Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Inevitability of coincidence

I could recount many apparent coincidences from my life, but thought you might be more interested in this...I should mention that I have had some training in, and taught both statistics and mathematics. First, my example...I want to Sydney from New Zealand for the first time in 1980.

Arlene England

After graduating from Art School and leaving home in rural Aberdeenshire in 1981 I shared a flat in Stanley Street, Aberdeen with three other girls for a short time before deciding to move to Surrey. I had a small attic room which I loved very much even though I could hardly stand up in it. Many years later, infact just last year, 2011, I started working for a company in London and at an event was introduced to some friends of my current boss and his wife.

Death of relative

In 1994, in my capacity as Vice-Chair of my local Royal Naval Assoc. branch, I was invited to attend a commemoration service at St. Mary le Strand in memory of the death of several Wrens on the torpedoing and sinking of the SS Khedive Ismail in 1944. It was a very moving service not only for the dead Wrens but for all who died, some 1500 in all. In 2001 my last surviving Aunt (sister to my mother) asked me if I could find out how her brother, Stanley Birch, had died. He was an able seaman and had died at sea in 1944.

School friend on holiday

1967. Met a school classmate (12 of us doing A Level French) in a bookshop in Paris. Neither of us knew we were going to France. 2000s. Torremolinos. I slipped on steps. Someone said "careful" and grabbed my elbow. I recovered my posture, threw a quick "thank you" behind me. Only when I got home did I only found out that it had been a firefighter from the local fire station where I am chaplain - he was one of about 90 firefighters on the watches I visit. He hadn't shouted after me at the time.

Birthday Coincidences

My mother and two of her siblings were born in London, on the same day, 30th December, two years apart, My uncle 30th December 1920 My aunt 30th December 1922 My mother 30th December 1924

Same password on two mobiles of two friends

Very recently I picked by accident the mobile iphone, (the same as mine) of a friend and ran my 4-digit (not same number and not consecutive numbers) password and unlocked the phone. At first I did not realise because I thought it was my mobile, until my friend sitting opposite at a dinner table who had seen me taking her phone, said to me. "How did you know my password?" to which I replied that "I did not". And ofcourse we then both realised that we had the same four-digit password in our identical iphones.

Photographer photographed

I photograph families as a portrait photographer, just before Christmas a mother and her adult daughter and husband came for a shoot at my studio, the mother, in passing, mentioned that her, now deceased, husband was a photographer but that it was unlikely that I would know him, of course I asked his name, Godfrey Argent. Surprised I replied, "of course I know him! In fact my father represented him as his agent AND I was photographed by him at the tender age of 16/17 years old!

partner birthday match

My parents have the same birthday (different years). As a child I thought this was the case for all mums and dads, i.e. everyone's partner had the same birthday as them. I now have a civil partner with the same birthday as me (different years), but he also has the same first and middle name as me too...

name chance

In hospital after the birth of my first baby, I met a woman whose married name was the same as my maiden name and whose maiden name was the same as my married name.

Shared boyfriend

At University I became friends with another girl. It transpired that we had both been travelling in our gap years and that both trips had included Malaysia, amongst other countries. Where? The Perhentian Islands. Which One? Small Island. Which beach? Long Beach. Where did you stay? Moonlight Chalets. When were you there? June. When in June? Turns out I had arrived three days after her and stayed in the same place. Not only that but I had snogged the guy she had been going out with!

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