Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Extraoardinary chain of events

New years day 2000. Myself and a friends two children celebrated the day at a charity fun day at Park Beach recreational area, New South Wales, Australia. The highlight of the day, as always are the duck races, all monies raised donated to charity. At a cost of $1 you buy a plastic duck with a number written under the bottom of it. When all the ducks are sold { about 100} they are lined up behind a barrier and released in the creek with the tide outgoing.

Significant Breakthrough.

I had a mental breakdown due to events I experienced while serving in the RUC and had to be hospitalised in a Psychiatric Unit. On being discharged after 3 months treatment, things on the outside along with the ongoing troubles in NI, caused me to deteriorate, to the point where hospitalisation was recommended. A friend asked me to visit a Church Minister who dealt with stressed Clergy for 2 sessions. The 2 receptionists were a Mrs Neville and a Mrs McNaughton. I am called Neville McNaughton.

Unexpected Response to a Postcard

While waiting in the wee hours of the morning for Aeroflot to find us a plane in Erevan, Armenia, for a flight to Leningrad (1989) I wrote and mailed a postcard to a dear friend in America with the usual "wish you were here" line somewhere in it. About twelve hours later, after rerouting over Riga and other delays, as I was crossing the lobby of one of the largest hotels in the city I heard this woman's voice calling my name. She had just checked in to the hotel with a tourist group she was guiding.

The Name Colorado

I live in Michigan and my girlfriend introduced me to her brother who lives in Colorado. We talked for a couple months on the phone and then he came to visit. We had a fantastic time while he was here but when he went home he realized that he was still hung up on an old girlfriend. We are still friends and talk every once in awhile. Since then it has been really weird that the name of Colorado or a city in Colorado keeps on appearing at least once a day. Could be on the TV in a movie or news, in a book, or just talking to people.

Same coins same place same position

My dad used to take me swimming every Sunday in Salford, Manchester. One Sunday, we came across two pound coins on the pavement, one sitting half on the other one and half on the ground. I remember bending down to check they were real and was made up when dad said I could have them. The following Sunday, we set off for Broughton baths again. In the exact same place, in our path were two pound coins in the same position, one half placed on the other one. If they'd been dropped, they would have landed apart, it was as though someone had carefully placed them there for us.

A cherished childhood book finds me again

In about 1979 my sister and I held a yard sale of toys outside our house in Wantage, Oxfordshire. To swell the meagre offerings I put in my Rupert Bear annuals. Almost the only thing that sold was my copy of the 1954 annual, which was snapped up by a stranger. I regretted it almost immediately, and spent the next 30 years looking without success in jumble sales and second-hand bookshops. With the coming of the internet I searched for copies of the 1954 annual for sale online, and found that they were all very expensive.

Meant to be friends?

My daughter moved to Sydney Australia a few years ago and now has a year old baby and a 5 year old stepson. As an older mother she felt in need of a 'Mummy Friend', someone in similar circumstances of a similar age, so she went to a playgroup and sussed out the mums there - spotting an older woman with two children and she nervously approached her. As she did so the woman got up to leave with her children and my daughter just said 'Hello' to her as she left.

matching birthdays

My sister and I have our birthdays on the same date (21st) of different months.

Friends meeting friends in other countries

I am a geologist and have many friends all over the world. I studied and undergraduate degree in St Andrews and then studied for a PhD in Edinburgh. While in my first year in Edinburgh one of my fellow PhD students went to India to study Rivers in the Himalayas. While on field work they met may people from all over the world pack backing through India, but one day while on a bus they ended up sitting beside some other people from the UK. Turned out that the other people where also Geologists, studying structural geology...

Finding a friend and realising they are a relative

A few years ago my brother started work for a company in Northern Ireland (we are Northern Irish). My brother often talked about a friend who he had made in work called Frank. Frank was older than my brother, roughly between my parents and my brothers age. During the following summer My sister and I took my Grand Mother on a holiday driving round parts of Northern Ireland she had not been to since she was a child. This involved going to see old relatives and friends who my granny, who didn't drive her self, had not seen in many years.

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