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.
i bought an rd250E on old t reg donkeys years ago. it didnt have a key but it was very cheap. I took it home and cleaned it up and compared it to the RD250C my brother happened to have. Someone told me the local dealer could get me a key from the serial number on the lock barrel. I checked it and then as it was there, checked my brothers. It was the same number - and his key fitted.
I wonder how many of these are Derren Brown's doing?
I once met one of my ex-students from when I was working in a college in Surrey whilst we were both waiting for the Magic Bus at the stop in Kaikoura NZ about 8 years after she had left to go to university.
Only sort of a coincidence, but interesting nonetheless...
A friend of a friend from Newfoundland was walking down the street in Toronto, when, coming towards him, he sees a guy who looks [i]exactly[/i] like him.
The other guy noticed as well, and apparently they both stopped, stared at each other for a minute with mystified looks on their respective faces, then kept walking.
He described it as like seeing a ghost.
The Doctor who removed my fingernail was the son of the Doctor who delivered my sister when she was born.
My sister was born in a small town in Uganda
My finger nail was removed in a hospital in Oxford (UK)about 30 years after my sister was born.
Me and a mate were driving home after a day out walking in Northern Ireland.
As we got about 15 miles from home we noticed that the same car had been behind us for most of the return journey.
We thought "just a coincidence" but started taking a slightly unusual route, still in the direction of home while watching the mirror.
The car stayed behind us, no closer, no further away.
We were getting a bit wary by now (it was the height of 'the troubles' and we'd been past a variety of coloured kerbstones on the journey, and it was now dark) so decided rather than going straight home we would drive through a big, and fairly rough, loyalist housing estate and see if they still came after us.
So we drove in, took a few random turns and then pulled in to the side of the road, lights off, to see if they followed.
We were a bit startled when the car came into view down the road after us. At this point we didn't know what was going on, but the adrenaline was flowing. The next turn would bring him straight past us and we were getting ready to get out of there asap.
Then the car turned in the opposite direction up a cul de sac.
Then it parked, and a guy got out, walked up to a house, unlocked the door, and went in.
We just sat there confused for a minute and then laughed our tits off. Somehow we'd managed to lead someone we didn't know about half way across NI and park almost outside their front door (in what was at the time the biggest housing estate in Europe), and scare ourselves half to death in the process.
I often wonder if he didn't think we were "following" him in a really clever way, but I guess he might not even have noticed?
It's a fantastic coincidence that *every* time I ride with new gloves I fall off
fasthaggis - MemberI 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.
Did you have the radio as your alarm clock? Same/similar thing happened to me when I had a radio-alarm and while 'asleep' I heard the news reporting [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Julie_Ward ]this murder[/url]. There was a girl in my class at school of the same name and I ended up dreaming about her being killed... pretty creepy until I woke up properly and heard the next news bulletin.
When I lived in the States, went to a Gomez concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Guy standing in next to me was an old pal from same class at Paisley College, hadn't seen each other nearly 10 years. Both recognised each other at the same time.
Maybe slightly less of a coincidence given we both did computing, and well, it was Silicon Valley.
I went to Medicine Hat in Canada in 2000 with my g/f & stayed 3 weeks with an old friend of hers called Moira who'd gone out there years before & was manager of the Med Hat branch of the Alberta Motoring Association, she was from a small village just outside Durham. Fast forward a few weeks & was at the hospital visiting my Dad & I spotted a guy wearing an Edmonton Oilers jersey, It turned out he was with the British army based near Med Hat & was back home to see his folks. He'd just phoned his Mrs back in Canada who'd been into town to insure the car with the AMA & had been talking to Moira!
Nothing, not one coincidence ever that I can recall. How spooky is that?
reas a few stories about people bumping into friends or neighbours halfway across the world. I once met neighbours on holiday in Portugal and just an hour ago I saw my next door neighbour at a motorway services 60 miles from home.
Makes me think that despite the world being huge, population centres are relatively few and there must be reasonable odds of meeting people you know in far away places at some point in your life. I'm a geek, would love to work out the odds on that.
Bought myself a solo holiday, one of those travelling in a group type trekking trips. Flew into Cairo and got to my hotel in the early hours.
Was having breakfast the next morning before going into the 'get to know you' meeting when i became aware of someone stood nearby and staring at me.
Turned out to be my mate Terry, he was only the tour guide, plus the computer had allocated him to be my room mate for the trip.
He was a bit worried because the company didn't allow guides to have friends and family on their trips.
Biggest city in Africa and the first person i meet is a mate from home.
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.
You should write a musical about it.
My one.
I was at Glastonbury 1995 watching Oasis when the wife started nudging me. There in front of us was a tall, gangly man in geeky glasses. None other than Jarvis Cocker (sad news about his dad recently, mind) and as it turns out, the rest of Pulp, who were headlining the following night in place of the Stone Roses. They were arguing about watching Oasis on the main stage ('checking out the competition') or going to see The Prodigy on the other stage.
Fast forward a few months to Oasis at Earls Court, with a mate. I am recounting the tale of the last time I saw Oasis, and how JC was standing in front of me, and...... and the door into the bar opened at that exact moment and Jarvis Cocker walked in.
I've not been to another Oasis gig, nor have I seen Jarvis anywhere other than on stage at his own gigs. Amazing, eh?
my first first half marathon several years ago, I trained hard and lost a load of weight to become fit enough but was never going to set the world alight with my time - I just wanted to get across the line. Set myself a time to beat none the less of 2h:15mins. Figured it a good place to start my HM career but didn't want to go any slower than that, and told my supporters accordingly.
Timing chip in shoe, set way back in field so didn't cross start/finish line for several minutes after timing clocks started. Knew my pace was close but sprinted last section when I realised time was slipping away.. Crossed the line and went to check my printed time in the organisers hut, 2:15.00.00 exactly.
To the bloody thousandth of a second. I checked all the other times, no one else had a round number so I couldn't account for it being a repeated glitch. Was just a one off.
Got a spooky one too... OooOOoOOhhhh.... When I was a wee lad of about 5, I used to climb into my folks bed in the middle of the night when for whatever reason I couldn't sleep.
I would tell them every following morning that I saw the strange ghost man again at the end of the bed, and he was waving at me. Apparently I would recount this in detail nearly every time I stayed in their room.
They told me years later that it freaked them the hell out because we had only moved into this place following the suicide of a man in that same room.
One from last week. I've been on secondment covering maternity leave for a girl I've known for a couple of years. She went to school in Yorkshire and uni in Edinburgh. I grew up in Derbyshire, now live in Edinburgh. I mentioned my dad had died during the secondment, separately I was talking about something when I worked at HSBC in Sheffield. She said her dad used to work there. So did my dad. She called her dad, who knew my dad as he used to do some training around the place. Just a small world thing, I suppose more significant because for a good couple of seconds I thought "I'll have to ask Dad about this" and then it got dusty.
I picked up some hitchhikers once (charity hitchhike) in the Vale of Glamorgan. The one had been taught by my Dad. Not particularly staggering since it's only about 60 miles away, but that's all I got.
Out of our team of 8 at work, 3 of us share the same birthday.
An GF of mine went away to uni, and lived in a shared house with some girls she hadn't met before. I went down and met the housemates one weekend and got talking; one of the girls was heading off to meet her boyfriend so I asked her about him. She told me his name and it was familiar, so I asked where he was from - turned out he was someone I'd gone to junior school with. Cool story eh 🙂
My two girls were born in the same room, in the same hospital, on the same day, within 15 mins of each other.....
4 years apart.
I have a couple
I raced PMBA Rd 1 at the weekend in Gisburn (great ride plagued by chain drops aplenty). my race number was 263 and I finished 263rd
Few years back I was flying the short hop from Copenhagen to Billund.
As people were boarding the plane, on the seats in front of mine one guy was in the window seat and the isle seat was empty. Another guy says to him while looking at his ticket, "I think you are in my seat sorry"
window seat guy relplies "sorry I'll move"
"No it's ok, only a short flight I'll just take the isle seat"
Everyone on board now and the stewards do their walk up and down the plane, then begin to have a discussion at the front of the plane, lots of looking at clipboards and scratching heads.
Pilot announces a slight delay as there seems to be 1 person too many on the flight.
10 mins later steward walks up to the seats in front of me and asks the 2 guys for their boarding passes, the isle seat was not allocated and should be empty.
Turns out the 2 have exactly the same names - first, middle and surnames one had checked in online and the other at the airport desk and been given the same seat by the girl at the desk.
Not me but a friend. She did a gap year before going to uni, spent several months in Nepal living in a remote village on the side of some mountain, teaching English at the local school. Fast forward a couple of years, she’s at a UK university but doing a placement year in Toulouse, France, teaching English to Air France pilots (I was in Toulouse doing a placement at Airbus). In our local bar one evening, this random dude walks up to her and says hi. Cue big hugs etc, turns out he was one of her star pupils from that Nepali school, he’d got a scholarship to study in Europe, and had ended up at the university in Toulouse, and then happened to end up in the same pub as my friend. Spooky weird.
My biggest coincidence? I have been thinking about starting a thread about coincidences for a few days and have been formulating what to write all day today. Then I come on here late this evening to start the thread and find someone else has beaten me to it by a matter of hours. What a bleedin' coincidence that was!
On 3 separate flights between Athens and London, on one year, I was allocated a seat on the plane next to the same guy.
Saturday nights used to regularly watch Cilla hosting Blind Date. Me and my ex used to have a little game where we tried to guess the which one of the contestants we would choose i.e. which girl from the 3 I would choose. One night she was in the kitchen preparing a meal and 3 guys were on the stools waiting to be picked. One of the guys looked slightly like Charlie Sheen who my ex seemed to like, so I called her in from the kitchen and said you'll really like this guy. She came in to the room and look startled and asked whether he came from Bedford. Apparently it was her first boyfriend.
Bumped into a couple from my gym in a small hotel reception area in Laos - 30 seconds either way we would have missed each other.
One from tonight - met a friend who hadn't seen for ages. She was telling me about taking her son up to uni in Manchester and dropping him off at the student accommodation in Hulme. Apparently the student block was in exactly the same spot as the now destroyed flat that my friend had squatted in during her time in Manchester 20+ years ago.
First date with my now wife. I met her in her town for a coffee.
Time runs away a bit with the chatting and I realise I'm late for my nephews pantomime (of all things).
She walks with me back to the car, which I have parked within 30m of her house!
Another one, though it wasn't me. A group of mates were out walking in the woods late one night, having consumed some funghi of some sort, and one of them got the urge to walk over to a tree and put his hand in a hole in it.
Turns out it was a geocaching spot and there was a tupperware pot in it with some random stuff in. Not sure what they put in it for the next person!
I lost my watch at Leeds festival. It was a gift from my aunt after my uncle died and it meant a lot to me. I was gutted. Went and had a few beers, accepted it was just material goods etc.
Later that day went to see another band (less than jake) at one point they got the whole crowd to sit down, just before i sat i checked to se if there was anything i didn't want to sit on, and there was my watch. Happy days!
Fast forward a few years, I'm at uni, I go to see a band at the union (Less than jake) I lose my watch again. This time i never find my watch, but as I'm kicking around the rubbish at the end i find £20, a bag of weed, a crap baseball cap and then went home with a pretty girl.
Me and a mate spent New Years Eve in a small Snowdonia pub some years ago and one particular woman in there stood out. We didn't speak to her then but I went on holiday to Italy with the same mate the following summer and she was one of the climbing instructors over there. 2 years later we went MTBing in Moab and she was one of the owners of the company we went with. Small world.
Other than me being on an enforced sabbatical from STW when this thread was started...
One Xmas or new year, I don't remember which..
I was walking my pooch on the beach in the wee small hours which was standard at the time as I lived 50 yards from the seafront..
I noticed a fire out at sea on the horizon and in my deluded state which had resulted from over exuberance during the festivities, I jumped to the conclusion that the flames could only be a volcano!
Rushing home I alerted my mate who rented a room on the floor below, and desperately tried to persuade him to find higher ground with me as a tsunami was imminent..
After frantic and high tempered discussions he finally managed to calm me down with cider and wise words and I fell into an anxious slumber..
The next day we awoke to rolling news reports of the devastating tsunami in south east Asia..
It was pretty disconcerting
My girlfriend and I got the same very unusual and distinctive religious symbol tattooed on the same place on our right hand... Two years before we met
Honeymoon on first marriage, small rustic style hotel on Corsica, another English couple in dining room, struck up conversation as you do. Turned out that they were also on honeymoon, over next few days found out that he was a Bristolian and went to the same school as me, BGS, but two years lower.
Even more bizarrely, his wife's grandmother had lived and died in the house that had been demolished to build the small block of maisonettes that we were currently living in in NW London!