# Weird Coincidences that happen before we leave....



## thehumangallery (Sep 5, 2008)

Just thought I'd share with you guys whats been happening with me lately on my build up to moving to Dubai and wondering has anyone else had something like this happen to them?!

The last few months have been dead boring. Nothing interesting and my social life has just been stale, with the same few people kicking around and nothing new to salivate my pallet mentally or physically.

Yet in the last few days (especially today) things have just been popping up left right and centre with just under 2 weeks on the clock till li leave for Dubai!

1. People have been searching for me and leaving messages on Bebo and Facebook that I haven't seen in YEARS just to see how I am and some wanting to meet up for a catch up drink etc etc. About 12 people have found me and none of them knew I was leaving for Dubai! Just complete coincidence! 

2. By accident, I bumped into an old college buddy who happened to be up on business in Edinburgh from England - who informed me that my ex is now going out with one of my old classmates from College (didn't leave me best chuffed to find an old buddy was picking up my leftovers).

3. I accidently clicked on a link, while internet browsing for shoes, that took me to a random list of people recently deceased... oddly enough one of the top names caught my eye - my ex-gf's dad had died and I had no idea!

4. I found out 2 of my other ex's were getting married after just looking through the announcement section of the local newspaper that my best friend had brought up from England. She got the paper just before she was getting on the train and only bought it cause she didn't have enough money to afford a magazine!

5. I have been asked out by a very tall blonde rich girl - to which i had to decline because of moving to Dubai (now that sorta thing just DOES NOT HAPPEN TO ME!!!!).

6. I found £20 in a jeans pocket that i hadn't wore in years.

7. My broken and useless printer has started working again and I didn't even try to fix it.

8. My missing graphics tablet pen turned up at my parents house (lost 2 years ago).

9. I had, out of literally no-where, my old lecturer at college call me up and offer me a place on a BA Top-up course, allowing me to do a 3 year course in only 1 year! Last time i spoke to him was 5 years ago! A BA is something I have always meant to do.

10. Being a photographer, it is extremely rare to find any photography jobs in the local area... in the last 3 days, 5 jobs have come up in local newspapers! Which infuriated me as it's taken me 5 years of traveling 50+ miles a day just to get to work!! And these jobs only come up 2 weeks before I leave! Where were they 5 years ago! lol



Has anyone had any odd things like these crop-up/offered to them/found just before you are about to leave for a new life in Dubai (or wherever)?

I just thought I'd share this with you guys cause this has got me baffled as to why, all of a sudden this has all cropped up all at the last minute and thought it would be interesting to see if anyone else has gone through this phenomenon!


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## Pasanada (Feb 5, 2008)

I was amazed at the amount of "friends" I really did have when they found out I was moving to Dubai and presumed I'm be on mega bucks!! LOL


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## Shinjuku (Jul 12, 2008)

> 10. Being a photographer, it is extremely rare to find any photography jobs in the local area... in the last 3 days, 5 jobs have come up in local newspapers! Which infuriated me as it's taken me 5 years of traveling 50+ miles a day just to get to work!! And these jobs only come up 2 weeks before I leave! Where were they 5 years ago! lol


Not exactly the same but the last 6 months has been pretty quiet for me at work. Not unusual if i spend more time on 'internet breaks' than productive work.

However now that i'm just on the brink of accepting an offer (giving notice in a couple of hours), i find myself on a high-profile project with high level of responsibility working to impossibly tight deadlines and necessary overtime. In fact i shouldn't even have time to be typing this now. 

So instead of the nice last few weeks at the office i had hoped for, it looks like i'm going to be rushing around like a mad monkey finishing the project until the very last few days at work.


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

Shinjuku said:


> Not exactly the same but the last 6 months has been pretty quiet for me at work. Not unusual if i spend more time on 'internet breaks' than productive work.
> 
> (


I did the same and was constantly on the Internet, checking my emails. I was totally uninspired and just couldn't be bothered to do anything - I did the bare minimum (in between 2 weeks spend on holiday!) just to keep my job and get a good reference (my new employer has not even asked for a reference!!!!).


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## Shinjuku (Jul 12, 2008)

Why is it that employers always wait till you say you're leaving before they start proclaiming all the love they have for you and promising various opportunities/promotions!? 

Handed my notice in on friday afternoon, to which my director gave me the "we really don't want to lose you...what can we do to keep you...wish you'd spoken to us earlier..." 
My company's got a UAE office, and they're now gonna try and tempt me to stay within the company with an offer and internal transfer when i go back into the office on monday morning. 

Under normal cirsunstances this might be great, but this really just complicate matters...<sigh!>


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

Shinjuku said:


> Why is it that employers always wait till you say you're leaving before they start proclaiming all the love they have for you and promising various opportunities/promotions!?
> 
> Handed my notice in on friday afternoon, to which my director gave me the "we really don't want to lose you...what can we do to keep you...wish you'd spoken to us earlier..."
> My company's got a UAE office, and they're now gonna try and tempt me to stay within the company with an offer and internal transfer when i go back into the office on monday morning.
> ...


Tell me about it! At least your director was nice to you; my old line manager tried the bullying tactic and when that didn't work, decided to be nasty to me - not that I cared and I think she quickly realised that yours truly was paying her no attention and that she was wasting her breath! Employers always think that you will never leave and seem to think that it's acceptable to refuse you a higher offer until you decide to leave. At that point, you get promised the earth, the sun and the moon - whether you actually get it, is a completely different story!

My advice is that if you have handed in your resignation, you walk out the door. Else, your manager will lose respect for you and you will always be known as the one that almost left. I look at it from the point of view of why it took a resignation letter for a better offer to come along! Why didn't they offer a better package before if they knew you deserved it! Loyalty works both ways!

The choice is yours but sometimes change is good!


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## mazdaRX8 (Jul 13, 2008)

*plays twilight zone music*

P.S. thehumangallery, MAN you sure have tons of ex's


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## Pasanada (Feb 5, 2008)

If an employer couldn't pay you your worth before you resigned, I'd tell them to lump it! I'd feel very insulted to have a carrot dangled in front of my face!!


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## thehumangallery (Sep 5, 2008)

mazdaRX8 said:


> *plays twilight zone music*
> 
> P.S. thehumangallery, MAN you sure have tons of ex's


LOL I was the only Scotsman at an English College....so yeah literally thousands of them! lol say that last sentence in irish and it sounds funnier!


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## Shinjuku (Jul 12, 2008)

My reasons for leaving are pretty complicated...my office is probably one of the few that actually does recognise and reward ability and performance. However there was an incident earlier this year that rocked my respect for the company. 

Anyway will be interesting to hear what they have to offer. A couple more thousand dirhams a month might just make it that hard to say no


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## crazymazy1980 (Aug 2, 2008)

Maz25 said:


> I look at it from the point of view of why it took a resignation letter for a better offer to come along! Why didn't they offer a better package before if they knew you deserved it! Loyalty works both ways!
> 
> The choice is yours but sometimes change is good!


This is what happened to me - there you go that's my strange coincidence cited too!! 

I asked for a change in direction and was told that it wasn't going to be available for 'at least five years' so decided to accept that and give it 12months to see how I was feeling and then I asked again - got the same answer  I then said I now had no choice but to put my notice in - three weeks after I did I got offered what I had asked for originally - muchos grrrrrrrrr!!   

I didn't want to work for a company that rewards the people that are quitting but screws over the people who are loyal enough to stay - so politely declined...

...and now here I am about to get on a plane for a whole new life.

Dubai 1 - 0 Crazy's old company (or maybe that's the other way round)


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## aussiejourno (Aug 28, 2008)

I'm heading over in October, and my partner is planning to make the move in December. 

This week his boss resigned and he was told he had management's support to step up into the role of acting manager of his dept - as long as he stays with the company for at least another 12 months (he's already told them about moving to Dubai)

It's a job that would probably take him another 3+ years to get if it wasn't for internal promotions like this.

And, just to add insult to injury, as part of the job, they'd fly him over for a conference in Dubai in November!


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

Once I made my decision to leave, I did just that! Sure sometimes you get what you originally wanted but think about it this way, you threatened to leave but then you didn't! Next time you want something, you will have to make another threat afterwhich your company will tell you to sling your hook if you don't like it cause at this point they would have got you exactly where they want you - you didn't leave last time, so what's the likelihood you will do it now!!!! I think that once you put in your resignation, then you walk out the door. Provided you left on good terms, you can always come back if things do not work out!


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## aussiejourno (Aug 28, 2008)

Maz25 said:


> Once I made my decision to leave, I did just that! Sure sometimes you get what you originally wanted but think about it this way, you threatened to leave but then you didn't! Next time you want something, you will have to make another threat afterwhich your company will tell you to sling your hook if you don't like it cause at this point they would have got you exactly where they want you - you didn't leave last time, so what's the likelihood you will do it now!!!! I think that once you put in your resignation, then you walk out the door. Provided you left on good terms, you can always come back if things do not work out!



Totally agree - we're moving for lots of good reasons, we've thought it through, and ultimately there's not much that would keep us here, short of family emergencies etc. I'm glad I'll be missed by my company, but they couldn't offer me anything to stay now that my mind is made up.


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