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!

Adoption

When my Mother became pregant with me during the war, she had to leave her Lancashire home as she wasn't married. She had heard a friend talk about Cambridge and decided to go there. After my birth, I was taken to an adoption home in London, which operated throughout the UK, but coincidentally I was adopted by a family fifteen miles from Cambridge. I became a T when I married, my Mother-in-law was Lilian Grace Thompson, and in 1972 when I was able to get an original birth certificate, discovered that my birth Mother was Grace Evelyn T! In the 80's I was given my file by the adoption home, and discovered that my Mother had gone to America as a GI bride, becoming Grace C (an unusal name). Later that year, I told a friend who was visiting from the States that if she ever met a Grace C to let me know, it could be my Mother! Her sons had just been given a computer, so she set them a task of searching the internet. They came up with one G. C, whose name and address she sent to me, coincidentally on my birthday!

Siblings

My sister has 2 children born on the same day in September but several years apart. My other sisters two were both born in January & her only grandchild was also born in January. My two both arrived in March but years apart.

Wait times

Standing in one spot, how long on average before you see someone you know? Can't say I've got averages but I've had one or two outliers - eg on top of the Empire State building (2 minutes), in the queue at Tad's Steak House in San Francisco (5 minutes).

Nearly trapped intuition saved me

This sis a along story - I had had unemployment problems in Australia I was looking for a butlers job , I returned to Lanchashire and in despperation this was 86 placed an ad in The herald tribune . n the only answer was someone wanting me to do money management I said I had no experience i this , but in desperation I had to take a chance . I got the national express fron Blackpool but all the way down I got the tummy wobbles I kept thinking this has something to do with drugs. After arrving at thotel I was informed that my interviewr had left I ask an anouncment over the tanoy he appeard and said I am having coffeeewith these two ladies ( I thought bleached blondes probably his wife and daughter ) He later said they were escourts ( from my part of the country ) Irrelevant .He was probably divorcing his wife in Peurto Rico and basing in Madrid He said the job was to go around the medeterrreanean and change currencies also to pick up businessmaen at ports . Curuious ? He said he was having the car ''fitted out in Nice'' ( yes a pattern was emerging Iam untrusting by nature ) asked why his Butler had left he said oh it was drugs !

Holiday Dates

1st September 2011 we set sail to New York from Southampton, arriving on Saturday 8th November. On 11th, the world trade tragedy struck as we waited for the bus to the world trade centre. 1st September 2012 playing safe, we went to Glastonbury on a date chosen purely for convenience. On the M5, 30 miles from our destination, our car engine blew its gasket and we lost all the oil. A new engine costing £2000 was needed. 1st September we flew to Gran Canaria to our timeshare. We were super careful and had an uneventful three weeks until, two days before coming home, I slipped and broke both my arms quite badly.

Meeting in Paris

This was years ago - in the 1960s. I was in my early twenties and on my 1st trip to Paris with 2 girlfriends. Before leaving I had discovered that a friend from church (Gwen) would be in Paris at the same time & we wondered whether we would meet. But Paris is a big city, so we thought it unlikely. One day my 2 friends and I were climbing the spiral steps inside the Arc de Triomphe & for some reason I suddenly thought of Gwen & said to my friends "I wonder if I will meet my friend from church somewhere?!" At that VERY MOMENT, no sooner had I spoken than Gwen passed me! - she was on the spiral steps going down so we couldn't stop, having people behind us. We just greeted each other in amazement, and I said "I was just speaking about you!"

3 Coincidences - uncanny chains of events

In 1995 as I sat next to an elderly lady on a flight to Auckland I had a feeling that she was a gardener. Sure enough, in the course of conversation it emerged that she had given the Devon estate of Rosemoor to the RHS and this had been her last trip to UK to visit her former home.We talked plants and gardens all the way to LA. 3 weeks after my return to Nottingham I was at a party. I was chatting to my host's neighbour who had visited my garden, open for the NGS. 'I went to a superb garden on holiday. You'd love it. Rosemoor, in Devon and we met Lady Anne, who gave it to the RHS. She was fascinating to talk to. Probably her last time visiting the place.' 'I've met her', I said. I had a fragile parcel to send abroad. On a day that I wasn't on duty I popped into the Samaritan office for some shreddings.We seldom wrote anything down and we hardly ever committed our names and numbers to paper, but, once in a while, notes were made and later put through the shredder. I packed my parcel and scooped a few thin strips and bits into a wastebasket for burning in the garden a few days later.

Various coincidences

1. I used to caravan a lot in France. Stopped overnight at St Omer before catching the Calais ferry. Chatted to those in neighbouring caravan - they had just arrived from Kenilworth. We know only one family in Kenilworth - they had been playing bridge with them the previous evening. 2. When touring western Canada we stayed at an hotel in Victoria, Vancouver Island. There was a board in the lobby welcoming a group of Royal Marines. I started chatting to a man in the lift since he was wearing a blazer with a RM logo. He said he was originally from England - from a place called Silloth. Again, I only knew one person from SIlloth, who used to live in Waver Street - the same street this ex-RM came from. 3. When a youngster visiting my grandparents in Weardale, I went down to the river with a catapult. I picked up a stone and catapulted it into the river - hitting and killing a trout that had just jumped up. (No-one believes this but it really is true.) 4.

Mr A. D Many coincidences

My wife and I were on a coach holiday and the driver came along the gangway and checked on names.He came to us and said Mr. & Mrs D, the couple opposite us leaned over and said is your name D, I said yes, and she said she was Mrs. D by her first marriage. I asked her and her husband where they joined the coach and they said Dagenham, we lived in Dagenham some years ago, and it appeared they lived round the corner from where we used to live. She said her first husband Mr D had lived in Upton Park, and my wife also lived there. It appeared he lived in the same road as my wife did when she was a child. I said I was born in Stratford, went to school and worked in Stratford, she said she had also lived in Stratford, and when I asked where, she said Chobham Rd. I said I was born in Chobham Rd, and asked her at which number did she and her mother had lived and to my suprise it was the same house I was born in in 1942 , we said where our children lived and again it appeared her son lives a few hundred yards from where our eldest daughter lives. As her aged mother was also on the trip, she confirmed all this. Coincidently my sister and I have the same birthday, me 6th.

Sam

Just got out of shower to ring mother in law to say to go to lunch at the willows not having done this to find she has just txt me asking the same.

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