Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Location coincidence

When I was 21 I was working on a farm on Samsø a small island off the coast of Denmark, all the workers were young and were from all over Europe. We lived in tents but had access to a barn with electricity and cooking facilities, however it got dark at about 9pm and work started at 4am so we'd sit around with tea and chat or play cards. I was there for over 3 months and one conversation would come up every now and then, I guess to stave off homesickness. We used to describe something about home, on this one night we were telling each other what we could see out of our bedroom windows.

palimpsest

My husband and I were reading in bed together. Totally unrelated books -mine was a book on landscapes, his was a novel by Peter Ackroyd (I think Hawksmoor). I read the word 'palimpsest' and said 'What exactly does palimpsest mean?' He stared at me in amazement, and showed me the sentence he'd just been reading. There was the word 'palimpsest'. He'd been reading that exact word as I spoke it in my question. Whenever I hear the 'palimpsest' (which isn't very often!) it reminds me of that coincidence.

Family - again

I was working in London and mid-morning was travelling on the underground from Bond Street to Trafalgar Square. The doors opened and my son, who was living away from home, was standing facing me waiting to get on.

old friend

I am from the UK. While I was travleling as a student in Crete in 1970 I met a student from Venezuela and we travelled together but i never exepcted to see him again. In 1974 I was training as a doctor in Chicago. As I stepped from the subway on State St (which has a saying that it the one street where you are bound to meet somone you know) he was there. He had no prior connection to the USA and was there visiting.

CHANCE MEETING

Met a couple travelling on motorail to Bolognia three weeks later driving on a remote B road in the Voges mountains in France needed to stop we spotted a couple walking up the road towards us--that's right the couple from the train we made many small changes in route and timing over the three weeks remarkable chance. regards

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

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