Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

South African coincidences

I travelled to South Africa on my own in 1976 taking up residence in Johannesburg. Two months after arriving I met my future husband Michael when we went to meet him off the squash court at Wanders Country Club. It transpired that he had been brought up in Hong Kong and that his parents had been close friends with the parents of my close friend Evie from my boarding school in England, Berkhamsted. The fathers were both doctors at the medical school in HK. Shortly after we met I was introduced to Michaels best friend Tony and his girlfriend Liz. Soon after, while looking for a job, I went into an employment agency and met another girl Rowena I had been also been at Berkhamsted with, and hadn't seen for eight years. It transpired that she was in the process of buying a car off Liz! And the coincidences don't end there. A month or so after this I went to meet Michael at Wanders again. He had just met up with a friend Roger who had moved into the house Michael had lived in on Jersey before he went travelling.

amazing

after marrying in1961 john and i ,two hicks from the north east travelled to london to live & work.we found a huge lovely bedsit in the jewish quarter of north finchley,owned by a jewish barber &family.it was new years eve1962 & we decided to go on the tube to the centre to see the festivities & have a drink.We told the family of our plans & set off.Several bars later enjoying the atomsphere,crowds everywhere.we eventually ended up in piccadilly circus (I think) in a bar that I think was called Snows.by this time it was late and the bars were manic.It had an upstairs bar & a downstairs bar,we had to fight our way down to the stairs.After our drink we decided to leave to catch the tube home.We fought our way back up the stairs & tried to push our way to the outside,Before we got there we came face to face with John's brother Tom.Unknown to us he had gone to our bedsit to be told by the family of our trip to the centre,we were both flabbergasted as we had no idea that he even knew our address in London.Cap that!!!

Wilderness encounter

About 10 years ago, my wife, Ann, and I were staying for a few nights in a hotel in Wilderness, Cape Province, South Africa. The day before we had driven from Cape Town - about 220 miles and taken all day doing so. The following morning we drove from our hotel to a nearby nature reserve to take a short hike, but returned a couple of times to the hotel as we had forgotten (important!) items - generally faffing around. Eventually, we started walking along the trail, only to see in the distance the smoke from the well known Chou-chou - the steam train that ran between George and Knysna. We had not appreciated that the trail crossed the railway line, and regretted missing the sight, but when we reached the "level crossing" a small group of men were about to leave - having seen the train pass - and were getting into a couple of cars. To my astonishment, I recognised and spoke to one of the men but could not place him. Ann immediately knew who he was, used his name and reminded us both that we had last met at the wedding of the son of a mutaul friend - John A - some 3 years before. He replied that John A was actually sitting in one of the cars and about to drive off.

Stepped on brothers foot on a train - hadn't seen him in 4 years!

My husband suddenly asked if I'd like to go to Covent Garden, London. "I'd love to", "Then let's go now". Traveled by train, had a lovely afternoon, and came back in the rush hour via Stratford, where Terry had lived as a child. I found a seat near the window, Terry a few seats away. As I got to my seat I trod on a gentleman's foot opposite, and started to apologize, but he had his eyes shut and appeared to be sleeping. I looked again, and signaled to my husband "That looks like your brother Charlie". He looked, "It is!!" The person next to Charlie got out and Terry sat next to his brother and pushed him on the arm. "Hi Charlie," he said. Charlie was amazed, not quite sure if he was in a dream. "What are you doing here, I thought you were across the Atlantic!" "Yep, but we are home to visit". An amazing coincidence that was truly lovely.

New Orleans Freaky Photo Coincidence

My family & I were on a fly-drive holiday around the southern states of America in April 2011. One of our stops was in New Orleans for the French Quarter festival. On one of the days we decided to take an alligator swamp tour, and on the night we took the Grear’s Point ferry across the Mississippi to see the evening’s bands and celebrations. While making our way down Bourbon Street through the crowds watching the various bands, street acts and other entertaining events were going on, there were hundreds of people enjoying the festivities. On our way home we caught one of the last ferries back, only to find there were no taxis, and because we had an English mobile number they wouldn’t take the call seriously. After a rather frustrating wait we asked an American couple who were also waiting and calling a cab whether they could call us one too which they kindly did. We all began chatting while we were waiting, when one of them suddenly said they recognised me. Looking on their camera there were two random photos of myself on Bourbon Street several hours before standing at the centre of a crossroads!

furniture

My parents put some old bedroom furniture in a local sales room to sell. They managed to sell it. About 6 months later they were on holiday about 200 miles away from where they lived and booked into a bed and breakfast which was well off the beaten track. When they were shown to their room there was their furniture theyknew it was theirs as it had the handles on my dad had replaced and a mark on the top which they recognised. They asked the owners and they said that their sister had got it for them and it turned out she lived in the same town as my mum and dad.

Coincidental Meeting

My boyfriend, Mark, and I went to Japan in October 2007, and although we travelled there independently, we met up with a small tour group in Tokyo, and travelled around Japan with them for eleven days before we all split up and finished our travels in various parts of Japan independently again. The group were from various locations in the UK, USA and Scandinavia. We are from West Yorkshire in England, and one couple on the trip were Donna and RC from Boulder, Colorado. On our return to England we did exchange photos with them and other members of the group, but then lost touch, and certainly didn't discuss future travel plans or destinations. In September 2009 Markand I went to Lake Bled in Slovenia for a week. On our last day, ten minutes before we were due to leave for the airport, we were having a last look at the lake, and who should we bump into but the same couple from Colorado! They had just arrived in Europe, and after staying in Venice for a couple of nights they had travelled to Slovenia the night before. This was their first outing to the lake and they had literally just got there as we were leaving!

Remote Encounter

In the mid 1980's I was living in Hemel Hempstead Herts. An American man came to the town for a few weeks to work in a local firm. He was from Virginia. A few of my friends from our Church knew he was lonely at weekends so we took it in turns to invite him to our homes. I did get to know him well enough to send Christmas cards for a few years. In 1991 together with my daughter we were visiting my aunt, who lived in a very small place called Norway which is on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This particular day we decided to drive about 200 miles to visit the Tahquamenon Falls State Park. After about 4 hours of travelling and rarely seeing another vehicle we arrived at a very lonely parking area.. There was one other car in the car park. My aunt said to me,"Every time you go on holiday you always bump into someone you know, whats the chance of you knowing the owner of that car?" We looked at this other car and laughed.As we started climbing the path a couple were coming down towards us. I became very excited saying "I can't believe this".

Lesley S

I get these all the time, sometimes it can be a repeition of a word within minutes. I've just had the word 'Echo' come to me twice this morning. I make a note of mine to keep track as they happen so much Other examples are hearing Crown court( (70's lunchtime telly) mentioned one day on telly and then the following morning my boss mentions it when he's reminiscing about school dinners. I do a facebook music page and it's someone's birthday in the morning then hear a track of theirs later on. that happens a lot, I listen to music usually on my ipod rather than the radio and that's on shuffle so randomly plays what it wants (over 11,000 songs on there so it's a big thing to sample from). Wednesday someone was back in work after a week off and had a grown a beard and one of the lads said he was out of Braveheart (he's Scottish) and that film was on last night.

Christmas card coincidence

My 13 year old daughter (Lucy) came home from school with a present given to her by a class friend. It was a home-made box, made out of an old re-cycled Christmas card and it was filled with chocolates. He gave one to everybody in the class (30 children). On taking out the chocolates she burst into tears. Inside the box written on the bottom, were the words 'love from Les and Barry'. Les and Barry are her grandparents (my mum and dad) and my mum had passed away two years ago! I could not understand how she had ended up with an old Christmas card that my parents had sent to someone at least two years ago. I immediately phoned my dad to tell him and as I was talking, turned over the box. On the base I could see the imprint of the name and address that my dad had written on the envelope. I relayed this info to my dad who knew at once who he had sent the card to-Mr and Mrs A Crabtree. Even more bizzarely, Mrs Crabtree had died four years ago and they lived 20 miles away. So how had a boy in my daughter's class got an old Christmas card that was at least four years old and out of 30 children she was the one he gave it to?

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