Cambridge Coincidences Collection

I need to guess at the exact year but it would have been 1988/9 or thereabouts. I live on the North Kent coast and own a 16ft fishing dinghy which was used back then and is still used today for fishing along the Kent coast, normally off Herne Bay, but on other occasions further along towards Margate and Ramsgate. On the occasion in question I decided to fish a few miles off Broadstairs at a mark called ' The Elbow '. This is clearly marked on the admiralty chart and is I suppose 4 or 5 miles off the coast, maybe 6 miles, in the general direction of France. So with my twin sons who were around 11 or 12 at the time I launched the boat and around 45 minutes later arrived at the general area - and promptly ran out of fuel for the outboard. I had made the cardinal error of not lifting the petrol tank to check for fuel but had simply read the fuel gauge which incorrectly read half a tank when I set off and still read half a tank even though it was empty. There were no mobile phones to slip into a pocket back then. I believe I did have one but it was fixed in the car and not portable so all I had was a pair of oars and some flares.

When reading & listening to the TV or radio I have quite often experienced a bizzare coincidence. As I am reading a word, at that precise moment, somebody will speak it. This doesn't happen if I try to make it happen - it only happens when I'm not thinking about it .The words have no pattern & could be a place name , a verb ( sometimes complex) or anything really . Each time I experience a feeling of shock & unhappiness. I've become so unnerved by this inexplicable occurence that I now avoid this situation , always pressing the mute button on the TV if I pick up a book or newspaper & never reading while the radio is on.

In 1961 was seconded to the West Indies by ICI to help with the setting-up of a local paint factory in Trinidad. As part of my duties, I was sent to British Guiana (as it then was) for a couple of weeks and, while there, attended the round of parties which was then the accepted way of welcoming the occasional visitor. While at one such party I heard someone standing behind me say something is a voice which I instantly recognised. Turning round, I faced a complete stranger and, on apologising for what must have seemed my odd behaviour, I explained that I was convinced that I had heard the voice of a colleague, one John B, who sat at the desk next to mine back home at ICI. "Oh" he said, "that would be my brother John -I am Pat B!” On my return some months later, I chided John for not telling me that he had a brother in the West Indies. "Oh, well", he said, "I didn't tell you because I never thought you would meet him; he's a Geologist who spends all but a couple of weeks a year deep in the interior hacking chunks off mountains.

My husband and I spent a whole Saturday looking at vans for my his business, visiting many dealerships. During the day I realised that a tiny diamond was missing from my engagement ring. I was really upset about it. Late in the afternoon we decided on the first van we'd seen and returned to the first dealer. As I mooched around the van showroom while my husband was in the salesman's office I saw what looked like a tiny piece of grit on the concrete floor, pressed my finger on it and unbelievably it was the minute diamond which had been there all day! Amazing!