Parking Angels and Book Fairies

Now, I must admit that I do believe there is someone or something looking over me, and I don't mean nosey neighbours.

During my half-century of life, (there, I've admitted my age now) there have been many occasions where I could easily have been deleted, but for some strange incidence or coincidence. My parents tell me of tales when, as a baby I'd broken and eaten chunks out of a glass, unhooked the gas fire pipe and waved this burning torch around, and just missed many various other horrible hazards.

As A 10 year old, I remember running down a steep field at the top of a cliff to meet my friends, only to realise I couldn't stop and grabbed my brother, who was in the group, and was equally terrified, but grabbing him slowed my velocity and we both just missed going over by a few feet. (We have never, ever mentioned this since).

There have been too many incidences to recount here, but more recently, just getting up to 70 after coming off the Marsh Mills roundabout to head up the A38 Expressway, an escaped cow came down the embankment onto the carriageway, and I expected the worst. Gently braking, It turned and stared at me, but I missed it literally by inches. I remember its big, frightened bloodshot eyes (no, not mine in the mirror either). A lorry driver behind put on his hazards, but I never heard anything more. I hope it was recovered safely.

Well, getting to the point, a former work colleague told me about her 'Parking Angel'. Often, driving into Totnes at busy lunchtimes, she said - "think positive, ask the Parking Angel to find us a space". And we alway did - there'd always be someone leaving, just as we arrived. Since then, I always ask my 'Parking Angel' to find me a spot in our congested street, or supermarket car park and 9 out of 10 times she obliges.

This brings me to Book Faries.
Some time ago, I asked, in a BookCrossing forum "When are books like buses" I'll spend ages looking for a particular book, and as soon as I find a copy, for the next few weeks, every boot sale and charity shop has dozens of them. But, a few years ago, 'Him indoors' brought me home a book he'd found on a train. A hardback, but with no dust jacket, this book was "It Must've Been Something I Ate" by Jeffery Steingarten. It stayed in my unread pile for sometime (pre-BookCrossing days) and I eventually got round to reading it.

And what an amazing book it was. It would take too long to describe it here, but if you could mix up the best cookery/chef authors with the best travel authors, delete all the dross - and add intelligence and class - then you might be getting close. I foolishly gave this book up during an extensive cull of my book collection and have regretted it ever since.

Later, having joined BookCrossing, it seems that everyone who has registered this book, and labelled it 'Available' later labelled it as part of their PC (permanent collection), and rightly so. Even Him indoor's efforts to purchase it on eBay have been in vain. But Mr Steingarten wrote an earlier book - "The Man Who Ate Everything" so this became another quest.

A couple of weeks ago I joined Read it Swap it, and was heartened to see that someone had a copy of "The Man Who Ate Everything" up for swaps. Well I asked for the swap, and it was accepted. So, at the time of writing, I've posted my swap, and await the arrival of Jeff's first book.

Now, I'm on hols at the mo, and Him Indoors had the day off. I wanted to go to the beach, he wanted to go into town. The sky was clouding over, so I conceded. Whenever we go in town, we go our separate ways and agree to meet up after about an hour. When we met up we looked in some charity shops and there - uncreased spine - and for £1.50 was a paper back copy of "It Must've Been Something I Ate". It might sound silly, but I was thrilled. Him Indoors said - "Well, it must have been a Book Fairy".(He confuses angels with fairies).

You might say why didn't I just go out an buy a new copy? - but that would defeat the object. I'm sure Jeffery has had loads of income from his books, and buying secondhand supports charities and recycling.

Thank you Book Fairy