Weekend article: Coincidences

Audlem Online's editor is amusing himself writing his memoirs, the sort of egocentric activity that will surprise few who know him. He has realised whilst writing that coincidences can be quite staggering and occasionally life-changing. We give you three examples from his book below.

Perhaps you have some that are equally strange. If you would like to share them, please send them to editor@audlem :

Out in the New Forest

About eighteen months after leaving Southampton University, I tried to track down a friend I had studied with, Tony Martin, who had stayed on at uni for an extra year. A visit to the alumni and other offices that might have an address failed and, disappointed, I drove into the New Forest to a pub where I had arranged to meet some friends.

It was a pub I had never visited before and as it started to go dark and a little too cool for drinking outside, we got up from our table, me rather clumsily, so much so that I bumped into someone at the next table. The elbow I caught was Tony Martin's, the very person I had been trying to track down earlier that day. Without knowing it, we had been sitting feet away from each other for an hour or so. He too had never been to that pub out in the middle of the New Forest before. It was to be the first of many amazing coincidences in my life.

The way to get a new job

After receiving a call from a headhunter about a new job, I met him in London and how is this for luck?

"Where have you travelled from? the headhunter asked, as he greeted me.
"From Cheshire." I replied.
"Oh, I used to live there," he responded.
"Whereabouts?" I asked.
"On the Wirral, although it's no longer part of Cheshire," he said.
"So did I, in Bebington," I said
"Where in Bebington?"
"Off Town Lane," I answered.
"Which road?
"Rosefield Avenue," I said.
"And which school did you go to?" he asked.
"Birkenhead School," I said.
"Do you realise we are probably the only two people in the world brought up in Rosefield Avenue who went to Birkenhead School," he said with a smile.

After a start like that, I was offered the job with Bass and would stay with it until retirement.

Faure's Requiem

At Bass, being based in Birmingham, I occasionally attended meetings with the CBSO, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra whom we sponsored. After one, they gave me a CD of their recently recorded Faure's Requiem.

As I left work that evening at about 6.20pm, I thought I would play it on the drive home to Audlem. As I read the sleeve notes the radio came on automatically as I started the engine and I heard what I thought was the very music I was holding in my hand with the CD still in its box. Suddenly, the music faded and the news reader said: "Faure's Requiem, played at President Mitterrand's funeral today in Paris."

It was probably the only time this piece of music has been played on Radio 4's 6.00pm news, normally a music free zone. I have enjoyed some remarkable coincidences in my life but that was possibly the most amazing.

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