Cambridge Coincidences Collection

It was a few years ago now but I still can't believe I was where I was when this happened. My mother became ill, and if I hadn't have been with her... well I'm not sure. I was commuting to and from the university in Aberdeen at the time, and it was a 2 hour journey for the train part alone. Heading home, I missed my usual train just after 1pm, and had to wait for the next one, which was around 3pm. A stop before my home (F) station, they told everyone getting off at the current stop (E), and there would be a bus for us. Now, I couldn't cope with the bus. So I called my mother to ask for a lift, and she said she'd pick me up as she was on her way to E anyway, even though it was 45+ minutes from her work, 25 of which took her past our home. When she did arrive between 5-10 minutes after I got off the train, she was incredibly unwell. She's also very stubborn and insisted she didn't need me to call an ambulance, or to go to A&E. She did need to go. She nearly died.

We were living in Edinburgh and this moment in time was probably around July 1988 or 1989 but we can't be sure. We had a big flat and usually had a lodger to help defray costs. One autumn a young dental student came to stay, she was doing a PhD at Edinburgh University Dental School. She was very studious and no trouble, usually having an evening meal or snack and then retiring to her room to study. She was always fascinated by a large carved wooden sideboard which stood in our living room, she often referred to it. It was carved by my great grandfather who was a cabinet maker. We had inherited it from my parents when my grandmother had died and they sold her house, we had a lot of furniture from her in an attempt to fill this enormous flat. The sideboard was (actually is, as we still have it) rather medieval in character with carved men in three places and carved door panels, but we think she thought it looked more asian in character. She was called Aisha and when she graduated her mother came up for the ceremony and of course was welcomed to stay as well. We gave them dinner one night and started to talk about their past.

One morning when we were ten-and-a-half my cousin Billly appeared at the schoolyard fence at St. Ann's during recess. "Let's go!" he said, "It's St. Joseph's Day!" He was playing hooky from his public school nearby. Hooky seemed justified, and off we went down Dale Avenue. He stopped us in front of the Post Office: "Look at this! I got them from a big kid!" Out came two cigarettes and some matches. Just as we were about to strike the matches, my mother's cousin Tommy Parisi happened by. "What are you kids up to?" We proudly held up the cigarettes. Tommy was about sixteen, and we had visited his pigeon-coop and homing-pigeons two or three times. "You kids know about cancer, right?" In fact, the word was foreign to us. "When you smoke, cancer grows in your throat, thick heavy yellow fuzz, and you die. Better throw those away." We went over to the storm drain in the street and did just that. It was a lucky coincidence that Tommy would arrive just then, with such knowledge in 1951. A religious person might say that St.

I traveled to Barbados to watch an England cricket test match in march 1981, i was paired with a complete stranger (Nick Edwards) to keep the hotel costs down. In July 1981 i holidayed in the south of France with a friend. We played cards in the evenings with the people in the adjacent tent. They mentioned my sun tan and i told them the Barbados story. They said, 'that's funny' the barman at our local pub in Hertfordshire was in Barbados...Nick Edwards!