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.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

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

a common friend and relation

I found I was teaching the nephew of a couple who are friends of mine. This may not seem much of a coincidence but the school is 2 miles from me, about 15 miles from the aunt and uncle (who are our friends) and about 6 miles from where the boy's parents actually live. Secondly, the teaching assistant in the class I was in turned out to be a long standing friend ( of 20 years) of a lady who is a teacher assistant at my previous school and whom I have known for 16 years and also taught her daughter for 2 years running! The 2 ladies had been friends for 20 years after meeting on a train and commuting daily to London.

Direct debit coincidence

In the mid '90's I worked for an employment agency in the post room of the Alliance & Leicester headquarters, at that time situated in Oadby, just south of Leicester. I was one of the few who would go in around 6.30-7.00 to sort out the incoming post and then make a start on the inevitable stack of outgoing mail to be sorted for the internal mailbags going out to the branches. This particular morning there were 5-6 crates of outgoing mail to be sorted; this consisted of statements, letters, direct debit mandates and the like, that were going to the customers' relevant local branches. The direct debit instructions ALWAYS came down to the post room in bundles of a few hundred, elastic banded and in resealable opaque plastic bags. I went over, after we had sorted the incoming mail, to the outgoing mail to make a start on sorting it, item by item, for dispatch to the branches. On top of the very top crate, all on its own, was my recently submitted direct debit mandate; what's more, the mandate was for the Fortean Times! No-one in the post room new my surname (all part of being an agency worker), except for the manager who would never sully his ha

House purchase

I belonged the Hull Cine Society many years ago. At one meeting, I got into conversation with a member sat next to me and happened to say that I was selling my house in Hull, and moving out of the City. He said he was as well I said I was moving to Cottingham. He said he was as well. I said it was a new house just being built. He said his was as well. I said the house was in Spencer Close. He said his house was as well. I said it was to be number 14. He said his was to be number 12. I finished up buying one side of the semi, and he bought the other.

Golden Threads

My sister and I were embroidering a tablecloth for our parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary. On it we had dates of marriage, birth of children and grandchildren, education, interests, holidays, family jokes etc. In one of the squares, I randomly chose a colour of thread and embroidered a shoe and then the number of the shop that my grandfather had - 322. It was not until I put the thread away that I saw that the DMC thread number was... 322. All my threads are wound onto bobbins and the way that they are stored makes it impossible to see the number.

Universe trying to tell me something?

About two months before I was booked on a holiday last summer, an exercise machine I used on a daily basis broke. About a week later my car broke down. Then my desktop computer refused to perform and had to be replaced. Driving my father's car while my own was being repaired, I got a puncture. A few days later, I got my own car back... and got a puncture. I'm on the phone to my father lamenting that everything I owned was breaking, went into the bathroom and discovered the toilet seat had broken. Shorly after that, my landline broke and my mobile had to be replaced. A light fitting in my bedroom shattered.... A few days before the holiday, so stressed out by all of this, I had a mini nervous breakdown and had to go home from work!! The holiday: The flight was delayed. On arrival at my destination I missed my rep and had to get a taxi to the hotel. Finally, that evening, relaxed and in holiday mode at last, I decided that it had been a long day and I needed an early night. I went to my room, decided to go out onto the terrace, tripped on the door step and went flying across the terrace. With my arm out to break my fall, I hit a wall and broke my wrist.

Continuing coincidences

As a young teenager my son fell in love with a girl a little younger than himself. He arranged for me to meet up with his mother as he was sure we would get along. We discovered that we were both the same age and were born on the same day. We both were on our second marriage and had each had two children, a girl first and then a boy, and both named our daughters Holly. Her name was Jane, which was my middle name and we were both stepmothers to children born to in the earlier marriages of our respective husbands. (and yes, we did get along very well). Two or three years later my son was returning home from a three month trip abroad with his girlfriend and mentioned that it would be good if he could get home for 1st September. His girlfriend asked why and he told her that it was his parents wedding anniversary. Yes - it was Holly's parents' wedding anniversary too! I was quite glad when my son and this girl parted - it became a bit spooky!

old love

In 1969 I met a boy and we went out very happily for a few years. We parted to go to separate universities. After uni we met up again and went out for a few more years, but it never really worked. In 1979 I met a person that I knew I would marry. When my old friend visited me a little while later I told him, and he just went away. In October 1982 my old friend had woken up in Bristol and decided that he would drive to Oxford to ask me to finally go to live with him. He arrived at my place of work in Oxford to be told that I was being married that afternoon. He left us in peace. There was little contact between us over the years, and no mutual friends to pass on news. In September this year I unearthed a bag of letters that had passed between us when we were young. I emailed him in October to enquire about him. He told me that he was about to contact me, to tell me that he was ill and had things to give back to me. He died 12 days later. I would not have known of his death and was able to go to his Memorial service.

Same couple three times!!!

On holiday in Castille, Spain from 13th to 25th October 2010 inclusive. Saturday 16th Salamanca - Met and talked to a Dutch couple whilst on the roof of the cathedral. Tuesday 19th Pena de Franca - 80Km away, met for the 2nd time whilst in the countryside on top of a mountain . Wednesday 20th Candelario - 40Km away, met for the 3rd time in car park on way to explore the town. On all occasions: a) couple strangers to us; b) no pre-planning; c) no discussion on where we were going next; c) only the four or us present; and c) less than one hour duration in each location. My job is risk assessment and the odds on this happening look horrendous.

double coincidence

As children we lived in Hertfordshire. In due course my sister, Margaret, six years older than me, went to Teacher Training College in Liverpool, where her best friend and digs-mate was Hazel, whose family lived in Cheshire. My brother, ten years older than me, worked abroad for many years, but eventually returned and moved to Elston, a village near Newark in Nottinghamshire. Imagine Margaret's surprise on hearing this: 'That's where Hazel lives!' Meanwhile, I had moved to Dorset, where I met and married my boss. Sue and Mike were close friends of his, and in time we spent many a happy Sunday afternoon with them both, our two children having a great time with their three. After we moved to Cambridge in 1988 our contact with Sue and Mike was largely restricted to the annual Christmas card, although they did come to my husband's funeral in 1999. In 2010 on a trip to Dorset I went to see them, and naturally asked about the family. Their eldest child, Gill, had married and was living near Nottingham, hoping to move soon to be even nearer to her mother-in-law, Hazel, in Elston......

birthday coincidence

Having purchased a small hotel in Morecambe in 1990 we needed to employ staff. The first recruit, for a post waiting on table, was a young lady who came with her mother for interview. She was just right for the job and it was offered to her. When taking personal details, it turned out that she had the same birthdate as myself, 1st April ! Later a second interview was carried out for an older person to assist with housekeeping duties and to help in the kitchen. This lady had the same birthdate as my wife, 23rd July ! They both worked with us as a family unit until we sold the hotel in 2000.

Pages