Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Here is the short version of my biggest coincidence story: I became friends with someone while on a tour of Yugoslavia. I am from California, she is from New York. Several months later, she gave me a gift, a book of photographs by Roman Vishniac of Jewish scenes in Europe before the Holocaust. One of the pictures in the book, of Vienna in 1936, includes my grandparents' shoe store. Now for some of the details: Here is what had to happen to bring this about: This photo had to be taken from the vantage point it was taken, not the other side looking back the other way - the main subject was the shop next door to my grandparents'. It then had to be to among those that survived when 75% or more were lost or destroyed. This photo had to be selected for inclusion in the book, out of thousands. There are only about 200 there, and furthermore, almost all of them are from Poland, with only two or three being of Vienna. Someone had to think I might like this book, knowing nothing about any of these details. I had to take a long and careful look at that photo to notice that the sign on the shop next to the one featured (which is hard to make out) bore my fa

My story of coincidence is a story centered on my French adventurer sailing friend Bernard who in 1997 was sailing his 12 metre self built yacht Croustet single handed around Antartica on a 6 month voyage from Wellington New Zealand back to Wellington with stops at Ishuaia Chile, Falklands, South Georgia, Kerguelen Islands and finally Hobart Tasmania before crossing the Tasman Sea back to New Zealand. A herculian 10,000 mile solo sailing expedition by any standards in the great southern ocean at between 50 and 60 degress south where the winds and waves are always high and temperatures always low. Living in Wellington I was the contact for Bernards family back in France and when he was overdue back in Wellington by a week or two we were all naturally becoming concerned. With Croustet having no high frequency radio equipment there was no way of knowing where Bernard was so the only thing I could do was phone a sailing friend in Hobart Tasmania for assistance in alerting relevant authorities. It was a Saturday morning when I called him at his home overlooking the Derwent River.

I travelled by coach from Limerick to London and took with me a copy of "the Name of the Rose" to pass the time. I left the book, by accident, unfinished, on the bus on arrival in London. Approximately 3 months later I did the return trip. When I sat in my seat, there in the pouch at the back of the seat in front of me, was a different copy (different cover), of the same book. I got to finish it on the way to Limerick.

In my childhood one night when there is power cut at home, In the dark I randomly picked two playing cards from the pack and guessed what these card can be, when the power returned I was shocked to see both the cards are exactly same as I guessed. Later I religiously used them as my lucky cards and carried them everywhere, which never showed any luck again LOL. </p> <p>Second:<br /> My cousin sister and two cousin brothers who live in different place have exact same names by age as my neighbors. Both the eldest,middle and last have same name.