And the theme of this week is ...

... Coincidence!

After finding out about Scrap on Friday night, I had thought that was it for wacky coincidences for the week. But no!

One of the people who I have come into contact with via lj is the lovely kerryblaze . There's a long story behind meeting her, which I'll save for another time. But at the moment, she is travelling in Australia, up in Brisbane, about 1000km north of me. This morning, I logged into my email to find a note from my very dear RL friend pseudicide , who is also travelling. Very early on Sunday morning, she was evacuated from her hotel. Being a Canadian, she took this as an opportunity to begin chatting with the woman standing near her. Guess who it was?

But that's not all! I've been cleaning my sewing room. (Those of you who know me in RL can be quiet now, and yes, it has taken four days so far and is not done yet.) One of the boxes I sorted through had not been opened for, er, two moves. In it I found a fax, with a cover note from an arts writer I used to commission for a number of things. I turned the page to see what it was. And burst out laughing.

It was a copy of an article from a magazine I later worked for. The story was about the upcoming release of a book. The first paragraph read: 

In February, a friend gave [Brammer's Real Name] a book he thought she'd like. To her surprise, it was a children's book. ... she thanked him and put it aside. 'Finally I succumbed and read it in one sitting, the following day I went out and bought the next two.'
 

Yep, the awaited book was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this. Here I was thinking my HP fandom was relatively low-key (aside from bastard Mr Brammers outing me to all and sundry. HE plays internet spaceships to excess, you know.), when in fact I outed myself in a leading national news magazine ten years ago (EXACTLY according to the cover date).

I also remembered when HPIV arrived in my hands. It was the last one for which it was possible to obtain advance copies for review, and I sat on the train reading it the morning after it arrived, hoping to finish the final chapters before I made it to work (alas, only two stops away).

A child spotted me. His eyes widened. 'Is that the new Harry Potter?' he asked.

'Yep,' I said.

His expression turned to longing. 'Is it good?'

'Oh yeah.'

'Does Harry die?'

'Do you really want to know?'

'YES!'

'I don't think so, though I'm not at the end yet.'

'Thanks. You're so lucky!'

'Yes, I am. You're going to love it.' And with that I got off the train.

I realised at the time that if I was a good person, I would have given the child the book.

But I'm not.

And the theme of this week is ...

... Coincidence!

After finding out about Scrap on Friday night, I had thought that was it for wacky coincidences for the week. But no!

One of the people who I have come into contact with via lj is the lovely kerryblaze . There's a long story behind meeting her, which I'll save for another time. But at the moment, she is travelling in Australia, up in Brisbane, about 1000km north of me. This morning, I logged into my email to find a note from my very dear RL friend pseudicide , who is also travelling. Very early on Sunday morning, she was evacuated from her hotel. Being a Canadian, she took this as an opportunity to begin chatting with the woman standing near her. Guess who it was?

But that's not all! I've been cleaning my sewing room. (Those of you who know me in RL can be quiet now, and yes, it has taken four days so far and is not done yet.) One of the boxes I sorted through had not been opened for, er, two moves. In it I found a fax, with a cover note from an arts writer I used to commission for a number of things. I turned the page to see what it was. And burst out laughing.

It was a copy of an article from a magazine I later worked for. The story was about the upcoming release of a book. The first paragraph read: 

In February, a friend gave [Brammer's Real Name] a book he thought she'd like. To her surprise, it was a children's book. ... she thanked him and put it aside. 'Finally I succumbed and read it in one sitting, the following day I went out and bought the next two.'
 

Yep, the awaited book was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this. Here I was thinking my HP fandom was relatively low-key (aside from bastard Mr Brammers outing me to all and sundry. HE plays internet spaceships to excess, you know.), when in fact I outed myself in a leading national news magazine ten years ago (EXACTLY according to the cover date).

I also remembered when HPIV arrived in my hands. It was the last one for which it was possible to obtain advance copies for review, and I sat on the train reading it the morning after it arrived, hoping to finish the final chapters before I made it to work (alas, only two stops away).

A child spotted me. His eyes widened. 'Is that the new Harry Potter?' he asked.

'Yep,' I said.

His expression turned to longing. 'Is it good?'

'Oh yeah.'

'Does Harry die?'

'Do you really want to know?'

'YES!'

'I don't think so, though I'm not at the end yet.'

'Thanks. You're so lucky!'

'Yes, I am. You're going to love it.' And with that I got off the train.

I realised at the time that if I was a good person, I would have given the child the book.

But I'm not.