Regulars to these pages will recall that for a while I cataloged a lot of my observed "co-incidences" as they happened to me in my everyday life. Then I went through a quiet patch, got bored blogging and gave up. On reflection however, and in light of recent co-incidences, I think I have decided that I have a duty to record them and make them available should anyone wish to gather data and conduct the sort of study and investigation that Arthur Koestler may have done regarding synchronicity. So, with plenty enough ado:

1. Coming home on the bus tonight I listed to Simon Mayo standing in for Chris Evans. He played a country and western cover version of Green Day's - Time Of Your Life. From the beginning intro I thought it sounded like The Proclaimers. Imagine my surprise (you'll have to imagine it as I didn't film myself) when, after the news and traffic reports he played....The Proclaimers new single.

Not a major co-incidence I suppose, so don't start tutting at me. It's a warm up. So, I would suggest the possibility that the beginning of the Green Day cover version did sound like The Proclaimers and that maybe that was what inspired the playlist order. Easily explained, if it needed explaining at all you might say. Without such a logical consideration though you can easily see how these co-incidences could be interpreted differently. Like, say, as a message from God (to go out and buy the new Proclaimers single maybe). OK, so, a light-weight, everyday, low-level one to ease you in. Now, how about this one:

2. Yesterday I took Toby out to do some boring food shopping. He asked when we were out if we could go to the big pet store, Pets@Home. I said yes, on a whim. We turned up and began by peering into the many mini-aquariums displaying the little fishies for sale. I entertained the little tyke with tales of how they got the fish to go different colours by pouring various types of liquid into each tank. Ink for the blue fish, Tango for the orange etc etc. I noticed that most of the colourful and interesting little fishes were all cichlids, which I recalled from a TV documentary on the Nile Perch, to all originate from Lake Victoria in Africa. We left shortly afterwards as we were making idiots of ourselves laughing at this...

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"London's burning, London's burning, fetch the engine, fetch the engine. Fire, fire. Fire, fire. Pour on water, pour on...?...ahhh, sorry, going to have to stop you there. Two things. Firstly, with these claws, it's an absolute bitch getting the hose rings screwed onto the hydrants properly. And secondly, we have kind of a debilitating aversion to water. So this isn't really going to work out for us all to be honest. We were thinking maybe the dogs could step in? You know they love water and they love to fetch, "Fetch the engine boy, go on, fetch the engine". Is that OK? Good. OK, we're off for a little nap now - it's toasty here isn't it? Sorry we couldn't really help out. I've left you a headless mouse in your porch by way of apology. I know you'll like it. Bye"

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Later that evening I made the decision to work through my backlog of books and arbitrarily chose the first in the pile to start reading - Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee. On page 27 this lunchtime I read about the differences between related species of the cichlids of Lake Victoria. Spook.

Now, some "co-incidences" I judge to actually be sub-conscious decisions which are made and which actually lead you inexorably to a "co-incidence situation". In this case it could have been that me remembering about the origins of the fish sparked me thinking, sub-consciously, about the animal world, species and genus etc, which I have a passing interest in as a result of much reading about evolution. It may even have been the case that I'd flicked through The Third Chimpanzee some time ago, glanced at and stored the cichlid reference, and it was this that prompted me to not only choose to start reading a book, but to start reading that specific book. It wasn't though. I've not even opened that book since I got it at Xmas, and the only reason I chose it, like I said if you were paying attention, was that it was first in the pile. The other remarkable thing of note I suppose is how uncommon the word cichlid is and the sequence of events that a. led me to the aquarium and b. to encounter a word that I can consciously recall hearing\reading just 3 times in the past 3 or 4 years. Two of those occasions being within the past 24 hours.

Even that second point I'll admit doesn't sound that impressive really. Most co-incidences that you have yourself are probably just ignored. Or, to be more fair, are filtered out by you as being unimportant. Humans though as you may know are pattern seeking animals and it is this innate ability to note patterns, cause and effect, consequences and results etc that make us the dominant species on the planet. Sometimes this ability can go a bit haywire, like with me seeing faces in everyday objects and saying, "ooh, that's a co-incidence" when a song I've been singing suddenly comes on the radio. But at least I have the good sense not to attribute it to anything holy, divine or supernatural.