1.

(This is more a strange occurence than a coincidence) I was driving at night along the B835 road between Buchlyvie and Gartmore in Stirlingshire Scotland, when my lights suddenly went out and I was plunged into darkness around 40 miles per hour. Pretty scary. My first reaction was to flip the switch that changes between high and low beam, and they came on again.

A few days later the same thing happened within around fifty metres of the first instance. More scary.

Within a couple of weeks the same thing happened 5 times, all within a 150 metre stretch of road. Very scary.

One time it happened with my girlfriend in the passenger seat. I had told her all about it before, but she was just laughing as she thought I switched the lights out myself. Very scary (and frustrating too).

I owned that car for a few years and, at that time was driving over 500 miles a week. The lights only ever did this on the short straight shown below.

(About halfway along this stretch of road there was a single power line that was hanging lower than it should be. If this was the cause of my lights going out I would be interested to hear from anyone in the electronics industry explaining how this could happen).

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2.

Soon after arriving in Portugal, I had to buy a PA system for playing gigs. The amplifier I bought was a Behringer PMX2000. After about 10 months of gigging, the cardboard box for my amplifier was falling apart and I had been planning to tape it up for a few weeks.

I was back at the music shop to buy a capo for my guitar and I noticed a brand new empty box for the same amplifier sitting outside the shop. I asked if I could take it, and went to pick it up. I thought I would have a look inside incase anything was left in it by mistake.

Inside the box was one of my business cards and nothing else. I was a bit confused about how it got there, then noticed it had a small pinhole in it. About 6 months earlier I had put one of my cards on the shop noticeboard. Someone must have taken my card off the board and threw it in the box.

I was only in that shop about once a month or less. I've only ever put one card on the noticeboard. What are the chances of someone throwing my card in a discarded box that I would want at that particular time? A box for the same model of amp that I had, which would have been removed by the refuse company in a couple of days?

3.

(This didn't happen to me but I thought it was worth mentioning).

At my sisters wedding in a hotel in Aberdour, Scotland, the head chef mentioned this to a few of us that were sitting talking.

He said his sister had just came up to stay at the hotel for a week or so. She drove from somewhere in England (I can't remember the place name), probably travelling about 3 or 4 hundred miles.

He said when she left, she got onto the motorway and followed the same car all the way to the hotel where the guy in the car checked in to the hotel.

That is mental.

4.

I used to have a Peugeot 405 deisel which was overheating regularly as the head gasket was damaged. After driving for so long, I would have to stop to top up the water, then head off again.

One day as I was heading up a long hill watching the temperature guage rising, I decided (at the bottom of the hill) that I would stop in a side street at the top of the hill to top it up.

As I got to the top of the hill my Mum and Dad drove past me in the opposite direction, and I actually had to stop before turning into the street I was heading for, to let them pass. So we crossed paths about 5 metres from where I had decided to stop.

I signalled for them to stop, and after topping up the water, the car refused to start (that was the first time ever that it didn't start), so I managed to get a tow back home from my Dad.

5.

Something I do regularly, after reading about it in a book, is to "mentally pre-book" a parking space wherever I'm going. I've done this loads of times with pretty good results.

I did this once when heading up to Dunfermline town. I knew the exact spot I wanted, outside the library. There is a one way system in Dunfermline, when you arrive at the library you just have time to choose whether to turn left or right.

If you turn left and there are no spaces outside the library, you have to then drive round the whole town to get back there again. It is better to see if there is a space first. If there isn't a space you can turn right then drive round a small block and look again.

This time, I arrived at the turning, had a quick look. There were no spaces, so I turned right. Just as I started to turn right, my brother pulled out of the exact spot that I was after.

6.

In December 2010 my 1.8 litre Renault Laguna that I had owned for almost 10 years failed its MOT (compulsory annual roadworthy test in the UK). It needed lots of welding done so I decided it was time to get another car.

I also owned a honda 250cc motocrosser which I bought in 2002. I hardly ever used it and could have sold it years ago, but I kept a hold of it for one reason, to sell when I needed another car.

I spent a lot of time on the internet looking through loads of classified car sales adverts/websites. The day after the MOT, I had decided to go for something like a year 2000 1.4 litre Renault megane as it's cheaper to tax, better MPG etc.

I phoned my brother in the evening and asked him to look out for anyone selling a 1.4 megane or similar, and anyone looking to buy a 250 motocrosser. He phoned me back a couple of hours later asking if I had seen a particular advert.

On the gumtree website (UK wide classifieds site that I had already spent loads of time looking through), in the off road motorcycles section, there was a guy wanting to swap a year 2001 1.4 litre Renault megane for a 250cc motocrosser.

His location, Dunfermline, about 4 miles from me. I then tried searching the whole of the UK on the net, for anyone wanting to swap a car for a motocrosser. There was only a handful, but only one with a 1.4 Renault megane, the one I now currently own.

7.

As of Feb/2011, for around 9 years I have been regularly playing guitar and singing at loads of different folk clubs/sessions all over central Scotland (apart from my 14 months in Portugal).

On Friday the 4th I exchanged a few text messages with the organiser of a Glasgow folk club that I hadn't been to before. It seemed like it would be an ok session for me to try the following Monday the 7th.

Over the weekend I looked on google street view for directions and noticed that the car park at the back of the pub/venue looked like a very dodgy area to park, so I arrived early on Monday 7:30pmish and parked round the corner from the venue.

I left my guitar in the car, as I wanted to check out the area and pub to see if it felt safe. Before I turned the corner I noticed a police woman so I thought I could ask her if it's a rough area.

I turned the corner to find the pub cordened off and guarded by 3 police officers. That morning at 7:50am, a 20 year old guy was found dead in the car park at the back of the pub.