Cambridge Coincidences Collection

On a skiing trip to the French Alps a couple of years ago, a conversation developed over coffee about rugby - two of our group had played in the first XI for our school team, some 30 years ago. One had played at hooker, the other had played prop. This prompted me to ask - 'who was the third player in that front row?' The answer came back - it was Jason. At that precise moment (exactly), as if by magic, the aforementioned Jason walked onto the terrace of the cafe at which we were having coffee, half-way down a blue run down to the ski resort we were staying at. Jaws dropped. Gasps of incredulity. The chances of someone of similar background, being at a French ski resort during February are perhaps not that slim. But the chances of this person appearing precisely at moment they have been brought up in conversation seems vanishingly small.

I was on Facebook today and was scrolling down my feed and noticed a video stating that yesterday was 'National Debbie Day'. I decided to share with a former coworker whom is a Facebook friend. I rarely communicate with her but always thought she was a nice person. Thinking I was making a nice gesture, I wrote "Sorry, a day late, but never too late to celebrate!" As I was posting my message it occurred to me that her husband had passed away last winter and she might be mourning a death anniversary and not be in the mood to receive such a message. However, I did not anticipate that her husband had passed away exactly a year and a day ago. As I scrolled down my Facebook feed the very next post was one she had posted yesterday saying that she felt shattered by the loss of her husband; her best friend who had passed away on that day. I quickly deleted my post...certainly she would not be in the mood to celebrate. I wonder if some Facebook algorithm was involved with the proximity of 'The National Debbie Day post and her own post. I also haven't had much contact with Debbie and the last thing I remember was reading about her husband passing away.

Back in 2013, my wife and I took an adventure cruise from Ushuaia Argentina, the most southern city in the world. We spent 5 days travelling round Cape Horn and up through the Chilean ice fields and Glacier Ally in Patagonia. Our 120 fellow passengers were from around the world, and our dining table included couples from Holland, Russia, France, Germany and ourselves from the UK. We ate all our meals and celebrated New Year together before bidding farewell on the quayside in Punta Arenas. 18 months later, my wife and I were on a self drive touring holiday in Oman, and decided to visit the weekly livestock auction (camels, goats etc) in the local town of Nizwa. After the auction we entered the local souk to take some photos of the traditional market traders. Walking round, my wife suddenly said ‘Do you think that girl in front looks familiar?’ I followed for a few yards when the girl in question turned round, looked at me and then turned back and continued. It was then that she stopped abruptly and turned around again. To both our surprise, it was the same French girl from the cruise! A second later, her partner appeared from around the corner.

in 1997, i met a woman in London,A few months later, her father, who was living on another continent then died of a stroke after he was in a coma for a few weeks.During his stroke his wife asked him how old he was, he told her he was 28, That was my age at the time, He later died on the same day as my birthday. 9 months later our first son was born on the same day, same time including the time difference of the continents as her youngest brother. i often wondered why these events in our lives were synchronous with dates and times?