Cambridge Coincidences Collection

I have lived next to the same park for many years and have only ever seen a possum on one occasion: the night after I adamantly declared - with absolute certainty - that there definitely weren't any possums there.

My wife and I -both born and bred in Argentina- lived in Northern Ireland for around nine years (2001-2010), where we heard about a man in his 70s who had been born in Argentina but who'd been living in the UK since his teens, most of the time in England. In 2010 my wife and I moved to England and it was only recently that we met this man. We hit it off very well and given a number of things in common, we became friends. Last week, my wife attended an event at the 02 Arena in Greenwich. It was packed -i.e. there were about 20,000 people. An elderly man sits beside her and they start talking. He happens to be from Northern Ireland, so she tells him about our time over there, etc. When she tells him that she is originally from Argentina, he says that his brother-in-law was born in Argentina, etc. You can see it coming: this man's brother-in-law is our new friend.

This is really 2 coincidences for the price of one. Yesterday night I was watching a Beachboys biog,explaining the history of Brian Wilson and his band and the making of Pet Sounds,something i had seen before. Anyone who knows the Beachboys will be aware of the song 'Good Vibrations' which of course was featured that song. Some days before I had noted that the BBC were running a programme called 'The Joy of data' - being into maths (which is why I post here) this of course interested me,but I didn't have time to watch it at that juncture and so saved the link for later viewing. Following the Beachboys biog,which was late at night,the next day I found time to play back the BBC programme on data,only to find it opened with guess what? 'Good Vibrations'! Today,I was discussing the controversial Brexit vote with a friend on Facebook,whilst 'Tower Heist was on the TV', and it was mentioned that it has been suggested that perhaps only income tax payers should get to vote. At the exact moment I wrote the words 'income tax' they were uttered in the movie!

True story. When I was a little kid, I thought when you tossed a coin, it would come up whatever side was facing up, when you tossed it. So if you held it head-side-up, it would end up heads when you tossed it. Get it? Anyways, I firmly believed this. And for a while, I had no reason to doubt it either. But that is not the weird thing. The weird thing, is that it really came up the side I was holding in my hand. REPEATEDLY. It literally happened every time I tossed it that way. People still don't believe me when I tell this story. But can you imagine how many times this must've happened? Then one day, my friend from across the street made me a wager. I could have his 50-cent-piece, if I won a coin toss. And following what I said above, I proceeded to make it come up my side EVERY TIME! He was understandably flustered, until I told him my secret. And he explained to me why my assumptions were wrong. And then the phenomenon ceased after that. But can you imagine how many times it must've happened that way, before my bubble was burst? Boggles the imagination.