Strange how life is forever throwing you these strange bits of synchronicity and coincidences and all that "hand of god" type stuff. My entire life has been abundantly endowed with these sorts of extraordinarily eerie things - like, remember how I scored my favourite Chanel LBD for pocket change? - but which you can never tell people because they never believe you!
But let me tell you about a few of the most recent anyway:
STORY ONE
See this photo taken in Townsville last month?
ABC's mum, me and Jessica!ABC rang from Bangkok: "Jessica sent me that photo of you with my mum and her." he said, and we chatted about that for a while. "Jessica is totally astonishing." he eventually told me. "She's the most disorganised traveler who has ever traveled anywhere. She's forever just going to countries she knows nothing about - she never does any reading or planning or bookings or anything - just plonks herself in the middle of a strange country, all alone, and instantly bumps into someone she knows who says "Hey, why don't we go do X?"
"Like, she arrives in Townsville and bumps into my mum who takes her sightseeing, and then they bump into you ..."
OK, I had to tell him: "Did you know three days before I met her, she had just arrived in Cairns and the first person she bumped into at the airport was ... Keith, up there alone waiting for his flight back to HK, and because he had four hours to kill he took her out sightseeing?"
"NOOOOO!!!!" says ABC! "Honestly, she really does need to have something nasty happen so she learns to PLAN THINGS PROPERLY. I am forever telling her this, but it always turns out she never ever needs to!"
"Like, she arrives in Townsville and bumps into my mum who takes her sightseeing, and then they bump into you ..."
OK, I had to tell him: "Did you know three days before I met her, she had just arrived in Cairns and the first person she bumped into at the airport was ... Keith, up there alone waiting for his flight back to HK, and because he had four hours to kill he took her out sightseeing?"
"NOOOOO!!!!" says ABC! "Honestly, she really does need to have something nasty happen so she learns to PLAN THINGS PROPERLY. I am forever telling her this, but it always turns out she never ever needs to!"
STORY TWO
I'm walking along in TST here in HK with dear friend Margaret who'd just arrived from Australia for a fortnight's holiday. She's telling me she's not very happy with life in general. "Your problem is simply you have too much Apollo in your life and not enough Dionysus!" I tell her.
For those of you who haven't read Nietzsche, that translates into "You have too much ORDER and not enough CHAOS!"
The words had barely come out of my mouth when a nice young fellow comes up and hands us two fridge magnets of Dionysus! Free of charge too! Some promotional give-away thing! And he wasn't even close enough to hear us talking either, so don't use that as an explanation!
My Dionysus fridge magnet!
Don't know what Our Marg did with hers!
"That's just the Universe's way of confirming my diagnosis!" I tell Margaret as she stands there, jaw dropped, entirely flabbergasted! Although, mind you, I was just trying to be all insouciant and a'la Wodehouse to pretend I wasn't completely astonished too!
For those of you who haven't read Nietzsche, that translates into "You have too much ORDER and not enough CHAOS!"
The words had barely come out of my mouth when a nice young fellow comes up and hands us two fridge magnets of Dionysus! Free of charge too! Some promotional give-away thing! And he wasn't even close enough to hear us talking either, so don't use that as an explanation!
My Dionysus fridge magnet!Don't know what Our Marg did with hers!
"That's just the Universe's way of confirming my diagnosis!" I tell Margaret as she stands there, jaw dropped, entirely flabbergasted! Although, mind you, I was just trying to be all insouciant and a'la Wodehouse to pretend I wasn't completely astonished too!
STORY THREE
Aussie Christine saw it this morning out of any context whatsoever and said "Wait a second. I know that guy. I don't recall his name but I think I met him a short while back in Taipei!"
Yee ha! It's a very, very small world indeed, isn't it!
STORY FOUR
Remember the photo I only showed you yesterday of our nephew Rama?
Aussie Christine saw it this morning out of any context whatsoever and said "Wait a second. I know that guy. I don't recall his name but I think I met him a short while back in Taipei!"Yee ha! It's a very, very small world indeed, isn't it!
STORY FOUR
All the above stories have happened recently, but I must tell you the single most astonishing one in my life:
Over a decade ago, when we first bought our house in Townsville and were in the process of renovating, our neighbour Old Kevin dropped by for a visit. "Be careful when you get around to doing up the bathroom." he told us. "When I was ten, I helped the family put it in and they used cheap, shonky floorboards. When I asked them why, they said "They only have to last OUR lifetime!"
A few years later, I was in this bathroom cleaning my teeth when, completely unexpectedly and without even a warning groan, the floorboards collapsed beneath me and I went crashing through, cutting myself up quite badly in the process."
That afternoon, once the blood had stopped flowing and I'd finally regained my sense of humour I thought "I should tell Kevin about this. It'll give him a laugh!", so I went over to his place and knocked.
A woman I'd never seen before opened the door. "Is Kevin home?" I asked her. "Sorry, Love. Dad died this morning." she told me.
And the time of death? EXACTLY the moment the floorboards gave way!
Remember that old, old song "My Grandfather's Clock"?
Well, these days, whenever I think of Old Kevin, that song is the one I always start singing.
Over a decade ago, when we first bought our house in Townsville and were in the process of renovating, our neighbour Old Kevin dropped by for a visit. "Be careful when you get around to doing up the bathroom." he told us. "When I was ten, I helped the family put it in and they used cheap, shonky floorboards. When I asked them why, they said "They only have to last OUR lifetime!"
A few years later, I was in this bathroom cleaning my teeth when, completely unexpectedly and without even a warning groan, the floorboards collapsed beneath me and I went crashing through, cutting myself up quite badly in the process."
That afternoon, once the blood had stopped flowing and I'd finally regained my sense of humour I thought "I should tell Kevin about this. It'll give him a laugh!", so I went over to his place and knocked.
A woman I'd never seen before opened the door. "Is Kevin home?" I asked her. "Sorry, Love. Dad died this morning." she told me.
And the time of death? EXACTLY the moment the floorboards gave way!
Remember that old, old song "My Grandfather's Clock"?
Well, these days, whenever I think of Old Kevin, that song is the one I always start singing.
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