What are your 'it's-a-small-world' moments?

Question

Have you ever gone anywhere far away, and met somebody you know?
Have you ever met somebody in random circumstances, and they know you, or know somebody you know?

Have you ever experienced any bizarre or freakish coincidences?

Answer 1

Numerous. About 13 years ago I was on a train to London going to an A-level conference. I noticed a girl getting on at Harrow. 2 years later, this same girl turned up in my University halls of residence.

About a month after that first coincidence, I was again in London at the theatre watching a production of Hamlet. Turns out that a future housemate of mine (whom I didn't meet until 2 years later) was in there on the same day.

Again whilst I was at University, I went along to a friend's Media Studies session. In the group was a girl who had sat opposite me at dinner, during a University of Leicester open day some 2 years earlier.

9 years ago, whilst working as an English language teaching assistant in France, I met a girl who knew one of my neighbours in my halls of residence.

Three years ago in Cape Town, I met a German girl who turned out to be the sister of a girl I had met in Melbourne some 6 months earlier.

This year, I travelled 5'000 miles to Las Vegas, only to meet a girl who comes from a village about half a mile away from my home. It's a very small world.

Answer 2

I don't travel much, so cannot compete with the other answers here.
I had kept the teddy bear I had as a child,it had at times been my only friend, and I never intended to lose it.
It had got thin over the years, the fur was okay, but the stuffing had shrunk, so I undid the stitching through its tummy, and decided to replace the coloured foam stuffing with modern stuffing material, when I had got some.
Somebody took my Teddy Bear outside, its tummy was still undone, I heard it was on the pavement for a while, then put on top of a neighbours hedge, but when I went out to get it back, it had gone.
Some months later I cycled 10 miles to a jumble sale, there were a number of jumble sales that day, and this was the furthest away.
For 10p I bought my Teddy Bear back, it is a very unusual looking white Teddy bear, I have never seen a similar one, but there was no doubt, his tummy was still open, the piece of red foam which I had feared would shred colour onto his white fur was still there.
It was only 10 miles away, but it was a Teddy Bear, and he only has tiny tiny legs.

He has now been re-stuffed.

Answer 3

I have had many bizarre and freakish things happen to me, so many that I kept a diary, but I threw it away because I couldn't stand to reflect on it at the time. Years later by FREAKISH, bizarre COINCIDENCE I kept on seeing things on TV shows and films that had an exact resemblance to things that happened. What a bizarre AND FREAKISH COINCIDENCE. I wonder were they get their material from, peoples dustbins I don't doubt!

Answer 4

When I first started travelling, I met many people from
different countries. At that time there was a great Bohemian
surge of ex-pats around the world and they all seemed to
congregate in the same places: Ibiza, Amsterdam, London,
Morroco, Spain, Paris, etc. At first I was very surprised to
run into them in these diverse countries, but after awhile
I expected it. We all eventually knew each other and their
extended family of friends through the travel grapevine.
Birds of a Feather kind of thing. The one thing that was
bizarre was when I was in a beauty salon with the ex-wife
of one of my boyfriends, her sister who was seeing my
ex-husband and the attorney that had handled my divorce.
I left.

Answer 5

I had been working at my local government vet department for 2 months before flying over to the UK to further my studies. Before heading to my university I went to visit an old couple in London who has long been close friends with my parents. They own a restaurant and while we were having lunch one day a lady, which happen to be their old friend, came in. We started chatting and I realised that she's actually the elder sister of the vet at the place I worked .... talk about a small world..

Answer 6

One of the local pubs, in Pocklington, had a piano (no Karaoke’s in those days) and I used to knock out some tunes for sing songs which went down very well despite the fact I was no Liberace. I could not have been too bad as there was always the welcomed bottle of ‘lubrication’ placed on the piano for me.

On one these evenings an Army fellow approached me and asked if his mate could have a spell on the piano. I didn’t mind, in the least, it gave me a break to ‘sup’ a few beers that lined the top of the piano. His mate went to the piano, opened the music stool and reached in for sheets of music stored there. After sorting a few out he commenced playing. He was a damned good pianist BUT sticking to the correct tempo in a pub sing-song was not on. The ‘would be Carouso’s’ who fancied their chances at singing, especially after a few beers, liked to hang around on the high notes.

I would like to relate an amazing coincidence following the above paragraph bearing in mind the Army bods were complete strangers to me.

About eight years further on, after leaving the services, I was living in Bristol and was in the process of selling and buying a house, I had made arrangements for a House Agent to show me over a property in another part of Bristol, he duly arrived and after a few questions and answers in the Lounge we went to his car and drove off. During the journey he asked if I had been in the R.A.F. and as I had had a photo of myself in uniform on the piano in my Lounge I took this as a ‘Sales pitch’. He assured me it was not and he then revealed the fact that he was the Army guy who had made the request for his mate to play the piano in the Pub at Pocklington. He certainly had a good memory.

Answer 7

this didn't happen to me personally, but it's too good not to mention.

a guy i know was working on an oil rig just off south america ( think it was brazil). anyway, he got news that his mother in the uk had died. his work were really good about it and arranged for him to travel home the quickest way possible, which ended up being a very alternative route. he had to get a boat to shore, a car trip to a nearby village and then was put on a bus to get to the nearest airport. he arrived at the airport, which turned out to be just a wooden shed and an airfield in the absolute middle of nowhere. as he was sitting there waiting for his flight to come in he noticed a guy staring at him from across the room. this guy then introduced himself. turns out, this was his cousin's new husband who he'd never met. he happened to be working a few hours in the opposite direction and was heading home for the funeral too.

i think that's amazing.

Answer 8

I went to Blackpool on a hen party which is over 100 miles from where I live. After we went back to the hotel, I went looking for a party (a little worse for wear) and knocked on a random door. It turned out that the guys behind the door were friends from my local pub! (lucky I guess, but I was young and foolish and have since learned the error of my ways...)

Answer 9

I once met somebody on a car ferry who had been on an external training course with me a month previously.

My father also got talking to a former Luftwaffe officer to find that he was the bomb aimer on an aircraft that had been bombing Anzio while he was there

Answer 10

Every day .. alot of incidents on TV.. Actuallive and so on ..

for me .. alot of times i have phone calls on my new Cell phone number from old friends or colleages since 10 years or more that they got my phone number from some friends or volleages they met on a trip or other incident far away from home ..

It's small world .. pal