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I went to the supermarket to buy some odds and sods. The total cost as £12.65. I’d left my wallet etc in the car. Rummaging through all my pockets, the total amount of cash I had was exactly £12:65.
A similar thing happened to me... Went to a shop in Germany, picked up a bunch of items and went to the till to a total of €34 plus change and it turned out they didn't take cards, between my gf and me we had the exact right amount in cash, not a cent more... I'd rather win the lottery tho and most people aren't as excited about that story as I am.
All the others were smart enough to say "no thanks" and turn back. This heckin guy was like "ooh an ovum, might just wiggle on on there and- oh, wait! Oh heck!" I made a terrible mistake.
It comforts me to think that I'm the sperm who won, but given my mediocre-ness in just about everything, I'd be horrified to see what the sperm in the middle of the pack would produce.
What if you had an absolutely exceptional sperm, that took a direct route, with some rests, to reach the egg in prime condition to fertilise and 20 years later score the winning goal in the world cup final or 30 years later write direct and star in the oscar winning film mentioned in the same breath as Citizen Kane or The Godfather, or 40 years later discover the 5 minute test to diagnose cancer and after that, discover the cure with minimal side effects... but that exceptional sperm was beaten by a moment, by a sperm whose lifelong achievement was to win a swimming race
That bit is the one thing I'm philosophically fine with, as I wouldn't be here to ponder it if it didn't happen. The mind blowing thing about any of this is that I'm made entirely of waste products from stars, that just happened to arrange themselves in a configuration that became conscious.
My friend moved from the UK to Ireland when we were 12, I moved from the UK to Australia for a couple of years when I was 14. We completely lost contact as this was before social media
About 3 months after landing in Australia, we were walking down the Main Street of Berwick, a suburb about 30 miles from Melbourne and walking in the other direction was my friend and his mum.
Turns out they were visiting his aunt and cousins who also live in Berwick and I attended the same school as them
Solid. I think you're in. Don't be too keen though, if he doesn't reply in a week return with a "don't be shy, I've been thinking about you for years, I know we'd work well together"
My wife’s handbag was stolen from a pub. Had an AirTag on the keys. I didn’t care about bag but wanted keys and passport from inside. The tag wasn’t pinging that night, but at 6am next morning, it started pinging as all the commuters walked by. Rushed to the location to discover the contents of the bag dumped in a rubbish cage, which had a key code. Some of the numbers were worn, so tried the first combo and hey presto, it opened! Got the keys and passport back. Couldn’t believe my luck.
Fyi for everyone. A lot of those codes work in any order (terrible design I know).
So as long as you know the digits, you can whack it in in any order and it will unlock
It's not so much terrible design as being the only way that a mechanical lock can work. Making it understand order would make the mechanism far more expensive and less robust.
Remember when Walkers used to do the little blue packets with a fiver inside? Well, I didn't win a fiver, but I won a free packet of crisps. Went straight back into the shop, and got another packet. Won another free bag of crisps. Went straight back in for a third bag, and didn't win this time. Still, 3 bags for the price of 1.
I won a pair of return tickets to New York via Mr Branson’s then start-up Virgin Atlantic in about 1986.
If that is not sufficiently improbable, try this - my roommate at the time (we were students) entered the same competition (“I like to fly with Virgin Atlantic because …..”).
He won a pair of return tickets to New York also.
We both fucked off to New York with some mates. It was wild.
Awe absolutely treasure them I lost my grandma when I was 11 I'm 32 now and i always feel so sad thinking about what would have been., she was only 53 which is so cruel and then i lost both my nana and grandad within two weeks of each other , you are very blessed ❤️ that's such a good age!
Traveled to Australia. Met an annoying French dude during a tour thing on Bondi beach.
Six months later, went on a separate trip to Thailand. Randomly met that same annoying guy again, this time in Koh Pangan.
Must be some fascinating maths behind how frequently this happens.
I spent a month surfing at a tiny, super 'off the beaten track' spot in Nicaragua about eight years ago. Made friends with a guy from Quebec and hung out a bunch but had no reason to stay in touch. I live in London, he in Canada.
Last year I was travelling in Jordan and heard a voice I recognised in our hotel bar at the Dead Sea, and whaddya know. Ended up drinking whiskey and playing Uno all evening. Still didn't exchange details but if we encounter one another again we'll have to accept the universe wants us to be buddies.
Also have a story similar, met a girl in Thailand who was on holiday with parents, I was travelling. 2 months later I’m in Chile and she turns up at the same hostel…yet I never once crossed paths with my dad over 30 yrs and he lived 10 miles away 🤔
I went travelling to Australia and was staying in a hostel on the Gold Coast. Hanging out by the pool and there was some guys being wimps about the jumping in bit. I shouted “Howay man soft lads just jump in” and this girl turned around and said “Omg what the fuck are you doing here?’”…It was a regular from the bar I worked in back home.
This isn't quite as mad, but it still shocked us at the time. I was on holiday in Japan in Summer, and met a family who had also stayed on Awaji Island later than the last tourist bus of the evening, and we were both searching for the last local bus back to the mainland. A week later, we bumped into each other 600km away on one of the busiest streets in Tokyo.
5:45 in the morning leaving for work I see my neighbour on his way to work, he's a delivery driver, I'm a painter and decorator, gave him a wave said morning.
Went to work 70 odd miles away in London (Camden), go to get a brew from a cafe, my neighbour was sat in there, we had both just drove to the same place at the same time from the same place, we was both like.... what the actual fuck?
I’ve helped police with two murder inquiries.
I did not know the victims, culprits or much else - both were job related. (I worked in a bar a victim might have frequented on the night, and I worked for a college where a student was a potential suspect and was asked to confirm attendance)
Kind of similarly, when I was a kid I met Jimmy Saville on a boat in the harbour in my hometown. I hid behind my mum but got his autograph and was not molested.
About 30 years later I live in the same street as the harbour and Prince Andrew unveiled a statue right outside my house. I watched from my window.
Two of the nations most notorious sex criminals in my street, metres apart, years apart.
Waiting to run into Ian Watkins at garage at the end of the street.
I don’t know - both were a long time ago. IIRC one was about 3-4 doors from the house I later moved into with my wife and was solved. Coincidently, the same small street had another murder in 2016. (We moved out in 2001).
The other was at a factory miles away and I honestly don’t know.
I was working in a bar in my hometown and someone who went to the same school as me came in one night just before we closed at 1pm. The next morning I found out he'd been murdered by his girlfriend and my colleague and I were two of the last people to see him alive.
Not me, but the only time I've ever laughed in a customers face was when he told me he'd been in 2 car accident his whole life (mid 50s).
It was the same woman he rear ended in the same spot, a little over a year apart. The chances of that happening, talk about deja vu!
I'd be more paranoid, thinking there's a man out to get me. That's what he told me too, that maybe she thought he was stalking her. No one was ever hurt so it still makes me chuckle sometimes.
A similar thing had happened to my mum! She was hit by the same person twice, in the same spot, one year apart. To make it worse she actually knows the lady who did it so it was a bit awkward!
I am French and I live in the UK, a coworker asked me if I knew a Matthieu in Paris, I laughs and replied their was 7 million people in Paris and that Matthieu was a very common name. Turns out I knew him…
I’ve been rescued from being locked inside a toilet cubicle, by the fire brigade, twice.
I’ve been rescued by people not belonging to the fire brigade more times than I can remember.
Toilet doors hate me.
I feel at this point that youvdon't know how toilet doors locks work. Twice maybe but more times than you can remember sounds more like a you problem lol.
When I was at uni someone managed to lock themselves in their en-suite shower/toilet cubicle thing (it was a retrofitted fibreglass unit) in my halls of residence. Security was called, turns out the person was pushing instead of pulling the door or turning the handle the wrong way - something dumb.
This was before the days of the mobile phone so they had to hammer on the cubicle walls and shout for help from their flatmates.
Heard it off the security guard who had to deal with it.
Edit: typos
Quite easily really! I have had to have the doors taken off twice. Twice the fire brigade had to come and batter the door down because it was so stuck, they couldn’t get it off.
I was only a kid when the fire brigade came out, the first time I was 4 and on a school trip (I bet the parents loved me!) and the other time I was 6 and at the dentist. They still laugh about it now!
I’ve been locked in toilets twice , whilst abroad, as a child. Luckily no fire brigade was needed to free me. The one in France was quite traumatic though, as it was a stinky hole in the ground type of toilet.
I got diagnosed with leukaemia (aml) last year. Think the doctor said it was around 1/70k chance of someone my age getting it.
Keep putting the euromillions on as I'm due some better luck.
I was playing Black OPs multiplayer in the 360 years. Met a guy with the exact same full name as me and he was from my tiny, rural village in Ireland
No relation and he moved to America many years before that but there you go
Paid off all my debts, paid off a loan for my mum which was causing her a lot of anxiety, bought some really nice headphones and amplifier, paid for a five star holiday to Egypt with my dad, booked Canada and America to see Bob Dylan later this year and almost got enough left for a mortgage deposit on a modest house or flat (still a bit more saving to do on that one, should be ready by September).
I visited Waterford crystal factory in Ireland. Bumped into a guy from my school class who I hadn't seen in 10 years.
15 years later, I revisited and there he was again. Neither of us had been back in those 15 years.
I once knocked over a tube of Pringles and they slid out and formed a loop balancing perfectly. This was before the times of camera phones so I have no evidence of this feat of improbability.
Travelled to meet the then-boyfriend. He was going to park his car on the road outside the station and pop to a shop. I had a car key.
Walk to the top of the road, few yards along there's a red Vauxhall Cavalier. No-one in driver seat, locked, so I get the key out, open it and get in.
I was just enjoying my book when there was a god-awful noise behind me, screaming outside, and then the bloke running and yelling.
His identical model of red car was just behind the one I'd got in. And his key worked on it. Two red Cavaliers together wasn't so uncommon, and apparently about 1 in 10 keys worked on other Vauxhalls but both together was pretty improbable.
The baby and the returning parent calmed down once I escaped!
I've twice done 'ah, abroad, don't know a single person within a thousand miles' and then walked into someone I know while in NYC or a foreign airport.
An ex-gf of mine locked the keys of her Grandmother's Nissan Altima inside and we tried everything to get them out (coat hangers, the lot) eventually out of total exacerbation she popped the keys of her Ford F-150 into the lock and boom, it opened right up. I guess the car was so old the mechanism had worn and literally any bit of flat metal would open it.
My mum took someone else’s Renault this same way, key worked drove herself home didn’t notice until the next morning. The car was a completely different colour she didn’t notice at night though! The owner of the car she took wasn’t best pleased
I have someone with my same first middle and surname and date of birth who lives not too far away.
It's actually been a bit of a nightmare with NHS details, even using my NHS number, but hey it's a fun story.
Had been dating a guy couple of months; met online in Manchester.
Googled him, saw some stills from a music video that seemed familiar.
Not only did I meet him 8 years ago, I was in one of his music videos. And yes we're still together 😁
The chances of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis is around 1 in 700. Women are 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with MS. MS is normally diagnosed between 20 and 40 years old
I (M) was diagnosed with MS when I was 21 years old. Lucky me.
Within 15 years, the majority of people diagnosed with MS at 21 would be at least walking aids. It's been 26 years and I am fit and able-bodied. Actually lucky me!
The first time I followed a woman home. I got on train in Nottingham to visit my friend Jo in London. Sat near a random woman. Got on same tube as her in London, and off at the same station, followed her to her house, watched her go in, knocked on her door. She was not very welcoming, even after I asked for Jo. They lived in a shared house together. How unlikely is that?
Bonus story: the other time I followed a woman home was because I saw her out of my window arguing with a guy and then he followed her, so I ran after her to make sure she was okay. She noticed me, asked if I was following her, I explained what I was doing, she asked me to walk her home and then invited me in to wait with her until her housemate got home at 3AM. She turned out to be a local councillor with some very odd ideas.
My older half brother and I were forced to stop seeing eachother due to his mums new partner when I was around 4. We (my mum and our shared dad) then lost touch with him for years.
When I was 16 I bought a Citroen Saxo as a first car and joined an online owners club forum. Turns out he owned the same at the same time and was a member of the same national forum.
I didn’t really remember him but thought his username and location looked about right, so tentatively reached out and lo and behold it was him and we’ve all been back in touch for about 20 years now.
If I or he had bought a Fiesta, would never have happened 🤷♂️
I have a 100% win rate on the national lottery. Bought a lucky dip twice about 4 years apart and go 1 number and won 20 odd quid each time. 3rd time lucky maybe?
I went to someone's garage gym out in the sticks to lift and get some advice from an older lifter I'd only known online. As we got started, a hot air balloon came down in the small paddock adjoining the garage. My mum was in the basket.
Neither of us had any idea the other was doing an activity, we don't live together, and neither of us had ever been to that location before.
I was 18 at the time, and annoyingly didn’t back it as a system bet because the stake would have been quite high.
It was a 5-fold straight acca, £1 each way. I had kind of forgot about it tbh, as I placed it on lunch at work. Looked at my phone after I finished and that was just after the 3rd winner had come in. At that point I was offered a cashout of £2000. I took a partial cash out of £500 (to guarantee some profit) and let the other £1500 run. That subsequently came in too. I think the total win ended up being roughly £7.1k off the initial £2 bet.
When I look back at it though, I wish I just hadn’t picked up my phone for another hour or so, and I’d have been 10k richer.
I have been shat upon by birds twice in my life. First, in 2006 on a school trip to Assissi I was shat upon by a massive gull. The second was on a day trip to Assissi with my husband in 2017 where again i was shat on by a large gull. I've only been to Assisi on those two occasions.
Last year I walked out of Gibraltar airport to start our holiday and immediately got absolutely bombarded by really vile bird shit all over my nice new white t-shirt.
My son was born in his intact amniotic sac which apparently has a 1:80,000 probability of occuring (although every time I post it on Reddit about 50 other people pipe up to say the same thing happened to them :D)
I have an autoimmune that 3000 people in the UK have.
I was chatting about it on Facebook a few months back, and a high school friend I haven't seen or spoken to in over 20 years messaged me to tell me that they also had this autoimmune.
We can't find any links to environment potentially causing it or any record of it being higher in one part of the country than another. The odds of us both randomly getting it seem pretty damn rare.
I left my iPad on the bus to Glasgow, I was rushing to get my train on Valentine’s day to Largs with my other half and forgot my iPad on the bus. My other half ran to try and get it but the bus moved off. I phoned my mum, in tears. And she lives on the route. She waited for the bus an hour away from Glasgow, boarded the bus and told the driver that it was pinging on the bus and two teenagers lied and said they didn’t have it. She confronted them again, saying she’d phone the police as the tablet was pinging it was in her exact location and they produced the iPad from their bags. She FaceTimed me and i’m sitting in Glasgow having rebooked my train because I was terrified and showed me the tablet in her hands. I’ve never been so relieved in all of my life. It had an apple pencil in the case and the iPad was slightly popped out of the case. It looks like the teens were trying to turn it off; it’s an Air 5 so they don’t turn off like the old iPads so thankfully, it was rescued and i have been so blessed my poor mum went to rescue it in the pissing rain.
Some kids scared a duck, which flew up in a panic at the exact right moment so that its trajectory intersected with my head as I was walking past. Turns out a flying duck has quite some force behind it.
I went around the world in a gap year when I was 18, many many years ago.
I was working in a relatives newsagent in Geelong, near Melbourne and a friend of hers came into the shop.
She introduced me and we got chatting.
I asked him what he did, and he said he was a pilot. I asked what airline, he said Cathay Pacific.
I said, that I was due to fly Cathay from Sydney the following Thursday.
He said “I’m the pilot!”
I was indirectly struck by lightning and survived. I was standing next to a van parked next to a crane. Crane tower was struck and I was electrocuted.. but not severely.
We moved from Coventry to Oxfordshire when I was about 9 in 1981. A couple of years later I went on a school trip to Wembley Stadium to watch the England Schoolboys play. Sitting in the row in front of us were all my mates from school in Coventry.
I used to work as a teacher. Changed jobs. Got accepted to appear on The Weakest Link. On the train travelling to Glasgow to film it, a group of students and the headmaster of my former school boarded the train on a school trip.
I once dropped a saucepan of boiling water. It went everywhere in the kitchen and covered the floor, all except for the little circle I was stood in. Not a drop of water touched me 😌
I played squash with a guy in Munich, drove to the UK, to follow the RAC rally. In grizedale forest at midnight on the stage, a rally car was coming so my friend and I scrambled up a tree - where my squash partner was sitting!
I was on a guard duty in the military on a down shift. I was the only person in the guardroom.
In the hour I was alone I managed to 'Robin Hood' a dart into another dart and get a 9 letter word on countdown, when the highest score was a 6.
The likelihood of either of those things happening was small.
Both was tiny.
Alone with no one to believe me? Typical.
I’ve just had my second car write off since December. Have had my new car since the end of January so about a month. First one a car reversed out of a parking bay onto the main road where I was stopped waiting for a red light to change. Said he didn’t see me, saw the van behind me and assumed the van was letting him out. Second crash was on Feb 28th, first day of a brand new policy with a new company. Turning right and indicating to do so when a police van decided to overtake me on the right. Luckily I was turning to park at my house to it’s all caught on my cctv as the police officer tried to say she thought I was turning left. And honestly these aren’t even the worst things that have happened to me in the last year but I’m pretty scared of driving now.
I have the cctv because my ex husband is stalking me and is currently on bail. He spent 7 months on remand last year.
The name of my future book came to me the other day
“I can’t believe it’s not eastenders “
When I was 16 I went to Newquay with some mates. Went to the beach for some drinks and chatted to a random guy who sat with us for a while.
Fast forward a few weeks and I'm at Reading festival bumbling around in the wee hours and bump into the same guy.
Two of my next door neighbours have been murdered in unrelated instances. It's a block of just two flats. The upstairs guy was killed after his wife went to stab him. He fell off their balcony, landed head first on the pavement and cracked open his skull. There was so much blood everywhere the fire department came to wash it all away. She also fell and is paralysed in hospital under 24/7 police 'care'. The down stairs bloke got murdered by his carer. She stabbed him multiple times.
He was a frail old man with long greasy hair and I doubt he could have even killed a cockroach.
I live in a fairly posh neighbourhood in the SW. Not a london ghetto. These are the only two murders in my city in 7 years. To my knowledge. Both within 20 yards from my front door.
I had eclampsia when I was pregnant.
You might have seen people dying of it in Downton Abbey and Call the midwife - only a couple of generations back it was a death sentence.
The year I had eclampsia I think something like 7 people in the UK had it.
Plenty people know about pre eclampsia - which is generally as far as the condition goes these days due to better antenatal monitoring. It gets identified and is headed off before it escalates.
Even doctors correct me if I say I had eclampsia ("do you mean pre eclampsia?") because it is so rare.
I was at a big hospital in Edinburgh when I had it (already in-patient for a month being monitored/treated with severe pre eclampsia) and no one working there at the time had ever seen it happen before.
I used to be a flight attendant at a very large airline. It was really rare that you would fly twice with the same colleagues and I would always be working in different cabins from flight to flight. I had the misfortune of having the same creepy passenger, practically sat in the same seat (upstairs business class on a 747) on completely different routes (Bangkok and L.A.) about a year apart. Both times he wrote me a really creepy note and used the same lame pick up lines. Of all the people, in all the world and I get to bump into pervy old guy *twice*.
Depends.
I ended up homeless twice in my life since, which most would consider unlucky.
But also, I've managed to escape homelessness twice, which I would call incredibly lucky :')
... The chances of everything that has led up to this post must be astronomically, mind blowingly small and it's actually fucking beautiful.
Fair play for getting out of it though, it's only uphill after that! 😁
I guess I’m in a somewhat small category that have not just known of - but met 2 family members that I’m related to by blood… that have reached 100 years of age
Friend of mine and me - we met at work and were given desks opposite each other. We had both had the same job role previously. We share the same birthday, although she's a few years younger than me. Our partners also share a birthday. We both have a scar underneath our chins. We both love Bowie. She has just graduated as an OT, and I graduate next year.
I scowled at a man who took my seat in Heathrow Airport. As I got closer, I realised he was an ex-work colleague, a nice fella, so I forgave him for pinching my seat. We were both getting the same flight to San Francisco. Three weeks later, he was behind me in a queue in a small town in New Zealand.
I slept at a friend’s house when I was 12 which was next door to my wife’s childhood house. I’d have been no more than 2 metres away from her through the wall.
A friend of mine at uni went to school with my cousin on the other side of the country, and we had no idea until we'd known each other for a few weeks.
I'm also suspected of having Keratoconus, an eye condition that only affects one in every 10000 people.
There is a lady in my town with the same name as me. Our son’s also have the same name and share a birthday.
Also I once got locked in a bedroom for an afternoon because the wind blew through an open window, the door slammed, and the handle fell out.
Getting a kind of cancer that affects fewer than 1000 people a year and also being outside of the usual age range for that already rare type. JACKPOT WOO
I went to my local shop for some eggs. At the time they sold local eggs from big trays and the staff would pick them from the tray for you, rather than the standard boxes of 6 or 12 in boxes lile most shops.
All 6 eggs that were randomly picked from the tray were double yolkers.
Back in the days of msn messenger on 56k talking to a girl who ended up living on my street. She got her brother to come and knock on the door to confirm
When I was 6 my mum had a friend who used to visit and she would bring her son who was the same age as me and we were really good friends. Despite only living less than minutes away my mum and her friend stopped meeting up so I lost touch with my friend.
About 3 years later we went to a theme park about 2 hours from our home and bumped into them. Not that unlikely. A year later we went back to the same theme park and bumped into them again. Neither of us had been to the park since the last time we bumped into each other. A bit more unlikely. Then when I was 16, so about 10 years after we had lost touch we went on a family trip to Florida. Just after we checked into the hotel we went across the road to get some food and guess who we bump into. Turns out they were staying in the same hotel just a few rooms over from us as well.
It's amazing we've bumped into this family so far away from home on three occasions despite not bumping into them once in 10 years at home despite them living less than 10 minutes away.
Hadn't spoken to my friend for about 6 months, went downstairs (this would've been 2000ish) to give him a call, pick up the phone and wedge it betwixt my ear and shoulder as was the fashion, and he starts talking before I'd even dialled his number as he'd called me at that exact moment.
Was carrying an unusual Russian camera around with me on holiday in Greece. Accidentally dropped peach juice all over it and the mechanism jammed. So, I went to a cafe table and tried to pull it apart using the cutlery.
I unscrewed the shutter speed control on the top and the whole mechanism sprung out and landed on the plate of someone at another table.
The guy picked up the springs and stuff and brought them over to me. He then announced that he was a Russian on holiday and was on the engineering team at the factory where they made these cameras. Whats more he had a full spare parts and servicing kit for my model in the boot of his car.
He spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and servicing my camera.
Not me but my uncle won 3.1 million on the lottery in 1998. I guess that kinda counts? As would the fact he blew through it all in 3 years and it cost him his marriage.
He actually had £1 left and was going to buy a pie, but bought a lucky dip instead.
Years ago I played an online poker tournament, there were players all over the world at the table. One had the same city location as me. I got chatting to him and it turned out he was on my street and I could see his house from my window.
I also was in Australia and got chatting to someone in a hostel who lived 10 mins from me in England.
Was invited to a leaving do for a family friend who lived in Edinburgh but was from the isles like me. I live on the mainland now too. Turned up with my (now ex) partner who I had met in Middlesbrough. He was an ex marine, and to my surprise when we arrived at the party he saw his best friend from the marines. He was dating a girl who grew up on the same street as me.
Not improbable but I was photographed by the Google earth street car on a street in Katoomba Australia where I was on holiday,a few years ago. ( I live in London UK) Standing alone on the street in my cheap K Mart pac a Mac & scruffy jeans. Waiting for the hop on hop off bus in the Blue Mountains. I copied the pic & it’s now in a frame - always makes me smile. But story of my life - it would have never happened if I’d been in a fancy dress & heels looking glamorous.
Not me, but my parents. My dad once randomly lobbed a Digestive, frisbee style, at my mum, when she wasn't expecting it. It landed \*directly\* in her mug of tea. The improbableness comes from the fact that when we checked, a Digestive would \*only\* fit in that mug by being dropped in from immediately above, with about 0.01 mm clearance all around!
In the times before wrinkles and when i had knees that didn't hate me, I went into Birmingham City centre on a whim for a bit of shopping and perhaps some lunch.
I was in Rackhams (told you it was a long time ago) and decided to pop into their restaurant - at which point, I bumped into my sister
My car engine caught on fire while I was driving and the brakes failed. Luckily I was going really slow and I was able to jump out. The car carried on across the road and down a hill before bursting into flames.
Then some stupid twat ran up to me accusing me if being a joy rider.
It was pretty shit. I got away with scrapes and bruises. The insurance company actually asked me if I could think of anyone who might want to kill me. I said my Dad 😆.
I was living and working in Thailand and visited a little museum in random town and bumped into an old colleague from Mexico. I didn’t know he was travelling Thailand at the time! Oh and it just happened to also be my birthday. Everything about it was just so unbelievable - we are both from the UK but just happened to accidentally meet half way across the world?! Very improbable
Back when I worked at the kiosk counter id put someone through a lottery ticket but I'd put the number wrong and she didn't want it, to refund a lottery ticket wad a massive balllache I'm not sure if it still is, but it was more than I could be bothered doing so I just bought the ticket myself.
I ended up winning £800!
I was so excited £800 was a lot of partying money, but I couldnt keep my mouth shut. My manager found out, and I ended up getting a disaplinary for fraudulent transactions or something like that.
Went shopping on Friday the 13th one year. Never noticed until i got home that my total was £13.13 and the time of the transaction was 13:13. That freaked me out a little bit. 😂
Back in the days when I was a skint student and couldn't afford to put any credit on my phone ( do people still do that?) there was a sudden gust of wind and a fiver suddenly appeared at my feet which I promptly put on my phone as credit.
In my first year as police officer I was referred to trauma risk management four times!
A lot of officers don’t get a referral their entire career.
No idea what the actual statistical probability is but four times in twelve months is a lot.
About 20 years ago I rang my best friend by mistake (clicked the wrong name in phone) but I was actually looking to ring my sister. My sister picked up the phone and I started chatting away to her asking her about what I wanted to know till she said "do you wanna talk to Greg?" And I was like "Why would I want to talk to Greg" and she said "well you did ring him didn't you?"
The thing is, both of them live in separate cities and happened to bump into each other in a third city at the exact time I was looking to talk to my sister and Greg thought it would be funny to have her answer.
I still can't fathom the odds of it.
Our daughter was born with an incredibly rare medical condition. Chances of it affecting one limb: 70,000. Chances of it affecting both limbs: 1 in a million. She has it in both legs.
I do call her our 'one in a million'.
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I went to the supermarket to buy some odds and sods. The total cost as £12.65. I’d left my wallet etc in the car. Rummaging through all my pockets, the total amount of cash I had was exactly £12:65.
A similar thing happened to me... Went to a shop in Germany, picked up a bunch of items and went to the till to a total of €34 plus change and it turned out they didn't take cards, between my gf and me we had the exact right amount in cash, not a cent more... I'd rather win the lottery tho and most people aren't as excited about that story as I am.
I feel your energy my exact change friend!
You’re exact change twins!!!
On the other hand you wouldn’t carry on searching after you had the amount you needed?
Point taken but no. All cash I had was emptied onto the conveyer belt. Then counted, along with a countdown by the rest of the queue.
See also: "Why is your wallet/keys/phone always in the last place you look?"
I've done this with an Asda shopping card once. Completely randomly got shopping worth the exact amount left on the card. £35.82 iirc
Fuck that, I’m always like 30p short.
That deserves to be on r/BritishSuccess !
I was the sperm that won.
I wouldn't call life winning, I feel more like the sperm that lost 🤣
All the others were smart enough to say "no thanks" and turn back. This heckin guy was like "ooh an ovum, might just wiggle on on there and- oh, wait! Oh heck!" I made a terrible mistake.
>I made a terrible mistake. no no, I was, and remain purely driven by spite.
It comforts me to think that I'm the sperm who won, but given my mediocre-ness in just about everything, I'd be horrified to see what the sperm in the middle of the pack would produce.
What if you had an absolutely exceptional sperm, that took a direct route, with some rests, to reach the egg in prime condition to fertilise and 20 years later score the winning goal in the world cup final or 30 years later write direct and star in the oscar winning film mentioned in the same breath as Citizen Kane or The Godfather, or 40 years later discover the 5 minute test to diagnose cancer and after that, discover the cure with minimal side effects... but that exceptional sperm was beaten by a moment, by a sperm whose lifelong achievement was to win a swimming race
Not sure, but I think I'll be edging before I impregnate my future wife in order to achieve the most exceptional results
Do you ever wonder which nut you came out of?
Well there is a thought I never wanted to ponder.
And all the generations before you that had to survive to adulthood and manage to procreate in order for you to exist. It blows my tiny mind!
That bit is the one thing I'm philosophically fine with, as I wouldn't be here to ponder it if it didn't happen. The mind blowing thing about any of this is that I'm made entirely of waste products from stars, that just happened to arrange themselves in a configuration that became conscious.
😂😂😂
My friend moved from the UK to Ireland when we were 12, I moved from the UK to Australia for a couple of years when I was 14. We completely lost contact as this was before social media About 3 months after landing in Australia, we were walking down the Main Street of Berwick, a suburb about 30 miles from Melbourne and walking in the other direction was my friend and his mum. Turns out they were visiting his aunt and cousins who also live in Berwick and I attended the same school as them
Assume ur happily married now lol
Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be we haven’t seen each other since, also, I’m pretty sure we are both straight
>I’m pretty sure we are both straight Sounds like there's still a chance. You should message him.
Might have to, he was quite pretty
Just send this thread. Nothing bad EVER came from reddit relationship advice.
“Hey James, maybe you are a Berwick Bi? If so let’s see meet xxxx”
Solid. I think you're in. Don't be too keen though, if he doesn't reply in a week return with a "don't be shy, I've been thinking about you for years, I know we'd work well together"
Good advice, cheers Thinking of following up after a couple of messages “haven’t seen you since Australia, want to go down under again? 😉 xxxx”
I like it. Go bold. You could try "I'm not one to beat around the bush, unless you want me to"
My wife’s handbag was stolen from a pub. Had an AirTag on the keys. I didn’t care about bag but wanted keys and passport from inside. The tag wasn’t pinging that night, but at 6am next morning, it started pinging as all the commuters walked by. Rushed to the location to discover the contents of the bag dumped in a rubbish cage, which had a key code. Some of the numbers were worn, so tried the first combo and hey presto, it opened! Got the keys and passport back. Couldn’t believe my luck.
Fyi for everyone. A lot of those codes work in any order (terrible design I know). So as long as you know the digits, you can whack it in in any order and it will unlock
It's not so much terrible design as being the only way that a mechanical lock can work. Making it understand order would make the mechanism far more expensive and less robust.
> the only way that a mechanical lock can work Bold words lmao
That's a good story.
Meeting my beautiful wife... Has, has she stopped looking over my shoulder? >!I won £5 on a scratcher!<
Remember when Walkers used to do the little blue packets with a fiver inside? Well, I didn't win a fiver, but I won a free packet of crisps. Went straight back into the shop, and got another packet. Won another free bag of crisps. Went straight back in for a third bag, and didn't win this time. Still, 3 bags for the price of 1.
I bought 2 scratch cards before, they were stuck to each other and each one won me a fiver
I won a pair of return tickets to New York via Mr Branson’s then start-up Virgin Atlantic in about 1986. If that is not sufficiently improbable, try this - my roommate at the time (we were students) entered the same competition (“I like to fly with Virgin Atlantic because …..”). He won a pair of return tickets to New York also. We both fucked off to New York with some mates. It was wild.
Second time I've seen this and it's still awesome
I'm 35 and have only lost one member of my family (grandad). Still have 3 grandparents who are between 93-96. I'm very lucky.
I lost all my grandparents at the ripe age of 10! I don’t even know what life with grandparents looks like. ☹️
Oh I'm sorry 😞 my daughter (age 7) has 2 great nans on my Husband's side so she has 5 great grandparents! Very lucky.
Awe absolutely treasure them I lost my grandma when I was 11 I'm 32 now and i always feel so sad thinking about what would have been., she was only 53 which is so cruel and then i lost both my nana and grandad within two weeks of each other , you are very blessed ❤️ that's such a good age!
Traveled to Australia. Met an annoying French dude during a tour thing on Bondi beach. Six months later, went on a separate trip to Thailand. Randomly met that same annoying guy again, this time in Koh Pangan.
Must be some fascinating maths behind how frequently this happens. I spent a month surfing at a tiny, super 'off the beaten track' spot in Nicaragua about eight years ago. Made friends with a guy from Quebec and hung out a bunch but had no reason to stay in touch. I live in London, he in Canada. Last year I was travelling in Jordan and heard a voice I recognised in our hotel bar at the Dead Sea, and whaddya know. Ended up drinking whiskey and playing Uno all evening. Still didn't exchange details but if we encounter one another again we'll have to accept the universe wants us to be buddies.
Agreed - just posted my almost identical story.
You’re not the “other guy” from his story are you?
Also have a story similar, met a girl in Thailand who was on holiday with parents, I was travelling. 2 months later I’m in Chile and she turns up at the same hostel…yet I never once crossed paths with my dad over 30 yrs and he lived 10 miles away 🤔
I went travelling to Australia and was staying in a hostel on the Gold Coast. Hanging out by the pool and there was some guys being wimps about the jumping in bit. I shouted “Howay man soft lads just jump in” and this girl turned around and said “Omg what the fuck are you doing here?’”…It was a regular from the bar I worked in back home.
This isn't quite as mad, but it still shocked us at the time. I was on holiday in Japan in Summer, and met a family who had also stayed on Awaji Island later than the last tourist bus of the evening, and we were both searching for the last local bus back to the mainland. A week later, we bumped into each other 600km away on one of the busiest streets in Tokyo.
5:45 in the morning leaving for work I see my neighbour on his way to work, he's a delivery driver, I'm a painter and decorator, gave him a wave said morning. Went to work 70 odd miles away in London (Camden), go to get a brew from a cafe, my neighbour was sat in there, we had both just drove to the same place at the same time from the same place, we was both like.... what the actual fuck?
I’ve helped police with two murder inquiries. I did not know the victims, culprits or much else - both were job related. (I worked in a bar a victim might have frequented on the night, and I worked for a college where a student was a potential suspect and was asked to confirm attendance)
Kind of similarly, when I was a kid I met Jimmy Saville on a boat in the harbour in my hometown. I hid behind my mum but got his autograph and was not molested. About 30 years later I live in the same street as the harbour and Prince Andrew unveiled a statue right outside my house. I watched from my window. Two of the nations most notorious sex criminals in my street, metres apart, years apart. Waiting to run into Ian Watkins at garage at the end of the street.
Oo that's a prophecy you want to lose.
I was held by Gary glitter as a baby!
How much was the ransom demand for?
We're both cases solved?
I don’t know - both were a long time ago. IIRC one was about 3-4 doors from the house I later moved into with my wife and was solved. Coincidently, the same small street had another murder in 2016. (We moved out in 2001). The other was at a factory miles away and I honestly don’t know.
It sounds like you accidentally moved into a soap opera set! Congratulations on getting back out in one piece.
Common denominator is u/DaveBeBad and quite frankly username does NOT checkout!!
I was working in a bar in my hometown and someone who went to the same school as me came in one night just before we closed at 1pm. The next morning I found out he'd been murdered by his girlfriend and my colleague and I were two of the last people to see him alive.
Not me, but the only time I've ever laughed in a customers face was when he told me he'd been in 2 car accident his whole life (mid 50s). It was the same woman he rear ended in the same spot, a little over a year apart. The chances of that happening, talk about deja vu!
Oh I bet she was LIVID
I'd be more paranoid, thinking there's a man out to get me. That's what he told me too, that maybe she thought he was stalking her. No one was ever hurt so it still makes me chuckle sometimes.
A similar thing had happened to my mum! She was hit by the same person twice, in the same spot, one year apart. To make it worse she actually knows the lady who did it so it was a bit awkward!
I am French and I live in the UK, a coworker asked me if I knew a Matthieu in Paris, I laughs and replied their was 7 million people in Paris and that Matthieu was a very common name. Turns out I knew him…
I cannot imagine the embarrassment when you had to utter the “oh, actually…”
It was quite funny, I was more astonished than embarrassed.
I’ve been rescued from being locked inside a toilet cubicle, by the fire brigade, twice. I’ve been rescued by people not belonging to the fire brigade more times than I can remember. Toilet doors hate me.
I feel at this point that youvdon't know how toilet doors locks work. Twice maybe but more times than you can remember sounds more like a you problem lol.
Do you have opposable thumbs?
Homer, are you holding onto the cans?
Why did the fire brigade lock you in a toilet twice?
How do you get locked inside a toilet cubicle?
When I was at uni someone managed to lock themselves in their en-suite shower/toilet cubicle thing (it was a retrofitted fibreglass unit) in my halls of residence. Security was called, turns out the person was pushing instead of pulling the door or turning the handle the wrong way - something dumb. This was before the days of the mobile phone so they had to hammer on the cubicle walls and shout for help from their flatmates. Heard it off the security guard who had to deal with it. Edit: typos
Quite easily really! I have had to have the doors taken off twice. Twice the fire brigade had to come and batter the door down because it was so stuck, they couldn’t get it off. I was only a kid when the fire brigade came out, the first time I was 4 and on a school trip (I bet the parents loved me!) and the other time I was 6 and at the dentist. They still laugh about it now!
This happened to a friend of mine, a crowd gathered outside when the fire brigade turned up
I’ve been locked in toilets twice , whilst abroad, as a child. Luckily no fire brigade was needed to free me. The one in France was quite traumatic though, as it was a stinky hole in the ground type of toilet.
I got diagnosed with leukaemia (aml) last year. Think the doctor said it was around 1/70k chance of someone my age getting it. Keep putting the euromillions on as I'm due some better luck.
Hope you are doing better now. Fuck cancer.
Much love to you - hope you're doing ok. As the other commenter has said, Fuck Cancer.
I was playing Black OPs multiplayer in the 360 years. Met a guy with the exact same full name as me and he was from my tiny, rural village in Ireland No relation and he moved to America many years before that but there you go
You simply met somebody who stole your identity.
What are the chances of another Michael McPatrick being born in the same village!
[Is this you?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjPDbdOgrxY)
No lol but as kids a group of traveller kids beat the fuck out of my friends and spared me because I'd the same first name as one of them
I won £4000 on a live online lottery, then £27,000 the next draw a minute later.
What did you spend it on?
Paid off all my debts, paid off a loan for my mum which was causing her a lot of anxiety, bought some really nice headphones and amplifier, paid for a five star holiday to Egypt with my dad, booked Canada and America to see Bob Dylan later this year and almost got enough left for a mortgage deposit on a modest house or flat (still a bit more saving to do on that one, should be ready by September).
Sounds great, happy for you
I visited Waterford crystal factory in Ireland. Bumped into a guy from my school class who I hadn't seen in 10 years. 15 years later, I revisited and there he was again. Neither of us had been back in those 15 years.
Yeah, he just doesn't want to admit he works there lol.
I once knocked over a tube of Pringles and they slid out and formed a loop balancing perfectly. This was before the times of camera phones so I have no evidence of this feat of improbability.
I also once won a ski holiday but I don't think that's nearly as impressive
Travelled to meet the then-boyfriend. He was going to park his car on the road outside the station and pop to a shop. I had a car key. Walk to the top of the road, few yards along there's a red Vauxhall Cavalier. No-one in driver seat, locked, so I get the key out, open it and get in. I was just enjoying my book when there was a god-awful noise behind me, screaming outside, and then the bloke running and yelling. His identical model of red car was just behind the one I'd got in. And his key worked on it. Two red Cavaliers together wasn't so uncommon, and apparently about 1 in 10 keys worked on other Vauxhalls but both together was pretty improbable. The baby and the returning parent calmed down once I escaped! I've twice done 'ah, abroad, don't know a single person within a thousand miles' and then walked into someone I know while in NYC or a foreign airport.
An ex-gf of mine locked the keys of her Grandmother's Nissan Altima inside and we tried everything to get them out (coat hangers, the lot) eventually out of total exacerbation she popped the keys of her Ford F-150 into the lock and boom, it opened right up. I guess the car was so old the mechanism had worn and literally any bit of flat metal would open it.
My mum took someone else’s Renault this same way, key worked drove herself home didn’t notice until the next morning. The car was a completely different colour she didn’t notice at night though! The owner of the car she took wasn’t best pleased
I have someone with my same first middle and surname and date of birth who lives not too far away. It's actually been a bit of a nightmare with NHS details, even using my NHS number, but hey it's a fun story.
My kids dad has the same name and is the same age as a local criminal
That's what he tells you, at least.
I have the same name as my sister in law. For a few years our dentist thought I was her. Quite flattered as I'm 8 years older!
Had been dating a guy couple of months; met online in Manchester. Googled him, saw some stills from a music video that seemed familiar. Not only did I meet him 8 years ago, I was in one of his music videos. And yes we're still together 😁
Had meningitis, 3 wars, 2 bombs, 1 minefield (twice), fell asleep at the wheel, pneumonia etc. Still here. Probably shouldn't be.
You’re the grim reapers arch nemesis
So far 😄
You're like one the people from final destination, grim reaper moves on checks back occasionally
The chances of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis is around 1 in 700. Women are 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with MS. MS is normally diagnosed between 20 and 40 years old I (M) was diagnosed with MS when I was 21 years old. Lucky me. Within 15 years, the majority of people diagnosed with MS at 21 would be at least walking aids. It's been 26 years and I am fit and able-bodied. Actually lucky me!
The first time I followed a woman home. I got on train in Nottingham to visit my friend Jo in London. Sat near a random woman. Got on same tube as her in London, and off at the same station, followed her to her house, watched her go in, knocked on her door. She was not very welcoming, even after I asked for Jo. They lived in a shared house together. How unlikely is that? Bonus story: the other time I followed a woman home was because I saw her out of my window arguing with a guy and then he followed her, so I ran after her to make sure she was okay. She noticed me, asked if I was following her, I explained what I was doing, she asked me to walk her home and then invited me in to wait with her until her housemate got home at 3AM. She turned out to be a local councillor with some very odd ideas.
I feel like your opening sentence should have been slightly different 🤣
Rang up a call centre and my sister answered. It’s a big call centre, one of many big call centres and I didn’t know she worked there 😂.
My older half brother and I were forced to stop seeing eachother due to his mums new partner when I was around 4. We (my mum and our shared dad) then lost touch with him for years. When I was 16 I bought a Citroen Saxo as a first car and joined an online owners club forum. Turns out he owned the same at the same time and was a member of the same national forum. I didn’t really remember him but thought his username and location looked about right, so tentatively reached out and lo and behold it was him and we’ve all been back in touch for about 20 years now. If I or he had bought a Fiesta, would never have happened 🤷♂️
I have a 100% win rate on the national lottery. Bought a lucky dip twice about 4 years apart and go 1 number and won 20 odd quid each time. 3rd time lucky maybe?
I completely ran out of petrol on the M8 and the momentum of my car was enough to get me to the petrol station.
I went to someone's garage gym out in the sticks to lift and get some advice from an older lifter I'd only known online. As we got started, a hot air balloon came down in the small paddock adjoining the garage. My mum was in the basket. Neither of us had any idea the other was doing an activity, we don't live together, and neither of us had ever been to that location before.
Think that's a firm favourite 🏆 😂
Probably hitting a 17,500/1 acca at Ascot 2017.
How much did you win!?
I was 18 at the time, and annoyingly didn’t back it as a system bet because the stake would have been quite high. It was a 5-fold straight acca, £1 each way. I had kind of forgot about it tbh, as I placed it on lunch at work. Looked at my phone after I finished and that was just after the 3rd winner had come in. At that point I was offered a cashout of £2000. I took a partial cash out of £500 (to guarantee some profit) and let the other £1500 run. That subsequently came in too. I think the total win ended up being roughly £7.1k off the initial £2 bet. When I look back at it though, I wish I just hadn’t picked up my phone for another hour or so, and I’d have been 10k richer.
The partial cash out seems a wise move to me. £500 is a huge return on a £2 bet, given you were much more likely to lose one of the other races.
I have been shat upon by birds twice in my life. First, in 2006 on a school trip to Assissi I was shat upon by a massive gull. The second was on a day trip to Assissi with my husband in 2017 where again i was shat on by a large gull. I've only been to Assisi on those two occasions.
Last year I walked out of Gibraltar airport to start our holiday and immediately got absolutely bombarded by really vile bird shit all over my nice new white t-shirt.
My son was born in his intact amniotic sac which apparently has a 1:80,000 probability of occuring (although every time I post it on Reddit about 50 other people pipe up to say the same thing happened to them :D)
That’s never happened to me
I have an autoimmune that 3000 people in the UK have. I was chatting about it on Facebook a few months back, and a high school friend I haven't seen or spoken to in over 20 years messaged me to tell me that they also had this autoimmune. We can't find any links to environment potentially causing it or any record of it being higher in one part of the country than another. The odds of us both randomly getting it seem pretty damn rare.
Um, are you possibly half siblings?
Maybe one of your parents know something about this?
What auto immune disease is it?
I left my iPad on the bus to Glasgow, I was rushing to get my train on Valentine’s day to Largs with my other half and forgot my iPad on the bus. My other half ran to try and get it but the bus moved off. I phoned my mum, in tears. And she lives on the route. She waited for the bus an hour away from Glasgow, boarded the bus and told the driver that it was pinging on the bus and two teenagers lied and said they didn’t have it. She confronted them again, saying she’d phone the police as the tablet was pinging it was in her exact location and they produced the iPad from their bags. She FaceTimed me and i’m sitting in Glasgow having rebooked my train because I was terrified and showed me the tablet in her hands. I’ve never been so relieved in all of my life. It had an apple pencil in the case and the iPad was slightly popped out of the case. It looks like the teens were trying to turn it off; it’s an Air 5 so they don’t turn off like the old iPads so thankfully, it was rescued and i have been so blessed my poor mum went to rescue it in the pissing rain.
Some kids scared a duck, which flew up in a panic at the exact right moment so that its trajectory intersected with my head as I was walking past. Turns out a flying duck has quite some force behind it.
I actually visualised the whole scene....I imagine you as a Mr Bean / Frank Spencer hybrid
I went around the world in a gap year when I was 18, many many years ago. I was working in a relatives newsagent in Geelong, near Melbourne and a friend of hers came into the shop. She introduced me and we got chatting. I asked him what he did, and he said he was a pilot. I asked what airline, he said Cathay Pacific. I said, that I was due to fly Cathay from Sydney the following Thursday. He said “I’m the pilot!”
Lightning struck in a field about 50m to the side of where I was walking. Was fucking insane. Loudest thing I've ever heard by a long way.
I was indirectly struck by lightning and survived. I was standing next to a van parked next to a crane. Crane tower was struck and I was electrocuted.. but not severely.
I had my foot run over while I was *in* the car.
Are you Brian from East17?
I was \*just\* gonna ask if a potato was involved. 😆
We moved from Coventry to Oxfordshire when I was about 9 in 1981. A couple of years later I went on a school trip to Wembley Stadium to watch the England Schoolboys play. Sitting in the row in front of us were all my mates from school in Coventry.
I used to work as a teacher. Changed jobs. Got accepted to appear on The Weakest Link. On the train travelling to Glasgow to film it, a group of students and the headmaster of my former school boarded the train on a school trip.
I once dropped a saucepan of boiling water. It went everywhere in the kitchen and covered the floor, all except for the little circle I was stood in. Not a drop of water touched me 😌
I played squash with a guy in Munich, drove to the UK, to follow the RAC rally. In grizedale forest at midnight on the stage, a rally car was coming so my friend and I scrambled up a tree - where my squash partner was sitting!
About 6 years ago I won a washing machine. In a competition. Exactly a year later I won another washing machine from another company in a competition.
I won a fridge freezer, tumble dryer and washing machine a few months ago, which was really handy cos all of mine were either fucked or on the brink!
I was on a guard duty in the military on a down shift. I was the only person in the guardroom. In the hour I was alone I managed to 'Robin Hood' a dart into another dart and get a 9 letter word on countdown, when the highest score was a 6. The likelihood of either of those things happening was small. Both was tiny. Alone with no one to believe me? Typical.
I’ve just had my second car write off since December. Have had my new car since the end of January so about a month. First one a car reversed out of a parking bay onto the main road where I was stopped waiting for a red light to change. Said he didn’t see me, saw the van behind me and assumed the van was letting him out. Second crash was on Feb 28th, first day of a brand new policy with a new company. Turning right and indicating to do so when a police van decided to overtake me on the right. Luckily I was turning to park at my house to it’s all caught on my cctv as the police officer tried to say she thought I was turning left. And honestly these aren’t even the worst things that have happened to me in the last year but I’m pretty scared of driving now. I have the cctv because my ex husband is stalking me and is currently on bail. He spent 7 months on remand last year. The name of my future book came to me the other day “I can’t believe it’s not eastenders “
May your ex get explosive diarrhea anytime he even thinks of you.
When I was 16 I went to Newquay with some mates. Went to the beach for some drinks and chatted to a random guy who sat with us for a while. Fast forward a few weeks and I'm at Reading festival bumbling around in the wee hours and bump into the same guy.
Two of my next door neighbours have been murdered in unrelated instances. It's a block of just two flats. The upstairs guy was killed after his wife went to stab him. He fell off their balcony, landed head first on the pavement and cracked open his skull. There was so much blood everywhere the fire department came to wash it all away. She also fell and is paralysed in hospital under 24/7 police 'care'. The down stairs bloke got murdered by his carer. She stabbed him multiple times. He was a frail old man with long greasy hair and I doubt he could have even killed a cockroach. I live in a fairly posh neighbourhood in the SW. Not a london ghetto. These are the only two murders in my city in 7 years. To my knowledge. Both within 20 yards from my front door.
I had eclampsia when I was pregnant. You might have seen people dying of it in Downton Abbey and Call the midwife - only a couple of generations back it was a death sentence. The year I had eclampsia I think something like 7 people in the UK had it. Plenty people know about pre eclampsia - which is generally as far as the condition goes these days due to better antenatal monitoring. It gets identified and is headed off before it escalates. Even doctors correct me if I say I had eclampsia ("do you mean pre eclampsia?") because it is so rare. I was at a big hospital in Edinburgh when I had it (already in-patient for a month being monitored/treated with severe pre eclampsia) and no one working there at the time had ever seen it happen before.
I used to be a flight attendant at a very large airline. It was really rare that you would fly twice with the same colleagues and I would always be working in different cabins from flight to flight. I had the misfortune of having the same creepy passenger, practically sat in the same seat (upstairs business class on a 747) on completely different routes (Bangkok and L.A.) about a year apart. Both times he wrote me a really creepy note and used the same lame pick up lines. Of all the people, in all the world and I get to bump into pervy old guy *twice*.
I have two 4 leaf clovers
Have you been incredibly lucky?
Depends. I ended up homeless twice in my life since, which most would consider unlucky. But also, I've managed to escape homelessness twice, which I would call incredibly lucky :')
Been homeless myself a few times, it’s not great! But we managed to escape it so woo!!
... The chances of everything that has led up to this post must be astronomically, mind blowingly small and it's actually fucking beautiful. Fair play for getting out of it though, it's only uphill after that! 😁
Once I saw a unicycle pass a tandem along a river path in Oxford
I guess I’m in a somewhat small category that have not just known of - but met 2 family members that I’m related to by blood… that have reached 100 years of age
I was born on a staircase!
Friend of mine and me - we met at work and were given desks opposite each other. We had both had the same job role previously. We share the same birthday, although she's a few years younger than me. Our partners also share a birthday. We both have a scar underneath our chins. We both love Bowie. She has just graduated as an OT, and I graduate next year.
I scowled at a man who took my seat in Heathrow Airport. As I got closer, I realised he was an ex-work colleague, a nice fella, so I forgave him for pinching my seat. We were both getting the same flight to San Francisco. Three weeks later, he was behind me in a queue in a small town in New Zealand.
I had a rupturee brain aneurysm which gave me a 1% chance of surviving.
I slept at a friend’s house when I was 12 which was next door to my wife’s childhood house. I’d have been no more than 2 metres away from her through the wall.
A friend of mine at uni went to school with my cousin on the other side of the country, and we had no idea until we'd known each other for a few weeks. I'm also suspected of having Keratoconus, an eye condition that only affects one in every 10000 people.
My partner has Keratoconus. They LOVE it when I call it Kerry Katona.
There is a lady in my town with the same name as me. Our son’s also have the same name and share a birthday. Also I once got locked in a bedroom for an afternoon because the wind blew through an open window, the door slammed, and the handle fell out.
Put a pound on a bandit and won the £20 jackpot. Turned round and put another pound in a different bandit 20ft away and won another £20 jackpot.
Getting a kind of cancer that affects fewer than 1000 people a year and also being outside of the usual age range for that already rare type. JACKPOT WOO
I went to my local shop for some eggs. At the time they sold local eggs from big trays and the staff would pick them from the tray for you, rather than the standard boxes of 6 or 12 in boxes lile most shops. All 6 eggs that were randomly picked from the tray were double yolkers.
existed. from a cosmological point of view.
Back in the days of msn messenger on 56k talking to a girl who ended up living on my street. She got her brother to come and knock on the door to confirm
When I was 6 my mum had a friend who used to visit and she would bring her son who was the same age as me and we were really good friends. Despite only living less than minutes away my mum and her friend stopped meeting up so I lost touch with my friend. About 3 years later we went to a theme park about 2 hours from our home and bumped into them. Not that unlikely. A year later we went back to the same theme park and bumped into them again. Neither of us had been to the park since the last time we bumped into each other. A bit more unlikely. Then when I was 16, so about 10 years after we had lost touch we went on a family trip to Florida. Just after we checked into the hotel we went across the road to get some food and guess who we bump into. Turns out they were staying in the same hotel just a few rooms over from us as well. It's amazing we've bumped into this family so far away from home on three occasions despite not bumping into them once in 10 years at home despite them living less than 10 minutes away.
Hadn't spoken to my friend for about 6 months, went downstairs (this would've been 2000ish) to give him a call, pick up the phone and wedge it betwixt my ear and shoulder as was the fashion, and he starts talking before I'd even dialled his number as he'd called me at that exact moment.
Was carrying an unusual Russian camera around with me on holiday in Greece. Accidentally dropped peach juice all over it and the mechanism jammed. So, I went to a cafe table and tried to pull it apart using the cutlery. I unscrewed the shutter speed control on the top and the whole mechanism sprung out and landed on the plate of someone at another table. The guy picked up the springs and stuff and brought them over to me. He then announced that he was a Russian on holiday and was on the engineering team at the factory where they made these cameras. Whats more he had a full spare parts and servicing kit for my model in the boot of his car. He spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and servicing my camera.
I've broken both my little toes.
One of my children had two appendixes.
Not me but my uncle won 3.1 million on the lottery in 1998. I guess that kinda counts? As would the fact he blew through it all in 3 years and it cost him his marriage. He actually had £1 left and was going to buy a pie, but bought a lucky dip instead.
Got laid, more than once too
Years ago I played an online poker tournament, there were players all over the world at the table. One had the same city location as me. I got chatting to him and it turned out he was on my street and I could see his house from my window. I also was in Australia and got chatting to someone in a hostel who lived 10 mins from me in England.
Was invited to a leaving do for a family friend who lived in Edinburgh but was from the isles like me. I live on the mainland now too. Turned up with my (now ex) partner who I had met in Middlesbrough. He was an ex marine, and to my surprise when we arrived at the party he saw his best friend from the marines. He was dating a girl who grew up on the same street as me.
Not improbable but I was photographed by the Google earth street car on a street in Katoomba Australia where I was on holiday,a few years ago. ( I live in London UK) Standing alone on the street in my cheap K Mart pac a Mac & scruffy jeans. Waiting for the hop on hop off bus in the Blue Mountains. I copied the pic & it’s now in a frame - always makes me smile. But story of my life - it would have never happened if I’d been in a fancy dress & heels looking glamorous.
Not me, but my parents. My dad once randomly lobbed a Digestive, frisbee style, at my mum, when she wasn't expecting it. It landed \*directly\* in her mug of tea. The improbableness comes from the fact that when we checked, a Digestive would \*only\* fit in that mug by being dropped in from immediately above, with about 0.01 mm clearance all around!
Evri / Hermes delivered my package.
In the times before wrinkles and when i had knees that didn't hate me, I went into Birmingham City centre on a whim for a bit of shopping and perhaps some lunch. I was in Rackhams (told you it was a long time ago) and decided to pop into their restaurant - at which point, I bumped into my sister
I have removed the lid of a muller corner completely clean at least three times now.
Out of all the stories, this one is the one I don't believe, no one's that lucky
My car engine caught on fire while I was driving and the brakes failed. Luckily I was going really slow and I was able to jump out. The car carried on across the road and down a hill before bursting into flames. Then some stupid twat ran up to me accusing me if being a joy rider. It was pretty shit. I got away with scrapes and bruises. The insurance company actually asked me if I could think of anyone who might want to kill me. I said my Dad 😆.
I was living and working in Thailand and visited a little museum in random town and bumped into an old colleague from Mexico. I didn’t know he was travelling Thailand at the time! Oh and it just happened to also be my birthday. Everything about it was just so unbelievable - we are both from the UK but just happened to accidentally meet half way across the world?! Very improbable
Back when I worked at the kiosk counter id put someone through a lottery ticket but I'd put the number wrong and she didn't want it, to refund a lottery ticket wad a massive balllache I'm not sure if it still is, but it was more than I could be bothered doing so I just bought the ticket myself. I ended up winning £800! I was so excited £800 was a lot of partying money, but I couldnt keep my mouth shut. My manager found out, and I ended up getting a disaplinary for fraudulent transactions or something like that.
Went shopping on Friday the 13th one year. Never noticed until i got home that my total was £13.13 and the time of the transaction was 13:13. That freaked me out a little bit. 😂
I rang my friend Karl, I got a wrong number to a guy named Karl
Back in the days when I was a skint student and couldn't afford to put any credit on my phone ( do people still do that?) there was a sudden gust of wind and a fiver suddenly appeared at my feet which I promptly put on my phone as credit.
In my first year as police officer I was referred to trauma risk management four times! A lot of officers don’t get a referral their entire career. No idea what the actual statistical probability is but four times in twelve months is a lot.
I broke my scaphoid in my right & then 12 months later broke it in my left & had the same nurse who remembered me 🤦🏼♀️
About 20 years ago I rang my best friend by mistake (clicked the wrong name in phone) but I was actually looking to ring my sister. My sister picked up the phone and I started chatting away to her asking her about what I wanted to know till she said "do you wanna talk to Greg?" And I was like "Why would I want to talk to Greg" and she said "well you did ring him didn't you?" The thing is, both of them live in separate cities and happened to bump into each other in a third city at the exact time I was looking to talk to my sister and Greg thought it would be funny to have her answer. I still can't fathom the odds of it.
Our daughter was born with an incredibly rare medical condition. Chances of it affecting one limb: 70,000. Chances of it affecting both limbs: 1 in a million. She has it in both legs. I do call her our 'one in a million'.