You know how it is: You’re waiting and waiting and waiting for the bus that never comes, and so you finally resolve to jump in a taxi… and just as you’re getting in, the bus you stood around for 20 minutes for pulls up behind you. The universe has fooled you… again.
I know this is how things work, but sometimes enough is enough and what difference does five quid make in the long-term scheme of things, anyway? So I resolved to take the next available taxi that came along: really committed myself to it in my mind, said as much out loud in my head and everything. Not two seconds later, a taxi down the street turned its ready light on… and — psych! — I retracted my committment to get in that taxi.
Sure enough, the bus I wanted was right behind it. I win!
Now that I’ve used this trick once, the universe will be on to it, so I can never use it again.
But just for a moment, I was ahead of the game.
