Surveillance?

While I was out clearing the road grids and channels yesterday, somebody stopped and asked me: ‘Did you know you can eat acorns?’ He went on to explain that there is a lot of soaking involved and a particular way of cooking them, but they’re said to taste like sweet chestnuts. The best answer I could give was: ‘I think I’ll leave them to the squirrels. They can’t afford to shop at Sainsbury’s.’

Nevertheless, I was intrigued and made a mental note to research the subject some time later. After that it went completely out of my head. I thought no more about it, didn’t research it, didn’t mention it to anyone else, and made no mention of it on the blog, by email, or through any other medium.

Today there’s a recommendation on my YouTube home page which tells me how to harvest, prepare, and cook acorns. I’m quite sure I’ve never seen it before because that’s the sort of thing which would pique my curiosity and be memorable.

So is this purely coincidental, the universal consciousness proving its mettle, or could it be that even the quiet lanes of rural England are now infested with tracking devices which can recognise individuals and even have access to their Google accounts? I’ve experienced coincidences of this type before and always shrugged them off, but how many does it take before you have to start wondering?