To ask about this utterly random coincidental meeting?

[TeeGypt]

In 1999, I went on an 18-30 type holiday to Magaluf. The hotel reception was mainly manned by an old English guy called Mick. He was quite a character, most notable for telling everyone that checked in that he had a cosh under the counter, so not to give him any trouble.

Over the 2 weeks we got to know him a little bit but ultimately we were just another group of “revellers”, and at the end of the holiday we went home. Mick was occasionally mentioned when reminiscing but that’s about it.

Earlier today I was coming through the train station and popped into a branch of Co-op for something. Never been in before. While browsing, I heard a voice that I recognised talking to member of staff - I turned to look round and it was Mick from the hotel!

After getting over the shock that he was still alive (he seemed ancient back in 1999), I asked whether he used to work in hotel in Magaluf. He said he had but was retired.

I told him I remembered him from 26 years ago and he was impressed by my memory. He said he still lived in Mallorca but was over visiting his sister. He was only in the station because he was changing trains and the onward service was cancelled.

Anyway, we went our separate ways but it seemed like an amazing coincidence.

Anyone had anything similar?

My husband and I were travelling back home to N Ireland from a camping holiday in France. We were driving from Dover all the way up through England and then to Scotland to get the boat.

We stopped on a whim to get a cup of tea in a service station somewhere in the north of England. Sitting in the cafe, my husband suddenly started laughing loudly and I glanced up to see my parents (who also live in N Ireland) sitting a few metres away. They’d randomly decided to have a few days away in Cumbria.

Even funnier was that they were heading in the opposite direction to us and only ended up on our side of the motorway because they’d got lost.

I called a patient in (sexual health) and it was none other than the ex boyfriend who had cheated on me when I was 17, in a clinic 100 miles away from where we both used to live. He’d given a false name, otherwise I would have recognised it and avoided calling him in!

That was a fun reunion 🤪 I sent him back out to the waiting room for a colleague to see him as it would’ve been totally unprofessional for me to continue the appointment!

@ThemUnsYouseUnsthats hysterical!

In 1982, I was 17 and went to Ibiza with my boyfriend, whilst there I got stung by a bee, which was on my inflatable lilo when I sat on it, I shot up from the lilo and screamed, this was at the beach and was seen by a few people around.

Back in my hometown in Sussex, I went to my local pub and a man came over to me and said, I remember you from Ibiza, you got stung on your bum on the beach! I must have made a bit of a commotion, but what are the chances of someone from my hometown seeing that and being in my local pub, recognising me from that event.

Another one: I was at a theme park in France with some friends as teenagers. We were queuing up for a rollercoaster and were idly watching the train going round, when my next door neighbours went zooming past in one of the cars.

I was introduced to someone at a works function in another part of the country. He lived in the same city I was from, but I hadn't lived there for decades.
After some polite chat about the city, it turned out that he lived in my childhood home.

Mainly manned by Mick from Magaluf!

Please tell me the train station you bumped into him in begins with M too 😆

Another coincidence, not for me but my dad. He went on holiday to a holiday camp, a very small family run camp in Somerset, called St Audries Bay (may still be around). Although it was a holiday camp it was catered and had a dinning room where you had your own table allocated for meals, sometimes people were put with you to share the table, he was not pleased to discover that our dinning table was to be shared with his boss and his family! It was such a small place it was so odd he went there as well for the same 2 weeks. I wonder if the place thought we knew each other as we were from the same town and even odder his boss had the same surname as my dad so that would make sense for the site to think our families were related.

I took part in a very niche Clubhouse (online audio discussion) group, about 20 people, for a few months a couple of years back. One day we were visiting friends a long way from our home and we went to the pub for lunch. Next time I went on the Clubhouse group one of the regulars said "Were you at XYZ pub last week? I thought I recognised your voice". It is amazing how much detail the human brain can store about nuances like that, as I think I have a pretty standard accent.

I'm Irish & In my 3rd summer at Uni, I worked as a waiter for the summer in a resort in Maryland, on the East Coast of the US. On my first day at work I met another new waiter, an English chap, called James. We got chatting, and he asked me did I happen to work in Toronto the summer beforehand, I did. Then he asked me did I work with 2 English chaps Tim & Marcus. When I said I did, he then asked me could I remember calling into their rental house one afternoon on our half day on our way to go swimming- I did. He then told me that he shared that house with Tim & Marcus (& about 12 other students) and he remembered me calling in that afternoon to their house in Toronto the summer previously. How mad is that!?

So I'm Irish, studying in Ireland, starting a summer job in Maryland in the US, & an English colleague, who is over from the UK & is also working as a waiter for the summer, recognises me from calling into their shared rental place one random afternoon in Toronto, Canada the summer before. Crazy coincidence but true...

Grew up in school with a lad who was my best friend, I can't even explain beyond best friend,soul mate, sadly both of us had to deal with both our mums and cancer around 18 just as we started going out together properly. We drifted apart due to all that was going on in our families, appointmens,helping with care etc. My family moved very quickly from our home village to be nearer a hospital for my mum's daily chemo and some operations.We lost touch. By the time I was 25 things had settled, my mum had recovered and wanted to move back to our home village, I was so excited to see my best friend but when we moved we found out he and his family had gone and that his mum had died from the lung cancer she had..Nobody knew where they had gone. I searched all the usual channels, rang old numbers and by age 32 had still not found him..By now we are in 2019 and my mum booked a 2 week break in wales in July, off we went and near the holiday cottage stopped at a supermarket for supplies. As my mum was unloading the trolley I was idly glancing about and literally the saying your heart stops for a second and the next thing I was flying across the aisle to the next till down saying oh my god oh my god, he looked up yelled my name and the next thing we were both hugging and crying and talking nonsense. His very kind manager let him off work right away and once he learnt the story of how I had been looking and turns out he had been looking for me the manager let him have the 2 weeks off on holiday with us. We were married 31 days later and now have 4 beautiful kids and my now hubby/best friend moved back up to us and got work. Life circumstances separated us but I will never ever forget till the day I die how we found each other again oh and I have 3 pets to 🤣🤣

I was little, about 9, at sleepaway camp at a lake. I’d convinced my parents I wouldn’t be homesick but I began to cry. And this nice lady took aside and comforted me. She made sure I was okay every day the rest of the week - we became pals.
I grew up, went to uni and started working. One morning I had to go to the courthouse - there was my old friend, dressed in a smart suit, holding a small bouquet of flowers. I had to introduce myself, but she remembered me, and she began to cry.
She was eloping and nobody knew she was there. I watched her get married.

I bought some items from a guy via Gumtree.
At the time, it did occur to me that he was very handsome (perhaps a little older than myself).
I thought about him every now and then thereafter.
Fast forward three years and and I bought something else off Gumtree, went to collect and the very same man answered the door (different location / 10 miles away or so). I recognised his face immediately and was gobsmacked - felt myself go red in the face (because I just hadn't got him out of my head).
That was two years ago and I've not seen him again, but why does he keep entering my thoughts?!
Maybe third time lucky? I wish.

I've posted this in an another thread about coincidences. My sister and I found ourselves talking to each other at work. We were living 400 miles apart, both working for fairly small companies, neither knew the name of the other's employer so it wasn't until she gave her name that I twigged. The two companies didn't do lots of business together and neither of us spent all day on phone calls.

NYE 2022 DH (BF at the time) & I spontaneously decide to fly to TianJin to see in the new year under the big clock on the river. 2nd Jan we're in the airport boarding our return flight when we bump into an ex of mine! Apparently his GF's (now wife) family lived in that city!

One: On a plane to Bermuda, sat next to a lady returning home from visiting her daughter. The daughter lives in a house a few down from the one I grew up in where I had babysat the kids from time to time.

Two: I was working in an army HQ as the lowest ranking person on the staff in an office type of job. A new captain came to join the office staff for our section. It turned out to be a guy who lived across the street from me when I was very small and used to babysit me. More embarrassingly, he had quite a lot of whiskers for a teenager at the time and I used to like to rub my face on them until I turned red.

Bumped into an ex in the US

4kids3pets that’s absolutely lovely! Gave me goosebumps ❤️

I moved from the U.K. to Vietnam for a year when I was 18. I knew nobody, so my first night there I went to a little bar around the corner. Sat at the bar and when I ordered my drink the guy sat next to me said hey you’re Welsh! He was from the same town as me and we had quite a few friends in common, but didn’t know each other. He was there as his family are Vietnamese and he was visiting for a couple of weeks.

We went out for a few years after that.

Not me but close family members, both involving f mountains! Years ago my sister was hiking a mountain trail in China. Dusk was coming and she was beginning to worry she had taken a wrong turn and heard something coming down the path. She was nervous it was some kind of wild animal which could be aggressive (that she had been warned about), it was a bloke and she spoke to him to check the way down - he only worked for my uncle back in the UK!

again years ago parents on top of a mountain in Oman. Stopped to admire the view from a viewing point and there was a British man there. Got chatting, turned out to be my sister’s piano teacher from 30 years earlier when they all lived in west Africa.

We went on a caravan holiday a few hours from home (so not as impressive as the abroad stories) but without us knowing, a neighbour from a few doors down ended up two caravans away from us for the same exact week we were there.

And when I met DH we found we had been in the same places at the same time multiple times. We know we must have talked during some of them but didn’t really remember each other. Then we realised that his dad who had sadly died a few months before we met was my childhood postie who would have delivered all my exam results and once retrieved our dog who decided to escape the house (and hated people touching his collar but was fine with my FIL holding it to take him home).

I was staying in a hostel in Malaysia and got chatting to another British woman there. She was the older sister of someone I was in primary school with. Her parents lived just up the road from mine.

I went on a teen holiday organised by a company - it was 16-18 and parents didn’t go.

2 years later I took a job with another company near me that organise teen holidays and on day one meet the instructor - who was the instructor I had there.

different companies and different counties. Same type of activity.

I went to uni 250 miles from home. Sat in my first tutorial and was chatting to the boy next to me. Realised quickly he was from the next village from me. Turned out his mum and my mum sit next to each other in their choir!

You win the internet today! This is beautiful! ❤️