Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Birthday coincidence

I am one of 4 siblings (I have three older sisters) and our birthdays always fall on the same day of the week each year, even in leap years. Regards Richard Chaff

Christmas Coincidence

I'm not one for unbelievable stories or unlikely occurrences, but this happened some years ago and it involved my Brother's trip from home in Bedfordshire to our Parents in Norfolk on Christmas Eve. We normally have a family get-together at christmas, and this year was no different, but my Brother Tim left it to the last minute to travel up to Norfolk due to working commitments. He doesn't drive, so he was traveling with a friend who was traveling a similar route.

Unluck

My daughter has had a string of 'bad luck'. Like most people, she put her very first bet on the Grand National horse race, 2012 and chose two horses only: Synchronised and According to Pete. Both of these unfortunate horses were euthanised as a result of serious fractures caused by falls in the race. It sort of summed up a year of improbable unfortunate events which have actually proved to be worse this year. What are the chances of picking the two horses which would die during the race?

Reading the same book

I was in a second hand bookshop in Melbourne on a Wednesday. I was looking at a shelf of old books by Mark Twain. A book fell off the shelf. It was a book by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev titled "On the Eve". I have been a collector of Turgenev's books for a couple of years, but I did not have this book. I had no money on me, so I decided the next time I came in to the city I would buy it. On the Friday, I travelled by train to the city. I decided I would buy Turgenev's "On the Eve" that morning.

Eavesdropping

In January 2012 my wife and I decided rather than pay rent to a landlord for my student son in the next academic year commencing September 2012 we would buy a house in Norwich and rent it to him and his mates. By April we still had not done anything and then we knew we had to get a move-on.

Birthday coincidence

I share my birthday with my 2 brothers , My older brother ( we share the same mother and father) is 2 years older than my younger brother is 13 years younger , he is our half brother we share the same father . My father has the 3 of us who are his only biological children all born on the same day .

Sarah Richard

In 2005 my family decided to go to Dorset for our summer holiday. When there, l said that I wasn't going all that way and not going to Stonehenge. So, we looked at all our options and decided that we would go on Thursday of that week. Thursday came, and off we trundled. All of us loved looking at the stones, however it was a blisteringly hot day, and the site was really busy. The kids were getting whiney, and wanted to get out of the crowds. I had promised my sister Sarah, my mum, and my brother Richard a postcard while I was here.

friends meeting abroad

two different friends of mine from neighbouring Towns who did not know each other met in Amsterdam. During there conversation it became apparent that they both knew me. What is the coincidence of that?

The Hotel industry is un-predictable at the best of times....

Just watched a program on coincidence on BBC4 and it inspired me to share something that happened to me recently! I'll try to explain it is well as I can.... I work on the reception desk of a hotel. This hotel is called the 'Royal Hotel' in Oban and it is owned by a company called 'Strathmore Hotels'. (They have another 6 hotels in the company) I had just started work at 2pm and was going through the arrivals due to come in. I had noticed the name 'Mr Hume' amongst my arrivals.

Stunning telphone coincidence.

Several years ago I was sales manager of a used car dealership. </p> <p> We had just bought in about a dozen one year old cars from a local company. </p> <p> It was my job to decide what to do with these vehicles , I decided to sell a few of them on to another dealer for a small profit and keep the others to put in our showroom. </p> <p> Looking through my little notebook of contacts I saw the name and telephone number of a dealer that I hadn`t spoken to for at least three years but I knew he could be a buyer of the sort of cars i was offering. <

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