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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!

meeting the girls

Whilst at university in the 60s I spent a weekend with a friend in Belper, and whilst there we chatted to a couple of girls in a pub. We all got on fine but as it was only a short visit I bade the lasses farewell at the end of the evening and never expected to see them again. Some months later I was in digs in Bolton, at a house where the landlady never took in women and hadn't ever done since she started the business many years earlier. But one day she relented and accepted a couple of young ladies - just the once mind - who needed to stop for the night. I was quite astonished to meet them in the morning at breakfast, they were the two whom I'd met months earlier in Belper.

two cherished number plates

I live in north Wales, my son lives in Ireland. He has a black BMW with the personal number P33PMD. He occasionally drives it down to London via Holyhead and so passes quite near me and drops in when he can. One day a year or so ago I thought I saw his car driving past our house and thought it odd that he hadn't said that he was coming by. Later I saw the same car on the same stretch of road and still he didn't stop. In fact what I had seen on each occasion was a black BMW with the number P13PMD. Coincidence enough that such a similar number should be on a vehicle near me, but almost beyond belief that it should be on the exact same motor car!

Highgate to Tanzania

My husband, Martin, attended secondary school in Highgate, London, leaving in 1961. He has had no connection with the school since leaving. When he retired, we took the opportunity to volunteer for 4 months in Tanzania, teaching and business development. On our first full night there, we attended a fortnightly meeting of other volunteers. After talking to a lot of other people, we eventually sat next to a couple of roughly our age and started chatting. It was their third visit to Tanzania and they offered all sorts of sensible advice. The lady told me that, as a church organist, she always got the chance to play in Arusha Cathedral during her visits and brought some music from England for the choir. I asked if she had brought any music by John Rutter, as he is very well known in my choral society. She said no, but that her husband had been at school with John Rutter. I was very surprised, as I knew from previous experience that MY husband had been at school with John Rutter. It transpired that Tony and Martin had been at school together, in the same year group, 45 years earlier, although they had no memory of each other in spite of studying the same subjects for A levels.

Mr Rees

My grandaughter explained at Christmas how she had come to buy her brother a pea coat as a present. None of the other 10 of us there, spanning three generations (I'm 80), had heard of this name for a short overcoat and we had a short discussion about it. (Two of us had studied linguistics to degree level and beyond). The following day after watching Great Expectations on TV I went to check the novel for a particular episode by the Thames (Ch 14). The second sentence I read was "We had our pea-coats with us . . ."

Travelling connections

In my late twenties I started to travel around the world exporting scientific products from the UK and very often I travelled on Trade Missions. On one particular trip to the Antipodes I had travelled to Australia and visited the various offices of distributors in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. Having spent two weeks in Australia I then flew from Sydney to Auckland in New Zealand. On the flight a young lady walked past my seat two or three times and on each occasion gave me a big beaming smile. I was sitting towards the back of the aircraft and she was right at the front. After the third occasion I went to the front and approached her asking if she was someone I should know. She told me that two weeks previously I had visited the office in which she worked (I cannot now remember which one) and she had seen me walk through the general office to the managers office. As this in itself was quite a coincidence I asked her why she was now on a flight from Sydney to Auckland and she told me she was going to visit her parents before going on to marry someone from England.

date of parents deaths

My dad died on 9/9/90 and my mum died on 11/1/11.

NEIGHBOURS

my neighbour and i went to newbury to go on a boat trip. in the queue behind us she heard a welsh voice. turning she said she was welsh. they then discus sed where about. it turned out this lady when a child (during the war) lived a few doors up from my neighbour.. i remember you coming home in uniform. we were visisting for the day from maidstone kent. the lady was visiting for the day from wales?

SAME NAMES

recently on cruise went to theatre seating 850. sat next to a couple got chatting. she commented my husbands name was 'colin'. said her husbands name was also 'colin.' asked me my name 'sylvia i said' her mouth dropped open her name was 'sylvia'.

Travelling connections

In my late twenties I started to travelled around the world exporting scientific products from the UK and very often I travelled on Trade Missions. On one particular trip to the Antipodes I had travelled to Australia and visited the various offices of distributors in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. Having spent two weeks in Australia I then flew from Sydney to Auckland in New Zealand. On the flight a young lady walked past my seat two or three times and on each occasion gave me a big beaming smile. I was sitting towards the back of the aircraft and she was right at the front. After the third occasion I went to the front and approached her asking if she was someone I should know. She told me that two weeks previous I had visited the office in which she worked (I cannot now remember which one) and she had seen me walk through the general office to the managers office. As this in itself was quite a coincidence I asked her why she was now on a flight from Sydney to Auckland and she told me she was going to visit her parents before going on to marry someone from England.

Instant Help!

Of all the many different coincidences which I have recorded in over 50 private notebooks for more than 30 years, my favourites are those which have occurred after I have prayed for help. For example: My friend Sheila was on her annual weekend visit to Ayr, where she and her late husband had spent happy holidays. As we drove to Culzean Country Park, she told me her sad news: of her mastectomy, chemotherapy, and then the recent death of her mother-in-law. In fact, she had attended the funeral in Newcastle as she was en route to Ayr from Middlesex, where she works for SENSE, the charity for the deaf-blind. Sheila herself is profoundly deaf and has impaired vision. Because I do not know sign language she "listens" to my responses by placing her fingers on my throat while peering closely at my lips. That is why, arriving at the Park tearoom, we sat down side by side so that she could make out my response to her request. She wanted me to collect her from her hotel the next morning so that we could attend Sunday worship at Alloway Church, then have lunch at the adjacent Burns' Centre, where she would buy souvenirs.

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