The chain of coincidences 1/11

As usual on a Wednesday morning, the 'Holmwood Advertiser' arrived on the doormat of the Bell household as well as the daily papers. Rather unusually, Jennifer Jane rushed downstairs to be able to have the first look at it. She quickly turned the pages until she found the article she was searching for.

She rushed back upstairs waving the paper excitedly. "They've printed the picture and everything," she said, as she went into her parents' bedroom.

Dad held out his hand rather sleepily, looked at her picture and read the story out loud, so that Mary could listen without having to sit up.

‘Guide Jane Bell of the fourth Holmwood guides, is camping with her patrol during Thursday and Friday nights, on the site of the forthcoming annual village fete and flower show, where the County Camp Adviser will assess her competence.

If the standard of the camp is acceptable, she will award her patrol leader's camping permit during the opening ceremony of the show on Saturday morning.

The camp will then be open for inspection by members of the public for the rest of the day. We wish her luck and look forward confidently to publishing a picture of the presentation in next week's issue.’

"Congratulations on becoming famous," said Dave with a grin, "the paper's got the right idea though, promising to print another picture in a week's time, all the guides will want extra copies to show their friends."

----O----

The camp went according to plan and the following Saturday the Camp Adviser duly awarded Jennifer Jane her Patrol Leader's camping permit and badge.

As promised, a reporter from the local paper was on hand to take her picture and asked her lots of questions about her guiding experiences, to make the article look more impressive when it was published.

In the village the newsagent had bundled up the unsold copies of the previous week's Advertiser and put them on a heap with the other out of date papers and magazines. The whole heap was to be returned for recycling. In due course a van took them all away and delivered its load to a central collecting point.

Not all the papers were recycled. That particular week one load was put aside for collection by a fish and chip shop. This particular shop had a standing order once a month for a supply of newsprint to wrap up the fish and chips for their customers.

"They likes their fish the traditional way, proper newsprint helps the taste along, you can't beat it!"

By coincidence, the papers sent to the fish shop that month, included the batch of 'Holmwood Advertisers' containing Jennifer Jane's picture.