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!

Friend In Common

For many years I had a musical friend (we both played in the same amateur orchestra) who I stayed with on occasions at her parents' house. Some 40 years later (having moved from the South-East to the West Country) and now doing freelance office work at a local farm, I was talking to my co-worker of a number of years, and she was telling me about a recent weekend away visiting a friend who happened to live in the same village as my friend of 40 years ago. It turned out that my friend and her family (who had since moved) had lived next door to this friend of this co-worker, and they knew each other extremely well.

Dream

I woke one morning and mentioned to my husband that I had been dreaming of Krakatoa the volcano. A little later we did the Daily Telegraph little crossword which always has a word play across the top, the answer was cracker tower (Krakatoa)

double holiday coincidences

Several years ago my husband and me were holidaying in Naples, Florida. One morning my husband got chatting with a hotel resident at breakfast. He asked where in England they were from and the lady replied that she actually lived In Spain. My husband politely asked whereabouts in Spain and the lady replied it was in the area of Murcia. She said that we would not probably have heard of the local town Mazarron, as it wasn't well known and that she lived on a development called Camposol. My husband said that we did in fact know the area well as we too owned a property on Camposol. We discussed the coincidence and later met for drinks. Now we are very good friends and we see them regularly on our trips to Spain. However the coincidence doesn't stop there! A couple of years later we went on our first ever holiday to Dubai and decided to take a bus tour from the hotel round the city. The bus was late picking us up and by the time we made our last hotel pick up the couple who got on the bus were obviously annoyed at having been kept waiting. They sat behind us on the bus and we struck up a conversation which led to us strolling round the sites together.

holiday coincidence

My 50th birthday fell on June 27 1999. To celebrate, my husband (Terry) and I (Barbara), enjoyed the last two weeks of June on the Greek island of Crete. We stayed in a small complex of self catering accommodation and became friendly (holiday friendships only, we did not keep in touch) with most other holidaymakers round the pool, who included Grace and Bob an older couple. Over the years It became a habit for us to spend the last 2 weeks in June on other Greek Islands, as our birthdays fall on 26 and 27 June. We were therefore on the island of Zante at the end of June 2011. We always try different restaurants for our evening meal, wherever we are. On this particular evening during the second week of our holiday, we were just finishing our meal at a restaurant. It was quite a large restaurant and very busy. Our table was facing the entrance. A couple walked into the restaurant and we recognised them as Grace and Bob. What are the odds of that happening. All four of us being on that island, in that restaurant, at that particular time and our table facing the entrance so we saw them. Also, during conversation, Grace told us that she was now 74 years old.

Related

As an 11 year old I started at the grammar school in a class which was alphabetically selected for the first term. A boy called Geoff was in the same class but the family moved away to another part of the country after a few weeks. I never met any of his family. 7 years later I was babysitting for a couple who unknown to me arranged a blind date with a friend of theirs for me. This chap arrived and turned out to be the brother of the chap in my class who had returned to the area to work. We married two years later.

"Fools never differ"

Many years ago one of my mother-in-law's sisters had been very ill and was recovering in bed. As it was her birthday a few of us had gone to see her with presents. My mother-in-law, another one of her sisters and myself had all bought her the same present!

B & B in Scotland

In July 1983 my wife and I were driving to Aberdeen to catch the ferry to Shetland and as we hadn't left home in West Yorks until the afternoon we decided that after we had crossed the Forth Bridge we would call at a b & b for the night: by this time we had travelled about 200 miles. In the evening we were talking to the couple who ran the b & b and the lady remarked to her husband that our accents reminded her of her brother- in -law, John who lived in Halifax. She told us that he was in charge of the Parks department of his local council. I asked her what his name was and was amazed to realise that I had been talking to him that morning in the park where I was employed as a gardener. When I returned to work later, John came looking for me to confirm that it was me that his sister-in-law had told him about.

mr w.okeeffe

I was in a town in the northern territories in australia called katherine which is an out of the way place. i was staying in a dormitory style accomodation when 4 people arrived next door,i could hear birmingham accents,being from there myself i went to see them & it turned out we were only a half a mile from each other at home, i commented that it was a small world, the one lad said ,not half you used to play football with my old man.when i got back home i saw his dad in the pub, he said when did you last see my son, i said, in a canoe paddling up the river to katherine gorge.

mr w.okeeffe

I was in a town in the northern territories in australia called katherine which is an out of the way place. i was staying in a dormitory style accomodation when 4 people arrived next door,i could hear birmingham accents,being from there myself i went to see them & it turned out we were only a half a mile from each other at home, i commented that it was a small world, the one lad said ,not half you used to play football with my old man.when i got back home i saw his dad in the pub, he said when did you last see my son, i said, in a canoe paddling up the river to katherine gorge.

Nearly Related

As an 11 year old I did not own a transistor radio. An 11 year old boy in my class at a primary school in Norfolk had a crush on me so I was able to borrow his transistor radio at the weekend. This ended after a few months. 50 years later living in a small village in Northamptonshire I meet the nephew of the aformentioned boy who also lives in the village. I could have been his aunty.

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