Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Hire Car Escapade

On 26 December 2011 we flew from London to Montreal with some friends. The friends had arranged to hire a large 4 wheel drive vehicle. Due to the busy holiday period the car rental company had very few cars available and nothing in the class of car booked. They were given a smaller vehicle, but couldn't fit all their luggage in it. So, they rejected it and waited whilst the hire company found another vehicle that was larger. We then all travelled approximately 120km north to our accommodation near Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

666, the number of the beast.

About 15 years ago, I was working in a lab, analysing water & waste water. Another lab tech & I were talking about music and his love of Led Zeppelin. We then moved on to the fact that Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page had owned a house in Scotland that once belonged to the famous devil worshiper Aleister Crowley. At the same time, we were doing pH analysis and at that point the pH meter completed it's analysis and the meter read 6.66!

Birthday coincidence

My mother-in-law has two children who share the same birth date but four years apart (20th November) and a neice, a granddaughter and three great-grandchildren who share the same birth date (22nd February). In fact, two of the great-grandchildren are siblings born two years apart and the other great-grandchild was actually born on the exact same day as one of the siblings!

Date of my sons birth and ancestry

My first child was due April 30th 1978. A few months before my brother was altering the date on his new watch. The date got stuck on April 4th and would not turn past it. He said to me “I bet you go into labour on the 4th!” Although my son was actually born only 2 hours into the 5th of April my 22 hour labour had actually started at 4am on the 4th of April 1978. During the past couple of years it has been coincidences and an 'encounter' that have helped me to find hundreds of family members in my tree, even in the last 7 days after a conversation I had last Friday.

Lost Earrings

I lost my earring. 5 hours later when I was walking home from meeting a friend, a woman on the street who was walking in front of me picked up the earring and was about to toss it back down when I stopped her. Happily reunited with my earring!!

One Friday

My daughter is in the process of buying a house. One random Friday afternoon before Christmas I took my wife out for lunches after being delayed for an hour due to clearing a blocked drain. When we the corner from where we walked past the front door to observe the house.finished our meal I suggested we drive to the house my daughter is buying to park up and look from the outside. Reluctantly because it was getting I drove the car and parked just around

Same farm

I am a UK veterinary student, and before starting me degree I worked two small sheep farms (less than 500 sheep) in two different states of Germany. When in Finland last year I met 2 german veterinary students. One had also worked on the same farm I had; the other lived less than 20 miles away from the other farm! Out of all the farms in Germany, and all the german veterinary students I could have met; it seemed like such a coincidence.

Florida holiday coincidence

We took a family holiday in Orlando in the summer of 2006 and while trudging around Sea World theme park we were startled by our Son's primary school teacher who'd spotted our son in the crowd because of his Leeds United football shirt. We'd no idea she was due to be on holiday in Florida, and we all laughed at the coincidence of meeting up, and what were the odds, etc.

3 is the Magic Number

I have 3 children, all girls, all born on same day- 20th January! They will celebrate their birthdays next week- they will be 1 year, 7 years & 8 years!

Second Christmas

I have three siblings; a twin brother born on 9th April 1965, a sister born on 9th April 1963 and a brother born on 11th April 1961. When we were children our older brother celebrated his birthday on 9th April and it was like a second Christmas. We thought it was really strange if people didn't have the same birthday as their brothers and sisters. We felt sorry for other children and I still do really because it was great. It was only as I became a young adult that I appreciated it was an unusual situation.

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