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!

Jane

When I was 18 I met a New Zealander in my home town of Southport Merseyside and when he moved to Perth Australia to live I went with him. One night we were meeting a group of our friends in a bar in the middle of Perth city centre. When we walked in I was absolutely stunned to meet a girl that a couple of years previously I had spent 12 months with at college in my hometown of Southport back in the UK. That in itself was a big "what's the chances of that" moment but then we found out that she was also the new girlfriend of one of our friends.

Two Chemical Disasters in my Family

I was working at the Flixborough chemical plant when it exploded in June 1974 killing 28 workers, the worst ever industrial disaster in Britain . When the re-built plant closed in 1982 I moved to the South of England where I eventually became a Consultant in major hazard prevention. When I finally retired in 2002, I started to write the first of two books on accident prevention which were later published. I also took an interest in Family History, exploring where my ancestors came from. I found in 2002 that my paternal Great Grandfather, Dr Charles Cooper Burrows, had been killed on April 3, 1866, when a massive explosion destroyed the steamship European while it was being unloaded at the port of Aspinwall, on the Caribbean coast of the Isthmus of Panama. It was carrying Nitro-Glycerine a highly explosive and unstable chemical bound for California. It was Dr Burrows' first post as a ship's surgeon and the ship was on its maiden voyage from Liverpool. What a coincidence that I should be involved in a major chemical accident over 100 years later and should then devote my career to preventing such terrible events.

Daria and the boy next door

In 1997 I went on an international youth work camp in Japan where one of the other participants was a girl called Daria. I saw Daria again in 2005, in Camden. I was with my then-boyfriend (now husband) Ted. Daria was with her then-boyfriend (now husband) Patrick. Patrick and Ted were next-door neighbours all through childhood and their parents still live next door to each other!

Open Church day at Mettingham suffolk

About two years ago - Mettingham Parish church ( Waveney Valley - nr. Beccles, Suffolk) held an open day with old village photographs and other miscellaneous old artefacts on display. I attended as did many other good folk on the open day. We were invited to sign the visitors book - which I did upon leaving the church. As I was leaving the porch - there was a chorus of shouting behind me - they were calling out my name ( Robin Richardson ). The man who was in the queue behind me - to also sign the visitors book was also a Robin Richardson. We shook hands and had a chat - I asked him his middle name and he said that it was Lloyd - Mine is Leonard - so the coincidence only stretched as far as our mutual middle initial. It hasn't happened to me before or since.

turkey meeting

Many years ago I went on holiday to a small resort called Cesme. I met a young woman from London, she had left the Metropolitan Police and got a job working for a Doctor in Istanbul. Her name was Claire and mine is Carol and we are both Virgos. When her boss visited another country he would give her money to have a holiday anywhere in Turkey. 5 years later I sat on the sea front and said to a waiter " I wonder where Claire is now ?" "I'm here!" she said. standing right behaind my chair. Neither of us had re visited Cesme in intervening years, she had only decided the day before and I had changed resorts and dates a week before. We were amazed. CAROL PARADISE 285 KELSTON ROPAD BATH BA19AB 01225 425179

My sister's photograph

Many, many years ago my older sister was a student nurse at a London hospital. A medical publication needed a doctor and a nurse for a photo shoot demonstrating a new piece of equipment and my pretty sister was selected. About six years later I was a newly qualified secretary and was sent to temp at an office in London. As I walked into the building, the first thing I saw on the wall behind the Reception desk was the most enormous blow-up photo of my sister in uniform - of all the thousands of offices in London, I had been sent to the head office of the company that manufactured the equipment.

Mother and Mother in law

Recently my 84 year old mother unfortunately had the middle finger of her left hand amputated due to a blood circulation problem. One day, shortly after my mother's operation the phone rang. It was my wife's stepfather sounding pretty agitated. He told me that mother in law had been rushed into hospital the night before with some sort of virulent infection caused by a splinter she received whilst gardening the previous day. He said her arm had turned black and she was on various drips, and was in a bad way. After some days treatment in the hospital it was decided that my mother in law should have an operation to remove the middle finger of her right hand!

holiday acquaintances

In 1982, I was holidaying in Florida and met a couple of English guys in a bar in Key West. We got chatting and I told them that I was staying in the local Quality Inn motel and that it was very nice. We hung out for a couple of days and then went our separate ways. We all exchanged our addresses in England but did not expect to meet each other again in Florida. Twelve days later, after I'd driven all the way up the Gulf coast, across to Cape Kennedy, and down the Atlantic coast, I pulled into the Quality Inn in Fort Lauderdale to spend the night. Who should I meet in the parking lot when I got out of the car but these same two guys. They told me that they were also staying in the Quality Inn as I'd recommended the chain to them. How strange is that?

Dad

My Father was a very funny man, alays playing jokes on us, three Daughters and one Son. Unfortunately our Mother passed away on 8th October 1984, but dad was a strong man and carried on helping his friends out with gardening and shopping etc. but then he was very ill with cancer, and my Sister and l looked after him. My Sister's husband built and extra room on their cottage and put a hospital bed in there, and l would do the morning shift and Jackie the afternoon, even then he was still playing jokes etc. Then he kept on sayinghis feet were cold, we bought many pairs of slippers and socks, but nothing pleased him, then we came up with the idea of buying a piece of fur linned leathery type of material, and Jackie made him almost knee high socks/slippers, and he loved them. Not many days later unfortunately he passed away, wearing his socks. When we were in the funeral car, following our darling Dad we noticed the registration of the car carrying his coffin was - ??2 SOX. Which made us laugh on a sad day.

Psychic Phone Call to Mum Coincidence??

Around 5 years ago my husband, Steve, randomly decided to phone his mum Joan, for a catch-up chat. He picked up the receiver and was about to start dialing, only to discover his mum was already on the line. Turns out she'd had the same idea at exactly the same time. She told us that she had dialed our number which had connected, but hadn't yet started to ring.

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