Fate/Coincidence

The storyline in the movie "Serendipity" talks about leaving things to fate. While I'm not a disbeliever in fate, it is also arguable that some things are coincidence. Some things that happened in the last week has left me wondering if it was fate or sheer coincidence that:-

1. I found a place from my childhood that I would never have found if I tried to do it on my own:
I had arranged to meet a girl a few years my senior from high school to go for futsal. She asked me to meet her in Petaling Jaya. I couldn't figure out why her name sounded familiar, until I saw her and I remembered: she was assistant house captain! The place where we'd arranged to meet was a blast from my past. As I sat in my car, waiting for her, outside a building that housed a supermarket, it dawned on me that it was the supermarket we used to frequent during our trips over for junior squash tournaments! We never really knew where we were at the age of 14; all we knew was where we lived and the one route to get from the hostel to the coffee shops, supermarkets, and of course, the courts. I would never have been able to find the supermarket another way if I tried.

2. I bumped into a whole bunch of IH-ers while at a Jap restaurant with another group of people:
Yesterday, I attended a lunch organised for a friend who was leaving to work in Singapore. I recognised a lot of the people there from Melbourne, though I didn't remember everyone's names. Towards the end of the lunch, I stepped out of our private room and within about 2 seconds, a girl standing in the doorway of the next room asked "Are you ...(my name)?" I stared at her, wondering who in the world she was: I didn't recognise her face. And although I'm not too flash at remembering names anymore, I think I'm still quite good with faces. Then, I peered into her room, and there were a whole bunch of IH-ers there! It was such a pleasant surprise, and it's nice to know that I actually know more people in KL than I thought I did ;)

3. I know someone who knows someone else, who knows someone else, who knows someone that I know:
This morning, on that fantabulous social-networking tool called Facebook, I realised that one of my friends (CC) knew another guy on my friends list (JC). Through CC, I added someone I met at lunch yesterday (RL), and then discovered that RL knows yet another friend of mine from IH, SL! Talk about randomness. To add to the freakiness, RL lives in the same neighbourhood as I'm living in now!

4. Horoscope that reflects almost everything that is happening in my life/that I am thinking about at this moment:
What? Who believes in horoscopes, I hear you ask. Well, I wouldn't say that I do. But when it discusses and discourages you against doing everything you've thought that you would/wouldn't do this year, it can be downright freaky. This happened to me when a colleague emailed a horoscope for the year of the rat, since it's coming up to the the Lunar New Year. Things that I haven't discussed with anyone, save for one or 2 individuals, were talked about in a fair bit of detail. Another colleague says she's never believed in fortune tellers or tarot card readers or whatever you call them, but she went once for fun and found it quite accurate, so I'm tempted to see if whatever the horoscope says will be repeated by such a person...

So I kind of think that that was too many incidences in such a short period of time to be purely coincidence... Some things to ponder, I suppose.

On a completely different note: With the holiday season upon us, have fun, everyone, and have a safe and prosperous Chinese New Year!! Eat lots and try not to lose your fingers playing with those illegal crackers!