Friends overseas

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

I'll try to keep this as brief as I can.... All my family are British but I was born in New York after my parents emigrated there for fourteen years. We came back to the UK when I was 2 to 3 years old. For my 21st birthday my parents bought me a return ticket for two weeks to New York (my Dad worked for a travel agency in NY, hence the emigration and the connection) but the rest was left to me.... I just got the plane ticket and had to sort the rest out myself. I spoke my friend Sarah to who is considered a "blood sister" of mine as our mothers were next to each other in the maternity ward and we were born in the same hospital at pretty much the same time, which is why both our parents knew each other and became friends. She ran a girl's sorority in New Jersey and said she could help me out with accommodation there. To cut a long story short I had a great time.... 21 years old, English accent, girl's sorority = awesome 21st birthday. Whilst I was there Sarah introduced me to her friend (I'm sorry, can't remember her name) who had an apartment with a stunning view across the Hudson River of the Manhattan skyline (I though it was fake wallpaper until I noticed the lights moving!)...but I digress. Sums up to: I asked the friend of someone I was born in the same hospital with, although in a different country, and when I asked her if she had ever been to England she said, "Yes, just once to a small place in north London." Turns out she stayed literally the next road up from where I lived. Now comes the coincidence stuff: She then went out and got a photo of her and two friends taken at the local train station when she visited the UK and on the station name sign on the platform was my tag! (Yes, I know.... I used to do graffiti and have paid my time....sorry. If it makes it better I used to do the better stuff on trains) Coincidence but not uncertainty, not sure if it fits in....interesting story though :-)
Total votes: 375
Date submitted:Tue, 19 Dec 2017 23:38:50 +0000Coincidence ID:9661