Coincidence?

This is a very expensive hotel at Brunkebergstorg in Stockholm. Called At Six. Opened by the Norwegian billionaire Petter Stordalen. The second photo shows The Fishery, a very good seafood restaurant at the hotel. I took these photos while out walking a few days ago, shooting mostly facades. A couple of days later, I get a call from my brother. In town with his girlfriend for four days. They live in Barcelona. No time to visit me as he had a very busy schedule. We are staying at this 5-star hotel, he tells me. At Six. And as he has a Gold or Diamond card because of all his flying, they always upgrade him to a top floor suite, seen in my photo. When we talked today, he was back in Spain. The best meal they had in Stockholm was at this seafood place, The Fishery. My second photo, so we laugh about these coincidences. Me shooting his hotel and dinner place without knowing he would be there two days later. He then sends me a photo of three books that his business partner's wife gave him. One of the books being the novel I am currently reading! The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Always fun then things like that happens.

What are the odds?

Heading home on Friday I noticed a cyclist walking his bike. That is never any fun. The chain, which was brand new, had broken, so the cyclist had time for a portrait. When I handed him my card he laughed. At me. Because we have the same name. Stefan Jansson. Never met another person with my name before. Stefan has his own company. He repairs musical instruments. When he is not out walking his bike you can find him at the aikido club in Brandbergen where he is an instructor.

Tess Mercedes

I first saw Tess at a summer festival in Brandbergen on Saturday when she was singing with a band called Doktor Krall. They play music from the 1950s and 1960s, and she joined them on stage for a few songs. Imagine my surprise the very next day when I noticed her walking towards a classic car meet in Handen. I stopped and told her that I had taken a few photos of her the day before. She recognised me and told me that she was singing with the same band at this event as well. An our or so later I spotted Tess talking to Rune Thorsell, a guy I have met at a number of events before. He owns a few very cool cars and motorcycles, and Tess now asked me if I could take some photos of her in front of his Ford Crown Victoria. As she posed a helicopter took off and the wind moved her dress around a bit, and that's when I took this photo that Tess now have decided to buy. I really like coincidences like this one.

The Hurried Cyclist

I was waiting at a railway crossing on Sunday when Ingvar, who came from the other side of the crossing decided to cross, despite that the barriers were down. I made a comment about it and we started to talk. Turns out that he knew quite a lot about my family. When he was a kid he took a ride in my grandfathers old 1937 Chevy, a car I have never heard about. Ingvar's grandfather bought a bakery in Tungelsta many years ago, a place where my mother used to buy bread. The building is still around, but today it is a private residence. Ingvar also told me that I had taken a photo of him a few years ago. That is the second photo in this post which is fun because it looks like I could have taken both photos on the same day and not two years apart! I also learned that Ingvar is good friends with one of my cousins. Oh, and we both ride crescent bicycles that we have bought from the same local shop. In the end we talked for about ten minutes, so the time he was hoping to save by not waiting for the commuter train to pass was lost because of me.

Another meeting at the Rondo

I noticed this young girl sitting on a bench in Västerhaninge the other day. The bench is in fact a work of art. It is called The Rondo, and I met the artist when he was putting it together. As I explained to Helena that I wanted to take her portrait she already knew who I was. My sister reads your blog she told me. That probably has something to do with the fact that I have previously met and photographed her older sister Ida. Helena is a secondary student at Östra Gymnasiet and has a few artistic interests. She plays the piano. And is also a self-taught belly dancer! I think I would like to see her in action. When I heard about the belly dancing I told Helena about Princess Leah, whom I met two years ago. Always fun with this type of coincidences.

Young Love

It was a warm and sunny day last week. On the big lawn in the park in central Handen I saw this couple kissing, and said to myself, this is a scene I need to break up! Meet Ida and Tony. They have been together for about six months. Both are secondary school students, on their third year. Tony wants to work with media and Ida sees herself as a future philosophy student. When I gave Ida my card she told me that she already knew about my daily photo blog after reading about in Metro last year. And just like me she often walks up to The Old Tree, and has left a comment or two here! That's my kind of coincidence.

Heading to the North Cape!

I guess you could call this a coincidence. Only a few weeks ago I shot a portrait on this exact spot in Handen. Back then I had met Maria from Zakopane in Poland. Now it was Maciej Marczewski from Augustów, which is also in Poland! Maciej had just arrived to Nynäshamn, with the ferry when I met him a few days ago. His first stop on his bicycle trip through Scandinavia was Stockholm, where he was planning to stay for a couple of days. I asked him where he was going after that, and was a bit surprised by his answer, which was Nordkap! Also known as the North Cape in northern Norway. That's quite a journey! He reckons he will be on the bike for the next seven weeks. Very impressive indeed. He has a tent with him so he will be sleeping in that for most of the trip. Which is very economical, I only hope it is water proof. After our chat I wished him the best of luck, and was ready to leave, when he pointed out that I hadn't taken any photos yet! It's not the first time that has happened, but it's always a bit embarrassing! If you speak Polish check out Maciej's website. I'm not sure if he has designed it himself, but it is possible, because he is a web designer.

Another Coincidence

What are the odds on this happening? Just like last year I decided to shoot a few portraits at the Retrorun classic car meet in Handen. I noticed a beautiful Morgan and started taking some photos of it as I got in a conversation with the owner Anders Hedengren. I explained why I wanted the portrait by telling Anders about a photo I took here one year ago. When I mentioned the name of the man I photographed, Björn Virving, Anders got a bit excited. We were at school together he said. For three years at the Tekniska Gymnasiet in Stockholm. And I haven't seen him for forty years! How weird is that!

Back to Anders, he lives in Täby and is retired. The Morgan is a new interest. It is a 2 seater with a Ford Focus engine. Before he bought it he enjoyed boating. Both engine boats and sailing boats. And he was a keen sailor for thirty five years. The Morgan Motor Company is 100 years old this year and there is a celebration in England this summer and Anders is thinking about going. That sounds like a fun trip. My hope is that Björn and Anders will hook up again after forty years, That would be kinda cool me thinks!

Déjà Vu All Over Again

Within five minutes yesterday I took photos of two different cars. One Cadillac from 1955 and one Volvo Vera. Only to realise that I took photos of the same two cars one year ago, on the same day! How weird is that. Last years photos were taken at a classic car meet in Handen. The new photos were shot in Tungelsta. The guy in the Cadillac noticed me and stopped for a few seconds so that I could get a photo. And as I took the photo I recognized the car. A few minutes later I was at home, standing on the veranda, when a funny looking car came driving up the road towards the plant nursery. So I grabbed my camera and walked down to were the car had just been parked. And again I was surprised. Because it was Björn Virving who I met at that same car meet one year ago. His car is unique. It's a one of a kind. It's the worlds only Volvo Vera. It used to be a Volvo 162 but that was before Björn rebuilt it. Over a period of 18 months he put down around 1200 hours and this is the result. Since we met Björn has moved to Haninge and while his wife Pia had a look around the greenhouses Björn and I talked a little about his car. Here is a link to last years post with the Volvo Vera. And here is my flickr photo from last year with the Cadillac. I love coincidences like this but I do wonder what the odds are for something like this to happen!

Fun Coincidence

How cool is this. At the Cruiser Meet I was chatting with John about the fact that I previously had met and photographed his sister Anna for the Stranger Project I suddenly recognised him. We played soccer in the same team 34 years ago! John was the first player to be scouted to our team of 11 year-olds in Tungelsta all those years ago. Our coach had seen him and managed to get him to join Tungelsta. He was a very quick forward, I was a defender. I left the team after a few years and so did he. At that time he was also a decent gymnast. I haven't seen him since we played together. His pretty girl friend is called Emma. They met online back in February via a dating site and fell in love. And a couple of weeks ago she took the step of leaving her home town and move in with John in Sorunda.

Say hello to Johan

This is Johan. I met him at the barbershop. He knew me from my flickr photos and wanted to talk. Is there a better way to find a Stranger? Turns out I had a photo of him from when he was para motoring over Tungelsta! He was able to identify his wing and that's how he learned about flickr. Since then he has been keeping an eye on my and also Kenny Lex's photos. Johan is a good friend to Mikael (the barber), and last July they were on a para motor holiday in Latvia when there was an accident. Another pilot made a mistake and Johan crash landed. On the ground he thought his life was over. He was taken to a local hospital and after a few nervous days he was flown back to Sweden in an ambulance plane, to the University hospital at Huddinge. There, he had an operation on his vertebra. After a week he was able to go home and then spent the next six months recovering, starting with learning to walk again using crutches. He told me that he would make a decision next month whether to start flying again. He also told me that the accident had helped him in his professional life. He works as a motivational coach at a company called Teamkultur. We had time to talk about a few other things and Johan told me about a cool find he had made. I don't have a GPS, but Kenny does, so I gave the GPS info from Johan to Kenny. His mission should he choose to accept it, was to locate that find and take a photo of it! Which he did within 24 hours!This is my 52th photo for the 100 Strangers project. You can see the rest of my strangers in my Set.

Uppdatering: Om du vet någonting om den här historien så går det bra att kontakta Sune på Haninge.org HÄR kan du ladda ner en pdf-fil med lite fakta.

Another Coincidence

Do you like coincidences? I do. At the classic car event in Handen yesterday I'm walking towards an empty bench. Just as I sit down, a woman joins me on the bench. We start to talk. She asks if I'm from around here, and I say yes, from Tungelsta 10 kilometres from here. She smiles and says that's funny, my husband and I are from Småland (in the south of Sweden), and we have been looking for some information about Tungelsta! So I tell her what she wants to know. Then I tell her about a photo for the 100 Strangers project that I had just taken the minute before we met. Of a police officer and a Porsche Police Car. Now she looks at me a little funny and says, my husband has written an article about that car and have probably some information that you could use. It turns out that Monica is married to the well known Bosse Bildoktorn (The Car Doctor),who is the announcer at this venue. We decide to walk over and talk to Bosse as he is just finishing his work for the day. Then Monica says, you really should read this book we bought last year, it's about strange coincidences and is written by Jan Cederquist, and she goes on to tell me that just after they got the book they ran into the author by chance. So smilingly I tell her that I'm actually reading that same book at the moment! It was recommended to me by one of the my strangers Rikard Lundin. Then we tell Bosse about all this, and he says that he will send me all the necessary information that he has. We then chat about this and that for a while, and I take a photo of them and another photographer that was there gets a few shots of us and a few of the Andersson couple. And that was that.