Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Mrs Christine Smedley

My husband was born in Kent and lived in a house near Moat Park. His family used to go there on occasion and there was a painting.of exotic birds on the wall, which he found he he very much liked to look as a child. In his thirties, we moved to Bath and went to a house there, where this painting appeared again, which he thought pretty extraordinary. When my husband was in his sixties, we moved to Guernsey - and, in a local auction room, this same painting turned up fo sale, with it's Kent and Bath provenance.

Cross parent in law birthdays

My wife's birthday is on the same date as my father's birthday. My birthday is on the same date as my mother-in-law's birthday.

2012

first netball match of 2012, out team won 20-12!!!!.......... then so did the other team!

Telephone call

My 15 year old son was walking past a telephone box on his way to the local sports centre. The box is half a mile away from our home. The phone rang and being a curious teenager he answered it saying 'hello'. The person on the other end said 'hi Jason (my sons name), is Gina there?' It was a friend of mine. My confused son said 'no not here' and put the phone down. Totally stunned as if in a dream, he hotfooted it home and recounted the incredulous incident! What a coincidence!!

Work coincidences

A few years ago a new neighbour moved into the flat next door to me, the sister of the previous owner and I had only met her a couple of times in passing on the stairs. We have now become firm friends and have shared information about ourselves. We were surprised to discover that we have both worked for the same solicitor, Westwood Morris & Co, Waterloo Street, Birmingham, but several years apart, and were able to share information and annecdotes about those who worked for that company.

Ticket birth date

For my father's 70th birthday my brother-in-law bought three tickets to watch England play cricket at Lords, three generations, my father, himself and his son were to go together. At random he put one ticket inside his birthday card. My farter noticed his tictet was 1517, he was born on 1st May 1917, his birth date was 1.5.17.

Radio coincidence

I listen to Radio 4 (speech radio) all day most of the time. The number of times that I hear the same word as I’m typing (or saying or reading) is so astonishing that I started to note them until the list got too long and time consuming to keep up. These words aren’t common conjunctions or anything, they are often not the sort of word you’d expect to come across in an average day let alone at the same moment, sometimes several times a day.

Small world

I was in South Africa researching the possibility of my company promoting an ice-skating show in the country. There hadn't been an ice-show there for more than 20 years. Apartheid had just ended and it seemed the right time to bring a show to the country. Travelling on a small plane (12 seats) I was in conversation with the man sitting next to me and after about 20 minutes, it turned out that he was an ice-engineer who worked on the ice-shows some 20 years previously. He was also very close friends with the female promoter who I had wanted to track down to discuss the subject.

Traveling to France

Last Summer we set off to France for a camping holiday. While on the boat I bumped into a man who works for a friend, Bob. I said hello and went on my merry way. The next morning as we were queueing on the boat to get onto the car deck, Bob and his partner were behind us on the stairs. We headed off across France towards the camp site. My daughters were getting restless so we decided to stop in motorway service station. After a bite to eat I went to use the gents.

mutual relatives

A new boy joined my son's class (in Buckinghamshire). He became friends with my son and I discovered that his mother's paternal uncle was married to my paternal aunt so we had mutual first cousins, though unrelated. The mother had been brought up in Ireland, I had been brought up in Zimbabwe.

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