Coincidence #1

December 1979 Top Floor Flat, Princes Drive Liverpool 8.
The three flat-mates wake up on the Sunday morning after a pretty wild party the night before. We emerge to find that someone has kicked in the front door and stolen a few things including our TV. We had all slept blissfully unaware. We are not too bothered, and decide to go and get some breakfast: only we can’t secure the smashed-in front door. I work out that we need a two foot piece of wood to make it secure. We have a piece that is perfect... except it is three feet long. Of course we have no saw: we are students after all. I look out of the window, high above a cold, damp, snow-smudged, urban landscape. Very few people about, but there is a small old man sitting alone on that wall down beneath the tenement. In his hand is a saw. I run down the five flights of stairs, brandishing the wood. “Can I borrow your saw?” “Sure” he says without batting an eye-lash. Bracing the wood against the wall I quickly saw it to the required length and run back. When the rest look out of the window the old man has gone. But I have the proof in my hand, a two foot piece of wood. We go out for breakfast.