So as I do listen to the radio every day because I’ve got lifelong FOMO- probably from growing up in a small country town MISSING EVERYTHING IN LIFE..😱.....Except the Tathra Pub and the Merimbula RSL Club and all the live iconic Aussies bands that used to play there.... and with the constant fear that I’m missing the boat…,
I was listening to the Christian O’Connell show on Gold 104.3 https://www.gold1043.com.au/shows/christian-oconnell/ which is my favourite radio station and I heard one of the viewers talking about a coincidence that he had had a segment called What are the odds?
And you too can listen to this brilliuant radio station from anywhere around the world with this completely FREE app! https://www.iheart.com/live/gold-1043-6181/
So the listener was saying how he was living on the Gold Coast, which is a pretty huge population up there these days and jumped in a random taxi one night and started talking to the taxi driver and it turns out that the taxi driver and the passengers dad used to work together and share a house together in their very small country town in New South Wales many many years ago, which reminded me of my coincidences involving my very small home town in country NSW, population- 4.5l-ish
So I’ve just sent this email into the Christian O’Connell show talking about some of the coincidences I’ve had with a range of people over the years.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS? So let's here yours too!
Share your tales of coincidences here and use hashtag #WATO
Hi there Christian, huge fan, first time emailer! 😀 (and thankfully 2EC in Bega, NSW features your show on it!)
What are the Odds? My tales of Coincidence(s)
#WATO -1
Just yesterday, I got into my lift at home to go down to the ground floor on my way to work.
There was only one other person in the lift- my old boss Marcus who I haven’t seen once since 2014.
#WATO -2
Just a couple of years ago in October/ November 2022, I took myself and my brand-new camera up to Sydney for a holiday for my birthday and decided that I wanted to explore the Rocks Area, Darling Harbour, the Opera House, Etc and sail on a Tall Ship for the first time ever.
So I’m on the Tall Ship and I go up to the captain steering the ship, ask him if I can take some photos of him and said to him what an amazing job you have- I’ve been wanting to go on one of these since 1988 when they passed my hometown on the Far South Coast of New South Wales to dock in Eden as the replica first fleet during the bicentennial.
And he said to me “yeah I was on it back then and he said I’ve actually got family down there”.
I asked him where and who and it turns out that he’s talking about my home town!
My dad and his dad went to school together in this tiny town on the far south coast of New South Wales in the 1940’s/50’s, his auntie and my mum used to play tennis together in the 80’s/90’s and I went to high school with his nephews in the 80’s.
So literally out on the water, In the middle of Sydney Harbour, I meet somebody with a direct Association to Bega.
And This chance encounter in Sydney Harbour with someone tied to my hometown didn’t end there.
#WATO -3
A couple of months ago when I was in Bega because my dad was sick in hospital, @chocolatescorpi/the-passing-of-a-local-legend-my-wonderful-warm-caring-compassion-and-hilarious-dad I was driving back to Melbourne for a flying visit and stopped at the Port of Sale for a break- as I always do when driving up and back.
Usually there is a huge crowd of locals and tourist alike there, but this time there was only two other people there - a younger man and an older man.
I was sitting by myself and overheard them talking about Bega and I said excuse me I can hear you talking about Bega and they said yeah we’re on our back way up there to see our family and I asked who’s that?
And it turns out it was the same old man that went to school with my dad in the 40/50’s and the younger guy was the brother of captain on the Tallship!
So not only did I meet one of the sons in the middle of Sydney Harbour on a Tall Ship, later I meet his brother and father in transit at Sale as they were driving from Melbourne to Bega and I was driving from Bega to Melbourne!
And I have never ever met any of these guys in Bega when I was growing up- or since moving away- until now.
Unfortunately my dad died a week or so after that and then I found out the other old man that Dad had gone to School with also died a couple of weeks after dad.
So that’s actually 3 very significant co-incidences with me and the one family!
#WATO -4
AMERICA
In 1997 I fly to America to become a camp counsellor in Upstate NY, land in LA for orientation and decide to stay for a few days in Santa Monica to see the sights of LA and Hollywood.
I get to the backpackers, have a bit of a nap, wake up and am sitting in the courtyard of the backpackers by myself and then a guy comes out and asks me if I have a light.
It turns out to be a guy that I used to be friends with in Noosa 5 years earlier!
#WATO -5
When in Fort Lauderdale in 1998, I’m sitting in the courtyard at the backpackers and this guy asks if I can sit down and he pulls out a laptop and starts typing on it.
I ask him what is that and he starts speaking, we really look at each other and then realise we have met before, in Noosa Junction 6 years earlier as his mum owned a fashion shop across from the kodak minilab I used to work in!
#WATO -6
*DAINTREE RAINFOREST
In 2000, after I get back the USA, I move to the isolated Daintree Rainforest Up in Far North Queensland, with a tiny population of people and when I first get there, I am an hours drive south of the Croc infested Daintree river in the closest town- Mosman.
I'M at the supermarket,walking around thinking off nothing but the supplies that I will need in the isolated rainforest for at least a month and as I’m walking around, I realise that I keep passing this girl and we sort of keep having these side glances at each other then on the 3rd pass, she asks me If my name is Leesa and I answer yes and asked her if her name was also Lisa and she said yes!*
It turns out that we met and partied together in the crew houses in Florida 3 years before and she had also just moved up to the Daintree- never having been there before either!
#WATO -7
About 2004, when I was living in the Daintree, a friend and I decided to have a game of tennis- at the one court in the Daintree at the public school.
When we got there, there was already 2 guys having a game, so we decided to sit and enjoy the sun until they finished playing.
They then asked if we wanted a game of doubles, so we each partnered up with the strangers and then a minute later, one of the strangers- who was on the opposite side of the court to me yelled out hey, is your name Leesa and I said yes, who are you and he said it’s me Paddy.
Paddy and his family had grown up in the same street as me, went all through High School together and we hadn’t seen each since high school- in the mid 80’s!
Since I had a hat and sunnies on and was all the way down the other end of the opposite court, I asked him how he recognised me after all that time. He said he recognised my voice! (which I don’t think is that unique…)
#WATO -8
A year later, after leaving the Daintree and moving down to Cairns, I was at work one night and had a group of people sit at the bar in front of me.
I went up to serve them and realised that they were a group of friends down from the Daintree.
Not so unusual because people drive the 2 hours south to cairns for supplies (and nights out) quite often, except there was one guy with them who wasn’t a friend of mine from up there.
Instead I knew him from working together in Shark Bay, WA in the early 90’s and although he had been living there in the Daintree in Cape Tribulation for some time, I had never seen him once up there- and haven’t seen him or any of them again since!
Except Lisa.
We have remained best friends this entire time and I even include her sister as my best friend too.
#WATO -9
Unfortunately Lisa’s Mum died just a few weeks ago- RIP Anne, after my dad did at the end of February too and they both had fairly sudden, short-ish illness before they passed.
AND #WATO -10- This one is #Hive related!**
Over xmas a couple of years ago, I was having a chat to my cousin for the first time in years and she was telling me that she wanted to make a series of tutorial videos and I said, well instead of uploading them on to YT, check out this awesome video hosting platform called #3speak on the #hive #blockchain and get paid for making those tutorials while you're at it and I went on to explain Hive to her and a few minuted later she said to me yeah, I my son J - think that you're cousin- is on something like that too.
A day or so later, J called me and we found out that yes he is indeed and a blockchain and that is Hive! Hey there @neddykelly !
What are the Odds?!?!?! 😃
So that’s just a few tales of coincidence that I can share with you right now.
So what about you?
What are your funny and astounding coincidences like this?