To ask whether any seemingly innocuous decisions you have made may actually have saved your life or prevented injury

[Cheeseandlobster]

I once set my alarm wrong. I don't know why or how. But it went off 27 minutes after it should have done. I used to go running on the same route but when I got there the road was sealed off halfway by police. A car had pulled out on a bike and I could see debris strewn all over the road and pavement where I would have been and I am convinced I would have been caught up in it had I have set my alarm for the correct time.

Have any of you made an innocent decision or mistake that may have changed everything like this?

I missed the kings cross underground fire by a few minutes at most - I changed tubes and walked along the bottom of the escalator where I think the fire is thought to have started. I ran to hop on a tube standing at the platform.

Day of the London bus and tube bombings I was supposed to be travelling up to north London to see a friend - through Russell Square At around the time of the piccadilly line explosion. Decided to go the next day for no good reason (I seem to remember it was going to be hot that day?). Then I saw the news.

Support all if difficult memories dredged up by any of this.

@KitKatastrophe

I wonder about the stories the other way. People who were 10 minutes earlier leaving home than usual, pleased they would be on time for work for once and ended up on the 7/7 train carriage. Or someone who won an all expenses paid trip to New York and ended up in the WTC on 9/11.

I wonder about that too. They must equal out (sadly).

I work in the City very close to London Bridge and decided to go for a walk with two colleagues one lunchtime. It was really sunny even though it was winter and we would usually walk over LB then by the river to Tower Bridge then back to our office. I was wearing shoes which hurt my feet so suggested walking to a local closer park and sitting in the sun. We missed the London Bridge attacks by not doing our usual walk and didn't realise what had happened until we got back to the office to find my boss trying to track down everyone at lunchtime. Building and area was locked down that afternoon and took ages to get home...

I was cycling to work on a bridleway, a motorbike (on this path illegally of course) came hurtling round the blind bend at speed and hit me head-on throwing me forward a long way (my leg was badly injured, skin grafts later required etc), when I landed I opened my eyes, to see a second motorbike bearing down on me, so I threw myself into a sideways roll out of its path, it made no evasive move and didn't slow), it missed my head by inches I saw the tyres go past my eyes and the breeze on my face. They didn't stop and left me there all torn and screaming in pain (my flesh was lying on my shoe like a steak). The police tried to catch them, but very little to go on weren't successful. They said judging by the skid marks and the compression of my bike (which was squashed small) they had been traveling at about 40 miles an hour. Had I not opened my eyes and rolled aside in that exact moment my head would have been popped like a watermelon.

I was walking to the local shop for hangover breakfast foods and there was scaffolding over the pavement ahead. I thought about not walking under ladders but thought I was better off under the scaffolding. I was right. A roof tile fell 4 floors onto the road next to me. I shouted at the builders and they shouted sorry, I carried on to the shop and went home and it took a while but I occasionally think my life could have ended that day.

We were on Wardour street In Soho in a print shop. The till roll had run out, and the assistant took 1-2 minutes fitting a new one. We walked down Wardour Street, to turn left into Old Compton Street, to go to Ed’s Easy Diner. At the exact moment as we went to turnleft, a nail bomb went off in The Admiral Duncan Pub. Not only were we saved from flying debris by not being on Old Compton Street, had the till roll not needed changing, we would have been outside the pub. We were in shock, and I just remember the police trying to herd everybody back up Wardour Street. All I remember is the burning chemical smell, the sound of a thousand windows breaking, people screaming and the sound of helicopters.

Anytime I am in Central London and hear helicopters (I work there, so quite often) it makes me shudder, and brings Back awful memories.

My STBEX and I wanted a long w/e away. He'd always wanted to go to NY and yes, visit the World Trade Center. I had a funny feeling about it, just didn't want to go so we went to Amsterdam instead. We went into a bar on the day and happened to see it unfold live on CNTV. Just couldn't believe it.

A few years before that - more chillingly, I had a run in with a 'future' serial killer. I didn't know it at the time obviously, it was a few years later that his face became well known. How I acted that evening certainly saved me from harm. Haunts me to this day.

I believe in guardian angels.

We got married in December 2004 and were originally planning to honeymoon in Thailand, but decided we preferred to spend Christmas with our family so booked to go 6 months later.

We would have been caught up in the 2004 tsunami had we gone right after the wedding!

My brother was meeting his friend who worked in Harrods. He was due to meet him at the door where the IRA bomb went off and would have been there at the exact time but luckily his friend got out of work 10 mins early and they had got on the tube and left before it blew up. I can still remember the feeling in our house when we saw the news. I never want to feel like that again. He rang home eventually, having heard about it somehow and realised that we would be worried. No mobiles in those days so no way to contact him.
A few years later I used to use Marylebone station to travel home from work. One night we all decided to go for an Indian after work - rare impromptu arrangement. Whilst we were in the Indian restaurant we heard the IRA bomb go off at Marylebone. I'd likely have been there if it wasn't for our decision.

Can you tell us which serial killer it was?

Yes. My husband had been unwell with a 'virus' and had been sleeping in the spare room. I woke up in the night and nearly rolled over and went back to sleep, but got up to go to the bathroom. There I encountered my husband and I noticed some slight discoloration on his skin (pin prick dots) and asked him if it was a rash? It was very hard to spot. I didn't think much of it and went back to bed. However, it obviously played on his mind and he then suddenly remembered 111 having told him to call them back if he developed a rash. So, he managed to call them before collapsing on the lounge floor. I was awoken by paramedics treating him on the lounge floor. He was rushed to hospital with severe sepsis. It was touch and go for a while. He ended up in a coma on a life support machine. We were later told that if he hadn't called when he did he probably wouldn't have made it at all. I often think how bloody lucky it was that I got up for the loo in the night and just happened to notice and mention it.
Another strange bit if luck was that he was meant to be in China on business, but his passport/work permit got delayed in the post by a few days. Had he got the flight to China or been over there, he probably wouldn't have survived.

Not so much a decision but I was at a traffic light crossing over a busy road and I was busy gossiping to my passenger. I was clearly on my soapbox about something because I didn't notice that it was green and my passenger said 'northern its green' so I put the car into gear and was just about to set off when a car went through the red light. Not even through amber because I was gossiping for so long. If I had moved in a timely fashion I'd have been very seriously injured as the car would have ploughed into me.

We were in London my sister brother and I when we were kids with our mum. We wanted to go into a Wimpy but there were no tables left to sit at so we left. 10 minutes later a bomb planted by the IRA went off!

Not me but a friend was booked on the Pan Am flight that was blown up over Lockerbie.

Her husband had flown out to New York the previous week to spend time with his family and my friend was due to fly out on 21 December to be there for Christmas.

The day before she was due to fly her boss was working on an important presentation and asked her to stay to assist and fly out early on the 22nd instead. He said he’d pay any penalties for changing the booking. She called her husband and he was wasn’t at all happy but she had already agreed.

She had just got home and was watching the news and realised that she as supposed to have been on the flight.

Scientists say time isn't linear - it's a dimension like length and weight - we are at a single point but it is all there, we are just not aware. I think some of these stories are coincidence but others are due to some awareness of being at a different point on the timescale.

Sometimes we randomly decide to do something different, it may or may not be random. Other times, people do get definite vibes about doing or not doing something. These are times when I wonder if part of our beings have an awareness of different points on the time dimension.

Came back off holiday and had missed period, the day after had lower back pain and tiny bit of bleeding, went to a and e and was taken to theatre as I was having a ruptured ectopic. If our holiday lasted another day, or we booked slightly different times or days to come back (sat to sat) instead Fri to Fri, and nurses at hospital recognising what was happening it would he's a different story :-(

Another near miss on the 7/7 bombings for me

My parents laziness saved my brother's life. 30 years ago we went on a coach holiday to Spain with DB's best friends family. We could only afford 10 nights but they decided on 14. They offered that my DB could stay with them for the extra 4 nights but this was in the days of 1 year family passports and my parents CBA to get a separate one for my DB.

We got home safely but 4 days later their coach crashed near Paris killing a number of passengers including my DB's best friend. His parents were left severely disabled. I imagine my DB would have been sat next to him.

Also a 2004 tsunami story - we were in Kerala and due to drive from one location to another on Boxing Day. Meant to be leaving around 12pm but my cousin insisted we leave super early instead so we could get to the next hotel in time for lunch. If we’d have travelled as planned we’d have been on the coast road when the tsunami hit, and not stood a chance

I decided to walk rather than take the tube or bus on a day out in London - just because it was a nice day and I wanted to try a new bakery on the way to Bank and so avoided the bombs on the buses / trains during the terror attacks.

I collapsed at work and was very ill. I had stopped breathing. But that day for the first time I was asked to work in a different store on the other side of town. In my usual store the staff room was on the third floor and I probably wouldn’t have been found in time. But due to the request for extra staff at the other shop (which never happened before or after) the staff room was behind the till area so I was found very quickly. And my Mum worked in the same centre as the other store so was able to help and go with me in the ambulance.

Very lucky and I always find strange set of circumstances meant I am still here today.

My ex would have been on the 72nd floor of the South Tower on 9/11 had it not been for me. He’d landed a job with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter after uni and been offered the opportunity to work on a project at at their headquarters for 18m. Being young, stupid and besotted, I begged him not to go and in the end he took another role based in their London office. He lost 9 colleagues on 9/11. I remember at the time his mum and sister gave me hell, said he was throwing his life away for me but I like to think that it’s perhaps because of me that he’s still here today.

Gad a couple.

First was when I was meeting my sister to give her a lift back from dropping her car off at a scrap yard (old Suziki Alto). We were coming from slightly different directions which meant she should have got there before me but I caught up with her a couple of roundabouts before. I can remember looking at her car and thinking "I'm glad she's getting rid, if anything hits it it'll crumple like a tin can."

Still felt uneasy so pulled in behind her (duel carriageway). As we got to the last junction before the scrap yard, a lorry behind it s failed to stop and crashed into the back of my car.

I was driving a Galaxy and it was trashed - the lorry gad basically crumpled every from the boot up to just behind the front seats. I walked away with bad whiplash and a couple of broken bones.

I'm convinced that it would have ended differently if our cars had been the other way around.

Second one -

Had been to the beach with three horses. Two young ones and an older nanny horse. Young horses loaded brilliantly but the nanny horse (who was in his early twenties and normally loaded brilliantly himself) refused to set foot on the horsebox. He wasn't upset but he let us know he wasn't going to get on. We figured something was wrong with him and gave him a good check over which took maybe ten minutes. After that he walked on, sweet as a lamb.

We were diverted on the way home because there'd been a horrible accident. We would have been in the middle of it if Poet had loaded normally.

My grandfather was at school during the war when a plane crashed on the cricket field in the middle of a match. A group of boys were killed, and grandpa should have been with them, but for some reason he was unexpectedly playing cricket rather than spectating. If he hadn’t been playing then I wouldn’t be here!

I wonder about the stories the other way. People who were 10 minutes earlier leaving home than usual, pleased they would be on time for work for once and ended up on the 7/7 train carriage.

You do sometimes hear about them.

On of the Hillsborough victims had got a ticket from a friend who had work commitments. The friend who sold him the ticket sadly took his own life years later leaving money tot he Hillsborough families.

I think some of the 9/11 air crew had swapped shifts.

It's one thing narrowly avoiding a disaster, but it must be totally different when someone you know is involved as in @Proudpeacock's story.