Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Name age and birthday

My uncle went for an eye check up at Shrewsbury Hospital. At the waiting room the nurse entered and asked for John Davies. My uncle and another chap got up. Not an uncommon name for mid Wales. OK, date of birth. They were both born on the same day in 1927. OK, middle name. Neither had a middle name. They did, of course, have different addresses and the problem was solved.

Knitted Jumper

At primary school in the 70s, i took off a jumper knitted by my mum. At the end of lunch I couldnt find it. On the way home I was messing around with mates and threw a friends bag into someones garden. We laughed and I went to get it for him, I picked up the bag, turned to walk out of the garden and saw my jumper behind a plant pot. Although I couldnt believe it, I put it on and never told anyone.

2 Drummers, one name

I am a professional percussion teacher and performer. I have an unusual name. I googled it, to find another person, also in the UK, same name, same occupation.

Birth Certificate

My uncle (who was Irish, living in Coventry) was in Dublin on holiday and decided to get a copy of his birth certificate. Without prior warning, he went up to the counter and asked about getting a copy. The lady serving him, had his birth certificate in her hand.

Ironing Board Cover

When I was a kid, my mum was a sewing machinist, making commercial ironing board covers. For quality control, in pencil, she had to write her name inside the cover. "ISSY" We were on holiday in Cornwall and in the launderette I commented how the ironing covers looked like the ones my mum made, and sure enough, the one she was using, had "ISSY" written on the inside.

Holy cow

What are the odds of these two co-incidences? In 1996 I worked for an Israeli company and I took some customers to Israel to show them a machine I was selling at the time. As we had arrived on Friday night we had Saturday nothing to do. The hotel offered us a free bus tour of the holy places so we went on it. We were in Bethlehem in the church waiting to go down into the Crypt where the spot that JC was allegedly born. There wasn't many people there, about a dozen in the queue.

Unexpected encounters

I was waiting for a train on a crowded platform of London Bridge Station when a carriage door opened and out stepped a fellow student from Wales whom I hadn't met for ages. We were driving back to the ferry in France in 1997 and stopped in Arromanches, where a band on the beach was playing 'God save the Queen.' Puzzled, we wondered why. A man nearby told us it was D-Day. My wife looked at him. It turned out she had nursed him in hospital in Haverfordwest. We were in France in 2008 and decided to visit the Château de Villandry. We parked the car.

Meeting at Grave

Back in 1988, I attended the funeral of a very good friend. I never went to his graveside until 10 years later. This was a weekday afternoon as I had the day of work, as i spent some time at his graveside a taxi pulled up and a woman got out, I recognised her as my friends girlfriend - amazingly she had also decided to visit the graveside for the first time at exactly the same time as me. To me this is my greatest ever coincidence - where we drawn together by my friends spirit??? It still gives me goosebumps every item i think about it.

Clive Fox

I was working on a summer camp in Seattle and went into the local store on a day off. The lady behind the checkout had an English accent so I said hi and asked where she was from. She responded that she was originally from Chelmsford, Essex. I then mentioned that this was where my girlfriend came from. She asked whereabouts they lived in Chelmsford and it turned out she had lived on the same road.

Birthday coincedence

I went out on a date with a girl I had met on a dating website and it turned out she had the same Birthday date as my sister, uncanny!

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