charles barrow's writing

I recently watched actors Aidan Turner and Toni Collette on the Graham Norton show, and they both mentioned how often they checked the time to see it was 11:11. They both said that it happened more often than would seem likely, and had no explanation as to why it should happen with this combination of numbers more than any other. It was fascinating to hear other people talk about this so publicly, on television, because the same thing has been happening to me for years. It happened again this morning, which prompted me to post this. I have puzzled in the past, why and how it should be that I so often glance at my watch or a clock at this exact time but I've never figured out why. After watching the Norton show, I decided to Google 11:11 and quickly wished I hadn't - Global Shopping Festival, Uri Geller's theory of 11 parallel universes, a message from the angels, and many more bizarre theories. I've decided that from now on, when it happens again, I will just accept...

I recently watched singer Adele being interviewed by Graham Norton. She sang some old hits and some tracks from her new album 25. I was struck, watching her sing, how very old fashioned she seemed as a performer. I mean old fashioned in a good way. She's like a chanteuse from another era, like an Edith Piaf. Bette Midler is a more contemporary equivalent. Like them, Adele's song is the story of her life and she lives it in the telling. Some of her freshly minted new songs sound like classics already.