Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Holiday coincidence

We were in an ice cream parlour in the Algarve when our next door neighbour came in. Neither of us knew we were going to be in Portugal at the same time. Neither of us were actually staying in the town where we had the ice cream.

Family member found years later

Our family, from Idaho, paid for our grandparents (accompanied by their son-my uncle) to fly to Honolulu, Hawaii for a vacation in the mid 1980's. While visiting the tourist spot Pearl Harbor, A picture was taken of my grandparents near the "USS Arizona" memorial. The picture was put in an album and never saw the light of day... Until. Flash forward to 2010, my cousin was talking to her new husband about Honolulu, Hawaii and he mentioned that he's been there when he was a kid. In the mid 1980's.

Car with Plate

In 2006, near a Wegmans grocery store in Rochester, New York, United States, I spotted a "BGG666" New York license plate on a winestone-colored Subaru sedan as it passed by me while I was walking. I then followed this car into the parking lot of the Wegmans to examine the car and confirm the letters and digits on its license plates. As far as my coincidence, "BGG" are my initials, and I owned at the time a winestone-colored Subaru whose model and year were identical or nearly identical to those of the sedan with the "BGG666" license plates.

The photo

I was filling out a background verification form for a new job, and wanted to list an old colleague as a reference. I called her, she didn't pick up and she called me back. We started talking, and she said she was interviewing someone called Leah from another firm i used to work with and she mentioned a name. I googled the name cause i was curious and the girl seemed familiar. I hung up and went back to filling out my form.

Life changing decision

After finishing my bachelor I wanted to study script writing as a Master degree, I applied at a lot universities, also got invited to interviews but I did not get accepted. I was very disappointed and self critic. By chance my dad found the Master Mediapsychology, as I read the description I felt like I found my right way. I am shure I wouldn't have become that happy with learning about writing good scripts, I love studying this area of psychology and can't imagine to do anything else anymore! Ony by chance I found my destiny :)

a chance meeting

I was let go from a God awful job. Things were not going well, but I found a posting in an area were my father was from, where I used to visit him as a kid. The area was a little familiar to me, but this part doesn't matter. I was hired as a Technology Specialist in a school district. Upon being hired, I was summoned to report to an orientation early in the summer. When I entered the room the tables were set up in a large square. I was one of the first to arrive and I went to the left far corner to take a seat.

Oblique strategies card

I've been curious about Brian Eno's oblique strategies for some time, and one day I decided to visit a website that randomly shows one of the cards. The card that showed up was "cluster analysis", which was the topic of my Master's thesis, which I was finishing at the time.

Birthdays

My partner and his brother are unidentical twin brothers. The wife of my partner's twin brother and I, female, have the same birth day, too. Our shared birthdays are 14 days apart.

A man in Connecticut

In 2014 my school in Melbourne Australia was holding an art exhibition. The curator of the exhibition was American, partner of a former student of the school. We were chatting about where he came from in the US. I mention I had a friend who was Head of a school in New Hampshire. When I mention the school, he said they used to play sport against the school. I asked him which school he attended. It was Deerfield in Massachusetts. I said the only person who i knew who worked there was a person called David Dun***. It turned out this fellow had David as a teacher.

Reconnected 30 years later

In the 1980's, my 1st husband & I were working and living in a caravan park in a Perth suburb of Western Australia. At the time I had a 2 yr old girl. One day I was in the Laundry of the van park when a young man apparently was there to do his laundry as well. This man asked me how to work the washing machine, which I apparently showed him, we spoke very briefly,(no flirting, I was happily married then)!

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