What are the chances?

I walked up to Sainsbury's today, and bought the Big Issue from the lady outside. At the same time, I was listening to Bruce Springsteen's new 'Working on a Dream' album (have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed with it so far).

So I opened the magazine at a random page, in the arts section as it happens, and my eyes went straight to the headline of a film review for 'Tokyo Sonata' with a one word summary description: 'Bittersweet'.

At exactly the same time, Bruce was singing the word 'Bittersweet' in a song from the album.

How weird is that?

Readers, has something like this ever happened to you? Why not share your funny stories and weird coincidences by posting a comment below...

Stay optimistic by being good

There was an article in the Sunday Times magazine about how to stay optimistic, which maybe I'll come back to another time. One of the truisms that it listed was that if you can help other people it takes you away from your own issues or problems, and of course anyone who has children knows how true that can be.

So I took a very small step in that direction today by buying The Big Issue from a lady outside Sainsbury's. I'm not big on New Year resolutions but I'm going to try to buy it every week from now on. I didn't realise until recently that the vendors actually have to buy all the issues they sell (they get 70p from the selling price of £1.50), with no right of return, so they're making a real commitment.