Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

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

Same names

A month or two after my husband, Tim and I met in 2008 (on an internet dating site), I was talking about my paternal grandmother, and I said that her maiden name had been Joyce Grubb. Tim said that his maternal grandmother's maiden name had also been Joyce Grubb. It didn't take us long to establish that they were different people (they were both dead by then), who just happened to share the same birth name. Tim's mother's cousin researched our lineage, and it turned out that Tim and I do share a common ancestor many generations back, who lived in Ireland.

TV show and book coincidence

I watched the TV show 12 Monkeys on Netflix this evening, March 30th 2018. In the episode I was watching (I can't remember which but it's in the first season), the main character tells of a Native American story. We each have 2 wolves within us, 1 good, 1 bad. Whichever triumphs is the one we feed the most. I'd never heard this story before today. I'm 47 and used to be quite interested in Native American culture. A couple of hours later I was reading a Kindle book, Psychic Surveys 2 by Shani Struthers. In it, a character also told the very same wolves story!

The Hook..

A few years ago I was in the "loo" and looked up at the door where there used to be a Coat Hanger, it was torn off a long time before. I thought to myself, about time I put a new one up. I did not mention it. The next afternoon I noticed there was a new "hook" there! My wife had bought one and screwed it on without telling me. Very strange indeed.

Rosy Cross

Many years ago 1975 (in the tropics) with a close group of friends we were having a rather deep esoteric debate on the rosicrucian order, siting on cliff side rocks, after some time I/we looked up and to our amazement a vivid pink cross cloud formation was directly above our heads...very strange.

The Phone call..

In 1980 I was living and working in Rio, Brazil. I rarely phoned home to the UK to speak with my Mother. You had to "book" a call in those days and wait, so I booked a call. The phone rang a few moments later, I thought "that was fast" my call had come through, but, no, it was my Mother Calling Me!

Automatic Numberplate Recognition

While driving to work I was listening to Radio 4. Tony Blair was being interviewed on Today. Just as I came to a stop at a roundabout I noticed the car in front of me had a registration ending in WMD. This was only last year & Blair rarely appears in the media now.

Oyez Oyez!

Monday 10th July 1995 This morning, walking through Golden Square with my 8 year old daughter, we paused to look into an architect’s window where there was a splendid model of a castle by a river. It reminded us very much of Rochester. (We went there on a visit on a cold October day in 1993 – the castle was closed! – and we remembered meeting the Town Crier outside the Dickens Museum. He was waiting for a school party and had plenty of time to chat.) This afternoon, we were on our way back to Charing Cross and were just crossing King William IV Street when my daughter caught my arm.

Parallel Lives 100 years apart

I grew up in the Midlands, and moved to the South East of England, due to work. I initially moved into a shared house in Horley, Surrey where I met a housemate who would later become my wife. We were married in Chichester, West Sussex. Prior to getting married, I didn't know I had any connection to West Sussex. A few years later we started tracing our family history and this was when we discovered these coincidences... - my family came from the same village that my wife had lived in as a child.

Surprising event

I was working in London, where I lived, in South London. My Father, who I saw regularly, was also working and lived in north-east London, in Walthamstow. I had to go and pick some gig tickets up from the Star Green ticket office at Oxford Circus (way before t'internet) so got off the tube and bought said ticket, then went down in to the station again. I bashed full on in to a large human body as I was rushing along, as were they. We both looked around to say sorry and... it was my Dad. Now that freaked me out, in an amused way!

Identical number

My phone number as a young adult was the same as my grandparents, except in another area code. My seven digits were in the same order and identical to their seven digit phone number.

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