Cambridge Coincidences Collection

20 years ago, on the morning of my 40th birthday, I came downstairs and went into my living room. The clock, which had been above my mantlepiece for many years, had fallen down in the night and smashed on the stone hearth. Later in the day, some friends called round and gave me a gift for my birthday. you guessed it, it was a clock, same model as the one which had smashed! I summed it up as follows: 1. To give a clock as a 40th birthday present to a single man was not unusual. 2. The clock was the same make and model. My friends had been to my house many times, would probably have seen my original clock, so may have known I liked that style. 3. The clock was shaped like a 50p piece with 8/10 sides, unusual, but was probably fairly common in the 1980's. (One of hundreds of possible styles). 4. If they had seen my original one, why buy me a second one which I wouldn't have needed? 5. The coincidence of giving me a clock on the same day that mine had broken! 6. When questioned, they said they hadn't really given the matter any particular thought, other than they had decided my present would be a clock. Phil.

I travelled to an oil refinery in Wales for a business appointment. There was an accident on the motorway which caused me to be an hour late for my meeting. When I arrived I was advised by the gateman that my contact had gone to lunch 10 minutes earlier. I asked him if there was somewhere local I could have lunch and he recommended a local pub. On walking back to my car a gentleman told me he had overheard my conversation with the gateman and didn't think the pub he suggested was very good and suggested I follow him to the pub he was going to. After we had ordered our lunch he commented that my accent suggested I was not from Wales. I told him I was from Scotland and he said that he was born in Edinburgh. I told him that I had an aunt who stayed in Edinburgh and that I stayed with her many times during the summer holidays. He asked me where she stayed and I told him her name and that her address was Hermitage Park in Leith. He then told me with astonishment in his voice that he stayed in the house, across the landing at the top of the stairs, from my aunt (their doors were 12 feet apart).

Many years ago, following the death of my husband in 1988, I went on holiday with a friend to Guernsey, hoping to leave my decorator doing the hard work of transforming my house while I was away. Unfortunately, it transpired that he and his wife were also going to be away at that time (not much of a coincidence!). Off we went, ready to enoy ourselves and tackle the question of the decorating on our return (and the return of my decorator from wherever he and his wife had been holidaying). After enjoying the delights of the main island, we decided on a boat trip to the very much smaller island of Herm, looking forward to our day out. Having enjoyed this beautiful (and car-free) environment for a few hours, we reluctantly boarded the small boat that was to take us back to the main island. As I sat there with my friend, watching more people climb aboard and waiting for our departure, I was suddenly aware of what, to me, seemed to be almost an apparition. Climbing on to the boat were my decorator and his wife.

In 2007 my mother, who was then 87, had a hip replaced at our local hospital. When she went into a medical ward to recover I was putting her clothes in the cupboard by her bed. In the drawer I found a list of clothes headed with a name I recognised. This was my friend's mother-in-law whom I have never met but as her name is quite unusual I checked with my friend and her mother-in-law had been in the same bed immediately before my mother and had forgotten to remove the list of clothes she had taken in for her stay in hospital.