Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Similarity in our sons' lives

Two years ago I was in the hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, having knee replacement surgery. The other patient in the room was about my age and having shoulder surgery, We both were sociable people and ended up talking a good deal, telling the head nurse that our stay was turning out to be fun. And as mothers will do, we talked about our children.

Eye Test

I was in my front garden when two elderly gentleman struck up a conversation. One said he was overdue an eye test which he had put off due to Covid etc. That reminded me that I should arrange a routine eye test myself. One hour later a letter arrived from Boots asking me to make contact regarding an eye test.

Randomly meeting people

I did an MA in Belgium where I met a French colleague. After the MA I went to Italy for a symposium where I met a Brazilian colleague. When I added the Brazilian on Facebook, she told me she knew the French one because they were flatmates in South Africa. We are all social scientists with an international bent, but from different fields.

Musical Destiny

I belong to a fraternity in NJ, I had heard of a brother of a friend(John)of mine being on his death bed. Fast foward about 4 to 5 weeks, I don't hear anything, so as I left work one Friday, I said I'm going to call a mutual friend (Daryl) and inquire of the health of Johns brother. Within 5 minutes my own brother calls me and I never make the call to Daryl,. I get home, wife is making dinner, as I often do I try to expose her to the music I listened to while growing up.

Across a train platform

Southern England: I'd walked everyday from school to train station with my friend "S" and then we would split to different platforms, to go in different directions. For about 2/3 years S would stand & chat with "L" , a girl younger than us that I didn't know and she only spoke to on the train trip. I could see them across the tracks everyday but sound didn't carry so I never once spoke to L Skip forward nine years I'm backpacking in Australia and have just taken a ferry to Devonport Tasmania.

Bollywood, Depression and Suicide

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a college buddy of mine who lives in New Jersey ( I live in Pennsylvania). We were talking about Indian politics which at times is more colorful and entertaining than Bollywood cinema. Out of the blue one of the names that popped up was Sushant Singh Rajput, an up and coming Bollywood star who was having a decent run despite not being "connected" with the clannish Bollywood networks. I did not really know who he was (my Bollywood and Cricket clock stopped in 2005 when i moved to the States).

12:34

I saved this page long back in Mozilla Firefox Pocket. I forgot even when. I had a relook at my own pocket searching history after a long while and found the glowing red number inscribed in this very page exactly at 12:34 a.m. my local time. It's maybe just a coincident.

"Harley"

I have a former friend. Let's call her "Harley." I remember having a dream and she was the main thing in this dream. It felt like a reconciliation type of dream. But the way it ended, you would think it was love. I digress. When I woke up from this dream, I turn on my phone to see what time it was. And sure enough, there was a random memory that has "Harley" all over it. It just struck me odd.

MEETING AT A WEDDING

My wife and I attended a friends wedding last year and at the dinner table after the ceremony she spoke to the man next to her. She was going to attend a music summer school in Rutland at Oakham School a few weeks later. It turned out that the man taught at Oakham School and lived a few minutes walk away. When she attended the summer school she was able to walk to his house and enjoy afternoon tea. There were about 150 people at the wedding dinner and she just happened to sit next to that man. The family had no idea about her plans when the layout was arranged.

London crime coincidence

I was looking at this gang on YouTube that is based in wood green in north London. I then go on Wikipedia and look at crime in London and the first picture I see is an anti knife crime protest or something at wood green

Pages