My Spidey-Sense Is Most Definitely Tingling

Last weekend I was bitten by a spider. Normally I would hate to have a spider crawl over me let alone come anywhere near me but it's a selective phobia in that it only bothers me indoors. I don't mind so much if it's outside where spiders belong - although, I've never encountered a bird-eating spider of mammoth proportions and I'm not willing to test my theory by hunting one down - but if they are smart enough to get into the house then they're smart enough to eat me when I turn my back. However, this spider found me whilst I was lying in the park and by the time I had tried to get him off my neck he had gone for me. It was only a little pinch and I was more excited by the prospect that he had escaped from a test facility and had transmitted all his radioactive goodness into me.

Days passed without any webbing sprouting from my wrists and the only walls I ventured near were of the ice-cream variety. Ho-hum, I thought, at least it wasn't poisonous and I put it behind me.

That is, until yesterday....

I was getting ready for bed, minding my own business, when I suddenly had a weird feeling flood through me. Straight away, I emailed Keiko (who's now in Sendai, Miyagi-ken - quick game of 'catch up' there) at 10.18pm, which is 6.18am Japan time, to tell her just to be careful for a while and to look out for earthquakes.

A couple of hours later, just before bed, I had a stunned reply from her including the following:

Earthquake Information
Occurred at 06:23 JST 26 Apr 2010 - 5.2 - Miyagi-ken

Exactly 5 minutes later, exactly where she lives! It wasn't a serious tremor but strong enough that it shook her awake.

Not good enough for you? How about this one:

Today, a friend had an interview and I was reading a random journal article in preparation for a similar interview of my own next month. Remember that every month thousands of journals and articles and research studies are published. Guess which exact article she was handed and asked to discuss in her interview.

I need to hone my skills to give people a bit more preparation in case of earthquakes or interviews or, at the very least, work on the Euromillions numbers.