Coincidences

(Originally written on the 31st of January, 2009)

I was recently wondering which unplanned meeting was most unlikely: Germaine standing right outside a clinic I was walking past, Ian running into Huey Sing at the airport, or Aron sitting behind a girl on a bus that he had kissed the night before.

One day my brothers and I were wandering a mall when my dad called us and told us to meet him at the entrance. When we got down there, he told us we were going out for lunch at some chicken rice place that I had never to before in a part of the city that I rarely visit. When we got there, lunch was okay, but my dad ordered water for us instead of soft drinks. So after the meal I decided to get up and roam the shoplots and see if I could get a coke and a newspaper or something. Anyway, while I was walking around, I saw someone get out of a car. It took me about half a second to recognize her face, but she had saw me first and beat me to the greeting. The conversation went something like this.
"Hey!"
"Hey! Um, what are you doing here?"
"I live around here!"
"Oh. That makes sense"
"What are you doing here?"
"I was, um, eating lunch. And then I went for a walk."
"Oh. Bye!"
"Bye!"
When I got back to the table I told my brothers to guess who I'd seen. They through every BB name they could think of at me until I stopped them at Germaine. Jan didn't believe me at first, but then I asked him if I would make this kind of thing up, and he said "Maybe" and that was the end of that conversation.

Ian ran into Huey Sing when he was either coming back or going to Sabah after or before climbing Mount Kinabalu. Huey Sing was also on some sort of trip. Ian spotted her across the airport and went up to her and was all "Oh hi!" It is completely possible that this isn't how it happened at all, I wasn't paying much attention when he told me this story. Anyway, the main facts are that they were both in an airport, so that means that they were both in a huge place with a limited window of time to run into each other before one of them left. So I'm thinking this one is the second most unlikely.

The night before Aron, Ian and I had gotten our scuba diving certification, Aron decided to celebrate the end of our holiday on Redang by wandering around the clubs and resorts on the island while Ian and I watched "Dude, Where's My Car?" on his laptop. When he got back, he told us a story we could hardly believe. Apparently he'd had tremendous success during his clubbing and had ended up making out with a tourist. He said the kiss "Tasted like alchohol and cigarettes". The next day, after a speedboat ride back to the mainland and a van ride to outside the bus station, we got on the bus back to KL. After taking our seats, some ladies got on board and sat in front of us. Aron nudged us and told that these were the girls he had met the night before. The one he kissed was sitting directly in front of me. The back of her head was nice. Didn't see much else of her. Anyway, I’m thinking this is the biggest coincidence because of all the factors involved: Aron had to pick the right club, find the right girl, somehow convince her to kiss him (Although with his good looks and charisma he probably stood a better chance than anyone else I know =D), and then she’d have to have tickets for the exact same bus leaving at the exact same time as us, and if she had gotten on the bus before us and sat at the back we may have never seen her.

So I guess what I’m saying is if you’re gonna buy a lottery ticket, get Aron Tan to pick out the numbers for you. =D