Coincidental meetings

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A work colleague and I were on a study trip to Japan and Australia. We had spent 10 days in Japan then flew, via Hong Kong, to Sydney. Having retrieved our baggage, we were waiting in the taxirank queue when someone said, "I thought I recognised the voices". Immediately behind us was a member of my companion's staff, who had flown into Sydney, for a holiday, coming from London by a completely different route. We were flying from Gatwick, to Turkey, for a holiday on a Turkish gulet. Standing in the check-in queue, my wife fell into conversation with a woman standing next to us. It turned out that she and her husband lived in Marlow, where my wife had lived for 30 years, until our marriage 2 years before. As the queue advanced, we arrived at the same check-in desk as the other couple, with the two women still chatting and getting on well. They were booked on the same flight as us, a general charter, being used by a number of holiday tour companies. Arriving at Dalaman, we were directed by our gulet cruise rep. to a very small bus, which would take us to the boat, at Marmaris. Shortly after, the same couple boarded the bus, being the only other people on the flight to be holidaying on the boat. Following the coincidences of the Marlow connection and the same holiday destination, we formed a good friendship, which lasts to this day, 14 years on.
Total votes: 479
Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:18:49 +0000Coincidence ID:3810

Comments

I had got to know a guy who was the childhood friend of a friend of mine. His first name is Tony, the same as mine but that was pretty much all I knew about him, at the time. One Boxing day, some years after we'd first met, we were both at a party and he happened to say that it was his birthday. I said that it was mine too and it then turned out that we had been born on the same date in the same year and had been given the same name.

My father served as a Desert Rat during the second world war and was exceptionaly proud of that. Just days after his death, the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, which he'd always watched, featured the 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats) for the very first time. My Mother, who was watching the programme, heard a bump on the floor upstairs, just as the battle group name was called on.Having eventually plucked up courage to go up to investigate, she found that the light bulb, under which my Dad used to read, had dropped to the floor, from the light fitting. When she eventually put it back, the bulb still functioned.