Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Dream Scene

Last night I dreamt about a friend from university who I hadn't spoken to in a while. When I woke up this morning, I had a long text from none other than the same friend.

GN

Where to start? I've logged nine pages of 'synchronicities' so far and counting. Many seem to have a playful bent, such as passing driving the Stirling monument in Scotland as the Braveheart theme tune played on the radio.

"Star Wars" Coincidence

I share the same birthday (April 10th) as Daisy Ridley, the actress who plays “Rey” in the Star Wars films, and my mother's middle name is Raye.

names

An article came out in my news app that Gwyneth Paltrow had some sort of skiing accident, I don’t exactly remember what it was. I began reading a crime novel later that day , I distinctly remember Gwyneth Paltrow’s name mentioned in the first few lines of the book.

playing music in the shower - totally normal

I was playing by red velvet playlist in the shower ( kpop genre) . While I was dancing around in the shower , I suddenly felt the urge to check the song that was playing . It was titled ‘Russian Roulette’. I usually never touch my phone when I’m playing music in the shower so that was out of the originate . When I came out of the shower , there was a documentary on Trump’s political campaign playing on on the TV by Channel News Asia. An author wrote a book and was being interviewed on the campaign .

Meeting in far off place

Back in 1970 as a 20 year-old I did the Hippy Trail, setting out from London where I lived, across Europe, Middle East to Nepal with two friends in a VW van. As we drove from Kathmandu in Nepal down the mountains back to the Indian border and were stopped by the roadside, a local bus suddenly stopped 50 yards past us and a figure jumped off and ran towards us. It was my good friend Antony Farrell from Ireland. Neither of us had any idea the other would be there, or were planning to visit India/Nepal at the same time.

Margaret Bondfield - from obscurity to two mentions within a day

Last night I was reading Chris Renwick's book 'Bread for All'. I remarked on the fact of the first female Cabinet member being Margaret Bondfield - a name I'd never heard of before. Then whilst reading the Guardian this morning (Saturday 8 June 2019), lo and behold - everything (almost) you wanted to know about Margaret Bondfield, who entered the Cabinet 90 years ago today. Cracking coincidence I reckon.

Avoiding someone

Back when I was in high school I had a crush on a random older boy in school. Randomly he got my number and we startred texting and never actually talked in person but it eventually fizzled out. Fast forward a few months and it was my moms birthday. She wanted to go for dinner at a restaurant where she worked in college. I knew this boy also currently worked at this restaurant so I spent an hour convincing her to go somewhere else instead because I really really really didn’t want to see him there (I didn’t tell my family this so it was even harder to change there mind).

Seeing them again

When I was much younger (13 or so) my friend and I were in myrtle beach S.C and on our last night of the trip we were on the boardwalk (an hour from where we were staying) when a group of cute baseball players about our age came up and asked to take a picture with us. We were so excited by the event and kept talking abut it. All the next day I kept joking and saying “look there they are!” Just to get my friend excited- probably 20 times that day. That night we left our hotel and started driving back home up north. About 5 hours into the trip we pulled over to stop for dinner st Carabas.

Too Many Loaves of Bread

My Italian grandmother, who we called Nan, was obsessed with having enough Italian bread for dinner. Every holiday, she brought a crazy amount of bread to my Mom's house. In October of 2000, Nan passed away. On the day of her wake (visitation), my family returned to my mom's house to have dinner between the afternoon and evening visitation sessions at the funeral parlor. We ordered from a local Italian restaurant. When the order arrived, my mom checked it to make sure everything was correct.

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