog, ditch the bike or give it an Evel Kneivel style leap into the bog.

Made the wrong call and ditched the bike. Should have run over the dog.

When I was 17, going over the bars would have resulted in a ninja like tuck and roll with a half twist to land on my feet unharmed.
At 42 and five stone heavier i went down like a sack of tatties and now have two broken ribs for my troubles. Couldn’t talk or breathe for what seemed like an hour 30 seconds then faced with a two mile slog home.

I appreciate that this is not an unusual experience and that pretty much everyone has the occasional off / injury.
The proper weird bit was that when I got back home, my wife’s opening shot as I walked in the door, before I had a chance to say a word, was “Did you fall off your bike?”
“What makes you think that?” I replied, assuming that the pained expression on my face or some other tell tale sign had given the game away. Scraped knees? Grass stains on my elbows perhaps?…. No.

That’s when she freaked me out by telling me that my youngest son, who is 6 , had walked into a room full of visiting relatives about half an hour previous and randomly announced that “Dad’s fallen off his bike” and then walked back out again.

Spooky, no?

Not a coincidence as such but fantastic and unexplainable nonetheless.

The first ever thread I started on STW….

I remember that post. In fact, I attempted to recount it at the family dinner table after I read it. I forgot that was you.

…also, My Dad, my older brother and the best man at my wedding all share the same birthday.

I fishing in Quebec and needed so more lures, I went back to my Jetta but it wouldn’t unlock. I then realised it wasn’t my car but an identical one parked around the corner. When I found my car it was unlocked as I had been pressing the button of course, mean time someone had took the chance to steal my lures. I know it’s a slim chance but I reckon one day I’ll find out who it was.

In a newly opened LBS cafe. First time there at the end of a road ride with a friend.

As we were leaving a bloke who’d been sitting in the cafe came up to me – was a mate from college who I’d not seen for 25 years. He’d just been passing through the town (on the way to his home 150 miles away), stopped at the cafe/bike shop and decided to buy a new bike. He was waiting as they set it up for him.

My wife has an identical optical prescription to me so I can use her contacts when I run out.

1991 – decided to go travelling and told a girl in a local shop that I frequented that I was doing it. She was envious.

A few months later I was in Lucerne, Switzerland and bumped into her and her boyfriend in the bus station. We said our hellos and carried on our own separate ways.

A month later I was in Venice and guess who I saw as I boarded a water taxi…

We went to the Black Forest, Germany camping for 2 weeks a few years ago. 3 pitches down from us were a family with a distinctive car that had been adapted for disability.
We drove home at the end of our break, had a week at home and then drove down the A3 towards Portsmouth. Stuck in traffic on the A3 in the lane next to us was the same family…..

My sister and her hubby bumped into our cousin in a cafe in California.

I suddenly remembered I had once been told that there are only so many keys issued by a car manufacturer, and that some work in other cars of the same manufacturer.

Years ago, my granddad used to drive an Austin Allegro. He once got halfway home from work before realising that he’d driven off in his boss’s near-identical car by mistake. He only worked it out when he couldn’t find his sunglasses.

LOL

Not quite the same key-related issue, but I had a Mk1 Ford Escort 1.3L that I could unlock with anything that would fit in the hole slightly – a coin, a lollypop stick….

A few years ago, I lost my phone at a festival. I’d been sat on the grass in the sun with the phone next to me and simply forgot it was there when I left.

Borrowed a friend’s mobile and rang it, and it was answered by a good friend of mine who completely coincidentally had happened by the same spot and found it. We hadn’t made any plans to meet up at that spot or anything.

My wife has an identical optical prescription to me so I can use her contacts when I run out.

1991 – decided to go travelling and told a girl in a local shop that I frequented that I was doing it. She was envious.

I’d to read that three times before I realised that it was two separate anecdotes.

I had a Mk1 Ford Escort 1.3L that I could unlock with anything

In my student days when we were all fettling our barely-running cars, a “Ford Escort Master Key” was what we called a large flat-blade screwdriver.

Presumably the Allegro’s security system was its lack of appeal?

When I was 10 we went on a camping holiday. First day there started playing football with a a young lad the same age as me. We got on well & spent the rest of the holiday mucking about and mainly playing football. End of the 2 weeks went home.

A month later when we went back to school there was a new kid in my class.

Same boy.

Many years ago I had a low speed motorcycle accident. I was making my way through traffic when 2 ladies appeared in the road from in front of a van about 6 feet in front of me, they were in conversation. I hit them both. Fortunately there were only minor injuries. I think I rode over one of their feet.
The Policeman in attendance said that ‘I may or may not be prosecuted, it depends what the Super Intendant back at the station felt like at the time’ (actual quote) but I would hear within a couple of weeks.
3 months go by without a word and then a phone book sized envelope drops through the door with quite a sizable case within. Lots of witness statements from people who weren’t there stating I was wheelying, wheels on fire and doing 80 etc. I was worried sick.
I got my day in court, defended myself and tore the lies from the prosecution apart. I ended up paying £100 fine but got a ruling that no civil case could be brought.

Wind the clock forward 2 years and I am going on a lads holiday to Tenerife. As I boarded the plane I am looking for my seat and notice that someone is already sitting in it. Lowe and behold its the lady I ran over 2 years previous. She looked like she had seen a ghost when I tapped her on the shoulder and politely told her that is was my seat.

I once had a dream that my brother was stabbed,woke up in the morning with a horrible feeling and the memories of the dream still floating around, I mentioned it to my wife. A few minutes later a story came on the radio about a young london policeman getting stabbed to death, he had the same name as my brother.

Presumably the Allegro’s security system was its lack of appeal?

Or maybe that they all have the same key, the principle being that once one person owned one, no one else in the same company, social circle, town or village would want one, so multiple keys were unnecessary.

Couple of years ago on holiday in Cornwall daughter made friends with another girl on the beach. They spent the afternoon playing and body boarding. They where a local family who lived in Cornwall. At the end of the day we said our goodbyes. A few weeks later we bumped into them on the Bristol downs (local to where we live).

While on holiday in Thailand and availing ourselves of some peculiar local funghi, my friends and I kidnapped someone for a little bit.

I bumped into him on the street in Japan about six months later.

I once had a dream that my brother was stabbed,woke up in the morning with a horrible feeling and the memories of the dream still floating around, I mentioned it to my wife. A few minutes later a story came on the radio about a young london policeman getting stabbed to death, he had the same name as my brother.

* Shivers *

In my student days when we were all fettling our barely-running cars, a “Ford Escort Master Key” was what we called a large flat-blade screwdriver.

As a child I undid my parents’ Toyota Carina with my fly zipper. Highly secure! 😆

I once had a dream that my brother was stabbed,woke up in the morning with a horrible feeling and the memories of the dream still floating around, I mentioned it to my wife. A few minutes later a story came on the radio about a young london policeman getting stabbed to death, he had the same name as my brother.

My dad had a similar sensation quite a few years ago. He had a feeling something bad had happened to his father. He rang both his dad and his father-in-law, but both were OK. Shortly afterwards his dad rang back – turned out he had just agreed to get divorced.

On a personal note I bumped into my aunt and cousin in a shopping centre somewhere in Shropshire, where we were having a family holiday. My aunt and cousin live in Monterey on the Californian coast.

In ’99 I was on a fairground ride in a small town in Bavaria, Hof.
I was shouting & uttering things as it was zooming around & when it stopped the bloke next to me said, ‘oh, you’re English, then?’.
We got chatting, I told him I was originally from Wembley and it turns out he was originally from Harrow and we regularly drank in the same pubs….

A while later I was on day trip to Munich and got chatting to a bloke in the Tiergarten who it turns out was an English teacher who taught at the university, but was originally from Wembley & used to go to some of the same pubs as me…..

On holiday in Tunisia about 10 years ago with my now Wife, and we went for a walk about the local area. Walking past a street-front café & there was a familiar looking girl – it was a friend’s ex girlfriend with her new bloke……

Weird how things turn out….glitch in the matrix & all that…

Two injury based events in early 90’s:

I was smacked over the head with part of a scaffolding pole (that’s what the ambulance person thought) whilst walking home from the pub on a Sunday in London. My sister, living in Germany, phones my mother on the Monday to say she’d had a dream that my face had been disfigured. Spooky/weird….

Had a big accident falling off a roof in Greece one night in July. The group of Welsh lads staying in the ground floor flat below had seen me and my injuries (whilst unconscious) in the morning. Fast forward to October in a random halls-of-residence at the university of Leeds and I’m sharing a 3 bedroom flat with one the welsh chaps – who had seen me, but I’d never met.

Small world.

Some people I met in the Toon then met again in Dubai airport … 😯

As a child I undid my parents’ Toyota Carina with my fly zipper. Highly secure!

What on earth were you doing to it to discover that?

Sitting in Stuart’s Bar in Grenada one Thurs night while I was working on the island as a MTB guide during the winter of 2002/03.

English lass that I knew from (American) St. George’s University (just across the bay) walked in with a friend.

I looked at friend. Friend looked at me.

“You’re Neil” she said.

“You’re Helen” I said.

I club swam with her and her siblings as a nipper for four years, her Mum and my Mum worked together in the health service and my little sis and her little bro did lifeguard training together.

I swear this is true…

In my 1st year of Uni, my room in halls was occupied by someone doing the same course as me the previous year. Not that big a coincidence.
Then, the locker allocated to me was the same person’s too. (quite a coincidence as the locker wasnt connected to my room number in any way).
In my 3rd year, living in private rental, the room and house I rented had previously been occupied by the same bloke.

I’m sure there was a couple of other things too, but can#t recall the details. It was quite bizarrre.

It’s not that fantastic but it’s worked out well… When I got back into riding, I decided after a while I needed a nice new bike- I went a bit crazy and budgeted £300. Decided to pick up a copy of what mountain bike, and in there there was a letter from a mate of mine from uni who I’d kind of lost contact with- ChrisL of this parish. Anyway, he’d written in to plug the glentress trailfairies. We’re both nerds so we both had the same email address, next thing I know I’m off to this glentress thing… Maybe I’d have ended up on the same track later on, but maybe not.

It’s like Something Changed only with all dudes.

About 15 years ago the first Mrs B and I met the same family from Sunderland on two different holidays in different countries in the same year despite having never exchanged contact details or talked about our upcoming trips.

My old boss was travelling in the 70’s and was being rowed across the Ganges, there was another boat going the other way. In it was his next door neighbour, both from Wellington, NZ.

I was in New York and stood on someones foot waiting to cross the road. Was a guy I went to school with. That was odd.