When I was nine my family went on a holiday to Fiji.
At the airport we saw a couple that looked very familiar going through customs at the same time.
Next we saw them at the airport in Nadi.
Then at the restaurant at the resort.
The night before we returned home we were staying at a hotel near the airport. They were there.
It was at this point we decided to ask who they were and where we knew them from.
The reason they looked so familiar was because they lived across the road from us.
( Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 7:52, Reply)

Dalmation surprise
When I was 15 I went on a school trip to Barcelona. In the market I bought a helium Dalmation balloon, but sadly it floated away.

A month later I'm back at home and a Dalmation balloon floated into the back garden and landed on bush. Yep, it said "Made In Spain" on the underside.

100% true
(jacob, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 7:23, Reply)

mediocre minds think alike
Extremely bored, my housemate and I decided to play rock-scissors-paper. We managed to get about seven ties (obviously following the same logic: My opponent just selected rock, and I just selected rock, so he'll probably guess that I'll select paper, so I'll be clever and select scissors) before giving up in horror.

This is not spoooooky, however. It is sufficiently common that a new version of ro-sham-bo was invented to overcome the problem. Clicky.
(Emily Bruce-Dickinson http://jovialfellow.blogspot.com/, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 7:04, Reply)

oooh... another one
A group of us went to Glastonbury Tor for the summer solstice a few years back, all very nice. Came back down the hill and decided to head into a pub for a drink before heading back home.

Pub was busy as someones wedding reception was out in the back. They had hired a singer who's voice sounded strangely familiar. We all wondered out to the back and it turned out it was a friend from school who we hadn't seen for a good many years.
( proteus, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 6:57, Reply)

YouTube
I'm currently at university in my first year, and being first years we tend to spend a lot of time up at night (hence why I'm typing this at 05.50am). Anyway, in our first semester I was in my blockmate Jon's room with a guy from the block next to us, a guy I'd never met, called Jordan. Jon was arsing about on YouTube, as you do, looking for music videos. He was taking suggestions and I was about to say Another Brick in the Wall when Jordan piped up with that. Finding that quite funny, I laughed and told him I was about to say that. He kind of smiled and we watched the video. When it finished Jon was looking again and I thought I'd ask for Clubbed to Death by Rob Dougan. I'm about to say it, it's on the tip of my tongue, and Jordan gets in there before me and asks for it. This time I just laugh my arse off and tell him I was about to say that. He's a little amused, but not overly peturbed. So the same happens again, Jon's looking for another song, and I think Stacey's Mom by Fountains of Wayne will be a decent video. Sure enough, Jordan says the same damn song as me before I can get it out. This time they actually looked at me before I even said anything and I just said 'Yep, I was thinking exactly that.' I don't think they ever believed me or truely took it seriously, but since I was the one cut off each time I found it slightly sinister. Of all the bands, and all the songs, we both chose 3, in the same order. And they were all from different music genres. I don't want to think what the odds of that happening are, but if my luck had held out until Saturday evening instead, maybe I'd be a millionaire now. :(
( Rookie You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 6:00, Reply)

Txt Messages
I've got a wierd one when it comes to txt messages - I'll pull my phone out of my pocket, look at it, put it back, then 10-20 seconds later I'll get a txt message. This'll happen a good few times a week, and I don't get all that many messages.
( proteus, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 5:35, Reply)

oddness
I have an uncanny ability to tell when it is 11:11 and this spans across timezones.

I'll get to work, beaver away and when I look up it's 11:11 it's not that I look at the clock at 11:05 and realise - I won't look at the clock at all from when I get there but every time I look up it's 11:11 - same in the evenings I'll look at the clock on my pc and it will be 11:11 - This has been going on for about 6 years now it's very strange.

Also I went on my gap year to Australia many moons ago and used to work in Sydney at a place called the rocks - not too far from the Opera house - I used to take my break sitting on the Opera house steps and one day I was reading an article about and Australian chap called James Whitworth.

I chuckled cos one of my old mates back home was called that. I finished my break and promptly ran smack into my mate James Whitworth who's family had just emigrated the day before and were doing a tour of Sydney

Length? That's what your mum said
(Speshal, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 3:53, Reply)

How My Best Friend and I Came to Meet
So, up until about a year ago, I didn't really have anybody whom I'd considered my "best" friend (I do have friends, I'll have you know; just none exceptionally, freakily close to me).
Anyways, so I went on a retreat with some friends and met this really nice girl while I was there. We hit it off right away, and we hung out together and shopped and whatever all weekend.
Well, turns out that her former pastor is now my current pastor, and that she knew he'd be going to a new church but didn't know where it was--little did she know, it was my church!
How silly.
Kind of.
(Mademoiselle Dustman picked a bouquet of oopsie daisies for you on, Sat 10 Feb 2007, 2:03, Reply)

I was waiting for a courier delivery at work
and was promised that the items would be delivered between 9 am and 5 pm

After waiting til 3.00 pm i decided to go down to recption and see if the delivery had come and guess who was there?

the courier guy.
(Finniganbeginagen, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 23:49, Reply)

These stories all seem to be about meeting up with people in a small world kind of way.
Anyway, my spooky coincidence isn't very good either. I had a song in my head and then my sister started singing the song out loud at exactly the point I was imagining it.

I have more but I can't remember them.
(Marmite Omelette ...but I feel better having screamed, don't you?, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 23:43, Reply)

5.11
Back in 2001, I went to a house party of a chap I've know for a while, and is a bit odd.

Anyway, sitting in his garden, having a drink of something tasting suspiciously of apple juice and meths, I see a fellow party goer climbing on the roof the odd guy's house. When he climbed down, I had a quick chat with him about how to open beer bottles with a knife handle, and then made my excuses and left for home.

The next week, I venture to a local paintball site that had recently opened, to grab a pricelist, where I find the roof guy waiting at reception, wanting to book a game for the following weekend. Cue the friendly banter of uncanny coincidences, and off I go.

Two weeks later, I start my degree. I'm waiting outside the lecture theatre for the first lecture of the first day, and who turns up? Roof man. Turns out, he was on the same degree course I was, and it was his first day too.

He's now a very close friend (Well, not that close - he's now in France)

/excuses.
(Strange, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 23:26, Reply)

Similar to Lozzzz....
Just down the road from me live a family. I used to be good friends with the daughter who had a hard time when it came to birthdays. Why?

Her mum, her dad and her brother were all born on the same day.

Youch.
( vix0r was not Matthew on, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 23:15, Reply)

I was...
Just about to suggest this as a QOTW!
(beatpig understands subliminalesbianmessagaying., Fri 9 Feb 2007, 22:28, Reply)

Jinx!
Strangely two of my children were born on the same date. Now that's spooky.

Yes the twins also sometimes say the same thing at the same time. Oddly when they do that they both shout, 'Jinx!'

Is that a double spooky coincidence?
(lozzzz, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 22:16, Reply)

Toynbee Hall
I went to a party at a place called Toynbee Hall in central London, run by a mate from where I did my MSc, who was going to do voluntary work in Thailand with Burmese refugees. He now lives at the place. At the party, I stumbled into an old mate from school, who worked there. I now find that another mate, from my first university, works there. Three different mates, all from separate circles, in the same place.

Odd.

www.toynbeehall.org.uk/
( Parmesan Quality b4 Quantity, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 22:16, Reply)

minidisc player
sililar to the wet wet wet story

back in the day when an iPod was unheard of i was listening to the cure on my minidisc player when i walked into hmv and took my headphones out to hear the same song at exactly the same point.

reading all of these coincidences like, "i met my best friend from primary school, that i'd not seen for 36 years in a phone booth on easter island on the 40th aniversary of our 1st sleepover" kind of makes mine seem a little pathetic and minor.
(suboftheday, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 22:13, Reply)

Coincidence
Went on holiday to France with my parents a few years ago (when I was still at uni). In the airport on the way there my parents got talking to another couple in the check-in queue who were off somewhere else, they had their daughter with them. The daughter´s best friend turned out to be the daughter of one of my lecturers at uni. Ok you say....
Next, we got to our hotel, a place we´d stayed in on a few previous holidays so we knew a few of the staff. One of them starts chatting to me and asks me what I´d been up to in the previous 12 months.
"I´m studying *subject* at Newcastle Uni," replied ComplexStuff.
"Really? There´s a girl staying in the hotel this week and I think she´s studying *subject* at Newcastle too..." replied rather amazed staff member - It was quite a small hotel with maybe 40 guests tops.
So I get introduced to this girl who, it turns out, is indeed studying the same subject as me but is in the year below me.
"Oh, my girlfriend is in your year, I wonder if you know her, her name is *ComplexStuff´s Ex*..."
It turns out that this girl I was on holiday with in a little hotel in France was in the same seminar group as my girlfriend. So we get chatting....
A guy comes over us and says to girl: "are you in the rowing society at Newcastle Uni?"
"Yes!" replied stunned girl, "how do you know that?!?"
"I was sat on your table at the Christmas ball" replies boy. He too was studying at Uni in Newcastle!!!
At this point we were having the `Oh My God what are the odds` conversation.
Rowing girls mother comes over to talk to her. Moments later ComplexStuff´s mother comes to talk to him. ComplexStuff´s mother looks at Rowing girl´s mother and says: "Oh My God! Rowing girl´s mother!"
Turns out Rowing girl used to live in ComplexStuff´s hometown (Liverpool) years ago and at that time her mum had been friends with ComplexStuff´s mum but they´d lost touch since Rowing girl´s family moved away! So, also turned out that Rowing girl had been friends with some people ComplexStuff went to school with before he moved away to Uni!

There my tale ends but it was pretty crazy working out all those links at the time! Small world indeed!

Apologies for length - we could barely believe it!
(ComplexStuff Was confused by life on, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 22:08, Reply)

This actually made TV in the States
In one of the classes I taught (before my time , though) there were two friends. One man was a little older by than the other, but they had moved to the same small rural town from opposite coasts, each independently found a job in the same nursing home and became friends. They had a ton of interests in common and really clicked. People used to joke they looked and sounded alike enough to be brothers. They thought it was hilarious and decided to take the nurse's aide class together.

During the segment on early childhood and how early trauma affects people, one guy offered that he understood about that because his mother had abandoned him and his siblings in a drug house when he was a toddler. It was a few days before someone discovered them.

His friend turns to him and exclaims, "Dude, me too!"

"Well, this was in Detroit back in 19whatever."

"Wow, in Detroit? Same as me, only I was so little I was in diapers. I don't have any brothers or sister. I think."

Now, when I heard this, goosebumps rose up my arms and I got a chill. I asked the teacher, man, what did you think? She said it still hadn't occured to her that maybe they were brothers. Duh.

They were brothers. All 6 or 7 of the family had been scattered amongst foster homes and had lost track of each other. Since then, the boys have found a couple sisters and are looking for the rest. I just searched for the episode and can't find it.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 22:05, Reply)

birthday
I have three siblings (all elder sisters, yes I am still in therapy).

Two of my sisters were born on the 18th of the month, and the other on the 7th of the month (all different months, but ignore that bit for the full "ooooooh!" effect).

I was due on the 7th, mum went into labour on the 6th, almost guaranteeing my birth on the 7th, meaning mum would have had two children on the 18th of the month and two on the 7th of the month.

Despite my mothers best efforts, I managed to hang in there until 12:10am on the 8th.

I now have a ready made excuse for being late for anything.

I was born late 8)
(mercemployee, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 21:53, Reply)

Blimey
I was at a rugby match.

It was half time and the usual cheap half time entertainment came onto the pitch.

A 30 strong troop of 10 - 18 year old girls waving pom poms around to a loud and thumping backing track of "its raining men"

This was the day after that 9 -11 thing where some lairey Arab lads had taken the twin towers of NYC down.

Just about everybody in the crowd was a bit "jaw dropped" open mouthed that the fuctard in charge of these poor girlies had decided that "Its raining men" was a good choice with the media footage of the poor buggers leaping from the towers just coming out.

And just as the song was finishing, a big 4 engined airliner came in low over the pitch, well off the usual flightpath on its way to Cardiff Airport where planes were still being diverted.

Raining men cheerleaders .... just bad timing ... but with an airliner flying very low over your head at that moment just after 9 - 11 ... spookey.
( RadG Drinking Mojitos in the sun, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 21:32, Reply)

Back when I was but 16...
...I took my ACT tests at a local high school (I didn't go there because I was homeschooled). It was a Saturday in April, and the place was really really full. Students from all over were taking the test, so they had all the classrooms full. I was walking to the one I was supposed to be in, and I overhear a girl about my age saying, "Yeah, I stayed at my boyfriend's house last night 'cause we were out so late. I'm wearing his clothes today, actually." I walked away thinking, "Wow, just a bit trashy, there."

Fast forward to August of the same year. I'm working at the local hospital, making trays of food for patients. One of the girls that works there and I get to talking about tests. She mentions that she didn't like her ACT scores. I say, "Yeah, there was some chick in the hallway when I was going to take mine talking about how she'd stayed at her boyfriend's the night before, and had been out partying all that night. I'll bet her score was worse than yours!"

She gets very quiet, then asks me where I had taken the test, and when.

Turns out it was her. >_<
(NuclearMosquito, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 20:48, Reply)

started uni last year
and after a few weeks got a phone call off my brother saying he'd just met one of my coursemates. not that odd i suppose, except i'm at uni in Bristol, my brother lives in Newcastle and he met the other lad in Liverpool (admittedly mine and my bro's hometown) and there were only 30 of us on the course last year. turns out this lad is my bro's best mate's brother in law and they were both attending the christening of the mutual aquaitance's firstborn.

also when i went on an open day a few years ago to leeds met one of the volunteers started talking to me (i must have looked lost and scared, better than hungover i suppose) and asking what i wanted to do at leeds met and where i was from etc. when i said liverpool she asked whereabouts (a question that irks me as most people who ask me don't know the boroughs of liverpool) and i answered, only to receive a squeal of delight and a "wait here"
she returned a minute later with a busty ginger girl who was from the same part of liverpool, turned out she was the year below my brother at school and was immensly popular due to her early development (so popular that lads begged their piano teacher for the lessons before or after her)

amorous badger, that's nowt. i was watching daylight when diana died

length? girth? if only
(cs192 is sucking on a Koala at, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 20:18, Reply)

One night in Zimbabwe
I met a girl I went to school with in a nightclub once (we didn't go to school in a nightclub though). The nightclub was attached to the Sheraton Harare hotel in Zimbabwe. We're both English. If we were both Zimbabweans, it wouldn't have been as much of a coincidence, would it?

Also, I was on gate guard once with someone (I'll call him Appo) who spoke with a mackem accent. I asked him whereabouts in the north east he was from and he replied "It's a village just outside Durham. You won't have heard of it - it's called East Rainton." Turns out I had heard of it 'cos my Grandad lived there all his life. Also turns out that Appo had been speaking to an old man in the local pub the previous week, and the old man had asked him what he did for a living. "I'm in the RAF" said Appo. "Oh, my Grandson's in the RAF. His name's 3-hoops. Do you know him?" It was my Grandad you know.
(3-hoops, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 19:36, Reply)

Autumn afternoon.
One autumn afternoon about 5 or 6 years back I was driving from my parent's home in Suffolk to Chelmsford, where I lived at the time, it was around 2:30 in the afternoon and I was listening to Tom McCraes's first album, specifically the song 'End of the World News(Dose Me Up)', the chorus of which goes:
' so dose me up once is not enough
I can still see the ground
And from this high rise view looking down on you
I'm not the one wasting my time

This is the end of the world news
This is the end of the world news sponsored by god'

Anyway, the chorus ends and I decided to flick over to the radio to listen to something or other, first words I hear:
'Terrorists fly plane into World Trade Centre'.

Length?
Not any more, it's collapsed.
( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 19:04, Reply)

My sister and I have our telepathic moments.
My favourite was last year. My sister had gone to Hyde Park with one of her mates to see Queens Of The Stoneage, Motorhead and Foo Fighters, whereas I went to my student flat in Kingston to retreive my things for the summer.

On the way back from Kingston, I travelled on the tube and who should I see? Why, it's Simon Pegg, one of mine and my sister's favourite funnymen. So later on, once overground, I texted my sister about Monsieur Pegg.

Meanwhile, my sister was standing around at the gig, when she noticed that one of the security guards on stage looked a little like Simon Pegg. She turned to her mate and, as she pointed and said "He looks like Simon Pegg", she felt her bag vibrate - it was her phone, with my message.

Her mate was suitably weirded out.
(scoob666 Ain't Nuthin' Ta F' Wit, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 18:27, Reply)

Shiny.
Back when the X-files was popular, there was an episode featuring some autistic bloke obsessed with counting things. At some point the butterfingered mong drops a jar of those shiny paper stars and goes apeshit.

What the hell is that glinting on the floor in front of the TV? Is it 5p? Is it a rogue sneeze? No. It's a silver paper star.

Still no idea where it came from as none of us had any of those stars.
(Prof. Moriarty put his foot in it on, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 18:25, Reply)

I think plant touches hamsters in the naughty spot
then they posted that vvvvv
Spooky
( Laird Dave Draws Now charges to take off his clothes., Fri 9 Feb 2007, 18:03, Reply)

THIS ^^^^^
I was about to write exactly the same thing.
You crazy kids!
(plant rolls out of bed like a fat wobbly tub of lard, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 17:59, Reply)

It's How I Was Made
My grandmother was working as a barmaid in the late 1920s. A kind looking chap used to come in the pub every week or so as he was a travelling salesman. He was plucking up the courage to speak to her:

"So, what's your name?"
"Florence."
"Really? Thats my mothers name."

Florrie, me grandma, wasn't having any of this - this was a pretty lame chat up line at the time, but he insisted it was his mothers name. So Florrie asked for his name.

"William."
"Well that's a coincidence, that's my fathers name."

Turns out that Florence and William BOTH had parents called... Florence and William. Thus:

William - Florence      William - Florence
        |                       |
        -------------------------
                    |
            William - Florence

They courted, married, and stayed together for the rest of their lives.

AND THAT'S HOW I WAS MADE.
(kev.cc, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 17:10, Reply)

What do you say ... I mean really what .... !!!
When I was a young lad of 22, I found myself prefering the older lady ;) (not too old though), any way, one Friday night as usual went to a few bars round town, ended up in dodgy type club (where 'older ladies' go ;), and pulled quite a nice 34 year old ... back to her mates house for a "coffee", and then she let me know after the "coffee" that she was married, I thought ... WTF ... and an affair followed, meeting for illicit "coffee" whenever and where ever we could...

... Affair faded out ...

... about 3 years later ... was out with my old man at his local working mans club, having a few beers, they was a disco going on, wasnt sort of place to go on the pull, however, went into disco bit, and I was drawn to cute 18yr old trying to catch my eye, chat, drink, dance, fumble in carpark, back in for more drink ... usual thing...

With my back to the door, she announced .. "ooh my Mum as just walked in ... come and meet her"

"Sure " .. I said, got up turned around ... and ... well you guessed it ...

Luckily there were no seriud consquences or shouting etc ... the good thing was that she couldnt exactly say anything without putting herself in the S**t, so all I did was not to pursue daughter, and moved away shortly after.
(beach_bum, Fri 9 Feb 2007, 17:02, Reply)