concatenation : the linking together of a consecutive series of symbols or events or ideas etc

Just by reading these few works could trigger a concatenation that could lead to both of us being very wealthy.

I was listening to a short story being read on The New Yorker podcast. When it finished I picked up my copy of The Groucho Letters. As suggested on the cover, it contains a selection of correspondence from one of the wittiest performers of vaudeville, Groucho Marx. His one-liners were priceless, often cutting, but always very, very funny.

The very next letter I read from Groucho was to The New Yorker, a magazine that on more than one occasion published articles by the funniest of Marx brothers. Coincidence?

But this wasn’t an isolated case. Since my arrival here in Norwich, countless numbers of TV and radio programmes have talked about this place, from serious news to light trivia and even a bit of gentle leg-pulling by Harry Hill.

Some would say that my awareness for all things Norwich is a direct result of the fact that the name is always in my thoughts and that my internal search engine seeks out the word Norwich whenever mentioned. And I would accept this; if it wasn’t for the most remarkable of coincidences that occurred last evening.

I was at a meeting of the Norwich Puppet Theatre when someone used the word ‘concatenation’. They were challenged as to its meaning and I sat and felt somewhat relieved that I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t got a clue what they were talking about.

I rather liked the word; concatenation – so much so that I jotted it down with the intention of alerting all my Facebook friends to it and perhaps even including it in a blog posting.

So there it sat on my Facebook status – well to tell the truth the word that was actually sat there was ‘concatanation’but my spelling was soon pointed out.

And then it happened. I picked up the book I’m currently reading, Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks, The Essential Alan Coren. I navigated to the red ribbon bookmark nestling between pages 330 and 331. Chapter 53 – Salt in the Wound. And I began to read:

“I experienced a remarkable concatenation yesterday.” I read it again. “I experienced a remarkable concatenation yesterday.” I checked the spelling against the corrected Facebook status and the word I’d written down during the meeting. I wanted to ring someone and tell them. Anyone; but who do you ring about these kind of things? And that’s when the plan hit me.

I would write about the Premium Bonds and Lottery on the Blog. Then by coincidence I would win. Or you would win and send me a share of the winnings. A plan, going by current form, which could not fail. Wrong.

As I sit here now - 09.30 on Tuesday January 13th 2009 - a programme has just come on BBC Radio 4 talking about unclaimed prizes on the Premium Bonds and Lottery. And a word forms on my lips. A word I fully understand.