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!

birthday coincidence

my Sister 01 01 1965 her youngest son 01 01 2004 my birthday 29 Dec think our Mother preferred Hospital food to cooking a Christmas Meal

Sisters choose same recipe

My sister who lives in Florida sent me a cook book for Christmas 2011, called 660 Curries. It was a book she already had herself. I emailed her after Christmas to tell her which curry I had made for my first recipe from the book and she called me immediately to say that the recipe I had chosen to make for my first curry was the same recipe she had chosen to make for her first one. It was called Vibrant Chicken in a Spicy Tomato Sauce. For us both to choose the same recipe out of 660 was mind blowing.

Backpacking

In 1993 I arrived in a hostel in Sydney Australia and within an hour met a Dutch guy called Kees Van Gelderen . We spent 5 days having a laugh in Sydney before he went to Canberra to see long lost relatives . I spent the next three weeks in Melbourne then Adelaide and then got on the bus I'd selected to take me up to Coober Pedy on route to Alice Springs . I sat down in my allocated seat 36a . Kees got on within minutes and sat in his allocated seat ;36b . Late on the same trip as I was travelling down the East coast I met a girl from the U.K. called Vikki when waiting for a four wheel drive excursion to Fraser island off Hervey bay . Two years late when I was back in Australia travelling with my then girlfriend ,now wife ,we were on a bus between Byron Bay and Surfers paradise and as we got off the bus there was Vikki seated about ten rows ahead on her first return visit since also . Charles Allday M.A. Oxon Read Zoology at The Queen's college graduating in 1992

marriage

Having married 1st time to a woman born on 26/july/1943 divorced and remarried a 2nd time to a woman born on the same date 26/july/1943. Mother died and the house was sold to a couple by the name John and Linda Robertson, John being my name, Linda being my wife's name and Robertson being my mother's nee name!

One person, two coincidental meetings

In the very early 80s I was British Council programme officer for a Bulgarian violinist studying in London on a scholarship and got to know her fairly well, but we more or less fell out of touch when she returned home. About three years later, in about 1985, I went for a walk one Sunday afternoon on Hampstead Heath with a friend who was staying with me, something I almost never did, even though I lived not very far from the Heath, having moved from another part of London since my Bulgarian friend had left. When on the Heath, for no particular reason other than curiosity, I made a point of diverting about 30 yards off our path to go and look at a notice board. Imagine my surprise to see advertised a violin recital at Kenwood House that very evening with my Bulgarian friend playing. Naturally I went to the concert and I think she was as surprised to see me afterwards as I had been to see the concert notice in the first place. It turned out that she had tried to contact me by phone at my old address but had not managed to get my new number. Again we did not really keep in close touch but a few years later I was working for the Council in Prague.

Alpine neighbours

My wife and I own a renovated farmhouse on the outskirts of an ancient small town in the French Alps where we have just two neighbourng properties. Ten years ago, when my wife came to France to undertake the legal business in connection with this purchase, she was invited to have coffee with the family next door. The young husband and his French wife had his parents staying with them, and my wife felt that she vaguely recognised that couple. It then turned out, to our amazement, that the young man, Andrew, had been in the same form at school with our older son and, although she had not recognised him, she knew she had seen the parents somewhere before. Andrew and Sophie are, of course, perfect neighbours.

Spooky choice of an event

I don't know if this comes into the "forbidden" category of premonition. It's close to it, but here goes, because it is really spooky. I grew up in Swansea, S.Wales and went to the Grammar School there - an ancient edifice founded in the 1600's. But at age 18 we moved to London and spent all the years in England until retirement at age 65 in 1980. (Yes, that means I'm in my 97th year, but don't go away!). We had spent occasional holidays back in Swansea, but had not visited or thought about the Grammar School. But just after retirement I started to think about the old school and particularly (this bit is critical) about playing "fives" (a squash-like game) using the buttresses of the ancient building. We decided we would like to visit the old school. We drove down and spent a Sunday "pottering". On Monday morning I drove to the Grammar School. The site was full of bulldozers and being demolished. The demolition foreman said "We've been here for three days.

Village Idiot

My wife Liz' and I married in September1989. We had our honeymoon in Jamaica. On our return Liz needed to find a job. After a few months working in a dairy she found another job processing claims for an insurance company. She was one of dozens of people doing this. Some months passed when Liz' heard that one of the girls, Jo' and her partner John were trying to sell their house. Liz and I were looking to buy a house so Liz asked her about it. Arrangements were made to view and it suited our needs so after some negotiations spanning several months we eventually bought it. (This was in the early 90's during the property crash). As well as buying their house we struck up a great friendship and the 4 of us regularly went out together. About two years later John and Jo' announced that they were going to get married. We were obviously very pleased for them and we used to talk often about their plans. One night I asked John if he had arranged a Honeymoon. He said no because he didn't know where to go. I told him that Liz and I had been to Jamaica. He told me that they had already been there on holiday a couple of years earlier.

Cat-sitters in Cardiff

A couple of Australian friends were in England on business and arrived in Cambridge on a Sunday evening prior to an appointment the following day. They decided to go out for a drink before dinner and went into a nearby hotel and requested a beer, This being in the age of restricted licensing hours the barman politely told them that he was unable to serve them until after 7pm as they were not residents. A woman sitting at a nearby table spoke up and, as a resident, asked if she might buy them a drink which they gladly accepted. They asked her how she came to be staying in Cambridge and she told them that the next day she and her husband were removing from Cardiff, and that she had arrived early to receive the keys of their new house. Our friend John G. asked her where she had been living in Cardiff, to which she replied "Bloggs Street" - so he asked her which number in Bloggs Street, to which she replied "number 19". He then asked her if she knew David G. who lived at number 21: "Oh yes" she replied, "we knew him very well. We used to look after each other's cats". "That's my brother", said John G.

Place Coincidence

I have Belgian friends who lived in a small village, Ruddervoorde between Ostend and Brugges. A few years ago they were visiting us in the UK for Christmas. My Uncle (married to my father's sister) who lived 150 miles away called in to drop off presents. I did not know he had any connection with Belgium. He had never met my friends and asked where they lived. They said he would never have heard of the place but told him the name of their village. He said 'I've been there. My aunt met a Belgium General during the war and married him and lived there. I used to go on holiday there and stay with them'. My friend who was the youngest of three brothers (10 years between each of them) went home and told his parents. His mother knew my Uncle's Aunt!

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