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Original poster

What are the biggest coincidences that have happened in your life.

132 replies

Lardychops · 12/05/2025 18:27

So five years after being on a kibbutz in Israel I was a passenger in a car with a friend in Hendon. The car came to a sudden stop at a zebra crossing. A startled girl flicked a V sign before we both realised we knew each other from the kibbutz!!

That SAME day on my way home to Harlow I got in the train and quite literally sat down next to a lad that had been on the same Kibbutz!!! He and the girl were not connected in any way - It felt barmy at the time and I imagine the odds were millions to one!!!

DH sister married a man she met in France and at her wedding it turned out he and ones DH’s old university friends had been Penpals while at secondary school- I mean what are the chances??

Anyone else had any bizarre coincidences like this - or more so ??

OP posts:
Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 07:08

Anyone lol?? X

OP posts:
MinnieMountain · 13/05/2025 07:11

DH and I met as teenager working in a pub. 10 years after we both left, we were in Fiskardo on honeymoon and bumped into the owner of the pub on his boat.

superplumb · 13/05/2025 07:18

Standing outside a nightclub in new York when I was 21 bumped into a customer at the supermarket I worked at while at uni ( uni was in uk)

Malvala · 13/05/2025 07:19

My Mam was on holiday in Rome with her friend. They got talking to two ladies from Belfast (we’re in the Republic). As they were chatting about where they grew up one of the ladies mentioned that she was Welsh and had only moved to Belfast in her 20s.

Turns out she’s from Llanelli where my grandmother is from. Not only that, they lived on the same street and she knew my grandmother and her sisters!!

Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 10:46

Small world as they say!!!

OP posts:
NancyDrooo · 13/05/2025 10:52

I worked with a lad that I got on pretty well with but sadly lost touch when I left. Ten years later I became friends with a woman and was shocked at her wedding when he walked her down the aisle. Turns out they were siblings.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/05/2025 11:48

Bumped into an old primary school friend of dh at a hotel in Nairobi when on our honeymoon. He was a zoologist studying elephants!

On separate occasions at Bahrain airport, bumped into a) father of a close friend, and b) adult dd of another close friend.

TheNightingalesStarling · 13/05/2025 11:51

As a teenager, I was a Brownie/Guide leader. My name was a bird.

This bird was my now DHs surname... so now my actual name.

ZoeyBartlett · 13/05/2025 11:57

Going to the Andaman Islands about 14 years ago. No one other than Indians really went there then. Got on a plane from Chennai that I had booked our specific seats on. As we walked down the aisle, one other white person on the plane - on our row. As she stood up to let us in she said “Your Zoe Bartlett aren’t you?”. Turned out we had worked together a few years before. She was staying same place as us as well! A week later we moved to a different place - much more rustic, hits on the beach and made of plywood. Lots of Indian families. Having a cup of chai one morning when a Turk Turk draws up and two white people get out. The woman was someone I’d worked with a few months before.

Augustus40 · 13/05/2025 12:05

I once ended up working in the same department at the BBC as a friend I had lost contact with. Amazing.

When working in Istanbul a fellow English teacher happened to live in the very same street.

stayathomer · 13/05/2025 12:05

Ended up on holidays same week same area as my friend and her boyfriend and family. Fab week!!

Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:26

NancyDrooo · 13/05/2025 10:52

I worked with a lad that I got on pretty well with but sadly lost touch when I left. Ten years later I became friends with a woman and was shocked at her wedding when he walked her down the aisle. Turns out they were siblings.

Did you rekindle the friendship? X

OP posts:
Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:28

ZoeyBartlett · 13/05/2025 11:57

Going to the Andaman Islands about 14 years ago. No one other than Indians really went there then. Got on a plane from Chennai that I had booked our specific seats on. As we walked down the aisle, one other white person on the plane - on our row. As she stood up to let us in she said “Your Zoe Bartlett aren’t you?”. Turned out we had worked together a few years before. She was staying same place as us as well! A week later we moved to a different place - much more rustic, hits on the beach and made of plywood. Lots of Indian families. Having a cup of chai one morning when a Turk Turk draws up and two white people get out. The woman was someone I’d worked with a few months before.

Now that is proper flukey!!

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isait · 13/05/2025 22:36

I had a dream about David Walliams, An hour later I was on my way to work and I randomly bumped into him in the street!

FrumptyHumpty · 13/05/2025 22:39

After university, I looked into teaching overseas in the same country a friend of mine was at the time. She had sent me a lot of information about the university she was at and it would have been a huge move for me. That same week, I went for a food shop in the local supermarket (this was over 20 years ago in my hometown with a 22k population) and my parents' friend bumped into me at the Co-op and introduced me to his friend who was visiting at the time. It was only the president of the university I was considering applying to - I didn't in the end but what were the odds?!

NancyDrooo · 13/05/2025 22:42

Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:26

Did you rekindle the friendship? X

Show quote history

Yes, we’re still all friends now. So I’ve known him nearly 30 years and her for about 20 years.

TaggieO · 13/05/2025 22:51

Flying from Barcelona to the UK. Was sat next to an australian woman on the plane and got chatting about our jobs. I lived in the UK and she lived in Oz. Turned out we not only did the same job, but my boss had also been her boss the year before! (My boss had recently relocated from Australia)

My favourite of these stories is one school friend’s mum told me. No idea if it’s true or not, but it’s a great story! She was Irish, and was a nurse, and was living and working in Africa in the late 60s/early 70s. She and another Irish nurse she was friends with were off duty and went to a hotel bar for a drink. Whilst they were at the bar they were chattering in Irish, admiring the looks of the very handsome African barman. One of them had just said what a very nice arse he had when the African barman replied “thanks very much!” in perfect Irish. Turns out he’d been educated by an irish convent.

Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:54

TaggieO · 13/05/2025 22:51

Flying from Barcelona to the UK. Was sat next to an australian woman on the plane and got chatting about our jobs. I lived in the UK and she lived in Oz. Turned out we not only did the same job, but my boss had also been her boss the year before! (My boss had recently relocated from Australia)

My favourite of these stories is one school friend’s mum told me. No idea if it’s true or not, but it’s a great story! She was Irish, and was a nurse, and was living and working in Africa in the late 60s/early 70s. She and another Irish nurse she was friends with were off duty and went to a hotel bar for a drink. Whilst they were at the bar they were chattering in Irish, admiring the looks of the very handsome African barman. One of them had just said what a very nice arse he had when the African barman replied “thanks very much!” in perfect Irish. Turns out he’d been educated by an irish convent.

Ha wow! What were the chances!!
Great story x

OP posts:
Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:55

FrumptyHumpty · 13/05/2025 22:39

After university, I looked into teaching overseas in the same country a friend of mine was at the time. She had sent me a lot of information about the university she was at and it would have been a huge move for me. That same week, I went for a food shop in the local supermarket (this was over 20 years ago in my hometown with a 22k population) and my parents' friend bumped into me at the Co-op and introduced me to his friend who was visiting at the time. It was only the president of the university I was considering applying to - I didn't in the end but what were the odds?!

Maybe that was an omen that you should have applied!!!!

OP posts:
TaggieO · 13/05/2025 22:56

Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:54

Ha wow! What were the chances!!
Great story x

Show quote history

She definitely did work as a nurse in Africa, and was definitely the type to drop in a cheeky comment so I like to think it was true! Grin

Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:56

isait · 13/05/2025 22:36

I had a dream about David Walliams, An hour later I was on my way to work and I randomly bumped into him in the street!

A premonition !!

OP posts:
Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:56

TaggieO · 13/05/2025 22:56

She definitely did work as a nurse in Africa, and was definitely the type to drop in a cheeky comment so I like to think it was true! Grin

Show quote history

Love that ! X

OP posts:
Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 22:58

ZoeyBartlett · 13/05/2025 11:57

Going to the Andaman Islands about 14 years ago. No one other than Indians really went there then. Got on a plane from Chennai that I had booked our specific seats on. As we walked down the aisle, one other white person on the plane - on our row. As she stood up to let us in she said “Your Zoe Bartlett aren’t you?”. Turned out we had worked together a few years before. She was staying same place as us as well! A week later we moved to a different place - much more rustic, hits on the beach and made of plywood. Lots of Indian families. Having a cup of chai one morning when a Turk Turk draws up and two white people get out. The woman was someone I’d worked with a few months before.

They were following you !!

OP posts:
Everybodysinthehousetonight · 13/05/2025 23:01

The anaesthetist that turned up to administer my epidural was my friends ex from uni in Sydney (had the baby in St Thomas London).

Original poster
Lardychops · 13/05/2025 23:02

Everybodysinthehousetonight · 13/05/2025 23:01

The anaesthetist that turned up to administer my epidural was my friends ex from uni in Sydney (had the baby in St Thomas London).

Wowsers!
how olds baby now? C

OP posts: